Congress bulletin, 1 juin 1975, Juin

[" GRESS Aly Published monthly except July and August to report on the activities of Canadian Jewry and matters of interest to them.National President National Executive Director: Editor: Sydney M.Harris, Q.C.Alon Rose Annabelle King BULLETIN Published by Canadian Jewish Congress JUNE 1975 Government attempts to get sentence commuted ~ Acting on an appeal from Canadian Jewish Congress the Canadian Government attempted to intervene for the commutation of a death sentence imposed on Mikkail Le- viev, a Soviet Jew.In a letter replying to the appeal the Honourable Allan J.MacEa- chen, Secretary of State for External Affairs said that following an exchange in the House of Commons on April 25 regarding the Leviev case, the Department had occasion to draw it to the attention of the Soviet Embassy.\u201cI regret I am not in a position to report that this matter received a very sympathetic response from the Embassy\u201d, the letter said, \u2018\u2018the Russian spokesman maintained that the question related to Soviet Legislation and it was an internal matter.\u201d Mikhail Leviev, a Soviet Jew, was the only defendant in Ei ne a.trial to be sentenced to death for a non-capital offence.The charge was embezzling and bribery.Three other co-de- fendants, non-Jews, received lesser sentences from five to nine years imprisonment.Alan Rose, Executive Director of Canadian Jewish Con- #ress, in his appeal to the Government said, \u201cWe believe that a death sentence passed on a defendant for a non-capital crime is not in the spirit of detente and could only have a negative effect on the bilateral relations between our two countries.\u201d The letter requested MacEachen to make representations to the Soviet Union in terms of commuting the death sentence on humanitarian grounds.MacEachen\u2019s letter said that the Canadian Government is limited in what it can do in cases such as this PEN SR PR AN NR which involve the nationals of countries since it cannot intervene in the internal affairs of another state.As much as we may agree that certain injustices may exist in the societies of other states we as a Government must nevertheless be guided by this principle of internal relations and ensure that any course of action in pursuit of the Canadian Government\u2019s general goals in humanitarian causes does not transgress it.The letter also said that the Government on occasion will bring to the attention of the Soviet authorities the humanitarian concerns felt by many Canadians about conditions of certain groups of individuals in the Soviet Union.MacEachen ended his letter by saying.\u201cI think there is nothing more the Government can expect to achieve in this case.\u201d SEX The N ational Executive of CJC met in Winnipeg last month.Morley W.Globerman, Western Region Chairman, Dr.Leon Kronitz and Ed Vickar take a break during proceedings.Highlights of the meeting included a report on the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council by Morley M.Globerman.Other subjects discussed were Immigration, Holocaust and Youth : Programs.National President Jewish Press.Sydney M.Harris held a news conference with the Anglo- USSR Ambassador talks directly to Soviet Jewry In a surprise move last week the USSR Ambassador in Canada spoke directly to a Soviet Jewry delegation inside the Ottawa Embassy.Parliamentarians Tommy C.Douglas.Herb Gray and John Roberts were amongst the Canadian notables demonstrating for the release of Soviet Jewish prisoners.The group assembled in front of the Embassy.where they each adopted a Prisoner of Conscience.They then went to the front door of the Embassy, rang the bell, it was answered by a minor official.They attempted to leave foqd packages for the adopted prisoners and to present their petition.John Roberts, M.P., who was part of the delegation said, \u201cThe official would neither accept the food packages nor the petition saying that the demonstration was not based on fact but on propaganda.\u201d They were also told by the official that it would be a good idea if they would spend some of their time dealing with the maltreatment of Russians who live in Canada.\u201cWhile we were talking\u201d, said Roberts, \u201cthe Ambassador appeared at the door and requested the parliamentarians to enter the building.Through a translator the Ambassador told us that Jews could leave Russia as long as they were not guilty of any crimes and were not involved in any security work.\u201d The Ambassador suggested that the group visit Russia to see conditions for themselves.John Robertson, Montreal radio personality, on the scene reported that, \u2018\u2018Althéugh thev did little more than copy down the names of the prisoners, this recognition of our group was à major breakthrough.Nobody knows for sure what good this will do.but Soviets have bowed to this kind of public pressure in the past even though the number of Jews allowed to emigrate have been reduced to a tricklein recent months.