Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1989-09-28

              0 h i o H i s t. S o c i e t y L i b r
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Columbus, Ohio       %
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Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community for" Over 60 Years
VOL. 67 NO. 40
SEPTEMBER 28, 1989-ELUL 28
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals,
Temple Beth Shalom
Holds Shalom Dinner
A home-cooked meal was
served on Friday, Sept. 8, at
Beth Shalom to welcome
new members and to introduce prospective members
to the Temple.
Penny Davenport,
daughter of Dottie Fenburr,
prepared the food enjoyed by
Shalom Dinner participants.
Both Davenport and
Sharon Austin co-chaired the
evening. Beth Shalom President Joanne Grossman welcomed the prospective and
new members. Vice President Barbara Kaufman dis-
- cussed the Temple's programs and activities. Rabbi
Howard Apothaker also welcomed dinner participants.
Services honoring new
members were held following the meal.
Cantor David Weisfogel
To Chant Services
Cantor David Weisfogel of
Congregation Ahavas
Sholom will chant the High
Holiday services with traditional melodies. He conducted the Selichot services.
Cantor Weisfogel, a graduate of the Herzliah School of
Music.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Cantor David Weisfogel
Ahavas Sholom invites
members to attend and participate in services on Rosh
Hashanah, Yom Kippur and
Sukkot. Non-members or
guests are welcomed to attend by purchasing tickets
for $50 per person.
For further information,
call Farrell Shar, 231-2879, or
Mort Rising, 253-6469.
Despite Misgivings, Jewish Groups
Backing Change In Refugee Policy
Federation Annual Meeting
Draws Over 400 Attendees
The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Columbus Jewish
Federation, held Sunday, Sept. 19, at Congregation Tifereth Israel, was attended by over 400 community
members representing a broad spectrum of the Columbus Jewish community. Elected as president for
1989-90, during the Annual Meeting, community leader
Benjamin L. Zox (center) is accompanied, after the
evening's ceremonies, by Alan H. Gill (left), Federation executive vice president and B. Lee Skilken
(right), immediate past president. For more Annual
Meeting activities see related photospread inside.
WASHINGTON (JTA)-
U.S. Jewish groups are generally supporting'' the Bush
administration's decision to
process all Soviet refugees in
Moscow, rather than Rome
or Vienna, but they find
many flaws with the Oct, 1
start-up date.
The new policy should
save Jewish relief agencies
millions of dollars spent on
housing Soviet Jews in Rome
while they await permission
to enter the United States as
refugees.
It will also likely bring an
end to the government's
practice of denying refugee
status to some Soviet Jews,
which has been harshly criticized by some members of
Congress as a betrayal of the
longstanding U.S. pledge to
help rescue Soviet Jewry.
That practice began last
September, when Edwin
Meese, who was attorney
general at the time, issued a
directive ordering the Immigration and Naturalization
Service to no longer grant
refugee status automatically
to Soviet Jewish applicants.
Since then, a fifth of all
Soviet Jews applying for
refugee status have been
refused, on average.
Both houses of Congress
have now passed legislation
that would give Soviet Jews,
Evangelicals and various
Indpchinese hationals^ the
presumption of being entitled to refugee status, although it has not yet been approved in final form.
Under the Refugee Act of
1980, refugee status is accorded to  those who can
Worst Fire Of Year Claims 1.200 Acres In Israel
Nearly 1,200 acres of woodlands in the nature reserve
on Mt. Carmel, in Israel's
northern Galilee, were destroyed by arsonists, Sept.
19-20, marking the worst
forest fire experienced by
Israel during 1989.
The fire was ultimately
contained after more than 30
hours of intense effort by
Jewish National Fund teams
comprising of firefighters,
backed by volunteers from
nearby settlements and students from Haifa University.
Due to the immensity of the
fire, 25 fire engines, including five acquired by JNF,
(one donated by the Columbus community), and helicopters were brought in
from throughout the country. Six Arabs have been arrested on the suspicion of
simultaneously igniting five
fires in the area. .
Harold Zeidman, Jewish
National Fund Columbus
Council president, explained
that JNF foresters stationed
in newly built watchtowers
were the first to report the
conflagrations and arrive on
the   scene.    "Although
damage to Israel's forests
has decreased in 1989 due to
JNF's advanced capability
to deal with forest fires," he
stated,   "one   is   always
alarmed by what onlookers
termed "just like a war!"
Zeidman, contacted by JNF
personnel in Israel, reported
that  thousands  of  trees,
animals and rare species of
wildlife were lost. He called
the; situation  "not only a
great loss to the people of
Israel, but one more serious
blow to global efforts to improve the ecosystem and to
preserve  animal  species
near extinction."  He also
noted that it will take So to 50
years to restore the reserve,
known to contain some of
Israel's most beautiful parks
and  forest,  to  its  former
state.
