OP-ED

South Africa

Continued from Page 7

an anti-Semitic country, but
anti-Semites do live there."

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18 Friday, June 12, 1987

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

A strong Zionist presence
has taken hold in Argentina.
By the 1930s, both Ashkenazi
and Sephardi elements found
a mutual concern in support-
ing a Jewish Palestine. But
with the absence of any rab-
bis to give direction to a reli-
gious orientation, the void in
spiritual leadership was filled
by socialists, activists, sec-
ularists and leftists. Few
synagogues attracted any
substantial membership.
Even as late as 1970 barely
ten percent of Buenos Aires
Jews belonged to any
synagogue. An American
rabbi, Marshall Mayer, came
to Buenos Aires in 1959 and
organized a congregation. He
also established a rabbinical
seminary to train Spanish-
speaking rabbis to serve
Latin Americari congrega-
tions. To date, 24 have been
ordained.

li'mastfr&id )

What of the future? Jews
seem well established in
South America. They have
coped with whatever anti-
Semitism has erupted and
still survived in. their Dias-
pora. Many are prosperous
middle-class merchants,
shopkeepers, professionals
and intellectuals. The
synagogue does not play an
important place in their val-
ues. Zionism fills the vacuum
of their Jewish identity. Jews
in Brazil and Argentina need
a stable government free of
juntas and upheavals, with
steady currency that does not
invite a black market. Inter-
marriage remains a peren-
nial, even growing problem,
especially in Rio de Janeiro's
Mestizo — Indian - Black
society. Along with rising in-
termarriage, an aging popu-
lation and substantial emig-
ration to Israel, Canada, Au-
stralia and Mexico, Jews in
South America wonder about
their future.

Ex-Camp Guard Leaves
U.S., Goes To Austria

Vienna (JTA) — The rela-
tions between Austria and
the United States were fur-
ther strained last week over
the case of Martin Barteschr
a Rumanian-born former
guard at the Mauthausen
concentration camp who,
stripped of his American
citizenship for war crimes,
came here claiming the right
to reside in Austria.
Austrian authorities,
angered by the U.S. Justice
Department's recent ban on
the entry of President Kurt
Waldheim because of his
alleged complicity in Nazi
atrocities, are further incen-
sed by the failure of the
Americans to inform them in
advance • that they would
allow Bartesch to go to
Austria with an American
passport.
He was not officially
deported. His U.S. citizenship
was not revoked until the day
he arrived in Austria. There is
no treaty between the U.S.
and Austria regarding the
deportation of undesirable
aliens. Austria therefore con-
siders Bartesch still an
American citizen and plans to
return him to the U.S.
Bartesch who is accused
among other things, the
murder of a French Jew in
1943 was declared persona
non grata here. A warrant
was issued for his arrest. He
gave himself up at a police
station and was formally ar-
rested to be held for
deportation.
"Austria does not want to
get the image of a haven fot

Nazi war criminals," Interior
Minister Karl Blecha declared.
Bartesch, 61, lived in
Austria from 1945 to 1955,
but was not a citizen. He fin-
migrated to the U.S. in 1955
and was naturalized in 1966.

Silence Statute
Is Disputed

New York — New Jersey's
controversial statute requiring
public schools to schedule a dai-
ly "moment of silence" is un-
constitutional because its real
purpose is to introduce religion
in the schools, says the
American Jewish Congress.
An amicus, or friend-of-the-
court, brief filed in the United
States Supreme Court by
AJCongress charges that the
legislative history of the law
shows it was enacted "solely for
religious purposes" and that it
fosters excessive government
entanglement with religion.

'Test Tube' Study

Rehovot — Despite the steady
advance of in vitro fertilization
procedures that enable women
to bear "test tube" babies, on-
ly one attempt in four is likely
to produce a sustained pregnan-
cy. These odds may now im-
prove if preliminary findings of
Weizmann Institute researcher
Prof. Alex Tsafriri, working
with the IVF-ET (in vitro
fertilization-embroy transfer)
team at Hadassah Hospital in
Jerusalem, headed by Dr. Neri
Laufer, are confirmed by fur-
ther studies in progress.

