Ohio Jewish chronicle. (Columbus, Ohio), 1985-07-04

              __=_?
JpLROMCLE
Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community tor Over 60 Years     \}f^
VOL.63   NO.27
JULY 4,1985-TAMMUZ15
Devoted to American
ond Jewish Ideals.
LIBRARY.,   OHIO   HISTORICAL,   SO-C^CrTf
1982   VELMA   AVE. V,
COLJ.   0.      43211' EXCH
1
R
<
.j
Columbus Man Appointed
ADL National Commissioner
Ira 0. Kane was appointed
associate national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
during ADL's annual National Commission meeting held
at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in
New York, June 5-9.
Announcement of the appointment was made by Kenneth J. Bialkin, ADL's national chairman.
Kane is presently the
ADL's 'Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana regional civil rights
chairman and a member of
the Regional Executive
Committee. He is past chairman of the ADL's National
Discriminations Committee
and past chairman of the
Ohio-Kentuckyclndiana Regional Advisory Board.
The National Commission
Correction
In last week's (June 27,
1985) issue of the Chronicle
in the article headlined "Joe
Nichol, Meyer Hoffman Selected for B.J. Kesser Torah
Service Award," a picture of
Michael Weisz was incor-
••rectlyidentifietfasraiwardTeK
cipient Joe Nichol.A picture
of Nichol appears below.
serves as the policymaking
body of the agency which
was founded in 1913 "to stop -
the defamation of the Jewish
people ..: to secure justice
and fair treatment to all citizens alike."
A broad range of domestic
and international issues
were discussed during the
meeting, including extremist organizations, teaching
about religion in the public
schools, evangelicals, intergroup relations, media disinformation on Israel and terrorism and the security of
Jews overseas. Some 400
Jewish community leaders
from all sections of the nation and abroad attended.
Joe Nichol
Law Protecting Worker
Who Observes Sabbath
Ruled Unconstitutional
Tenth Graders Confirmed May 31
In Special Service At Beth Tikvah
The following tenth grade students were confirmed
iiva special service at Beth Tikvah on Friday, May 31:
(standing, 1. to r.) David Luttinger, Jason Gelender,
Rabbi Gary A. Huber, Ken Shimberg, Laura Stroud,
(sitting) Jacqueline Pasternack, Felice Mendell,
Laura Folkerth, Bonnie Wilhelm.
NEW YORK (JTA) - The
Supreme Court ruled last
week by a 7-2 vote that a Con-i
necticut state law protecting
the right of employees to absent themselves from work
on their Sabbath is unconstitutional. But a Jewish expert
on such laws said here that
the ruling seemed unlikely to
affect similar'laws protecting observant Jews in other
state's.
Dennis Rapps, executive
^director of the National Jewish Commission on Law and
Public Affairs (COLPA),
provided that analysis to the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
; '>■
United States Ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis
(left) and his wife Sallie unveil a plaque at dedication -
of a Jewish National Fund forest in their honor in
Israel. Participating in the ceremony is Moshe Rivlin,
JNF world chairman. The Lewis Forest, in JNF's
American Independence Park, near Jerusalem, was
presented in tribute to the couple on the eve of their
retirement after an unprecedented eight-year tour of
duty in Israel.
Jewish National Fund Forest
Dedicated In Honor Of Retiring
American Ambassador To Israel
Nichol and Hoffman will
receive their awards at the
Beth Jacob Testimonial Dinner to be held on Aug. 27 at
the synagogue.
EDITOR'S NOTE: See related
story on page 3.
A Jewish National' Fund
forest and picnic area was
dedicated in honor of United
States Ambassador to Israel
Samuel Lewis and his wife
Sallie, who recently completed their eight-year tour of
duty in Israel.
Don't Miss The Opportunity
To. Wish The community
A Sweet New Year
HI! Out And Mall Coupon On Page 12
By July 15
THE OHIO JEWISH CHRONICLE
NEW YEAR EDITION
SEPTEMBER 9, 1985
FEATURING:
■ The Jewish Epicure—a special feature section about how
to plan the perfect party and what and where to eat In
Columbus
■ $hort stories by Local Authors
■ The Annual, updated C'lde to the Jewish community
■ organization Annual Reports
p Pictorial and Chronological Highlights of the Past Year
■ New Year Greetings to the community
s
BLOOD DAY is
Wednesday, July 3,
at The Leo Yassenoff
Jewish Center
12*6 p.m.
