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32
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1989
HOURS:
MON.-THURS.
9:30-4:30
FRI.
9:30-6:00
Divisions In Jewish Community
Continue In Abortion Battles
JAMES BESSER
Washington Correspondent
T
he battle to save legal
abortion continues to
dominate the agenda
for many Jewish groups. But
there are still divisions
within the community,
which was illustrated re-
cently by a debate over par-
ticipation in a major pro-
choice "amicus brief' in a
critical Supreme Court abor-
tion case.
The National Jewish
Community Relations Ad-
visory Council sent a copy of
the brief, which was
prepared by the American
Civil Liberties Union and
Planned Parenthood, to its
member agencies for ap-
proval. Under NJCRAC
rules, a single veto means
that the umbrella agency
would be forbidden from
formally signing onto the
brief.
The Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations of
America (OU) vetoed
NJCRAC participation in
the brief. NJCRAC officials
Jewish Activist Heads
U.S. Civil Rights Agency
The U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights' new acting
chairman is Murray Fried-
man, a Jewish activist who
was the panel'--s vice-
chairman. He temporarily
replaces William B. Allen,
who resigned after a con-
troversial reign that includ-
ed a recent speech titled
"Blacks, Animals and
Homosexuals: What is a
minority?"
Friedman, Mid-Atlantic
states director for the
American Jewish Com-
mittee who was a civil rights
then polled community
members of their executive
committee. According to the
group's rules, if a two-thirds
majority of agencies favored
the brief, NJCRAC member
agencies could be listed in-
dividually — unless a group
specifically objected to its in-
clusion.
Eighty local Jewish agen-
cies and 18 national
organizations agreed to hav-
ing their names attached to
the brief— one-third of the
total number of groups ex-
pected to sign the document.
.
worker for the Anti-
Defamation League in the
early days of the movement,
was appointed to the con-
troversial commission by
Ronald Reagan.
"I think we're at a very in-
teresting period in civil
rights," Friedman said in an
interview. "While there are
some disturbing signs on the
horizon having to do with in-
cidents of racial and
religious bigotry, we are still
in a propitious position to
move in a new direction."
That new direction, he
says, involves "the intersec-
tion of civil rights and
economics." Friedman cites
the example of urban
"enterprise zones" as an ex-
ample of tackling civil rights
problems with economic
solutions.
The Commission is due to
expire in five weeks unless
Congress and the ad-
ministration renew it. Con-
cerns about the panel's effec-
tiveness have led to calls for
its restructuring or for its
elimination.
Jewish Groups Lobbied
About Memorial
When the Senate
Judiciary Committee ap-
proved a bill last week to
memorialize the 1.5 million
Armenians killed between
1915 and 1923 by Turkish
forces, the story had a few
interesting Jewish twists.
Jewish groups here in
Washington have been lob-
bied heavily by both Arme-
nian groups favoring • the
resolution — and by the
Turkish government, which
has angrily disputed accusa-
tions of genocide.
Jewish groups have work-
ed closely with Armenian
organizations on a number
of important issues, like last
year's Genocide Convention
and the Torture Convention
now plodding through Con-
gress.
But Israel enjoys good re-
lations with Turkey, and
remains interested in the
welfare of the 10,000 Jews in
that country. And some
Jewish activists worry about
diluting the impact of the
Holocaust by focusing atten-
tion on other examples of
mass murder that may not
be as clear-cut.
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum,
D-Ohio, tried to strike a bal-
ance in the emotional debate
by removing the word
"genocide," an effort that
failed. The resolution is now
awaiting action by the full
Senate.
B'nai B'rith Works
On Spanish Dictionary
B'nai B'rith's Dan
Mariaschin recently helped
to coordinate efforts to pre-
Vent new, derogatory ter-
minology about Jews from
officially entering the
Spanish language.
Mariaschin said that B'nai
B'rith mobilized its network
of Latin American units to
make their presence felt at
meetings in Costa Rica,
where various Spanish
academies met recently to
consider changes in the offi-
cial Spanish dictionary.
"One of these changes was
a proposal to add a fourth
definition of the word 'Jew'
to Spanish dictionaries,"
Mariaschin said. "That four-
th definition is `avaricia,' or
greed, avarice."
He continued, "Our
leadership throughout Latin
America immediately began
making representations to
the appropriate academies,
urging them to turn down
this proposal. At a time
when there is growing sen-
sitivity in the Latin world to
anti-Semitism, to add a rep-
rehensible definition is not
understandable."
The assembled scholars in
Costa Rica decided to avoid
the contentious issue — a