Up FRONT

Jews Consider Aid
To Iran's Quake Victims

PHIL JACOBS

Special to The Jewish News

S

hould Jews donate
money to victims of
the Iranian earth-
quake?
The quake, which left
more than 50,000 dead and a
half million homeless, has
some Jews writing checks
for relief aid while others

Quake Aid

These organizations are
raising money for Iranian
earthquake relief:
• American Jewish
World Service, 1290
Avenue of the Americas,
11th floor, N.Y., N.Y.
10104
(212) 468-7380
• B'nai B'rith Interna-
tional, 1640 Rhode Island
Ave. NW, Washington,
D.C. 20036
(202) 857-6600
• Iran Quake Relief As-
sistance, (sponsored by
the Iranian Interests Sec-
tion, Iran's diplomatic
presence in the U.S.),
Bank Melli Iran, Account
No. 5000, 628 Madison
Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10022 ❑

grapple with visions of the
Ayatollah, hostages and a
religious Islamic fanaticism
that has sentenced both the
United States and Israel to
death many times.
Kamal Kaharrazi, Iran's
ambassador to the United
Nations, has said his nation
would accept aid from every
country except Israel and
South Africa —even though
Israel, through the Interna-
tional Committee of the Red
Cross and the Red Crescent,
offered help.
However, Amir Zamani,
first secretary of the Iranian
Mission to the United
Nations, said his country
would be happy and grateful
to accept relief donations
from Jews in the United
States.
"The American Jewish
community and the Iranian
Jewish communities have
been very active in the relief
effort, and the Iranian
government has no difficulty
with that," he said. "We en-
courage your readers to help
in any way they can."
Zamani said aid from Jew-
ish individuals and charities
is accepted by Iran because
it is humanitarian, not polit-
ical. Israeli and South
African aid is refused for po-
litical reasons, he said.

At least two international
Jewish organizations have
publicly stepped forward to
raise money for the quake
relief effort — B'nai B'rith
International and the
American Jewish World
Service. B'nai B'rith already
donated a check for $1,000 to
the Iranian interest section
of the Algerian Embassy in
Washington, D.C., Iran and
the United States have no
formal diplomatic relations.
Andrew Griffel, executive
director of the American
Jewish World Service, said
the money will be funneled
through the Iranian Jewish
Federation in Los Angeles
which has set up earthquake
relief on a nonsectarian basis.
AJWS describes itself as a
humanitarian organization
that helps people in need,
regardless of religion, race
or national origin.
In 1988, the American
Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee, a United Jewish
Appeal-funded agency, spon-
sored a chartered El Al
jetliner to carry aid to
Armenian earthquake vic-
tims.
JDC has not yet decided
whether funds will be sent to
Iranian relief,
Rabbi Irwin Groner of
Congregation Shaarey

Iranian quake victims number over 250,000.

Zedek, newly elected presi-
dent of the Conservative
Rabbinical Assembly, noted
that "the people who are suf-
fering from the effects of this
disaster are not our enemies,
they are unfortunate people
for whom our help is a moral
duty. It's a humanitarian
issue."
Rabbi Leizer Levin of Beth
Thfilo Emanuel Tikvah, presi-
dent of the Council of Or-
thodox Rabbis, said that, nor-
mally, "tzedakah starts with
the family and friends, people
close to you. But with people
who are suffering so much, we
could help and we should
help.
"There is a portion in the
Tenach which says we
should learn from such
punishment because it is

visited on people who are not
living the right way," he
added. "But we still should
help."
"Of course, you should
contribute. There should be
no reason to ask the ques-
tion," said Rabbi Lane Ste-
inger of Temple Emanu-El.
"The idea is to help the peo-
ple suffering, not bolster the
(Iranian) governmental
views that we find inimical.
"We as Jews do all kinds of
compassionate, concerned
things 'for the sake of the
ways of peace,' as God tells
us to do. It's sad that there
seems to be even two sides to
this question." 1=1

ures show how the following
sums will help the new im-
migrants to Israel. A dona-
tion of $10,675 will pay for
transportation, freight and
direct absorption of a family
of three. This figure includes
rent, education and utilities
for one year.
A donation of $360 allows
a senior citizen to live at a
Jewish home for aged;
$10,000 enables four
students to attend an Israeli
university for one year on
full scholarships, and
$15,000 covers the cost of
renovating five apartments
in an absorption center for
new immigrants.
Israel's national budget
proposal for this fiscal year
designated $600 million for
the 40,000 immigrants ex-
pected from the Soviet
Union.

World Union for Progressive
Judaism, an umbrella organ-
ization representing Reform,
Liberal and Reconstruc-
tionist synagogues, has
opened its doors in the
Soviet Union.
Congregation Hineni,
located in Moscow, presently
has 150 members and meets
in an apartment that cannot
hold more than 30 people.
This necessitates a rotation
system, which permits each
congregant to attend ser-
vices only once every three
or four weeks. The congrega-
tion plans to acquire more
commodious quarters as
soon as the Soviet Ministry
of Religious Affairs formally
approves its application for
recognition.
Robert Feinberg, a Rus-
sian-speaking American
from Norfolk, Va., has
agreed to serve as the con-
gregation's first resident
rabbi from August 1990 to
July 1991.

Richard Pearl of The Jewish
News contributed to this story.

ROUND UP

Leeds Prohibits
'Merchant' Poster
London (JTA) — The city
council of the northern Eng-
lish city of Leeds has banned
distribution of a controver-
sial poster for the
Shakespearean play The
Merchant of Venice that
local Jewish leaders call an-
ti-Semitic.
The poster, which had
been used to promote a pro-
duction of the play at the
Leeds Civic Theatre,
features a pair of jackboots
in the shape of a swastika
marching across a yellow
Star of David.
Richard Manning, the
Jewish representative to the
city council, complained that
the sight of hundreds of
swastikas displayed
throughout the city was both
", provocative" and
"offensive" to Jews.
The local authorities re-
sponded by ordering the
poster withdrawn from shop
windows in the city.
The director of the current

production of the play, which
has been updated to take
place in Mussolini's Italy,
responded, "There is no way
we intended to cause offense
(with the posters). After all,
the play is about anti-
Semitism; it is not an anti-
Semitic play."

A Last Word
From Oregon
Eugene, Ore. — Yo,
Pistons fans: you remember
Oregon, right? Home of
Portland and the ill-fated
Trail Blazers?
Well, before we leave the
Beaver State, here's one last
note to end all notes:
Eugene.
That's a city, not a person.
And it's forming its own
Jewish federation, in a
break-away move from
Portland, according to
Portland Executive Director
Charles Schiffman.
Eugene, Oregon's second-
largest city (about 150,000),
is home to 3,000 Jews, three
rabbis, one synagogue and a

Eugene: Home to a new federa-
tion.

deli. Three full-time Judaica
artists and KiTov, a Jewish
performing arts group, also
live in the city.

The Cost Of
,Saving A Life
Big money is needed for
Operation Exodus, the
emergency campaign to save
Soviet Jews, which has rais-
ed $18 million to date in the
Detroit area.
But little money — not just
the million-dollar contribu-
tions — can save the life of a
Soviet Jew.
United Jewish Appeal fig-

New Congregation
Opens In Moscow
Moscow (JTA) — The first
non-Orthodox Jewish con-
gregation, affiliated with the

Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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