NEWS Immimi•••m"'"'"""m 1
Gulf's Jewish Soldiers
Mark Chanukah Quietly
ALIZA MARCUS
Special to The Jewish News
I
Introducing the New
Jewish News Camp Directory
nay camps, overnight camps, special in-
terest camps. With so many to choose
from, how do you pick the one that's right for your
kids? You'll get plenty of help from our first-time-ever
Camp Directory.
You'll tour area camps — we'll show you
what's new and exciting on the summer camp
scene, including those for youngsters with special
talents and interests. The new Jewish News Camp
Directory is more than a listing of local camps. It's
a comprehensive guide to what's out there, right
here in the January 11 issue!
NI ER1ISERS
AD tie lovish'e evis Camp Directory
■
is vont opportnnitY to shine
n. long
Detroit.
back i
before tile summer Sun
Tell. out readers about yont eatap's
DEADLINV
Friday, January
4 or
a Dttatlene !Orris
o fferings
.
313)
Information, c
For
Inform
your sales representative at
(
354-6 060 •
94
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1990
THE JEWISH NEWS
CAMP DIRECTORY
ISSUE DATE: 'FRIDAY, JANUARY 11
t was the first night of
Chanukah, and on the
USS Saratoga,
somewhere in the Red Sea
near the western coast of
Saudi Arabia; four Jewish
sailors took part in the
lighting of a Menorah.
Led by Lt. M.S. Kaprow,
the Jewish chaplain assign-
ed for the night to the air-
craft carrier and its company
of smaller ships, the sailors
celebrated the Maccabean
victory of 2,150 years ago,
then opened gifts and took
out dreidels.
Chaplains have been rnin-
istering to Jewish soldiers in
the U.S. armed forces since
the Civil War. But they have
faced unique challenges in
Operation Desert Shield,
which has sent almost
300,000 U.S. troops so far to
Saudi Arabia in response to
the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
The ultraconservative
Saudi regime bans all but
Islamic religious practices
throughout the kingdom,
making the observance of
such holidays as Chanukah
a bit tricky to negotiate.
Although a photograph
depicting the scene on the
Saratoga was released
through U.S. military in-
formation, photos of similar
Chanukah scenes taking
place within Saudi Arabia
will probably not be
available to the press.
Military officials are wor-
ried the Iraqis could use
such pictures to claim the
Saudis are defiling Islam's
holy spots of Mecca and
Medina, of which the oil-rich
kingdom is the protector.
That might damage the
fragile Arab coalition
against Iraq and its Aug. 2
invasion of Kuwait.
As a result, holidays such
as Chanukah, Christmas
and even Thanksgiving are
celebrated "more discreet-
ly," said a spokesman for
U.S. Central Command,
based in Florida.
"We don't have them out-
doors, and we don't have
decorations up, but all re-
ligious services are being
held there," he said.
The Pentagon has taken
various steps to avoid re-
ligious conflicts in Saudi
Arabia, including advising
people here not to send large
quantities of Bibles or other
religious objects to soldiers
in the Persian Gulf.
A Defense Department
spokeswoman said the Saudi
government was restricting
shipments of large quan-
tities of non-Islamic re-
ligious objects to U.S. and
other troops. She said the
Pentagon had set no policy
but was recommending that
people adhere to these re-
strictions.
Earlier this fall, the U.S.
Central Command
distributed a troop informa-
tion pamphlet that set out a
list of sensitive subjects
soldiers should avoid
discussing. This included
any mention of U.S.-Israeli
cooperation or of what it
called the "Jewish lobby."
Such restrictions have
drawn protest from some
Jewish and liberal groups,
who are saying the United
States is not only protecting
a repressive country, but has
ended up repressing its own
freedoms in the process.
"The American military is
entitled to the full protection
of their rights even, and es-
pecially, as our troops are
sent to foreign soil to defend
American values," Ira
Glasser, executive director
of the American Civil Liber-
ties Union, said in a tele-
gram sent last week to
Defense Secretary Dick
Cheney.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
associate dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center is Los
Angeles, said the situation
for Jewish soldiers in the
Gulf is not just a Jewish
issue, but one affecting all
non-Moslem soldiers who,
after decades of free re-
ligious practice in whatever
theater the U.S. military
was based, must now almost
hide their religion.
"It's not that we're open-
ing shuls in downtown
Riyadh, or putting a
Christmas tree in Mecca,"
said Rabbi Cooper. "Should
we be feeding and catering
to this kind of mentality?"
Yet, the director of the
organization supervising
Jewish chaplains in the Gulf
said the steps taken by the
military were understan-
dable, given Saudi mores
and the danger of Iraq using
information to destabilize
the Arab coalition against
Saddam Hussein.
Until now, "a Jew that
went into Saudi Arabia
would never get out; he'd
stay there forever," said
Rabbi David Lapp, director
of the JWB Chaplains Coun-
cil.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency