Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 January 1985 — Page 8

ry 2, 1985 Jewish Post and Opi

| Botched Censorship

The EDITOR'S CHAIR

The attempt by the Jewish Establishment to censor news of the mass rescue of Ethiopian Jews was a flop, and never was handled intelligently. The botching needs discussion so that in the future, when similar occasions arise, the matter will be handled more efficiently. If it were a question of the refusal of the Jewish press to cooperate, then that would be a different situation. But in this case that was not the issue. No one at any point ap- ° proached this paper and proposed that the news be ° withheld for fear that its publication might cause

Operation Moses to be suspended.

A short resume of what did take place might be helpful in averting a similar situation, because the news was published and even the New York Times broke the story, after it had already been printed in several Jewish

weeklies.

It will be seen that the Jewish leadership was clearly to blame. Both the U.S. Ambassador for Refugees and Arye Dulzin, who had the most to lose by publication of the news, were guilty. The U.S. Ambassador at first let the cat out of the bag when he told a session at the General Assembly on Ethiopian Jews that the place to protest was not in Toronto but in Israel in a matter of about six to eight weeks. Then Arye Dulzin told another G.A. session on the Jewish Agency that funds would be required by Israel for an unexpected and unprecedented large immigration. The two broad hints were put together on our front page of Nov. 21 under the headline: “Ethiopian Jews To Be Rescued?” Granted that there is a continuing battle between the press and the Establishment for the real news, yet this botching of the news about Operation Moses could have been averted by sensible leadership. A message to the Jewish press in advance about Operation Moses and the danger that publicity might destroy it would have been assiduously observed. There is responsibility in the Jewish press, and while the leadership of local Jewry was brought into confidence, the Jewish press was ignored. In other words, the Jewish press was kept in the dark.

A medal should be given to Mr. Dulzin and on it should be some symbol displaying lack of intelligence. As for the leadership of the Council of Jewish Federations, it now is clear why a woman has for the first time been elected to the presidency — she at least has common sense.

To complete the editorial, it should be known that the Ethiopian Jews who Operation Moses is bringing into Israel come not from Ethiopia proper but from a neighboring country where figures of some 2000 dying from disease and starvation have been published while the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, an adjunct of the Council of Jewish Federations, was sending an emissary to local Jewish communities in an attempt to del use the protest engineered by the American Association for Ethiopian Jews. One other point, the Jews still left in Ethiopia, mostly children and the elderly unable to make the hazardous trek across land by foot to the neighboring country, must also be rescued. The U.S. government played a diplomatic role in securing release of the Jews from that neighboring country. Political pressure on the Ethiopian government by the nations of the world is the hope now for those Jews still remaining in Ethiopia.

Jewish Post and Opinion

P.O. Box 449097, Indianapolis, IN 46202 All editorial correspondence should be addressed to the Indiana office, P.O Box 449097, 46202. Subscriptions $24 per year Single copy 500 Back issues 65C Gabriel Cohen, Editor & Publisher

Three or four years ago we were approached by one of our correspondents with a news story about Bubbie and Zadie in Nome, Alaska with the idea that Dan Bloom of that city would respond to each letter from a Jewish child. It took us a little while to find the error in this approach, but our first reaction was good and we declined. What is wrong here is that we are aping a Christian holiday, while the need is exactly the opposite — to instill pride in the observance of our own winter solstice holiday — Hanukkah. To write a letter to Alaska, the home obviously of Santa Claus, is already a mistake. The Christian children write such letters to Santa Claus expressing their wishes for certain gifts. That is a harmless exercise, but obviously has no place in Jewish practice. We should not be harsh with Bubbie and Zadie. Bloom, who publishes a weekly paper in Juneau — he initiated the idea when he was living in Nome — certainly had no evil intentions. Actually he was trying to be helpful — and as we are told does respond to each misguided letter. The United Press International took note of his activities and that made the pages of many daily papers. The article included the fact that Bloom has sunk $5000 into his activity, but has received only about $1000 a year in unsolicited donations. We hope he desists, although the chances are that the project will founder anyway, since it is so obviously a mistake, even though some Jewish papers have given it publicity.