?s ■£ Kir'^  B:£:i«!ii"H.V::™l«.S4  **».. . asjp«sw«»ttii«H
Synagogue Opens At Brussels Airport
BRUSSELS (JTA)—The first synagogue at any European
airport was dedicated at Brussels International Airport last
week by Minister of Communications Herman de Croo, who
said it symbolized Belgium's respect for freedom of religion,
especially at an airport which is a crossroads of people'of all
faiths. The 50 seat synagogue is located in the main terminal
near the Catholic and Protestant chapels, the duty-free gift
shops and VIP lounge. It was built in response to requests by
the Jewish community to which the Communications Ministry and the airport authority readily agreed. Brussels Airport is an important transit center for flights between the
United States and Israel.
The dedication ceremony
was attended by Prime Minister Peres, JNF World
Chairman Moshe Rivlin,
World Zionist Organization
and Jewish Agency Chair-1
man Arye Dulzin, Tel Aviv'1
Mayor Shlomo Lahat and senior Cabinet ministers.
The Lewis Forest of 10,000
tress in American Independence Park near Jerusalem,,.
is a gift from the Ambassador's Israeli friends including the Association of Americans and Canadians .in Is-
,rael, which has already
planted a grove of 1,000
trees. The forest stands near
the John F. Kennedy Memorial and the Senator Henry
M. Jackson Forest. More
than a million trees have
been planted in the Park,
which was established to
honor the United States on
the occasion of the Bicentennial in 1976.
Prime Minister Peres told
Lewis, "You arrived at a
very stormy period in our
{CONTINUED ON PAGE »>
Leningrad Hebrew Teacher Arrested
NEW YORK (JTA) — Leningrad refusenik Roald Zeli-
chonok was arrested on June 11 and charged with "defaming
the Soviet State," in reaction to appeals and letters he wrote
to the West, including a recent plea to participate in the
Human Rights Expert Conference in Ottawa, according to
the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews. Zelichonok, an electrical
engineer and Hebrew teacher who has been active in pro-
emigration and Jewish culture circles since 1978, had
encountered harassment by the KGB beginning in 1980 when
he was ordered to stop teaching Hebrew, the Coalition said.-
The 48-year-old refusenik has continually been persecuted
with Jewish books and private letters being confiscated from
his home, an anti-Zionist documentary being aired in Leningrad last November accusing Zelichonok of taking bribes
from "Zionist" tourists from abroad, and ultimately his
arrest.         '	
Support For Israel Appears Lessening
WASHINGTON (JTA)-A
Washington Post-ABC News
poll, conducted in three
stages, indicated a small but
steady increase in the number of respondents who supported the statement that
"the United States should reduce its ties to Israel in order
to lessen the acts of terrorism against us in th6 Middle
East."
In interviews with 508 people on Monday, June 17, 31
percent agreed and 53 percent disagreed with that
statement. A poll of another
508 people two days later, on
June 19, showed 33 percent'
agreeing and 53 percent disagreeing. Then in additional
(CONTINUED ON PAGE a) * :     •  \
COLPA and the American
Jewish Co/iflrpjss acted as
attorneys for Donald Thornton, then a store manager for
one of the Caldor chain
stores in .Connecticut. The
Jewish organizations entered the case when the state
Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1983.
Rapps said the Jewish organizations entered the case
at that point, seeking a Supreme Court ruling because,
though Thornton was a Presbyterian and had sought to
be off work on Sundays, the
issue involved similar laws
in many states under which
Jews have such protection.
The, American   Jewish
Committee participated by
filing a friend of the court
brief  in  support  of  the
COLPA-AJCongress action.
Law Did Not Require
"Reasonable
Accommodation"
Rapps said the Supreme
Court, in its ruling, focused
on the "absolute nature" of
the Connecticut law, meaning that the Connecticut law
had no provision, as do all
other such state laws, requiring the employer to try
to make "reasonable accommodation" to such requests
for Sabbath absences. Under
that  clause,   an  employer
may require a Sabbath observer to work on his or her
Sabbath if his or her absence
would create severe hardship for the employer's business,
Rapps said the Supreme
Court, in its ruling, had displayed "an unfortunate lack
of sympathy" for the protection of the rights of religious
minorities. "We believe that
a-statute designed to permit
conscientious'believers to
avoid having to choose between their religion and
their livelihood is constitutional," he said.
Rapps said that, in focusing on the "absolute nature"
of the Connecticut law, the
high court left intact the
" standard of reasonable accommodation for religious
observance provided in a
1972 amendment to the 1964
Civil Rights Act. COLPA
prepared the amendment,
which was passed by Congress and signed by then
President Nixon in 1972.
The COLPA official also
contended that "from a
strictly legal standpoint,"
the Supreme Court was in
error in focusing on the "absolute nature" of the Connecticut law. Rapps said the
sole issue the Supreme Court
should have considered was
whether or not the state law
(CONTINUED ON PAGE »>
:_r;
X..