.1V-1110000- .FRONT, ADL Says 'Rio Better' No Better For Its Stereotyping Of Jews New York (JTA) — Film- maker Spike Lee's portrayal of two Jewish jazz club owners in the new film Mo' Better Blues is being called anti-Semitic by the Anti- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and some leading film critics and a jazz musician. In his previous three movies, including last year's Do The Right Thing, Lee vividly explored the black experience and the effects of racial prejudice in America. In Mo' Better Blues,his cen- tral character is a black trumpet player who tries unsuccessfully to wheedle a raise from the two Jewish owners of the jazz club where his band performs. The two-dimensional depiction of the two brothers, named Moe and Josh Flatbush, who appear in brief scenes throughout the movie, was sharply criticized by Abraham Fox- man, national director of the ADL. "Spike Lee's characteriza- tion of Moe and Josh Flat- bush as greedy and unscrupulous club owners dredges up an age-old and highly dangerous form of an- ti-Semitic stereotyping," Mr. Foxman said. "ADL is dis- appointed that Spike Lee — whose success is largely due to his efforts to break down racial stereotypes and pre- judice — has employed the same kind of tactics that he supposedly deplores." Mr. Foxman told the Jew- ish Telegraphic Agency that he issued the statement in the same spirit that the Na- tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League have protested stereotypical portrayals of blacks. "Here's a man who's creative," Mr. Foxman said of the black filmmaker, "yet he falls back on these stereo- types that are so simplistic and crude. There are many ways to portray greedy peo- ple. He had all kinds of choices. That's the choice he made." Susan Fowler, a spokes- woman at Mr. Lee's Forty Acres and a Mule production company, said the writer/director was not issu- ing a statement in response to the ADL's charges. Mr. Lee feels that "the movie speaks for itself," Ms. Fowler said. On Monday, the Los Angeles Times surveyed leading film critics. While many agreed with the ADL charges, some also defended Lee's right of free artistic expression. David Ansen of Newsweek, describing the Flatbush brothers' characterization as "villainous Shylocks," said that, coming "from a self- proclaimed enemy of ethnic stereotyping, this is inex- cusable." David Denby, New York magazine critic, said Lee was feeding the currently "fashionable" anti-Semitism among blacks. But he warn- ed it was dangerous to pin labels like "misogynous," "racist," or "anti-Semitic" on films because "you get to the point where you can't say anything." Time magazine critic Richard Schickel panned Lee for constantly stereotyp- ing characters in all his films but said he didn't think the Flatbush characterization was anti- Semitic. They are "fringe characters . . . with a shrewd eye to the main chance. The type is familiar to anyone in show business . . . and not particularly Jewish." Mr. Lee told Variety columnist Army Archerd Spike Lee in a scene from Mo' Better Blues. last week that his own father played for jazz clubs that were owned by Jews and that he did not intend the Flatbush brothers as an indictment of all Jewish club owners. "But the facts are that black artists have always had to struggle to be paid what their white counter- parts were paid," Mr. Lee said. Lee also questioned whether Lou Wasserman and Sidney Sheinberg, the Jewish top executives at Universal Pictures, would have released the film if they felt it were obviously anti-Semitic. The two execs defended Lee's right to creative freedom in the Variety article. Mr. Lee defended the por- trayal. ❑ which lobbies in support of Israel government policies. The organization was run by one person until last year; now, 15 board members serve Americans for Peace Now and offices exist in Los Angeles, New York and Washington. sity students have completed the course, they will serve as liaisons between the new immigrants. ROUND UP Holocaust Museum Seeks Artifacts The Museum of Jewish Heritage's Living Memorial to the Holocaust, scheduled to open in 1992 in New York, is in search of artifacts, documents, photographs and film footage for its exhibi- tions, and books for its refer- ence library. The museum will be located on the Manhattan shoreline, opposite the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It will focus on four main themes: Jewish culture before the Nazis; the Holo- caust; the aftermath of the Holocaust, including the search for Nazi war criminals and the estab- lishment of Israel; and Jew- ish immigration to the United States since 1654. Among the artifacts in the museum's collection is a dress, made in Dachau by Frania Bratt Blum shortly after the death camp was liberated in 1945. U.S. Army liberators brought bolts of dinator, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 342 Madison Ave., Suite 717, New York, N.Y. 10173, (212) 687-9141. Frania Blum's dress in the Muse- urn of Jewish Heritage. blue-and-white checked fab- ric to the women prisoners, who had only camp uniforms to wear. A friend of Mrs. Blum's cut the cloth; Mrs. Blum then sewed the dress by hand. She fashioned her dress in the peasant style she had admired as a girl in Poland before the war. Those with items related to Jewish life before the war, the fate of Jewish com- munities during the war, or immigration to the United States, may contact Esther Brumberg, research coor- Peace Now Branch Targets Politicians Americans for Peace Now, the sister organization for Peace Now, an Israeli movement calling for an end to Israel's presence in the territories and for immedi- ate dialogue with the Pales- tinians, has launched a campaign to convince U.S. politicians to adopt its peace policies. Californians Jerry Bubis and Ahavia Scheindlin told The Jerusalem Post the organization has begun a campaign to enlist 100,000 members throughout the United States. Mr. Bubis called Americans for Peace Now an alternative to AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Women Train To Aid Immigrants Fifty women soldiers are training for positions as non- commissioned "absorption officers" in a new course at Tel Aviv University. Jointly sponsored by the Israel Defense Forces and the Jew- ish Agency, the course will prepare the women to work as aides to social workers in- volved in immigrant absorp- tion. Israel's social services have been severely strained by the current flood of new immigrants primarily from the Soviet Union, but also from Ethiopia and Latin America. Once the Tel Aviv Univer- Moore Donates Funds To Causes Michael Moore, producer of the documentary Roger & Me, will give away about $100,000 to various reci- pients, including two groups seeking to end Israel's oc- cupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Also receiving funds are Flint-area politicians, three independent film makers and the Flint Voice, Mr. Moore's alternative news- paper. The Michigan native is putting away 1 million dollars — half of his produc- tion company's Roger & Me after-tax profits — for his next film, reportedly a satire about Israel's occupation of the territories. Compiled by Elizabeth Applebaum THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 5