Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1984-03-22

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VOL. 02   NO. 12
MARCH 22,1984-ADARII18
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Only one week remains until the
deadline for the First Annual Ohio
Jewish Chronicle Wordworks. All
articles must be submitted no later
than Friday, March 30. For details, turn
to page 4.
Official Warns Of 'Quickened Pace'
In Deterioration Of Falashas' Situation
Mayor Proclaims March 15
International Day Of Concern
For Jews In Soviet Union
By proclamation of Mayor
Dana . Rinehart and resolution of Columbus City Council, Thursday, March 15, was
an International Day of Concern for Soviet Jews in Columbus.
Action by City Hall — requested by the Soviet and
Overseas Jewry Task Force
of the Columbus Jewish
Federation's Community
Relations Committee—calls
attention to the continued .
- systematic • abridgement of
free thought, religion and
movement in the Soviet
Union and in particular the
repression of Soviet Jews.
March 15 was the beginning of the eighth year of
imprisonment of Anatoly
Shcharansky, one of the
leading -Russian Jewish
refuseniks, and the first
anniversary of the World
Conference on Soviet Jewry
•held last year in Jerusalem.
Karen Moss, chairwoman
of the'Soviet and Overseas
Jewry Task Force, noted
that the Soviet Union signed"
the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and the Hel-
Lecture At Beth Tikvah
To Honor Resler Family
Each year, Congregation
Beth Tikvah honors the Res- -
Ier family by providing the
community with an opportunity to attend a presentation by a major scholar or
personality. The Resler Lecture Series was established
to honor the Reslers, whose-
major contribution made it
possible for Beth Tikvah to
build a new synagogue.
■ This year, on Sunday even:
ing, April 1, Professor Kenneth Libo, author and editor,
who collaborated with Irving
Howe on World of Our
Fathers and How We Lived,
will be the guest speaker.
His topic will be "Coming to
Terms with America: European Jews in the Mid-West
1830-1910."
The lecture will be held at
Beth Tikvah, 6121 Olentangy
River Rd., and will begin at 8
p.m. A reception will follow.
The community is invited to
attend.
sinski Final Act, pledging
it to respect freedom of
thought, religion and movement by citizens. However,
it consistently and arbitrarily denies those rights, she
said.
Mrs. 'Moss,  who  visited
(CONTINUED ON PAGE I1J
NEW YORK- (JTA) - An
official of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews
(AAEJ) described the conditions of the Jews of Ethiopia
as "untenable" and warned
of a "quickened" pace of deterioration of the situation of
the 18,000-member Falasha
community.
"It is hard for me to draw
any inference that things
could be better than they
were several years ago" for
the Falashas, said Eli Rock-
owitz, a vice president of the
AAEJ who visited Ethiopia
two months ago, in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The AAEJ,
a national grassroots activist organization dedicated to
aiding the Falashas, claims
a membership of 22,000 people.'
Factors contributing to the
deteriorating conditions of
the Falashas, according to
Rockowitz, include: the
worst drought in North Africa in a decade, the intense
military activity along
Ethiopia's border with
Somalia, the ongoing conflict
between the government'
forces and anti-government
rebels and separationist
movements in areas where
Falasha villages are located; the continued ban on
the teaching of Hebrew and
Jewish studies and the conscription of Falasha youth
into military service.
The Marxist government
in Addis Ababa does not officially seek to eradicate the
Falashas, Rockowitz said.
But Falashas are greatly
persecuted by their neigh
bors — Christians and Moslems — "who have age-old
animosities and suspicion of
the Jews," he pointed out.
The government, because of
the military situation in the
region, is unable to maintain
law and order and thus protect the Falashas, according
to Rockowitz.
He assessed his first visit
to Ethiopia last January as a
member of a delegation of
nine activists who spent ten
days in Gondar city visiting
Falasha villages and speaking with Ethiopian Jews and
other sources familiar with
their' plight. The group's
itinerary, planned beforehand in cooperation"with the
'•■■    (CONTINUED ON PAGE 15)
MK Says Israel Trying
To Rescue Falashas
Pictured is Dr. Jeff Tilson (far left), Columbus Jewish Federation SUPER SUNDAY
chairman, with members of the SUPER SUNDAY Planning Committee making
arrangements for the April 1 SUPER SUNDAY'84.
April 1 Designated SUPER SUNDAY '84
On April 1, a plane will be
whirling over Bexley to promote it, a billboard on College Avenue and Haddon will
herald it and banners will be
raised in Columbus Synagogues to highlight it. It is
SUPER SUNDAY '84, the
phon-a-thon for the 1984
United Jewish Fund Campaign of the Columbus Jewish Federation.
