UP FRONT I
Kuwait Boycott Stand
Winks At Jewish Firms
The mother of all necessities — economics — has
ended Kuwait's strict enforcement of a ban against
trade with Israel and Jewish businesses.
IRA RIFKIN
Special to The Jewish News
D
oes Kuwait still back
the Arab League
economic boycott of
Israel and Jewish com-
panies? Or has the Persian
Gulf nation ended its boycott
participation to facilitate the
rebuilding of its war-
shattered economy?
Only the government of
Kuwait appears to know for
sure, and it is playing coy.
"Many things are under
review," Raed Alrifai, press
attache at the Embassy of
Kuwait in Washington, said
this week when asked to
comment on the boycott
issue.
Does that mean Kuwaiti
boycott participation may
end?
"As I said, the whole ques-
tion is under review," he
replied.
However, he hastened to
add that Kuwait "does not
Ira Rifkin is assistant editor of
the Baltimore Jewish Times.
discriminate against
(American) Jewish-owned
businesses or businesses
that have Jewish capital in
them. For us, it's an Ameri-
can business and that's that.
"The Arab boycott refers
to companies with direct
Israeli participation in
them, or with major business
ties to Israel, or firms that
have gone out of their way to
support Israel during the
Arab conflict with Israel."
However, federal and state
laws preclude companies
from cooperating in any way
with the more than 40-year-
old Arab League boycott,
which is designed to econ-
omically isolate the Jewish
state.
Prior to last summer's Ira-
qi invasion, Kuwait — along
with Syria and Saudi Arabia
— was a staunch backer of
the boycott. However, since
the end of the Persian Gulf
war there have been re-
peated hints that Kuwait
may officially rescind its
boycott participation, both
because of its current need to
rebuild and as a sign of Arab
willingness to compromise
so as to advance the current
American Middle East peace
initiative.
So far, however, there has
been no official change in
Kuwaiti policy.
, But it is also clear that
Kuwait is not currently en-
forcing the boycott strictly,
according to Will Maslow,
who keeps tabs on the Arab
League boycott for the
American Jewish Congress.
Mr. Maslow noted that
over the years the boycott
has often been partially ig-
nored by Arab governments
whenever it suited them to
do so.
Mr. Maslow said that
Kuwait would have a hard
time enforcing the boycott
strictly even if it wanted to
because of the massive
destruction of its bureau-
cracy that occurred under
Iraqi occupation.
"At the moment, their
boycott office is in shambles,
thanks to the Iraqis, who
looted the place," he said.
"Also, the Palestinians who
manned the office have all
Artwork by D. B. Johnson. C.:origin. 1990. 0. B. Johnson. Distributed by Las Ange. Times Syndwate.
fled or been chased out."
In the past, Kuwait gen-
erally required firms to
agree to language stating
the company is not owned by
Jews, has no Jews on its
board of directors, has no
Jewish managers or
employees, and does not do
business within Israel or
with other companies that
have been placed on the
Arab boycott list.
But Mr. Maslow said that,
as far as can be determined,
Kuwait is not requiring any
boycott language in the con-
tracts it is currently signing
with American and other
foreign firms.
Youngsters at the Belgrade Com-
munity Center present "Fiddler on
the Roof."
he has taken countless pic-
tures of Jewish life.
A third volume of his
photographs is about to be
published.
Mr. Salzman, of
Philadelphia, has for the
past five years documented
the lives of Jews in Turkey.
His film, "Turkey's Sephar-
dim: 500 Years," and an ex-
hibition of photographs will
be on display throughout the
United States beginning
next year.
A native of Savannah, Ga.,
Edward Serotta has lived
since 1988 in Europe, both in
Budapest and Saarbrucken,
a small town in Germany
near the French border. He
has traveled some 100,000
miles and taken 13,000
photos first documenting the
remnants of Jewish life,
then capturing its rebirth.
His book, Where is My
Home? Jews in Central
Europe, will be published
shortly.
❑
Excavations Set
To Tour The U.S.
Archaeological finds from
the City of David excava-
tions, conducted by the Heb-
rew University Institute of
Archaeology, will be on
display throughout the
United States and Canada
for the next two years.
The tour began last March
at the Berman Museum of
Art in Collegeville, Penn.,
which is sponsoring the ex-
hibit. Other stops will in-
clude the Harvard Semitic
Museum, the Royal Ontario
Museum in Toronto, the
Cobb Institute of Archae-
ology in Mississippi, Duke
University in North Califor-
nia, Lehigh University in
Pennsylvania and the Los
Angeles Skirball Museum.
Among the items in the
exhibit are rare discoveries
found when 25 layers of set-
> tlement were uncovered,
from the earliest period of
pre-Israelite settlement to
the destruction of the Second
Temple in 70 C.E. They in-
dude figurines, a model res-
toration of a First Temple
period house and part of a
door from the ancient city. ❑
Tay-Sachs Disease
Affects Cajuns
The Cajuns of Louisiana
have been found to have a
high incidence of Tay-Sachs,
a fatal disease most fre-
quently affecting Ashkenazi
Jews, according to a report
in Avotaynu, The Interna-
tional Review of Jewish
Genealogy.
Cajuns, Catholic descen-
dants of exiles from the
French colony of Acadia (to-
day Nova Scotia), settled in
Louisiana in the 1790s.
Their proclivity to Tay-
Sachs, a genetic disease, ap-
parently stems back to a
single family of four
brothers and sisters who
married three brothers and a
sister and their uncle in
1780. All Cajuns with Tay-
Sachs are descendants of the
family who shared a corn-
mon ancestor, Abraham
Edelmeier. Mr. Edelmeier
was a farmer from an area in
Germany known to have a
large Jewish population.
Mr. Edelmeier's son,
Johann, left Germany in
1720. He settled in Loui-
siana, where his offspring
married Cajuns. Though
most certainly Jewish,
Johann Edelmeier was listed
a Catholic in 1724, the year
King Louis XV of France
demanded the deportation of
all Jews from Louisiana.
Photos Chronicle
European Jews
New York — Following in
the footsteps of Roman
Vishniac, who in the 1930s
photographed the crumbling
world of Eastern European
Jewry, three modern pho-
tographers have set out to
capture the reawakening of
Jewish communities in
Europe and Asia.
The photographers, work-
Photo by Edwa rd Se rotta.
ROUND UP
ing with the assistance of
the Memorial Foundation
for Jewish Culture, are
Frederic Brenner, Edward
Serotta and Laurence
Saltzman.
Mr. Brenner, of Paris, has
for the past 10 years travel-
ed five continents "to rescue
from oblivion the fragments
of Jewish history, to gather
the scattered pieces of our
memory." This quest has led
him from Yemen to Tunisia
to Ethiopia to India, where
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 11