Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1988-12-15

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jJW// Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community lor Over 60 Years     VT/A'R
VOL.66   NO.51
DECEMBER 15,1988-TEVET 7
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals.
Large Exhibition Of Jewish Art
To Go On Display In Belgrade
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (JTA) — The Yugoslav capital
will play host next month to the largest exhibition of native
Jewish art, culture and history ever mounted in this country.
Titled "Jews on the Territory of Yugoslavia," it opens here
Jan. 16 for a six-week run.
ers Return From Israel Mission
it To Law Of Ref urn
Italy, Israel, U.S. Unite In Rebuke
Of Greek Action
• ROME (JTA)—The Greek government's decision to free a
Palestinian terrorist whose extradition to Italy had been upheld by the Greek Supreme Court is having international
repercussions. The Foreign Ministry here expressed shock
and is demanding explanations. There were also expressions
of outrage from Israel and from leaders of the Italian and
American Jewish communities. Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff of
Rome indicated he would urge Jewish tourists from all over
the world to boycott Greece. Abdel Osama al-Zomar, the
principal suspect in the Oct. 9,1982, machine gun and grenade attack on the main synagogue in Rome that killed two-
year-old Stefano Tache and wounded 40 people, was "deported" by Greece last week to a country of his choice, believed to be Libya.
Myer Mellman, former
president of the Columbus
Jewish Federation, and Alan
H. Gill, Federation executive director, returned on
Dec. 8 from a three-day mission to Israel regarding the
proposed amendment to the
Law of Return.
The issue of amending the
Law of Return has been on
the political agenda in Israel
periodically over the last
three decades. The amendment was most recently defeated iff the Knesset in June
of this year. Israel's Law of
Return presently reads that
a Jew is "a person born by a,
Jewish mother or a person
who is converted and is not a
member of another religion."
Certain political parties in
Israel have called for
amending the Law of Return
to include only those Jews by
choice whose conversions
were "according to halacha." These efforts have
produced widespread concern and protest in Israel
and in the Diaspora, particularly within the American
Jewish community, as there
are an estimated 200,000
individuals who have undergone conversions by Conservative and Reform rabbis.
Should the Law of Return be
amended, these individuals
would not automatically
qualify for citizenship as
.Jews:      ■ *:
; The major denominational
movements in America,
including the Rabbinical
Council of America which
represents the majority of
Orthodox congregations in
the United States, have opposed the efforts to change
NEWS ANALYSIS
After A Year Of Arab Unrest, Israel Can't Shake Off Intifada
By Gil Sedan
JERUSALEM (JTA) - It
began with an accident on a
narrow road between Ash-
kelon and Gaza.
On Tuesday evening, Dec.
8, 1987, an Israeli truck
driver plowed into two vans
carrying Arab laborers
home to the Gaza Strip from
their jobs in Israel.,
Four of them were killed.
Attheir funeral the next day,
tempers flared. Speakers
claimed' the truck driver
deliberately J rammed the
vans. They said he was
avenging the fatal stabbing
in Gaza earlier that week of
an Israeli salesman, Shlomo
Sakal.
Angry youths staged
demonstrations against Israel. By the weekend, rioting
spread throughout the Gaza
Strip ahd into the even more
populous West Bank.
The riots have hot ended
yet. They were given a
name: "intifada," an Arabic
term that means "shaking
off" —the way an animal
shakes off dirt or parasites.
The purpose of the intifada
is to shake off the Israeli
administration of the territories.
A year after the unrest began, Israeli policymakers
remain divided over how
best to deal with it. They
agree; however, on* one
thing: it is not over and the
end is not in sight.
It may have weakened. It
may have changed direction.
It is wounded, but still alive;
hurting, but still inflicting a
heavy burden on Israel.
The Palestinians have
paid a heavy- price. The
Israelis have tried to crush
the intifada with an iron fist.
Soldiers of the Israel Defense Force have used live
ammunition and at times
brutal force to disperse
demonstrators.
To   date,   at   least   243
Palestinians  have   been
killed,   according  to  IDF
body counts, and at least -
.3,359 have been wounded.
Palestinian casualties this
- past year are 20 times higher
than the annual number in
previous years.
.Taking into account the
size of the Palestinian
population in the territories
— 1.5 million.— their fatalities are proportionally
higher than the 600 Israelis
killed during the three years
of the bloody Lebanon war.
At present, there are some
5,000 Palestinians in jail,
1,450 of them under administrative detention, which
means they are held without
charges and without trial.
The Israeli authorities
have deported • 32 Palestinians, and another 27 are
in jail fighting deportation
orders by legal means.
Their prospects are not
good. Israel's judicial system has yet to overrule a
deportation order.