More than 200 volunteers
from the Columbus Jewish
community — men, women,
youth and senior adults —
will phone 2,000 homes asking for a commitment to the
1984  United  Jewish  Fund
Israeli Arabs Desire
New National Anthem
JERUSALEM (JTA)-
Israeli Arabs are urging the
adoption of a national
anthem that would express
the idea of two nations living
in a single country. That was
suggested by the head of the
National Committee of Arab
Town Councils to .the Arabic
Communist daily, Ittihad,
as the Knesset discussed a
bill to formally recognize
''Hatikva" as the national
anthem.
Campaign. SUPER SUNDAY Phone Headquarters
will be at the Leo Yassenoff
Jewish Center and the volun-
' teers will work in two-hour
phone shifts beginning at
9:30 a.m. and concluding at
7 p.m. ,."    ,
Phoners and workers will
be treated to entertainment,'
prizes, refreshments and a
generally high-spirited day.
"It will be a day of strong
community feeling and camaraderie and leave those
who become involved with a
rich fundraising experience," assured Dr. Jeff Tilson, SUPER SUNDAY chairman.
The United Jewish Fund
Campaign is undertaken
each year by the Columbus
Jewish Federation, The
Campaign supports over 50
beneficiary agencies in Columbus, Israel and throughout the world.
"Fully one-third of your
dollars stay right here at
home. They fund outstanding social service and educational programs that need
our campaign dollars to insure their ongoing quality,"
said Tilson. "The Leo Yassenoff Jewish Center; Heritage Village; Jewish Family
Service; B'nai B'rith Hillel
at Ohio State University and
Ohio University; Columbus
Hebrew School, Columbus
Torah Academy and Tifer-
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 7)
NEW YORK (JTA) - Israeli Knesset member Mordechai Ben Porat (Telem)
said last week that Israel
was making every possible
effort, including the use of
diplomatic channels, to aid
in the rescue of the Ethiopia
an Jewish community.
Speaking at a news conference in the offices of the .National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council
(NJCRAC), Ben Porat said
that since the establishment
of the State of Israel,- some
' 5^500 Falashas have arrived
in Israel, the bulk of them arriving during 1983.
Falashas who recently
have arrived in Israel live in
17 absorption centers, five of
which are student centers,
according to Ben Porat, who
is chairman of the Inter-
Ministerial Committee on
Ethiopian Jews which comprises representatives of the
Prime Minister's Office, the
Jewish Agency, the Foreign
Ministry and the Knesset.
Ben Porat stressed that retaining the cultural heritage
that the Falashas bring from
Jenny Stein, Jennifer Wolinefz Win
Newspaper Cover Contest At CHS
Jenny Stein, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Stein,
and  Jennifer  Wolinetz,
newspaper, announced Dr.
David Salczer, CHS director.
This issue, which is edited
by Navah Lowy, is dedicated
mostly to the holiday of
Purim. Thus, the theme o.f
Jenny Stein
daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Barry Wolinetz, are co-winners of the "cover contest"
for the brand new issue of
Kol Hatalmidim, the Columbus Hebrew School student
Jennifer Wolinetz
Purim was appropriately
chosen for the newspaper's
cover by the co-winners.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 9)
Ethiopia is a central concern -
to the Israeli government
and said the Falashas represented a "very vital element" to Israeli society. He
noted that in the absorption
centers, the Falashas are not
isolated from other olim and
are in contact with olim from
Russia and other countries.
The Israeli official said he
was encouraged by the
Ethiopian government's
change in policy recently
which now allows for visits
to  Falasha   villages   by
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10J
Soviets Enact
Ominous Edict
NEW YORK (JTA) - An
edict against "anti-Soviet
agitation and propaganda"
was expanded by Soviet authorities last month to .include anyone receiving "financial" or other "material" assistance from
"foreign organizations or
persons acting on behalf of
such organizations," according to information made
available to ,the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry
(NCSJ). Violation of this
edict carries a maximum
sentence of ten years in a labor camp and five years internal exile.
The edict is an expansion
of paragraph two of Article
70 of the Russian Republic's
Criminal Code together with
the corresponding sections
of the other 14 republics.
Paragraph two used to apply
only to those previously convicted of "especially dangerous crimes against the
state" or of crimes committed in wartime.
The implications of the expansion are severe, accord-
nig to Morris Abram, NCSJ
chairman. Because no specific forms of material aid
are cited, anyone receiving
packages from abroad could
' be open, to prosecution, he
noted. The reference to foreign organizations is equally
vague, Abram, a prominent
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 91
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