From April through July
1989, Israel battled a total of
556 fires versus 815 for the
same period in 1988. Last
year during this period, 1,978
acres of pastures and grazing lands and 4,413 acres of
natural woodlands and orchards were devastated by
fire. In 1989, 879 acre of
planted forest, 6,606 acres of
pasture and grazing lands,
and 5,836 acres of natural
woodlands and orchards
were lost. Although negligence appears to have caused many of this year's fire
outbreaks, nearly 40 percent
were the result of deliberate
acts of arson.
"It   is   of  the   utmost
necessity for the: Columbus
community to aid the Jewish
National Fund during this
crisis These destroyed
areas must be replanted and
reclaimed to show those
responsible for their devastation that they will not succeed in destroying the Land
of Israel" continued! Zeidman.
JNF is the agency responsible for afforestation and
land reclamation in Israel.
To help replant, send contributions to Jewish National
Fund, 33 S. James Road,
Columbus, Ohio 43213, or
call, 231-1397.
Rosii Hashanali
Begins Friday, September 29, at Sunset
May You Be Inscribed
For A Sweet
New Year
5750
September 30 & Oct. 1
Tishri 1, 'J
Columbus Museum Of Art Sets
Tuesday Film, Lecture Series
cuss papercutting and lead
participants in cutting their
own designs on Tuesday,
Oct. 17. Papercutting, an
Eastern European folk art of
delicate and intricate pattern, was employed for the
decoration of Jewish ceremonial documents intended
to display.
All illustrated lecture entitled "Crosscurrents: Jewish
Art in the Medieval and
Islamic World" will be given
by Linda M. Fisher, Columbus Museum of Art Department of Education, on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Fisher will
investigate the relationship
of Jewish art to Medieval,
Renaissance and Islamic
communities in which it was
created.
John Scoville, Columbus
State Community College,
will present an illustrated
lecture examining themes of
CONTINUED ON PAGE, 13
In October the Columbus
Museum of Art will offer
Tuesdays at One programs
which focus on the "Treasures from the Jewish
Museum," on view through
Nov. 26. Tuesdays at One
programs begin at 1 p.m.
and are free with museum
admission.
On Tuesday, Oct. 3,
Pamela Feldman-Hill will
discuss ten centuries of Jewish decorated Bibles, prayer
books and "ketubbahs"
(marriage contracts) and
will demonstrate the technique of Hebre,w Calligraphy.
The symbolism and ceremonial significance of ritual
objects in the 'exhibition
"Treasures from the Jewish
Museum" will be discussed
by Rabbi David Stavsky of
Beth Jacob Congregation on
Tuesday, Oct. 10.
Evelyn Nateman will dis-
demonstrate a "well-
founded fear of persecution"
in the country of their origin.
Those granted refugee
status automatically receive
U.S. government funds for
transportation and initial
resettlement.
Theoretically, Jewish
groups could have paid for
those refused refugee status
to fly to the United States,
where they could enter as
"parolees" and likely become regular immigrants.
But the groups did not
want to "put our consent on a
phony system," explained
Mark Talisman, Washington
representative of the Council
of Jewish Federations.
The groups also were concerned that Bush administration officials would deny
refugee status to an even larger percentage of Soviet
Jews, if they thought private
groups would pay the cost to
transport emigres waiting in
Rome to the United States.
The cat-and-mouse game
now appears about to end.
Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh issued a directive last week that orders his
INS adjudicators in Rome to
"immediately re-evaluate" cases in which refugee
status has been denied.
"In considering whether
an individual had been subjected to persecution or
would hold a well-founded
fear of political opinion, each
case will be reviewed with
due regard for the environment to which the person
would be exposed to the
Soviet Union," said Thornburgh.
He added that "in no case
would any such person be
returned   to   the  Soviet
. Union."
This was an apparent effort to quash U.S. refugee
coordinator Jewel Lafon-
tant's ill-received statement
that Soviets backlogged in
Rome could always "return
to Russia. In these days of
glasnost, that's not an
impossible thing," she told a
congressional panel last
week.
Thornburgh's directive
apparently paves the way
for U.S. adjudicators to
■ grant refugee status to the
20,000 Soviets currently in
the "Rome-Vienna pipeline,"
most of whom are Jews.
The Jews leave the Soviet
Union on Israeli visas, arrive in Vienna and then
decide whether to go on to
Israel or "drop out" and settle elsewhere. Those who
wish to settle in the United
States are sent to Rome to
apply for refugee status.
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