The IDF has demolished
137 houses belonging to
Arabs allegedly involved in
terrorist acts, and it' has
sealed off the homes of 47
others.
- As with the administrative
detentions, the deportations,
demolitions and sealing off
of houses are done without
direction from the civilian
courts. The military alone
decides.
The system is a holdover
from the Emergency
Regulations promulgated by
the British Mandatory
authorities and used mostly
against Jews struggling for
independence more than 40
years ago. —
Defense Minister Yitzhak
Rabin has asserted repeatedly that the IDF would
use all possible measures to
crush the uprising "as long
as they are within the realm
of the law."
But the price of the intifada cannot be calculated
only in terms of dead,
wounded and imprisoned.
The economy of the territories, which flourished
during the first 20 years of
the Israeli administration, is
(CONTINUED ON PAGE IS)
Rabbi Alan G. Ciner To Address
Council For Ethics In Economies
f.;^  ^Noo»f Thapd^,l)ee.np .,;; l:'h
V
Rabbi Alan G. Ciner,
spiritual leader of the
Agudas Achim Synagogue,
has been invited to address
the Council for Ethics in
Economics on Dec. 20,
4:15-5:45 p.m., at Le Sage
Lounge, Trinity Lutheran
Seminary on the topic "A
Jewish Perspective on Economic Ethics," announced
Paul M. Minus, professor of
Church History at Methodist
Theological School and
president of the Council.
Previous addresses have
been delivered by Dean Roy
Lewicki, associate dean of
the College o^Business at the
Ohio State University, whose
topic was "To Lie or not to
Lie: Truth Telling
Dilemmas  of Managers,"
and by Jacob Underbill, retired president of New York
Life Insurance, who spoke on
. "The Ethics and Economics
of RaceRelations."
The meeting is open to
members of the Council for
Ethics in Economics and.
their guests. The Council is
an association of leaders in
business, religion, education
and the professions committed to exploring and clarifying the ethical dimensions of
economic issues.
Since coming to Columbus
in February 1983, Rabbi
Cin<?r has lectured extensively regarding, the relevance of halachic and
philosophical Judaism to the
spirituality of the times.
the Law of Return through
political means. Instead,
they have called for resolving this issue in a religious
context. The Columbus congregational rabbis, have approved a joint resolution to
this effect (which appeared
in advertisement form in
last week's, edition of the
Ohio Jewish Chronicle).
The Columbus Jewish
Federation, in conjunction
with the Council of Jewish
Federations of North
America, has opposed the
amendment declaring it to
be a threat to the unity of the
Jewish people.' Various reports in Israel have been
made that the majority of Israelis are opposed to the
amendment.
. The three-day mission was
sponsored by the Council of
Jewish Federations, the association of 200 Federations
in North America. Federation Board member Rabbi
Harold Berman of Congregation Tifereth Israel, who is
on sabbatical in Israel,
joined Mellman and Gill on
the mission.
. A total of 39 individuals
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 191
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (left), Labor
Party chairman, is shown meeting with (center) Alan
H. Gill, Federation executive director, and (right)
Myer Mellman, a Federation past president, during
their recent mission to Israel. Photo by Joel Fishman.
Menorah Lighting In Public Is
Divisive Constitutional Issue
NEW YORK (J*A) - In
Rio de Janeiro, a statue of
Christ stretches its arms
over the enchanting bay,! an
integral part of the landscape.
Last year, the Chabad
Lubavitch organization
added a Jewish presence to
Rio, albeit for just one holi-
day, placing a large
menorah near one of Rio's
numerous mountain tunnels.
In Rome this year, Mayor
Pietro Giubilo joined Chief
Rabbi Elio Toaff for the first
night of Chanukah in a
menorah-lighting ceremony
in Rome's Piazza Barberini.
In Hong Kong's Chater
Garden Central a 12-foot
menorah has stood for three
Chanukahs now, an unprecedented event there. In Rome,
Hong Kong and elsewhere in
the world, newspapers have
written about these "historic", placements of
menorahs.
This year in Israel, where
Chanukah was born and
where it hardly goes uncelebrated, Chabad has sought to
instill "Unity of Israel" with
the most extensive festivities ever in the organization's history, mounting candle-lighting ceremonies in
every major Israeli city.
The Lubavitch organization/which has embarked on
its worldwide effort at the
behest of its rebbe, Rabbi
Menachem Schneerson, says
it seeks to place its
menorahs in public places to
instill Jewish pride.
Last week, Leon Zelman,
executive director of
Vienna's Jewish Welcome
Service, remarked during a
visit  to  New  Yorlj  how
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 17)
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