Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1990-05-03

              Ohio   Hist.Society   Libr.
198c:   Velma   five.  ^
Columbus,    Ohio
43S11
COMP
VOL.68 NO. 18
MAY 3, 1990-IYAR 8, 5750
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals
Human Rights Activist Elena Bonner To Speak
On Thursday, May 10, At Ohio State University
During their recent UJA sponsored mission to Russia
and Israel, Norman Traeger, Jack Wallick, Miriam
Yenkin and Alan H. Gill witnessed a resurgence of „
Jewish life, as represented (top photo) by a children's
youth choir at the Great Synagogue in Moscow. It was
"shalom" and welcome home, as Marvin Lender, UJA
Operation Exodus chairman, warmly greeted a newly
arrived immigrant from the U.S.S.R. -- one of 7,300
Soviet Jews to set foot on Israeli soil during March - at
" Ben Gurion Airport during the recent UJA Operation
Exodus Mission to Moscow and Israel, the same Mission in which Traeger, Wallick, Yenkin and Gill participated (bottom photo).
'Operation Exodus' Mission
Launches Fundraising Effort
For Rescue Of Soviet Jews
By Robert Caplan
"We have before us an opportunity for a major migration of Soviet Jews to Israel,
and this is the most significant opportunity to save
Jewish lives since the late
1930s," said Norman Traeger,
executive vice-chairman of
-Columbus' "Operation Exodus" campaign and one of
four local leaders who recently visited Russia and Israel on the United Jewish
Appeal national kickoff mission for Operation Exodus.
Along with Traeger, Jack
L. Wallick, a Federation
past president and UJA national chair; Miriam S.
Yenkin, a "Federation past
president and UJA national
vice chair, and Alan H, Gill,
Federation executive, vice
president, joined 120 others
from the United States on a
kickoff mission for the national "Operation Exodus"
campaign.
•OPKKATION EXODUS'
SOVIKT KKSKTTLKAIKNT
This Week
■• :
Welcome
&P'-Mi¥
"Operation Exodus" in
which Columbus Jewry is
participating under the auspices of the Columbus Jewish Federation, is a special
campaign to raise $420 million nationwide in one year
and collect over three years,
to help Soviet Jews emigrate
and resettle in Israel.
The seven-day mission,
March 25 to April 1, began in
Moscow where the group
witnessed a resurgence of
Jewish life, and ended in Israel, where they met planes
loaded with new immigrants
from the Soviet Union.
"There is today substantially more religious freedom for them (Soviet
Jews)" Traeger said. "They
are able to identify with synagogues, and' Hebrew is
taught openly. These are
things that would have gotten you arrested a few years
ago,"
However, while the Jews
can enjoy greater freedoms,
there is an emergence of a
new grassroots anti-Semitism movement.
"It was an exciting but
frightening contradiction,"
Yenkin said.
"While officially the government says it will not
stand for anti-Semitism,
there is no past history of the
government ever doing any-
CONTINUED ON PAGE IS
Elena Bonner, a .Soviet
writer, human rights advocate and retired physician,
will speak on "Changes in
Our World: Sakharov and
Five Years of Perestroika"
on May 10 at The Ohio State
University.
The lecture caps an International Day program, including a symposium on the
Soviet Union, on the Columbus campus.
Bonner also will receive an
honorary degree on behalf of
her late husband, Soviet
physicist Andrei Sakharov,
winner of the 1975 Nobel
Peace Prize for his contributions to human rights. The
Ohio State Board of Trustees
authorized the degree in
1988.
Bonner's free public lecture, at 8 p.m. in the West
Ballroom of the Ohio Union,
is the second in this year's
Schooler-Reece Distinguished Lecture Series.
Helmut Schmidt, former
chancellor of West Germany, spoke on April 17. ,
The International Day
symposium, "The Soviet
Union Today, Reform and
Revolution," will be held 2-4
p.m. in the Ohio Union East
Ballroom. It, too, is free and
open to the public.
Speakers will include Andrei Lebedev, first secretary
of the Soviet Embassy; Alexander Rabinowitch, an
American specialist on Rus
sian history and dean of international studies at Indiana University; Jan
Adams, director emeritus of
the Ohio State Center for International Studies, and
James Scartlan, director of
the Ohio State Center for Slavic and East European
Studies,
Bonner was a very active
proponent of human rights
and supporter of the "Chronicle of Contemporary
Events," an underground
publication which published
the truth about Russia, according to Valery Soyfer,
professor of molecular genetics at Ohio State.
"Elena Bonner was the
soul of this magazine for
many years," says Soyfer,
who attended some demonstrations with Bonner. "Sakharov and Bonner always
supported political prisoners
of the Soviet Union."
Soyfer was dismissed as
science director of the Institute of Applied Molecular
. Biology and Genetics in Moscow after writing a paper in
support of Sakharov after his
exile to Gorky.
