Page 10-Thursday,March 1, 1979-The Michigan Daily
Domestic, foreign political involvement discussed
Noble urges political d
By JULIE BROWN
Telling students that "you are a part
of a privileged class of people, and it
would be a misuse of your political and
personal power if you didn't get in-
-volved in the political process,"
Viewpoint lecturer Elaine Noble last
night urged students to become
politically active.
Noble, addressing a crowd of about
250 at Rackham Auditorium talked
about the political process and its effect
on women and gays. The gay activist
focused on the role of "new people get-
ting involved, caring and pushing for
reform."
NOBLE, WHO serves as a special
assistant to Boston Mayor Kevin White,
described some of her experiences lob-
bying at the state and federal levels.
Mentioning the "lunatic fringe of the
right wing which looks for victims,"
Noble cited current economic trends,
such as California's Proposition 13,
which have resulted in fewer social
programs for disadvantaged groups
and minorities.
"We have seen a sweep of the right
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activism
wing dismantling government
programs, because people like you
haven't gotten involved in the political
process," Noble said. "You have to
think seriously about what direction
this country is going in."
NOBLE SAID she decided to work as
a lobbyist on behalf of the city because
she felt she could have more influence
there than as an elected official. She
ran in 1978 for a U.S. Senate seat, but
was defeated in the Democratic
primary.
Addressing the issue of homosexual
rights, Noble stated that "we must
speak for ourselves, we must begin to
build political power based on support
groups." In reply to an audience
question concerning her "coming out,"
Noble said that that action made some
of her colleagues nervous.
"If the public knew how many gays
are in politics, all of Washington would
shake," Noble said. She mentioned
several "risk factors" which could
result from public knowledge of an of-
ficial's homosexuality, such as family
harassment or social censure. She
noted that "there was no negative feed-
back from the Congressional and
Senatorial delegations that I work with,
or else I wouldn't have gotten my job."
NOBLE SAID an official "can't be
elected or retained on one issue," such
as gay rights. She mentioned her efforts
to pass. legislation dealing with such
diverse issues as tenants rights, com-
munity organization, and city
renovation.
"Political paybacks and supports
only come from putting yourself on the
line," Noble said. "Power is not a bad
thing if you use it appropriately, but
you must learn to compromise down to
an acceptable level."
Once, Noble said, she asked for a
large amount of ERA support funding,
and "ended up withten thousand
dollars more than I wanted."
By ALISON HIRSCHEL
A new. wave of repression has swept
over the Jewish population in Syria, a
37-year-old man who recently escaped
to Israel asserted yesterday. The
refugee, identified only as "Mr.
Albert," spoke yesterday in the multi-
purpose room of the Undergraduate
Library.
In contradiction to a recent State
Department report, "Albert" claims
that the condition of the 4,000 Syrian
Jews has seriously deteriorated in the
last two years. He attributes this
change to flagging international
pressure on the Syrian government as
well as decreasing world interest in the
plight of the Jews.
THROUGH AN interpreter, Albert
pleaded, "I am standing in front of you,
begging for help that will improve my
brothers' condition in Syria." Albert,
who escaped with 41 other Jews on Dec.
10, refused to reveal his real name and
donned a mask for the few minutes
photographers were at work in order,
he said, to protect his relatives still in
Damascus.
Albert severely criticized the U.S. for
giving aid to Syria. Explained the in-
terpreter, Aviva Mutchnick, herself a
1951 refugee from Iraq and U.S. chair-
person of WORJAC (World
Organization for Jews From Arab
Countries), "It's not only a matter of
politics; it's a matter of basic human
rights."
Mutchnick said Jews in other parts of
the Middle East have been subject to
similar persecution. In Iraq, Egypt,
and to some extent North Africa, she
said, repression is a way of life.
JEWISH GROUPS in the U.S. and the
Middle East are reported fearful that,
following the recent revolt in Iran, that
country's 80,000 to 100,000 Jews will be
persecuted.
If conditions are to improve, Albert
said, he feels renewed public concern is
essential. Albert claimed the public is
unaware of the real situation in Syria
because the Jews are afraid to talk. He
said he would have told reporters, if
they'd asked him in his village, that he
was comfortable in Damascus because
he would have been afraid to tell the
truth.
