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VOL. 88 NO. 4
JANUARY 25, 1990-TEVET 28, 5750
Oevotcd to American
and Jrwish Ideals
Ohio Has Record Number Of Anti-Semitic Incidents
Dr. Bonnie Katz
Dr. B. Katz To Speak
To BBW About Rape
B'nai B'rith Women will
present a varied program on
Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the
Jewish Center.
A discussion about current
changes at the national level
of B'nai B'rith Women will
begin the program.
At 8:30 p.m., Dr. Bonnie
Katz will speak on "Rape:
Myths and Realities." She
will lead a discussion on
strategies for rape prevention, what to do if you or
someone you know has been
raped and the effects of
rape. Dr. Katz, who has her
doctorate in clinical psychology, sees adults and children
in private practice, and
works at Children's Hospital. She is nationally known
for her research on recovery
from rape and is the author
of several publications on
this topic.
Anti-Semitic incidents in
the United States in 1989 rose
to their highest level in at
least 11 years -- totalling
1,432 - according to a nationwide audit, conducted by the
Anti-Defamation League
and made public today.
Ohio also had a record
number of anti-Semitic incidents in 1989.v ADL's regional
director, Alan S. Katchen,
said the survey revealed 21
vandalisms and 28 harass-
ments, totalling 49 incidents
reported to the regional
headquarters in Columbus.
The vandalism figure increased by five incidents
over 1988; the number of'
harassments increased by
20. This reflected in all a 104
percent increase in Ohio.
Katchen called several of
the Ohio incidents "especially troubling" and indicated
they were cited as "noteworthy incidents" in the
League's national audit.
ADL, which has conducted
an audit on the subject annually since 1979, revealed
that the current national
total comprised 845 incidents
of anti-Jewish vandalism
and desecrations and 587 epi-
. sodes' of harassments, assaults or threats against
Jews or Jewish institutions;
both figures were up over
1988. The vandalism figure
includes arson, bombings,
cemetery desecrations and
swastika daubings against
Jewish institutions, Jewish-
owned property and public
property.
Abraham H. Foxman,
ADL's national director, described the record number of
anti-Semitic incidents as
"disturbing, but not surprising" in light of "the rise in
hate-inspired violence
generally around the country.'-'
The total in the 1989 vandalism category, Foxman
said, was the most since 1981
and "unfortunately, has kept
pace with the high level of
such episodes recorded in
1987 and 1988." Noting that
"there were more serious
types of anti-Semitic vandalism and desecrations last
year than ever recorded in
ADL audits," Foxman went
on to say that violent neo-
Nazi Skinhead gangs were
responsible for more than
100 acts of such vandalism.
He further pointed out that
there was a 30 percent rise in
anti-Jewish incidents reported on college campuses. The
audit, compiled by the Research Department of ADL's
Civil Rights Division, re-,
fleets incidents in 44 spates
and the District of Colutnbia
as reported to the League's
regional offices and law enforcement officials.
Foxman said that the rise"
in numbers occurred despite
the fact that several of the
factors noted in the 1988 au
dit as contributing to increased anti-Semitic vandalism that year - such as the
50th anniversary of Kristall-
nacht and the Palestinian
uprising in the West Bank
and Gaza - we're absent
from the 1989 picture. They
also occurred, he said, despite more community
awareness and tougher law
enforcement and prosecution.
The ADL leader called for
the following steps in the
continuing battle against
hate crimes:
• Increased efforts by law
enforcement authorities, as
demonstrated in Dallas
against violent neo-Nazi
Skinheads last year, to apprehend perpetrators. ADL,
which has traditionally
worked closely with law enforcement officials, is pro-
FEATURE
Anti-Semitic Violence
Hits Home
FEATURE
'The Immigrant9 Celebrates Life
By Nicki Chodnoff
Special To The OJC
From the establishment of
the first Jewish diaspora
community to the present,
the immigrant experience
has been part and parcel of
the Jewish experience. This
background, part of every
American Jew's family history and common to most
Americans, is scrutinized in
"The Immigrant."
In its central Ohio premiere, presented by the Leo
Yassenoff Jewish Center
Gallery Players as part of
the Center's 1990 "Celebration of Life" program, the
play explores, by recounting
humorous and poignant circumstances, how immigrants adapted and integrated into a new society.
The, play is based on author Mark Harelik's grandfather, Haskell Harelik,,who
immigrated from Russia, as
a young man, to Hamilton,
Texas, in the early 1900s in
search of a better life.
"The play is about all of
us," explains Lil Strouss,
chairwoman of Gallery
Players and director of "The
Immigrant." "Virtually all
Americans have immigrant
roots; so this story about two
.Jewish immigrants has
many universal themes that
touch everyone. The production has enabled us to share -
our Jewish-American heritage with the Columbus community," stresses Strouss.
The audience witnesses
Haskell's sacrifice and perseverance in coping with a
strange land, a strange language and strange customs.
All this with the added burden of living without the
comfort of fellow Jews and
loved ones.
