IIIMENNINEF

I CLOSE-UP I

New Jewish Agenda

Continued from preceding page

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WANTED:

:4

WOMEN AGES 21-30

Have you been away at school or working out
of town and lost touch with your old friends?
Or have you recently moved to this area and
would like to meet new friends?

HADASSAH, the Women's Zionist Organization
of America, is the largest volunteer organiza-
tion in the United States.

HADASSAH is starting a new group to meet
your special needs.

If this appeals to you or if you have a friend,
relative, or new neighbor who might be
interested in hearing more about this new
group, please call in their names, addresses,
and phone numbers to:
MICHELLE MESKIN 355-5441, or the
HADASSAH OFFICE 357-2920/683-5030

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..441 - 4

26

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21,,198,8,,

da's two wings. One is leftist.
Some members from this
wing have roots in the Com-
munist Party. The other is
Zionist with roots in Judaism.
The group holds these poles
together with a spirit of
tolerence, members say.
"You can be part of Agenda
and active in Agenda and not
agree with all of the Agenda
approach," Knoppow says.
Where the group draws the
line is with those "serving
their own purposes or other
masters and are using us?'
"But we don't inquire into
other people's political affilia-
tions, be it the American
Civil Liberties Union or the
Communist Party," Aronson
says. "They must all
subscribe to our general ap-
proach!'
"Detente is the connecting
point between the two wings
of Agenda!" Knoppow says.
The organization welcomes
the thaw in U.S-Soviet rela-
tions because it reduces the
chances for a nuclear confron-
tation and will make life
easier for Soviet Jews — both
those who wish to emigrate
and those who wish to stay.
"Detente is what serves
Jews in the Soviet Union
best," Aronson says.
Still it is the Middle East
conflict to which the members
invariably return.
Knoppow says he finds
himself a minority in the
group because, although he
shares Agenda's solutions to
the Israeli-Palestinian con-
flict, unlike many others he
begins from a Zionist premise.
For Knoppow, Jewish self-
determination is a categorical
imperative. Others, including
Aronson and Pintzuk, see
Israel as a fact of life that
must be recognized, with a
Jewish population that must
be protected like any other
Jewish community.
Agenda's campaign for
mutual recognition in the
Middle East is paralleled by
its pursuit of dialogue and
debate with the local Arab-
American community.
Aronson has participated in
numerous debates with local
Arab Americans. "What
comes from it is the
understanding that we are all
human beings," he says.
He says he has seen prac-
tical results from his efforts:
His Arab interlocutors have
moderated their positions
over time.
Last December, the Arab
community staged a vigil for
the Palestinians who had died
in the then month-old upris-
ing. Aronson was asked to
speak. He told the organizers
that he would not lend his
voice to an anti-Israel
demonstration.

He was given assurances
that only Israel's policies —
not its existence — would be
criticized and he agreed to
speak.
"At the rally we saw not a
single sign that we considered
anti-Israel. Because of our in-
teractions with them they
were not going to have a
speech or poster that was go-
ing to offend us!"
"In a way, Ron is both right
and wrong," says Terry
Ahwal, director of the
American Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee's
Detroit branch, a rally
organizer.
No anti-Israel banners were
raised at the vigil, she ex-
plains, because the organizers
are against discrimination,
not anti-Israel. "We would
never call for the destruction
of Israel," she says.
New Jewish Agenda
parallels the positions of
Israeli peace groups such as
Shalom Achshav (Peace Now)
and Yesh G'vul (There is • a
Limit), Knoppow says.
What separates Agenda
from Israeli spokesmen like
Felicia Langer, Lea Tsemel
and Tawkiq Zayad — regulars
on the lecture circuit who
hold some positions similar to
Agenda's — is Ahavat
Yisrael, the love of the people
and nation of Israel, Knoppow
says. Attornies Langer and
Tsemel and Nazareth Mayor
Zayad do not criticize with
the welfare of Israel in mind,
Knoppow says. ,
Members of New Jewish
Agenda say that, contrary to
criticism, they are not self-
hating Jews, but are deeply
concerned for Jewish survival
in Israel and the Diaspora.
Ed Pintzuk, a son of the old
left and a man who says he
_ never considered himself a
Zionist in the classical sense,
nevertheless affirms Israel as
a reality and as something
that needs to be defended.
He says Agenda plays a
useful role wherever it exists.
"Agenda will never be big," he
says. "But every community
needs a gadfly to present
alternative ideas." ❑

""Imml N EWS

War Criminal's
Deportation
Held Up

New York (JTA) — An ac-
tivist representing Holocaust
survivors has accused the
Reagan administration of
refusing to implement a
deportation order against an
admitted Nazi war criminal
because of his Republican
Party connections.
Menachem Rosensaft,