NSIDE WASHINGTON DETROIT'S HIGHEST RATES Minimum Deposit of $500 12 MONTH CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT 8.500% 8.775%* Effective Annual Yield* Compounded Quarterly. This is a fixed rate account that is insured to S '100,000 by the Savings Association In- surance Fund (SAIF). Substantial Interest Penalty for early withdrawal from cer- tificate accounts. Rates subject to change without notice. FIRST SECURITY1 SAVINGS BANK FSB MAIN OFFICE PHONE 338•7700 1760 Telegraph Rd. 352•7700 (Just South of Orchard Lake) ;N, 1 * holer.dlyhmmNi tn, roSioaom ww iouk HOUSING OPPORTUNIT Y 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