UP FRONT

Desperate Measures

The takeover of slum houses in east Jerusalem
by Israel rightists indicates a fear that the
peace process will soon be irreversible

mood of gloom and doom in
the Prime Minister's office.
Indeed, Yitzhak Shamir's
Friday-night appearance on
the prime time news seemed
to confirm that the sharp
downturn in American-
Israeli relations was taking
its toll: the prime minister
came across as tired and

INA FRIEDMAN

Special to The Jewish News

n the eve of James
Baker's eighth visit
to the Middle East, to
clear up the last details
before issuing invitations to
a peace conference, spirits in
Israel seemed to be at a new
low, and not only because
Israel's relations with the
United States are in a simi-
lar state.
For much of the past seven
months, the powers that be
in Jerusalem seemed to have
banked on the belief that if
they could just hold out long
enough, something would
come along to crush the
chances of convening a peace
conference. Now that the
conference appears to be just
over the horizon, it is being
portrayed by the political es-
tablishment, from the Likud
rightward, as an impending
disaster for Israel.
The press has painted a

O

No sane Israeli
wants to live in
Silwan, a
low-income,
high-crime Arab
area.

subdued — "bushed," if you
will.
But perhaps the most
prominent sign of the jitters
on the right was the
energetic, almost manic,
operation last week to
"redeem Jewish houses" in
the east Jerusalem neigh-
borhood of Silwan by a
radical group known as El
Ad (Hebrew for until then).
The scenario was a famil-

Ina Friedman reports from
Jerusalem.

iar one that dates back to the
days of Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger's shuttle
diplomacy after the Yom
Kippur War. Whenever the
pressure mounts on the
Israeli government to make
concessions, which are in-
evitably of the territorial
type, a group of right-wing,
mostly religious Israelis re-
sponds by taking to the field,
in the defiance of the army
or the police, to create "facts
on the ground," which* is
code for a Jewish presence in
the heart of heavily
populated Arab areas.
The classic instances of
this approach occurred in
the mid-197,0s, when the
Labor Party was still in
power. Since the advent of
the Likud government in
June 1977, the need for such
action disappeared. Then,
just one day after the first
anniversary of the Temple
Mount massacre, the
"settlement commandos"
struck again by invading a
number of buildings in the
most improbable of places:

Photo by RN S/Reuters

.

A homeless woman outside makeshift housing in the Old City.

the Arab neighborhood of
Silwan.
No sane Israeli wants to
live in Silwan. It is a low- in-
come, high-crime area that
is the focus of the city's drug
trade and a hotbed of polit-
ical violence. Its empty lots
are strewn with garbage.
Raw sewage flows in its
streets, mingling with
donkey dung, and as you
walk down the slope into the
village-like neighborhood,
the stench wafts up to meet
you.
The houses in Silwan
range from habitable to
hovels, and the house of the
Meyuhas family, which is
now being held by three

Knesset members and a
number of settlers from the
El Ad society pending the at-
torney-general's ruling on
the society's claim to some
30 houses in Silwan is of the
latter variety.
Built over a century ago,
the Meyuhas' house consists
of four small rooms lined
with bare-stone walls and is
devoid of sanitary facilities
(the squatters - are using a
chemical_toilet they brought
with them). What attracted
the members of El Ad to this
structure is the fact that it
was built and inhabited, un-
til the 1920s, by a Jewish
family.
It subsequently became

dent in the program has
taken a leave of absence to
direct an absorption center
for Ethiopian Jews rescued
in Operation Solomon.
A commitment of $75 a
month for single students
and $150 for married
students enables them to
buy books, pay for medical
insurance, and cover daily
expenses including carfare
and food.
For information, contact
the NACOEJ, 165 E. 56th
St., New York, N.Y., 10022,
or call (212) 752-6340.

a series of Yiddish movies
made in the United States.
Judith Goldberg, -writing
in Laughter Through Tears:
The Yiddish Cinema, recalls
how The Singing
Blacksmith's director went
in search of an appropriate
site that looked like a
Ukrainian shtetl. He
combed New Jersey, finally
finding "the perfect piece of
land: a lake, sloping ground,
no electric lines in sight. It
was a Catholic monastery."
Ms. Goldberg recounts
that the monks were
delighted with the proposal.
"They even volunteered to
play the parts of the
townspeople, as all the
brothers had beards .. .
(And) at night, the monks
stood guard so nothing
would happen to the sets."
The film opened in New
York City in October 1938.
Among the guests: all the
Catholic clergy from New
Jersey, who arrived "in full
regalia to see the picture."

,

ROUND UP

Terezin Sets
Commemoration
Terezin, Czechoslovakia —
For the first time, the more
than 140,000 Jews who lived
and died at the Nazi death.
camp Terezin will be com-
memorated this week with a
concert and an exhibit.
Holocaust survivors from
throughout the world will
attend the event, marking
the. 50th anniversary of the
slaughter of Czechoslovakia's
Jews. Terezin survivors Edith
Kraus and Karel Berman will
perform in concert, and a pla-
que marking the corner in
Prague where Jews were forc-
ed to gather for transport to
Terezin and other death
camps will be unveiled.
Czechoslovakia's Presi-
dent Vaclav Havel and
Israeli President Chaim
Herzog will attend a concert
of Verdi's Requiem at
Smetana Hall in Prague.
Terezin ghetto prisoners per-
formed the Requiem in 1943.
Supporters are working to
establish a Holocaust

.

memorial museum in
Terezin. Meanwhile, a tem-
porary exhibit documenting
life in the ghetto and the
work of Terezin artists has
been installed.
For information about the
Terezin Museum, contact
the Charter 77 Foundation,
Terezin Ghetto Museum
Fund, 888 7th Ave., Suite
1901, New York, N.Y.
10106.

An Ethiopian student in Israel.

Ethiopian Students
Need Sponsors
The North American Con-
ference on Ethiopian Jewry
(NACOEJ) Vidal Sassoon
Adopt-A-Student program is
seeking American sponsors
to help Ethiopian Jewish
youngsters wishing to pur-
sue higher education in
Israel.
American "adopters" pro-
vide a monthly stipend for
students at the Technion,
Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan
and other colleges, univer-
sities and technical schools.
Every penny of the sponsor's

funds goes to the student in
Israel. All administrative
expenses, including the
salaries of NACOEJ staff
who visit every student at
least once each month, have
been paid from NACOEJ
general funds.
This year, some 100
adopted students are atten-
ding college, and many more
hoping for sponsors will
enter college preparatory
courses. A number already
have graduated and are
employed as social workers,
engineers, technicians and
nurses. One fourth-year stu-

Jewish Blacksmith
Visits Monastery
Millions are demanding it
— it cannot be ignored. The
Curious Facts File returns!
This week's superfluous-but-
unusual report:
Did you know . . . one of
the most popular Yiddish
films ever made was filmed
at a monastery?
The Singing Blacksmith,
starring Moishe Oysher, was
filmed in 1938. It was one of

Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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