THE LAST TIME WE WERE with Sam Rothberg he had $6.5 million of the $10 million he had set out to raise for the Golda Meir Fellowship Fund, and a news account in the Jerusalem Post for Dec. 3 said the fund was at the $7 million mark. Sam stated that when the board of governors meets in June to mark the 60th anniversary of the Hebrew University the $10 million would have been contributed. And anyone who has known the best fundraiser in the Jewish community will not challenge that assertion. He made the statement at the ceremony at the Hebrew University when 27 fellowships to scholars were awarded by the fund. Honorary Israeli president of the fund — Sam is the international president — Prof. Ephraim Katzir said the fellowships will make possible the “development of an intellectual elite of which we are so in need.” Sam was devoted to Golda Meir, and he was at her side whenever she was in the United States and also in Israel when the occasion warranted.

IT HAS TAKEN ISRAELI leaders who visit abroad almost the 36 years since the establishment of the state to observe ordinary rules of social acceptance — not to alienate your host Jewish community. Shimon Peres made sure to tell the Israel press on his return

from his recent visit to Paris that if not all the meals he ate during his three days in the French capitol were kosher, for the first time, the luncheon which President Francois Mitterand hosted for him at the Elysee Palace was strictly kosher. In the past, Israelis have shown their independence and disregard for the normal observances in their host communities by transgressing every Jewish practice whether by not eschewing pork and shrimp or ignoring Jewish holidays, etc. Israel leaders have matured. •

THE ACCEPTANCE OF Jewish support (and that of other whites also) by those demonstrating against apartheid should not be passed over without the interpretation that the black community has changed from the time when Snick, the Student Non-Violent 'Coordinating Committee, abruptly dispensed with all whites — mainly Jews — in its organization back in

1960’s.

Have the blacks come to realize or rather reached maturity and overcome their need to learn to manage their own affairs and now accept help from whatever source it emanates? (Editor’s note: Our daughter, Miriam, had risen to a high position in Snick in its national headquarters, after having been jailed in Albany, Ga. where she participated in a hunger strike while desegregating the public swimming pool. Yet she was summarily relieved of her post which, incidentally, provided only sustenance pay, because she was Jewish and

white.)

If therefore the vigil against apartheid and the arrest of Theodore Mann, president of the American Jewish Congress, and Henry Siegman, its executive director and Theodore Bikel, senior vice president, means that the blacks here changed their policy, that is a move that is to be welcomed. The trio were handcuffed and driven in a police van to a police station where they were booked and detained for several hours. Also participating in the demon stration were Rabbi Alexander Schindler and Rabbi David Saperstein, co-director of the Reform Religious Action Center. The statement the five Jewish leaders issued read: “We have come to demonstrate our sup port for the victims of South African government oppression — in particular, political prisoners and jailed labor leaders incarcerated for protesting the brutal and savage system

under which they live.

“We strongly oppose the Reagan Administration’s policy of ‘constructive engagement’. This approach has not advanced the cause of true social justice, nor has it mitigated the South African government’s

regressive racial policies.

“We urge the South African government to release the labor and political leaders still imprisoned as the first step in a dialogue with leaders of the Black community aimed at end-

ing apartheid in South Africa. ’ ’

Mengele's Twins To Hold Reunion At Camps

Editor, POST and OPINION: I would like to share with my Jewish friends information about a worldwide organization named CANDLES, which is an acronym for Children of Auschwitz Nazi’s Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors. It is headquartered in Terre Haute, IN, originated in Terre Haute, and two of its officers reside in Terre Haute — Werner Loewenstein M.D. and me. Eva Mozes Kor. This organization's purpose is to disseminate information about the experiences of twin children and other “guinea pigs” of Birken-au-Auschwitz. We seek to learn the whereaabouts of all the surviving

twins, and speak out for those who perished in the experiments. In the past year we have located about 110 twins and are still searching for another 100, Due to lack of knowledge and little accurate information available about genetic experiments directed by Dr Joseph Mengele, it is important that the facts and eyewitness accounts be broueht to light. A reunion/conference will take place from Jan. 27, 1985 to Feb. 6, We are taking our children and the world on a tour of Auschwitz. We will begin at the railroad ramp where Dr. Mengele did his selection, the place where

more families were torn apart than any other place in the world. We will participate in a memorial “Death March” and will tour the gas chamber and crematorium. Then we will go on to Jerusalem to have a mock trial of Dr. Mengele. After suffering for 40 years along we will be together to care, understand and support each other — we are no longer alone. We have lit our CANDLES, and if you want to see our lighted CANDLES march in Auschwitz we will need your contributions. To sponsor one twin will cost $2,500. But you can sponsor one special candle that will be lit at the (Continued On Next Page)