Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1982-08-12

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VOL.60   NO.32
AUGUST 12,1982-AV 23
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals.
ion Lea
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In the top photo, Bernard Ruben addresses those present at the Israel Bond Cocktail party held Aug. 4 at the
home of Alvin and Beverly Schottenstein. Discussing
the plans for the Aug. 19 Tribute Dinner are (top photo,
1. to r.) Alvin Schottenstein, Bernard R.. Ruben, Akiva
Baum and Harlan G. Ruben.
The Israel Bond message
was delivered by Akiva
Baum at a cocktail party
held Wednesday night, Aug.
4, at the home of Alvin and
Beverly Schottenstein.
This meeting served to
kickoff an intensive Israel
Bond campaign to culminate
with a Tribute Dinner honoring Bernard Rl." Ruben on
Thursday, Aug. 19, at the
Hyatt Regency Hotel.
In his message to a group
of 70 people, Baum discussed
the current situation in
Lebanon. He indicated that a
real peace will be possible if
Israel remains strong.
"Sadat didn't make peace
with Israel because it was
weak. While it is impossible
to predict the outcome of the
Lebanese action, it should be
the beginning of a new era
for peace and security for
Israel."
Baum also discussed the
tremendous expenses which
Israel incurred as a result of
the Camp David Accords.
"Can you name one other nation in the world that would
give up 85 percent of its oil
fpr a treaty of peace? This
treaty will cost the people of
Israel billions of dollars,"
He specifically discussed
the construction of the
Negev air bases which
severely restrict the mobility of the Israeli Air Force.
He said that Israel must
continue tp have the support
of world Jewry to offset the
tremendous costs of peace.
This can best be done
through the purchase of
Israel Bonds, he explained.
Baum has spoken for
Israel Bonds and UJA
throughout the U.S. and
Canada. He stated to Harlan
G. Ruben, General Chairman of Tribute Dinner, that
he was very impressed with
Columbus, not only because
of the good turnout, but also
because of the large number
of young people that
attended.
In his message following
Baum's address, Ruben urg:
ed everyone there to attend
the dinner honoring Bernard
R. Ruben. Reservations may
be made by contacting the
Israel Bond office, 239-7212.
By Judith Franklin,
Chronicle Staff Writer
You can't always believe
what you read in the papers
or see on TV. At least that's
the lesson learned by
Charles Schiffman, Executive Director of the Columbus Jewish Federation, who,
accompanied by Judith
Swedlow, Vice President of
the Federation, and Merom
Brachman, Edwin Ellman
and Melvin Schottenstein,
Board Members,were part of
an Aug. 1 Prime Minister's
Mission To Israel. One^hundred eighty-four. leaders,
donors and staff members
from Federations in intermediate-sized cities across
the nation participated in the
United Jewish Appeal (UJA)
sponsored Mission.
In addition to viewing the
Lebanese War first-hand,
members of the Mission
were apprised of the economic impact of the War on
Israel, heard an address
-delivered by Prime Minister
Menachem Begin to the
Knesset and were given an
opportunity to discuss plans
for their 1983 Fund Raising
Campaigns.
According to Schiffman, in
an exclusive interview with
the Chronicle, they were only the second group of
Americans to spend a full
day in Lebanon. At Sidon, he
said, they saw that, contrary
to media reports, only two
blocks of that city had been
destroyed.
The group then proceeded
to Damour. This city, south
of Beirut, became a PLO
stronghold for training terrorists and storing arms and
ammunition in 1976 when the
PLO killed 6000 of its Christian inhabitants and drove
the rest away, Schiffman explained. There they saw
huge caverns, 50 feet high,
carved from rock with Russian machinery, which had
been full of PLO weapons
when the Israelis captured
the city.
According to Mrs. Swedlow, there were so many
arms that it is taking 80
i Israeli trucks 24 hours a day
for 30 days to ship them back
to Israel.
.Before returning to Jerusalem, the group was briefed
by an Israeli Defense Force
Colonel at a position in sight •
of the Beirut .Airport, but this
briefing was cut short,
Schiffman noted, when fighting broke out.
.. .we're
that's how
act."   i
Jews  and
we have to
In answer to charges that
the Israelis are fighting an
inhumane war, Schiffman
related, that at Tel Ha
Shomer Hospital, where 80
percent of the patients in the
burn unit are Lebanese, a
young Israeli soldier, now a
paraplegic, was asked how
he felt about Syrian POWs
receiving the same care as
he was when the Syrians
either kill or torture their
prisoners. His reply? "Yes, I
know that, but we're Jews
and that's how we have to
act," he said.