Despite the hardships, the
chance for freedom overpowers the risks.  ,
During the performance, a
range of emotions and conflicts is explored as the immigrant Harelik family lives
through events such as: the
ugliness of anti-Semitism
and the prospect of understanding when different peoples live together; the clash
of Jewish tradition and the
difficulty in remaining Jewish in Christian America
while holding onto heritage
and dreams, and giving back
by repaying charity, helping
those less fortunate and
holding fast to faith in the
future,
The progress and achievement of the immigrant's lot
from arrival to acceptance is
retold from a loving, respectful point-of-view.
This real-life drama is still
being played out with the latest wave of Jewish immigrants now arriving from the
Soviet Union. Like millions
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
By Alan S. Katchen
On the morning of Sept. 14,
I arrived at the Anti-Defamation League regional office in Columbus, OH, just
before 8 a.m. We had only
recently moved into this office located in two attached
townhouses at the southeast
corner of Columbus' growing
Downtown.
I walked through the reception area into the conference room behind it—and
saw, with a», sense of shock
and disbelief, that the window had been smashed. On
the floor was a brick with
swastika-imprinted neo-Nazi
stickers fastened to it. One
had the words "White
Power" with the address:
NSWAP, Pacafic Palisades,
CA. A second label had the
words: "Niggers beware,
hands off white order" and
the address: AWPNSM,
Bethlehem, PA. (NSWAP is
the acronym for National
Socialist White American
Party. AWPNSM stands for
American Workers Party
National Socialist Movement. Both are neo-Nazi
groups whose literature has
been used by the growing
Skinhead movement.)
After recovering from the
initial shock, I quickly surveyed the rest of the offices.
The front window in a support staff work area had also
been broken. Another brick
with four printed stickers attached lay on the floor near a
desk. The stickers read:
"Niggers get out," "White
Power," "Rudolph Hess
hero of White race" and "Inflation is Jewish."
The ugly incident was not
totally  unexpected.-1 had
feared something would hap-,
pen but did not think it would
be so quick nor so violent.
Two days earlier I had
been a guest on the "Open
Line" talk show on WOSU,
National. Public Radio's af-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
'Night Flight' Scheduled For
Feb. 8 At Vern Rifle Center
The Young Men's and
Young Women's Divisions of
the Columbus Jewish Federation will be hosting "Night
Flight," fundraising event
for the 1990 Jewish Community Campaign.
This minimum gift event
will be held Thursday, Feb.
8, at 7 p.m. at the Vern Riffe.
Center for Government and
the Arts, 77 S. High St. The
evening will present the opportunity to meet and hear
Howard Stone, an individual
who has spent most of his
adult life saving Jewish lives
and rebuilding the Jewish
homeland -- Israel.
While traveling through
Europe more than 20 years
ago, Stone became involved
in a clandestine operation
ducing with the New Jersey
Attorney General's Office a
training film for police departments on how to deal
with hate crimes. The film
will be distributed nationally
along with a study guide.
• Strict enforcement of anti-bias crime statutes. Forty-
eight states now have statutes dealing with hate
crimes, many patterned after ADL model legislation.
• Community counteraction and information programs, like the national conference on campus prejudice
sponsored by ADL in Philadelphia last October, to alert
the public to the dangers of
racially or religiously motivated crimes. The conference, made possible by
ADL's newly-created
Samuel and Mildred Levine
Institute for Campus Affairs
Programming, brought together some of the nation's
top university presidents
and chancellors to address
ways to combat bias incidents and prejudice on campuses.
• Expanded educational
efforts in the nation's schools
to combat prejudice, such as
ADL's "A World of Difference" program. ADL has al-
:aso published books, videos
and curriculums for schools
on prejudice reduction and
multi-cultural education.
Franklin County Movers Assn.
Helps Resettle Soviet Americans
Last Fall, a chain of con- ball into the court of the
tacts produced a key compo- Franklin County Mover's As-
nent to aid the local'resettle- sociation by making contact
ment effort. Tn November, with Cecil Moore of Trow-
the Franklin County Movers bridge Moving and Storage,
Association made the deci- Inc
sion to become actively involved in the pick up and delivery of furniture for the
new Americans as a result of
energy put forth by Steven
B. Lesser, assistant director
of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohip (PUCO).
smuggling Jews out of North
Africa and into Israel.
Arriving in Haifa with the
first group of refugees, he
chose to stay in Israel and
became a member of a
young Kibbutz. He was soon
recruited into government
service and for several years
was part of many sensitive
projects that are still classified today.
Returning to. the United
States, he joined the United
Jewish Appeal, first as a di-
tector of the Young Leadership Cabinet, where he was
instrumental in helping to
create a new generation of
leadership, then as director
of Overseas Programs, with
responsibility for all UJA ac-
CONTINUEO ON PAGE 13
Ed Brown
Lesser got the ball roiling
by contacting Earl Merwin,
an attorney and executive director of the Ohio Movers
and Wharehousers Association. Merwin, in turn, got the
Jack Herring
Prior to the decision,
Lesser, Merwin and two representatives from Jewish
Family Services: Lori Gilbert, resettlement volunteer
coordinator, and Sara Chay,
resettlement case manager
were invited to an Association meeting. They explained in detail how and
why resettlement needed
their help. "It was an emotionally moving plea for sup-
continued on page 15