\u201d The statement made by Tommy C.Douglas, N.D.P.elder statesman, was perhaps the most moving.He quoted a German heroofthe First World War who spent several years in Dachau under the Hitler regime who said: \u201cWhen they arrested the Communists, I did not protest because I was not a Communist.When they arrested the Trade Unionists, I did not protest because I was not a Trade Unionist.When they arrested the Jews I did not protest be- * cause I was not a Jew.When they came to arrest me, there was no one left to protest.\u201d Douglas continued, \u201cThe only way to protect our freedoms in Canada or throughout the world is to stand up and fight for the freedoms of other people.It is still true that eternal vigilence is a right of liberty.\u201d A brief was also presented on behalf of the Amnesty International by Dr.John E.Robbins, member of its National Council, stating that \u201cseveral of the individuals involved have been adopted by, or are under investigation by Amnesty International.Those who have been adopted by Amnesty International have been carefully evaluated, and it has been determined that they are Prisoners of Conscience.They have been imprisoned for their beliefs, religion or ethnic origin.None of these persons has used or advocated violence.\u201d and that \u201cAmnesty International is pleased to share this occasion with Canadian Jewish Congress, to bring to the attention ofthe proper authorities and the public our concern for the well-being and humane treatment of all Prisoners of Conscience wherever they are held.\u201d The demonstration was called a \u201cFlight to Freedom\u201d.A chartered plane flew a group of notables from Montreal to Ottawa where they were joined by the parliamentarians.The notables included Gita Caiser- man-Roth, Stanley Lewis, Charlie Phillips, Alan Raymond.Archdeacon Playfair, Louise Garaux Dubois, Steve Ferrughelli, Alain Montpetit, Dusty Vineberg-Solomon, Be- verlev Bronfman, Edward Bronfman, William I.Miller, Boris Moroz, Rabbi Howard Joseph, Rabbi Sidney Shoham and Father Barry Jones. CONGRESS BULLETIN JUNE 1975 Editor\u2019s notes.Have you heard the one about the rabbi and the priest?No, not that one.this one! There was once a priest whose best friend happened to be a rabbi.On several occasions the priest confided to the rabbi that his ultimate wish in life was to see G-d face to face.One night the priest was sitting in his study.suddenly there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder.he looked towards the window and guess what?Right! His wish had been fulfilled! Needless to say he was startled out of his head and didn\u2019t know how to rise to the occasion.He reached for the phone, called friend rabbi and ina breathless whisper he said, \u201cIt\u2019s happened, it\u2019s happened.G- d is at the window, but what do I do now?\u201d The rabbi\u2019s suc- \u201ccinct advicewas \u201cLook busy.\u201d This particular rabbi must have been a mover at CJC because have we been busy! Speaking of rabbis, our National Religious Department \"has really been in full swing.Highlights of their programming came with their tribute honouring John G.Diefenbaker for his work in human rights.and a one day seminar with the Canadian Catholic Conference.on regional levels religious committees have been busy with problems dealing with the high cost of kosher food.divorce.nursing homes .Olympic facilities.synagogue information exchange.and, would you believe, a dating service?In Vancouver the second ina series of Christian Jewish dialogues was held.Soviet Jewry committees onthe national and regional levels don\u2019t seem to come up for air between projects.they are well into a program long before the last one is finished.see a rundown of their activities in this issue.Eastern Region\u2019s most current project was a \u201cFlight to Freedom\u2019 which flew Canadian notables to Ottawa and with a group of parliamentarians, including John Roberts, Tommy Douglas, Herb Gray they publicly adopted a prisoner of conscience.the parliamentarians dialogued with the Soviet Ambassador inside of the Russian Embassy see front page story.It was the perseverence and dedication of Holocaust committees that made this year\u2019s commemoration one of the largest Canada has ever held.you'll get a complete rundown of events on page 10.there have been busy vibes coming from the east coast with the formation of the Atlantic Jewish Council.Sydney M.Harris, president, has received quite a bit of press coverage as a result of news conferences held with the Jewish Press in Toronto and Winnipeg.a meeting of the North American branch of World Jewish Congress was held in New York and the Canadian delegation included Sydney M.Harris, Leon Kronitz, Milton Harris, Alan Rose and Neri Bloomfield.the main item on the agenda was Arab boycott.Interventions were made for the commutation of death sentences for Soviet Mikhail Leviev and for Rumanian Asher Adrea.To merge or not to merge is still being debated in Toronto and in this issue we take a look at the pros and cons regarding this question on page 7.So there it is.we've really been busy! The Bulletin has tried to capture the sense of involvement that makes Congress tick.if you have something to say, please say it in our columns.but unsigned letters or articles gointo the circular file under my desk.Parlez-vous Francais?IF NOT, PLEASE TRY HARDER In an attempt to bring about a better relationship between the Jewish and French community a statement of principle was passed by the Executive of the Eastern Region.The statement dealt mainly with Congress\u2019 role in encouraging the Jewish community to become fluent in the use of the French language.It said: \u201cThe majority of the Province of Quebec is composed of French-speaking Canadians who are determined to live, work and pursue their interests in the French language.We recognize that French is the priority language in Quebec.