IN THE 20 years since he first
decided to flee from Syria, Albert had
made two other attempts to escape. His
first effort was thwarted by Syrian
police before it ever started. As a
result, Albert said, he was jailed for 19
months without a trial and beaten con-
stantly with sticks and ropes. "He per-
sonally has scars all over his body," the
interpreter said.
Al bert stated the treatment of the
Jewish community had reached "an in-
tolerable level" and that public sen-
timent in Syria had "turned 180f
degrees" against them. Jews are not
allowed to emigrate and are under con-
stant surveillance. He Oointed out that
the Syrian government has taken away
their homes and forced them to live in
the ghettos.
In addition, Jews are not permitted to
take jobs in any public or private in-
stitution and must work with their han-
ds to survive. Hebrew schools have
been banned and Jewish students are
no longer admitted to the University.
THE SYRIAN government, he stated,
has launched public propaganda
programs against the Jews. All school
books, including the ones used in
Jewish schools, report that Jews are
enemies of, the'Syrian people, he said.
"Our own children have to repeat this,"
he commented through the interpreter.
Each time a Jew flees or attempts to
leave, Albert claimed, the whole
family, including children and old
people, are beaten and often im-
prisoned without a trial.
Albert conceded that the Syrian
Jewish community has suffered in-
creased abuses as retribution for his
escape. In the past few months, 20
Jewish men have been beaten by Syrian
police because they were suspected
of helping Jews leave the country, he
said.
Albert emphasized, "At no point have
we ever been'against Syria." He said
his actions are intended only to secure
freedom for myself and for other Syrian
Jews.
According to Albert, the gover-
nment's attempts to suppress the Jews
have made them more determined to
flee from Syria. In 1974, four girls and
six boys were caught trying to escape.
The girls were raped and all of the
young people were mutilated and
killed. Their bodies were put in plastic
bags and dumped in the gardens of
their families, he said.
"If we don't escape, we end up like
the corpses in the plastic bags," Albert
said through the interpreter. He added,
"By the same action where they tried to
stop me, they only, increased my desire
to leave."
Albert is traveling alone across the
U.S. and Canada. His trips are being
sponsored by different Jewish
organizations all over North America.
The Ann Arbor speech was sponsored
by the Youth Institute for Peace in the
Middle East and the Labor Zionist
Alliance.
'Albert': Syrian Jews are persecuted
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Budget cuts hurt 'U' nursing
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LSA-SG for
Cellar union
By ADRIENNE LYONS
The Literary College's Student
Government (LSA-SG) last night
passed a resolution opposing University
Cellar bookstore management's plans
for a hierarchical management, and
urged the management to negotiate
with its employees and with the In-
dustrial Workers of the World (IWW)
union.
IWW memberDeb Filler explained to
council members that Cellar
Management recently created a
levelled structure at the store by ap-
pointing managers to all departments.
Filler said the majority of the store's
workers want more worker par-
ticipation.
Filler said that at a meeting the
managers agreed to allow written
worker influence on the issue and that
they would later decide on the best
system of management.
Atlso at the meeting, plans were
discussed for a luncheon to be held
today with members of the College's
Executive Committee to discuss
tenure.
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(Continued from Page 1)
program, designed to provide career
information to elementary and high
school students, was cut by $10 million
instead of an original recommendation
for $22.4 million.
Bill Kerans, a Pursell aide, said,
"This is an interesting kind of overall
struggle with Carter over what to cut
and what to leave in." Carter has no
power to rescind money that has
already been appropriated.
Nursing School professors said they
think Congress lacks sufficient infor-
mation about nursing programs to have
made a wise decision in their budget
cuts. Some instructors and students
plan to attend public hearings on the
cuts next Tuesday in Washington.
PATTON SAID that representatives
from other nursing schools will also go
to Washington, not representing their
schools, but as professionals, to in-
crease the awareness of Congress on
their need for the money.
The University projects in jeopardy
because of the cuts have received about
a $1.5 million investment from the
federal government over several years.
"To aburptly terminate them would
nullify the tremendous potential of this
investment. It is a result of poor gover-
nment planning and inefficiency," said
Dr. Phil Kalisch.
He also stated that if Congress were
really interested in saving money, it
should continue to support these en-
dangered projects, as they are concer-
ned with containing health care costs.
LYNN RINKE is one graduate nur-
sing student who stands to lose next
year's half of her two-year stipend for
tuition. ''It's like somebody telling you
you can't come back to graduate," she
said. Rinke and over half the students
in graduate nursing see the stipend as
the only way they can afford their
education.