Born in 1923, Bonner studied at the Herzen Teachers
Institute, then joined the army as a nurse in World War
II. She was badly wounded in
1941, which caused her to become partially blind. Bonner
rose to the rank of lieutenant
and deputy chief of a medi
cal unit.
After the war and eye
treatments, Bonner enrolled
in the First Leningrad Medical Institute, completing her
studies in 1953.
She served as a district
doctor and pediatrician and
wrote extensively on different topics.
Soyfer said Bonner and
Sakharov staged hunger
strikes during a long struggle to obtain a visa so that
Bonner could leave the country to obtain medical treatments.
She came to America in
the mid-1980s and wrote
"Alone Together',' while recuperating from cardiac bypass surgery. The book contains information about her
illegal trial and conviction
for "anti-Soviet slander,"
the exile of Bonner and Sakharov to the closed city of
Gorky in the early- and
mid-1980s, and the constant
monitoring of their activities
by the KGB.
She currently is working
on another manuscript.
Bonner has a daughter,
Tatyana, and son, Alexei,
who live near Boston.
May 6 Annual Meeting Planned
By Congregation Tifereth Israel
Ralph Rothschild and the
other executive officers of
Congregation Tifereth Israel
will be installed at the annual meeting of the congregation to be held Sunday,
May 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the
synagogue.
Ralph Rothschild
Rothschild is currently
completing his first term as
president of the congregation. The other officers to'be
installed include: Michael S.
Marlin, first vice president;
Barbara Herstig, second
vice president; Leslie S. Gutter, treasurer, and Ronald B.
Blank, secretary.
In addition to the installation of the officers, new
members of the Board of
Trustees for 1990-91 will be
installed. To serve three
year terms are: Reid Wasserstrom, Dr. Arthur Kam-
let, Fred, Magaziner, Jill
Herman and Gerald Waterman. Paulayne Epstein and
Anita Freimark will be installed as representatives of
the Sisterhood. Steve Lesser
and Howard Schlein will be
installed as representatives
for the Men's Club. Presidential appointees to be installed include: Neil Moss,
Jack Wallick, David Stein,
Mary .Ann Marlin and Dr.
Robert Brown. Chairpersons
of the major committees will
also be installed during the
annual meeting.
The annual meeting also
includes reports from the
president, treasurer, Sister-
CONTINUEDONPAOE 18
Huntington National Bank Earns
ADL's Civic Commitment Award
The Anti-Defamation
League's 1990 Civic Commi't-
ment Award will be
presented to The Huntington
National Bank at a dinner
honoring the bank on Thursday, May 10, at the Hyatt
Regency, Columbus. This,
black tie affair will begin
with cocktails at 6 p.m.
followed by dinner at 7 p.m.
Lloyd D. Peele, president
of The Huntington in Columbus, will accept the award on
behalf of the bank. The program for the evening includes a keynote address by
the Governor of the State of
Ohio, Richard F. Celeste.
The dinner chairman are
Melvin L. Schottenstein,
Schottenstein, Zox & Dunn,
and John E. Fisher, Nationwide Insurance. Bella C.
Wexner, The Limited, Inc.,
is the honorary chairwoman.
For over 75 years, the
Anti-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith has been
dedicated to translating
democratic ideals into a way
of life for all Americans. The
ADL is conferring its 1990
Civic Commitment Award
on The Huntington National
Bank in recognition of the
bank's abiding belief in the
importance of being a good
corporate citizen and its involvement in community activities that have helped improve the quality of life for
the people of central Ohio.
Under the leadership of
Peele, the bank has set the
standard for corporate
responsibility, according to
the ADL. It supports symphony orchestras, operas,
. ballets, museums and sporting events in the area as well
as health care facilities, the
United Way and community
redevelopment associations.
This spirit of helping others
is reflected in the civic
response of many of the
bank's employees. Huntington people are leaders in
their communities and
volunteer their time to a
wide variety of organizations. They have been instrumental in the success of
such educational programs
as Junior Achievement,
Adopt-A-School, Partners in
Education ahd the' in'-school
banking programs.
The Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith, one of
the nation's oldest human
relations agencies, is devoted
to combatting anti-Semitism
and all forms of prejudice. In
working to fulfill this mandate, the League's 31 regional
offices around the country
conducts a broad program
ranging from monitoring extremist organizations to con-
ducting teacher training
seminars on human relations
issues.
Chabad House Plans
Fifteenth Anniversary
The Chabad House of Tradition has scheduled its Fifteenth Anniversary Banquet
for Sunday Evening, June 3,
Eleanor Resler
at the Hyatt Regency Columbus. The Chabad House was
founded in Columbus in 1975
and serves a cross-section of
the community with its educational and social services.
All of Qiabad's funds are lo-
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