Jewish Community Council BACKGROUND 11•1111=1111111111111111111•1111111111 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.