Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1983-02-03

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^JVky'/serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community for Over 60 Years     \\ //\Y\
VOL.G1   NO. 5
FEBRUARY 3,W83-SHEVAT 20
Devoted to American
and Jewish ido.iis
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
ermem Jew Recalls Time Of Infamy
Bethanne Tilson and Dr. Jackie Berkowitz, co-chair-
. persons for the event, join Bess Myerson during the Columbus Jewish Federation sponsored Night for Life,
Jan. 15 at the Leo Yassenoff Jewish Center.
Bess Myerson Reaffirms
Commitment To Judaism
By Judith Franklin
Chronicle News Editor
Commitment to Judaism
and Israel is not new to former Miss America, Bess
Myerson. The Consumer
Affairs director for C.B.S.
Television was in Columbus .
recently to speak to participants in the Columbus Jewish Federation's Young
Men's and Women's Divisions "Night for Life" event
at the Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Center. '
Myerson was not always
the well-known public figure
she is today. Her beginnings,
in fact, were humble. Born in
the Bronx to Russian immigrant parents, she attended
a Folk Shule with them and,
by necessity, became fluent
in Yiddish. After graduating
from Hunter College, the
accomplished flutist and
pianist entered and won the
1947 Miss America Pageant, -
the only Jewish girl to have
ever done so.
"Many communities
considered it an insult
that a Jewish girl was
chosen to represent
American womanhood."
But as much of a milestone
as that was,, she remembered, it was that experience
which took her from the
warmth of her Jewish neighborhood and thrust her intp a
hostile, anti-Semitic environment for which she was ill
prepared.
"The experience of not being accepted by a community of people away from my
'safe harbor' was shocking,"
she related, and she was
forced to endure a series of
"outrageously insulting incidents."
"Many communities considered it an insult that a
Jewish girl was chosen to
represent American womanhood," she noted, and she
was refused admittance to
such places as Catalina Island simply because she was
a Jewess. She was even
asked by pageant officials to
change her name, which she
refused to do. "I don't want'
to be anything different than
what I am. I like my Jewish-
ness; I like my family; I like
my roots," she explained.
"If you are not faithful
to yourself as a Jew, you
are not faithful to yourself as a human being."
According to Myerson, the
Miss Americas who came
before and after her earned
tens, of thousands of dollars
by doing commercial promotions; she earned only $4,000,
she said, and before her year
as Miss America was over,
she left the pageant, outraged  because  she  was
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 16)
By Gerhart Riegner
Editor's note: Sunday, Jan. 30, was
the 50th anniversary of Adolph Hitler
becoming Chancellor of Germany. Dr.
Gerhart Reigncr, secretary general of
the World Jewish Organization, was
then a 21-year-old law student, working ds the assistant of a district judge
in Derlin. In reply to questions from
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's
London correspondent, Maurice
Samuelson, Riegner gives the following personal memories of the birth of
the "thousand-year Reich,", Its immediate Impact on the 600,000 Jews of
Germany, his feelings about present-
day Germany and the anniversary's
lessons half a century later. This is
Part I of a two part series.
LONDON (JTA)-I belonged to a well established
bourgeois family which had
strong roots in Germany and
was deeply imbedded in the
German Jewish humanistic
tradition. Louis Lewandow-
sky, the composer of modern
synagogue music, and Hermann Cohen, the neo-
Kantian philosopher, were
close relatives of my grandparents.   *
We were also deeply interested in politics. My father
was associated in his legal
practice with a Socialist
member of the Reichstag,
»who was also one of the coun-
try's foremost criminal
lawyers., My mother was
active in the Democratic
Party.
As a student, I myself had
taken part in the electoral
fights at the universities of
Freiburg and Heidelberg in
1929 and 1930 where, as
Republican supporters, we
fought  a  courageous  but
hopeless battle against the
Nazi students who already
formed the overwhelming
majority of the student body.
It was at the universities
that I had my first direct encounters with the Nazi terror
and I remember vividly
when we Jewish students
were chased out of the University in Berlin by SA
troops and had to jump put of
the windows in order to
avoid bejng beaten up.
An Enormous Shock
The day.: Hitler was appointed Chancellor was an
enormous shock for us. For
years, we had been aware of
the danger of such a development. But in the general
elections only a few weeks
earlier, the Nazi Party had
suffered its first great defeat, losing more than a mil-.
B'nai B'rith Hillel To Host
Reception For Ashkenazy
Friends of Hillel, a support
group of the B'nai B'rith
Hillel Foundation at The
Ohio State University, will
host a private reception for.
the internationally acclaimed pianist Vladimir
Ashkenazy. All "Friends of
Hillel" will be able to meet
Ashkenazy on the stage following his performance on
Tuesday, March 15, at Mer-
shon Auditorium. A gourmet
dessert -menu will be featured.
Long considered one of the
titans of the keyboard, Vladimir Ashkenazy regularly
• performs to universal critical and popular acclaim,
with his performance regarded as a highlight of the
musical season in countless
cities throughout the world.
- Born in Russia in 1937 he
began his musical studies at
the age of six. In 1962, he participated in the Second
Tschaikovsky Competition,
in which he became joint
first prize winner.
In what is to him a natural
progression in the exploration of music's possibilities,
Ashkenazy has taken up the
conductor's baton, having already conducted numerous
orchestras both in the U.S.
and abroad.
Friends of Hillel was
formed in 1982 to help raise
funds for the Hillel Foundation while providing quality
cultural programs for Hillel
supporters. The tradition of
an annual "Friends" reception for a visiting artist at
the Mershon Auditorium was
begun last year with Zubin
Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. More than 300
Friends of Hillel met Mehta
and the members of the philharmonic on stage after
their performance.
Friends of Hillel also receive periodic Hillel Newsletters and are invited to special "Friends." programs,
the most recent of which was
a champagne reception
marking the opening of a
photographic exhibit on Jerusalem at the Hillel Foundations Friends of Hillel
membership fees comprise
an important part of the
fundraising effort which allows Hillel to continue its
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 14)
lion votes.
It was due mainly to a
financial scandal involving
the East Prussian Junkers,
belonging to President Hind-
enburg's entourage, that the
alliance between the National Socialists and the German
Nationalist Party came
about, opening for Hitler the
way to power.
I particularly remember
the evening of Jan. 30, 1933,
when tens of thousands of
Nazis marched with torches
through the streets of Berlin,
giving a foretaste of what
was to come. I remember,
too,; the radio speeches of
Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, in
the first weeks, shouting insults and threats at the Jews
and other .political enemies.
They created an unbearable atmosphere in our
homes, finally causing us to
turn off the radio altogether.
The terror system which was
thus installed very soon
showed its real face.
One of the most spectacular events was, of course, the
burning of the Reichstag
(Parliament) building,
destined to influence the general elections of March 5.
Nobody doubted who had
really committed the crime-
Soon we learned of the"
places in Berlin where the
Nazis were beating up and .
torturing their political
enemies and of the first concentration camps in Oran-
ienburg and Sachsenhausen.
The first judicial measures against Jews were
taken during the months of
March and April.
What sticks particularly in
my mind is the Boycott Day,
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 16)
Scout Sabbath To Be Celebrated
Feb. 11 At Leo Yassenoff Center
The week of February 6-12
will mark the 73rd anniver-.
sary of the Boy Scouts of
America. Since its beginning
on Feb. 8,1910,'the spirit of
scouting has grownto touch
the lives of more than 60 million youth.
For the past 73 years, "A
Better Life Through Scouting" has been a promisethat
has become an .important
part of the American way of
life: The local Jewish Committee "on Scouting was
formed in 1968. William
"Bill" Goldsmith has served
as chairman of the Committee for the past 15 years.
With the help of the co-chah>
man, Sanford Lichtenstein,
and members of the Committee, he has been able to
'aid and assist boys and girls
with their religious needs.
The highlight of the program will be the presentation of the Aleph Award and
the Shofar Award, recommended by the local committee arid approved by the
National Office.
The recipients of the Aleph
Award are: Lewis Mathew
Goldblatt, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Jeffrey Goldblatt;
Steven Dan Kapetansky, son
of Dr. and Mrs. Fred Kapetansky; Kevin Levison, son
of Mr, and Mrs. Marc Levison;Josh Klynn, son of Dr.
and Mrs. Marc Klynn; Seth
Weinbaum, son of Mr.; and
Mrs. David Weinbaum.
The adult Shofar Awards
will be presented to Rabbi
Robert D. Levy and Jeffrey
Goldblatt.
On the 73rd Anniversary of
the Boy Scouts of America,
Chairman Goldsmith has
these words to say: "I feel
very humble for the opportunity to be able to make a
small contribution to : this
fine organization, whose
main purpose is to provide a
foundation  of  wholesome-
Jeff Goldblatt
ness and good citizenship
with which boys and girls
may grow into moral and
ethical young men and
women."
The community is invited
to attend Scout Sabbath.
Rabbi Robert Levy
Scout Sabbath, annually
sponsored by the Jewish
Committee on Scouting, Central Ohio Council, will be
held on Friday, Feb. 11, at
the Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Center at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi
Robert Levy, Chaplain of
Central "Ohio Council, will
officiate.
Harvard Professor Predicts There Will Be
'More And More'Shcharanskys In USSR
Union of Council's advisory
board, explained that there
is increasing discrimination
against Jews and increasing
anti-Semitism in the USSR.
He said that anti-Semitism is
one of the Soviets' major
exports to the Third World.
Anti-Semitic material is-
being produced in 200
languages but particularly
Arabic, he Said.
As discrimination and
anti-Semitism increase,
more Jews will want to emigrate from the USSR, Der-
showitz said. He predicted
that they will be refused
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 14)
WASHINGTON (JTA)-
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard
Law School professor active
in the Soviet Jewry movement and particularly in efforts to free Anatoly Shcharansky, predicted that there
will be "morej and more''
Shcharanskys in the USSR in
the near future.
"The circle is closing on
Jews in-the Soviet Union,"
Dershowitz said at the Union
of Councils, for Soviet Jews'
fourth biennial Congressional briefing on Soviet Jewry.
The meeting was dedicated
to Shcharansky.
Dershowitz, who is on the