Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 September 1960 — Page 3

Frid»y> September 30, 1900

The National Jewish POST and OPINION

Friday, September 30, I960

Status Quo In Jewish Community; Fighting Goes On

Goldmann Takes i s t Yom Kippur Services Walk As Paris | n sjg n Language Set

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Meet Criticized NEW YORK (P-0) — Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, walked out of a meeting of the Presidents Conference here when several delegates criticized the Con-

ference on Soviet Jewry convened by him in Paris last

week.

The criticism came from Isaiah Minkoff, executive d irector of the National Com-

munity Re la- Goldmann tions Advisory Council, and Jacob Pat, of the Jewish Labor Com-

mittee.

The charge was levelled against the conference of half whitewashing the USSR’s treatment of the Jews in an attempt to placate them. Goldmann was told that this was too high a price to pay. THE CRITICISM also included the fact that many of the delegates to the conference were well known pro-Communists who until recently have followed the USSR line on the Jews in Russia. The accusation was made that Goldmann’s belief that using these leftist elements would hurt Russia most was a mistake. Tlie Paris conference appealed to Russia to reexamine the situation of Soviet Jewry and grant them equal rights with other minorities. DR. GOLDMANN, who presented in his address a list of religious and national discriminations against Jews in the Soviet Union, paid a warm tribute to the Soviet Union for its role ■ in World War II and for having outlawed anti-Semitism. He said that, in spite of that action, the Jewish community in Russia was being “collectively discriminated against from both the religious and national angle.” “A special policy, different from that applied to all other minorities, is applied to Soviet Jews,” Dr. Goldmann said. “This policy, if not modified, can in the long run bring about the forced disintegration of the community and even its disappearance as such.” Daniel Mayer, chairman of the League for the Rights of Man, presided. Among other speakers Were Dean James Pike of San Francisco, former French Minisfrr Edouard Depreux, Label A. Katz, president of the B'nai K’rith, and Wolf Mankiewicz, the Voung British Jewish writer.

By LEONARD LEADER LOS ANGELES (P-O) — Yom Kippur services will be marked tonight in sign language services, the first of its kind in the history of the Jewish community here. Slated for the Reform Wilshire Blvd. Temple’s auxiliary chapel, the services aim at some estimated 700 Jewish deaf living in the area. RABBI SOLOMON F. Klein-

Time of Sabbath? Dial 10 On Your Phone JERUSALEM — Residents of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa are able to find out the time at which Sabbaths and festivals begin and end by dialing the number 10 on their telephone. This free service has been arranged by Mr. B. M i n t z, Minister of Posts, who is a member of the Orthodox Poale Aguda.

man, Western regional director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said that student Rabbi Donald Singer, 23, was studying the sign language in preparation for these and other special services. For tonight’s services, Mrs. Charles Geisner, a Presbyterian, who is a sign language instructor, will interpret. Singer is a student at the California School of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Reform rabbinical seminary. NINE DEAF young men and women, led by Mrs. Elliot Fromberg, are in a special choir which will “sing” the prayers in unison. The sounding of the shofar will be entrusted to Harry Fields, who learned the rites before losing his hearing several years ago. Local Reform sisterhoods are supporting the overall project. It is hoped to expand the program on a national basis.

Committee Denies Nasser Meeting Sought NEW YORK (P-O) — The story in The National Jewish POST and OPINION (P-O, Sept. 23) relating that the American Jewish Committee was asking neutral elements to arrange a meeting for them with Nasser, was denied by a Committee spokesman. A check with original sources failed to warrant any change in the story, P-O executive editor Charles Roth, asserted. Meanwhile, other national Jewish organizations e xpressed resentment at this unilateral attempt by a lone Jewish body to meet with the Egyptian ruler. The P-O learned that representatives of the American Council for Judaism also were seeking a meeting with Nasser.

Like No Other Yom Kippur Services Yom Kippur Services for the deaf in the sign language will be presented tonight in Los Angeles’ Reform Wilshire Blvd. Temple. Rehearsing, from left, are rabbinical student Donald Singer, with Torah, who will occupy pulpit; Mrs. Elliot Fromberg, leader of choir which will present prayers in “signs”

3 Organizations Withdraw From Message to K. NEW YORK (P-O) — Mr. Khrushchev almost, but didn’t, quite bring U. S. Jewry together. THE STATEMENT on Soviet treatment of its Jews which was to have been released (P-O, Sept. 23) under the combined signatures of every majoi' national Jewish organization, including even the American Jewish Committee, the day before Rosh Hashonah, never got sent. Another statement will be released on the eve of Yom Kippur, this Friday —• but it will lack the backing of three important agencies. THE AMERICAN Jewish Committee, for one, and the National Council of Jewish Women for another, both non-Zionist groups, have withdrawn support from the statement on the grounds that it wouldn’t be helpful. The third body, the Synagogue Council of America, which is apparently miffed because its growing strength as a major agency in the Jewish community did not seem to be recognized, also will not- sign. Its formal position is that the consultation on the contents of the statement was not adequate. The statement will bear the names of presidents of 17 national Jewish organizations. All of these are members of the Presidents Conference, but the group will sign as individual organizations, not as the Presidents Conference. THE AMERICAN Jewish Committee is not in the Conference, in fact, it is the lone major national Jewish organization not a member. The National Council of Jewish Women and the Synagogue Council of America are members of the Presidents Conference. The statement on Mr. K as it was prepared for publication last week calls on the USSR (1) to grant Soviet Jews cultural and religious freedom; (2) to permit Soviet Jewsish citizens to leave Russia in order to be reunited with their families abroad and (3) to permit contact between Jewish organizations on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

MOSCOW SHUL JAMMER TEL AVIV (P-O) — As in previous years, the Great Synagogue in Moscow was jammed to overflowing its 3,000 seats while crowds milled outside for Rosh Hashonah services, it was reported here by a Mbshe Kol, who just returned from a visit to the Russian capital.

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