Photo by AP/GPO

Israeli soldiers
patrol a road in
Israel during the
1948-49
Independence
War.

•

Party

Poop

Israel's 50th
anniversary
celebrations
have hit a
series of walls.

LARRY DERFNER
Israel Correspondent

s Israel officially kicked off the
start of its 50th year celebra-
tions last week, many people
ere are wondering: Is there
going to be a party? The preparations
have been one long foul-up. Worse,
Israelis don't seem much in the mood to
celebrate.
The official opening of the Jubilee
Year was supposed to be last Rosh
Hashanah, but it was put off because
nothing was ready. It was rescheduled
for the first night of Chanukah, when
President Ezer Weizman was supposed
to start things off with the c.andlelight-
ing. He did light the first candle at the
President's Residence, but there was still
no celebration.
At the beginning of this week,
Weizman explained why: "I can't be in
favor of celebrations for the 50th
anniversary when I see [pockets of severe

AL

Vim,

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unemployment] in Ofakim, Avivim and
other places. To spend millions of
shekels on celebrations, I don't think it's
right."
Besides, Weizman pointed out, plans
for the party are still somewhere up in
the air. "I think the celebrations have
gotten away from us. They're not hap-
pening, I don't know what's happening.
There should have been a committee to
organize the celebrations of the 50th
anniversary, but things have run
aground."
Actually, there is,an organizing corn-
mittee. It even has a chairman — for-
mer Finance Minister Yitzhak Modal
He's been on the job a little over a
month, following the resignation of his
predecessor, retired Army Gen. Yossi
Peled. Here's what Peled recently said
about the effort: "It's been managed like
the worst fruit-and-vegetable stand in
the souk [outdoor market]."
Before Peled, producer Haim Slutzky
was appointed and quit. Before Slutzky,
producer Ya'acov Agmon was offered the
job, and he turned it down. Tourism
Minister Moshe Katsav was running the
show for awhile, and he quit. Jerusalem
Mayor Ehud Olmert took the reins for
two months, and he quit.
The preparations for Israel's 50th
PARTY on page 32

Kiev Jews
Regain Synagogue

Kiev, Ukraine (JTA) -- A
Chasidic congregation in Kiev
recently reclaimed possession of
the Brodsky Synagogue, the
largest synagogue in the Ukrainian
capital.
The move came as uncertainty
surrounded the future of a 1991
decree ensuring the restitution of
communal religious property The
decree is scheduled to expire at
the end of this year
The Culture Ministry and
Kiev's city administration did not
want to give up the building,
which since 1955 had housed a
popular puppet theater.
As a compromise, the congre-
gation received three rooms in the
building, which served as the
community's central synagogue.
The Jewish community eventu-
ally filed suit .against the theater
and the city administration, and
earlier this year Ukraine's High
Court of Arbitration ruled that
the theater should move out of
the synagogue.

Judge Orders
Deportation

New York (JTA) ---- A
Philadelphia man who served as a
guard at the Auschwitz and
Buchenwald concentration camps
has been ordered deported to his
native Slovakia.
A federal immigration judge
issued the deportation order
against Johann Breyer, 72, who
admitted that he served in the
Nazi SS at the two camps in Nazi-
occupied Poland.
In granting the OSI's deporta
tion request, the immigration
judge ruled that Breyer's wartime
service as an SS guard constitut
ed membership in a movement
hostile to the United States,
which rendered him ineligible
to immigrate to the United
States.
Breyer, a retired tool and die
maker, admitted in a sworn inter-
view with OSI attorneys in 1991
that he was an SS guard at
Buchenwald beginning in
February 1943 and at Auschwitz
starting in May 1944.

,

1998

31

