COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

All Fired Up

porter of Jews for the Preserva-
ay Simkin is angry.
At a time when virtually tion of Firearms Ownership
every group is lauding Pres- (JPFO). The Milwaukee-based
ident Clinton's push for a ban on organization is headed by former
assault weapons, Jay Simkin is Vietnam vet Aaron Zellman, who
labels gun
labeling gun
control a
control "die
"moral per-
key to geno-
version be-
cide."
cause it treats
"Every gov-
the law-abid-
ernment can be-
ing person the
come genocidal,"
same as the
he says. "Your best
criminal."
life preserver is per-
Established in
sonal ownership of a
1989, JPFO has
military-type semi-au-
waged an aggressive advertising
tomatic rifle."
Mr. Simkin is co-author of campaign that features a picture
Lethal Laws: 'Gun Control' is the of a saluting Adolf Hitler with
Key To Genocide and a key sup- the words, "Everyone in favor of
gun control raise your right
hand."
Mr. Zellman defends the
ads. "We do not want to of-
fend, but sometimes we need
to take that risk. Many Jew-
ish communal organizations
have long backed 'gun con-
trol.' As a result, many Jews
— and gentiles — take it for
granted that these organiza-
tions represent the best in-
terest of Jews. This is
wrong."
ALL IN FAVOR
Mr. Zellman believes most
OF "GUN CONTRO
Jews support gun control be-
cause "they know little about
-- RAISE YOUR
Jewish law" and because
RIGHT HAND
they have learned the hard
way that it is dangerous to
buck the majority."

j

Baumel's Parents
On Hunger Strike

T

he parents of missing Israeli
serviceman Zachary
Baumel are staging a
hunger strike in an effort to get
information on the fate of their
son.
"This is it," said Miriam
Baumel who, with her husband
Jonah, is striking outside Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin's office.
"We're going to stay here on a
hunger strike until it's resolved,
until we get something done."
"All we're asking is what has
happened to our son, Zachary,
and to Ron Arad, Zvi Feldman
and Yehuda Katz, the other
three MIAs," Mr. Baumel added.
"After almost 12 years, half a dog
tag is not enough."
Zachary Baumel, Mr. Feld-
man and Mr. Katz have been
missing in action in Lebanon
since the summer of 1982. Mr.
Arad was shot down over
Lebanon seven years ago.

Two For The (Birobidzhan) Road

I

wo former Detroiters are set- Champagne. Impressed by the
ting out this month for a re- determination of the region's
mote region once planned as community to see Birobidzhan
continue as a Jewish area, the
a haven for Jews.
Ben and Iris Platnik are part two formed Project Hashivanu.
Project Hashivanu, which is
of Project Hashivanu, which is
leading a trip to Birobidzhan, the nonprofit, also was created to
Jewish autonomous region in the help the Russian, Ukrainian, Ko-
rean, Chinese and other popula-
Russian far east.
Carved out of an area the size tions living in the area.
Today, a Yiddish theater ex-
of Massachusetts, Rhode Island
and Connecticut, the region was ists in Birobidzhan, as does a
created by Stalin in the 1920s as Jewish day school. Yet there is
a buffer on the Chinese border only a small shed of a synagogue,
(in anticipation of the Japanese and few Jews know anything of
invasion of Manchuria) and as a their religion.
In honor of the 60th anniver-
way of "proving" to the West that
the Soviets were not anti-Semit- sary this month of the founding
of Birobidzhan, Project Hashiv-
ic.

JPFO has a regular newslet-
ter, Maccabbee, and T-shirts
reading "Never Let Go of Your
Life Preserver!" (featuring a gun
in a life preserver) and " 'Gun
Control' + Government = Geno-
cide."
For information, contact the
JPFO at 2872 S. Wentworth
Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207, or
call (414) 769-0760.

ADL Investigates Bias Charges

he Anti-Defamation League
is questioning whether po-
litical bias played a role in
the rejection of a sabbatical ap-
plication by a West-
ern Kentucky
University profes-
sor seeking to do
research in
Jerusalem.
In a letter to the
university's vice
pres-ident for aca-
demic affairs, ADL
International Af-
fairs Director Ken-
neth Jacobson
questioned the de-
cision to deny Dr.
E. Margaret Cur-
tis-Howe a sabbat-
ical to complete a
segment of her re-
search project. "Ac-
cording to the
sabbatical chair-
man," Mr. Jacob-
son wrote, "one of
the factors affecting
Dr. Curtis-Howe's
ranking was her

use of the term 'Jerusalem, Is-
rael."'
Mr. Jacobson said the ADL
was disturbed the sabbatical

committee had written Dr. Cur-
tis-Howe that her use of
"Jerusalem, Israel" was either
out of "ignorance" or "unprofes-
sional."
"The city of
Jerusalem is in Is-
rael and is the
capital of the State
of Israel," Mr. Ja-
cobson wrote the
university. "What-
ever one's views
may be regarding
the future political
status of
Jerusalem, it was
certainly neither
`ignorant' nor 'un-
professional' for
Dr. Curtis-Howe
to have stated
that Jerusalem is
in Israel."
Curtis-
Dr.
Howe has been at
Western Ken-
tucky, where she
is a tenured pro-
fessor, for more
than 20 years.

Russian Jews on their way to Israel

Men and women came from
the United States, Argentina and
throughout Europe to live in
Birobidzhan. The official lan-
guage of the area was Yiddish;
the main street of its principal
city is named Sholom Aleichem.
At its height, the Jewish pop-
ulation in Birobidzhan numbered
30,000. But pogroms in the 1930s
and '40s destroyed much of the
Jewish community there.
Until the late 1980s, outsiders
were banned from visiting. Then
a few intrepid travelers made
their way to Birobidzhan. Among
them was former Detroiter Lori
Padzensky and her fiance Joffre

anu is hosting a trip there.
Among the participants will be
Ben Platnik, who remembers
hearing about Birobidzhan as a
boy growing up in Detroit. He
will assist in planning for next
year at the region's Jewish day
school.
"I am curious to know how
people see themselves as Jews,"
he said. "I suspect that many are
similar to American Jews who
are in transition about their own
identity."
For information, contact Lori
Padzensky at Project Hashivanu,
P.O. Box 270016, San Diego, CA
92198, or call (619)226-1460.

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