Schiffman feels that the
media have been totally off
base, especially in the reporting of casualty figures,
which are, he said, much
Al McGuire Featured Speaker At Sports Spectacular
Al McGuire, colorful basketball analyst and master
sports storyteller, will be the
featured speaker,at the Leo
Yassenoff Jewish Center
Sports Spectacular next
Monday, Aug. 16 at Winding
Hollow Country Club,
McGuire, who is currently
Enjoyed by millions of people
across the country on NBC,
will highlight the evening
portion of the day-long
event.
Four legends of sport
—golfers Byron Nelson and
Ed Sneed and tennis players
Roy Emerson and Fred
Stolle—will join program
participants in a day of
clinics, exhibitions and
friendly competition to benefit the Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Center.
Following the daytime
events, which begin at noon,
Sports Spectacular Chairman Ron Feerer feels that
the outing will be the greatest sporting event in the history of the Columbus Jewish
community. "Response has
been excellent, and reservations are coming in daily.
However, since attendance
is limited, those interested in
making a reservation should
call David Valinsky right
away at the Center,
231-2731," he notes.
lower than those reported.
He attributed this to a general dislike, by members of
the press, of the Israeli
Prime Minister. As an example, he cited accounts of a
speech Begin delivered to
the Knesset' which was attended by members of the
Mission. When the group returned to New York on Aug.
5; the reports they read in
the local papers bore little
resemblance, Schiffman
noted, to what they had actually heard.
"The PLO has a romantic, underground, guerilla
fighter image, out, in
fact, the PLO are the
same people who went into a school and slaughtered 22 children..."
In addition,. he feels that
the PLO takes advantage of
the press' ignorance of its
tactics. "The PLO has a
romantic, underground,
guerilla fighter image, but in
fact, the PLO are the same
people who went into a
school and slaughtered 22
children, the PLO are the
same people who stopped a
bus on the Tel ■ Aviv-Haifa'
Road and killed all of the
people inside it, the PLO are
the same people who, on a
little kibbutz, beat a five-"
year-old girl to death in front
of her father," he said.
"I have seen it said, in
various editorials," he continued, "that this situation
was not life-threatening to
Israel and so their response
was out of proportion.
Maybe it was and maybe it
wasn't. I happen to think the
PLO would have invaded
Israel in force pretty soon,,
but I also think that even if
the PLO had not, the kinds of
things they did were intolerable, and a country has to
protect its citizens with the
degree of force necessary."
What most concerns Mrs.
Swedlow, as a result of her
experience, is that too many
people, Americans and Jews
included, have no better
information about what is
happening in the Middle
East than what they can
glean from the news media,
which she feels, because of
what she has seen, is grossly
distorted and inaccurate. To
remedy, this, she said that
members of the Mission are
going to try to bring eyewitness  information  to  their
Al McGuire
will be a cocktail party,
prime rib dinner and
McGuire's presentation, , ,
Urgent Rally-Aug. 15
Lebanon situation
For more information, see page 3.
Charles R. Schiffman
own communities. "We don't
ask that every Jew in America agree with everything
that Begin has done, but we
do ask that they keep their
minds open enough to listen
to what eyewitnesses from
their communities observed," she said. A rally will be
held Sunday, Aug. 15, at Congregation Tifereth Israel at
8:30 p.m. to disseminate, the
information gathered on the
trip, ■>.-;
" '.'.- a country has to pro-,
tect its citizens with the
degree of force necessary."   .   V' - :   . . '  ;;
As far as finances are concerned, Schiffman pointed-
out that the costs of the war
are high—$4-5 billion. Therefore, the Israeli government
has asked the Jewish Agency
to assume financial responsibility for social programs,
which it can no longer -
finance, totalling $300 million, $200 million of which
must be raised by North
American Jewry, through .
the UJA. This represents a
figure 40 percent above the
usual amount raised during
a campaign, he said.
To meet this need, Schiffman explained, many Federations, including Columbus, are considering adding
a second line on their pledge
cards, asking donors to
pledge an additional 40 percent of their original
pledges.
ity," stressed Schiffman.
"The people of Israel are being taxed to the breaking
point, not to mention that
over 300 good people have
been killed and 1400 wounded. So we, hopefully( can
take care of some of the need
in terms of dollars."
Moreover, • according to
Ellman, "This is probably
another of those historic
moments within recent
Jewish history in which it
has been necessary to
mobilize the Jewish community, not only with dollars
but with people going to
Israel."
.'!