Jewish Community Council
BACKGROUND
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DELEGATE ASSEMBLY
Voice Of Reason
First-hand Report from the Soviet Union
Reflections on the Elie Wiese! Mission
Continued from preceding page
Guest Speaker:
Dr. Carol Rittner, R.S.M.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council
Thursday, January 8, 1987
8:00 P.M.
Adat Shalom Synagogue
29901 Middlebelt Road
Farmington Hills
Open to the community
No charge
Social hour to follow
tional pressure and internal
unrest over the past few years
has coincided with the pro-
cess of socio-economic reform
which has started to erode
Apartheid. Suzman men-
tioned the desegregation of
hotels, restaurants, theaters
and many branches of sports,
as well as recognition of black
trade unions and their right
to collective bargaining,
repeal of the laws that reserve
skilled positions for whites
(except in the mines where
the white trade unionists
prevail) and acceptance of
blacks in the central business
district and urban areas. Last
year, the law that made sex
and marriage across the col-
or line an offense, and the law
that prohibited racially-mixed
political parties were re-
pealed. "This year has
brought about the single
most important reform since
World War II," said Suzman.
That reform is the abolition
of the pass laws and influx
control — racial laws that
restricted the mobility of
black South Africans, caus-
ing millions to he jailed over
the years.
But even while these re-
forms were being enacted, the
government was granting
itself wider powers of deten-
tion and making more use of
the state of emergency rules
which allowed for greater sup-
pression of the media. Then
they grew angry that their
improvements weren't no-
ticed or appreciated, Suzman
remarked wryly. In this angry
mood, the National Party
may very well come down
harder on the country's
radicals (those who uphold
shool boycotts), and on its
revolutionaries (those who
think increased disruption
and unemployment will lead
to the overthrow of capital-
ism). "No one should think,"
remonstrated Suzman, "that
the situation is so bad it
couldn't get worse."
As for the group that Suz-
man labels the optimists
(those who think black South
Africa will quickly turn
democratic at pressure from
the outside), they may be in
for the most unpleasant sur-
prise of all. The government
may read sanctions as a
"busting excuse," and the
business section, which has
been a helpful voice for the
blacks heretofore, may be
swept up in the patriotism in
order to remain economically
solvent.
"We must convince the
whites that their survival and
racial integrity will not be
lost if blacks get the vote,"
said Suzman, but sanctions,
to her mind, will not be
helpful in bringing them
around. "There is a limit to
what can be done from the
outside," she said to her
American audience. South
Africa consists of a middle
ground, millions of blacks
who long for peaceful change
but who don't have the vote,
and many thousands of
whites who also abhor Apar-
theid.
Suzman's Progressive Par-
ty captured 20 percent of the
white vote in the last election,
and, with the help of Nelson
Mandella, she believes the ex-
tremists can be curbed and a
climate for negotiations
created. Her feeling, most of
the time concluded Suzman,
is one of "guarded hope."
Rimma Bravve, Cancer
Victim, Arrives In U.S.
Its a special time of the week when families
gather, traditions are renewed and there's
plenty of time to relax and enjoy the rich,
delicious taste of Maxwell House Coffee.
It couldn't be anything but Shabbos dinner.
i i n k~
n
,
GENERAL
FOODS
'1996 General Foods Corooratton
IT COULDN'T BE ANYTHING BUT MAXWELL HOUSE:
30
Friday, January 2, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
New York (JTA) — Former
refusenik Rimma Bravve ar-
rived in New York last week
after what she called "waiting
for this day to come for eight
years." Speaking in fluent
English, the 32-yearold
woman, who is suffering from
advanced ovarian cancer,
wiped back tears as she em-
braced her mother,' Khanna
Anbinder, whom she had not
seen in six years.
"This is the happiest day of
my life," said Bravve at a
press conference at JFK Air-
port. This sentiment was
echoed by her mother, a
retired pediatrician who has
been living in Rochester, N.Y.,
since 1980.
Bravve and her husband
Vladimir, who emigrated with
her, were met by a large
retinue of supporters, in-
cluding her sister, Larisa
Shapiro, a computer scientist
living in Rochester who ac-
companied her sister from
Vienna; Larisa's husband,
Boris; Leon Charny, a Soviet
emigre who has been publiciz-
ing Bravve's plight as well as
that of his brother in Moscow,
Benjamin Charny, another
cancer patient refusenik;
Gerald Batist, a Montreal on-
cologist who has worked tire-
lessly since last spring for
Bravve's release and that of
other cancer patients; and
Sens. Alfonse D Amato (R.
NY) and Frank Lautenberg
(D. NJ), both instrumental in
pushing for their release.
Also in attendance were
members of the Rochester
Jewish Federation, who wore
placards with photographs of
other cancer patient refuse-
niks.
The Bravves received their
visas December .16 following
a monthlong period of
publicity after the Soviet
Ambassador to the Helsinki
Accord follow-up talks in
Vienna announced their visas
and following which the
Bravves repeatedly sought to
obtain these visas, which
were delayed.