Kerans from Pursell's office said Car-
ter feels this country has enough nurses
already. Nursing school spokespersons
said that though there are 1.1 million
nurses now active in the U.S., there is a
shortage.
The spokesperson said most of the
restorations have been for un-
dergraduate scholarships. National
Research Service Awards for doctoral
fellowships are to be cut, as well as a
doctoral gerentology program, the
second of its kind in the country, which
had its approved funding rescinded.
Also cut from the national budget was
$20 million for doctors' training and $3
million for emergency medical
training.
Group trl
(Continued from Page 1)
Blixt and Juliar, both graduates of
the University Law School, take advan-
tage of a reduced case load to make
sure that their cases are properly
prepared. They handle the cases from
start to finish.
"WE BELIEVE that the unit has
been extremely useful," said Blixt.
"We are able to push the cases through
court in an average of 58 days. This way
witnesses don't lose interest or move
away, and the defendant can't
manipulate the system by causing un-
necessary delays. In the past some
cases have dragged out two, three, four
years."
Blixt and Juliar refuse to plea
bargain and regularly advocate high
bonds for those arrested and long sen-
tences for those found guilty. "In the
cases that we handle, the defendant can
plead guilty or expect to go to trial.
There just won't be any deal," said
Blixt. "The people we deal with aren't
just ordinary criminals. They've had
the post graduate course."
One of the primary advantages of the
Career Criminal Program is the ability
es full-ime
of the team to target certain offenses.
In Ann Arbor, the unit focused on the
problems of armed robbery, burglary,
and the sale of narcotics. Total offenses
in all three categories decreased in
1978, including a drop in burglaries to
1,681 from 1,788 in 1977. The Ann Arbor
Police also reported 115 robberies in
1978, down from 148 in 1977.
Washtenaw County received the
criminals.
grant, approximately $100,900, as seed
money for the establishment of a per-
manent Career Criminal detail. Under
the terms of the grant, the federal
government paid for 95 per cent of the
costs of the project in its first year of
operation. In the following two years,
the costs of running the project are split
between federal and county gover-
nments.
Artist makes machine
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(Continued from Page 5)
hardly concrete: For too many
minutes, the "dancers" simply walked
around the Armory's large floor looking
at the shells in their hands, listening to
them, passing them out to the audience.
Marianne Moses, not a collective
member, did a lengthy solo in which, it
seems, all she did was utter words -
"Ocean, waves, water, sand, sky, mist,
rolling . . ." - while turning in a circle
Looking,
for a Graduate
Program
in Economics
that's different?
/
and moving her torso up and down.
During the third and final part of
"Oceans," the group covered Sara
Shelley, a collective member, with
shells.
The works which preceded Ms.
Schell's piece had been respectable -
the audience could enjoy their
movement and the dancers' pleasure in
performing. But overall, their efforts
are questionable - especially if one has
to pay to see such a performance, and
knows that Mirage is funded by The
Michigan Council For the Arts as well
as The Comprehensive Employment.
Training Act. How much time is
necessary to produce a "dance" like
"Oceans?" A few hours, maybe?
The women of Mirage are certainly.
unpretentious, and sincere and en
thused about sharing their
philosophies. They have received many
thanks from their students for making
them feel better through
autobiographical dance and contact
improvisation. But about the perfor-
mance I'm still wondering: Was it for
real?
WIN LAS VIFAS
g
Our Program-Offers both an
M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics.
Both are unique because of the
central role played by research
workshops and because our
courses include nontraditional
approaches to economics.
Schools of thought represented
are: neoclassical, Keynesian,
Cambridge, institutionalist,
and Marxian.
Our Research Workshops-
Exciting forums for the exchange
program. Workshops are presently
active in the areas of Political
Economy, Labor, Applied
Econometrics, Finance, and
Resource Economics.
Our Students-A mixture ofages,
nationalities, and academic back-
grounds, recent graduates,
transfers from other graduate
programs, and college teachers.
Our Faculty-Economists with
Ph.D.'s and widely varying
approaches to research and
teaching. The workshop faculty
Our Location-A small New
England town near the coast. The
excellent research facilities of
Boston and Cambridge are less
than 90 minutes away.
In addition to economics majors,
we are interested in superior
students in related disciplines.
-w