\u201cIn accepting the realities of Quebec, we are convinced that it Ix of the utmost importance for Quebecers to be proficient in French and English.\u201cThe task for Canadian Jewish Congress must therefore be to: a) Take the necessary measures to encourage the members of the Jewish community to become fluent in both oral and written French; b) Communicate with, and maintain our ties to French Quebec in its language, in order toreflect this position ; c) Assist the Jewish community to adopt a positive attitude to the above through active programming.\u201d The agenda also included reports of Committee for Soviet Jeu - a rv.Community Services and on the Jewish Education Council of Greater Montreat: \u2018> \"12 Congress 1975 budget Editor's note: Last March Canadian Jewish Congress presented a program guide to the National Budgeting Conference for their 1975 budget.Featured here are highlights of the guide with an introduction from Alan Rose.National Executive Director.The CJC officers have examined our 1975 budget line by line.They have evaluated programs and taken into consideration national and regional requirements for effective functioning of Canada Jewish Congress.Certain basic principles must be stated regarding this budget.1\u2014There has been a concerted attempt to rectify a number of defects to programming and to initiate changes necessary for Congress to effectively serve the community.We have activated or reactivated programs.For example, we now have an active and successful program on religious affairs and inter-religious affairs.The inter-religious aspect has important repercussions for the development of new, relationships between Catholics and Jews following the publication of the Vatican Guidelines.Since the last Plenary Assembly a number of our veteran employees retired and six new staff members under the age of 30 were engaged as members of our permanent staff.Thus, we are taking steps to ensure the beginning of a career structure in Jewish public life which is long overdue and will inevitably yield dividends to the community in terms of our public service in the years ahead.We have brought salaries up to competitive levels, and revised our retirement benefits so that long-service staff members may retire in dignity.The essence of the problem facing you is as follows: If the Jewish community wishes to have an effective CJC, such an organisation cannot be run \u201con the cheap\u201d.It must be properly funded, successfully carry out its programs and adopt new programs in concert with changing situations within Jewish life and the general policy of Canada.Yet, we must be mindful that the National Budgeting Conference is the steward of the Jewish public\u2019s money, thus its expenditure must be strictly controlled and waste or duplication must be eliminated.If this criteria is met, then Congress and the NBC are discharging their duty to the community.Thus, to deny Congress its carefully developed budget would be to under-mine its credibility, which will have severe repercussions for the fu- tureofthe Jewish community.\u201d Congress, as all organisations, is vulnerable to criticism and, indeed, has problems that remain to be overcome.However, it has for 50 years faithfully discharged ifs obligations to the Jewish community, serving as a model of a representative organisation to \u2018world Jewry.It has adapted itself to changing conditions and made change an ally \u2014 the litmus tests of a viable institution.In the final analysis, Congress will be what the Jewish community wishes it to be \u2014 vibrant, representative and creative \u2014 or a weak organisation which must surrender part of is programming if starved of funds.We do not wish to be faced in Canada with the conditions which plague American Jewish life \u2014 disunity, competition between.organisations, gross duplication resulting in waste of public funds.It is interesting that in the recent World Jewish Congress survey, spokesmen for American Jewish leadership stated, inter alia, that one day America will have to follow Canada and establish the kind of democratically-elected representative organisation which \u2018Congress represents.We should count our blessinggs.National Program Description 1\u2014Israel Canadian Jewish Congress has always been sensitive to the need for concerted action on international and domestic issues.Because of this and cost factors to ourselves and the Jewish community, we have willingly surrendered our organisational identity to work with issue-oriented coalitions within the Jewish community, all of which we have helped found and in all of which we play a prominent role.The Canada Israel Committee is such a coalition.À great deal of time and effort by CJC staff has been devoted to the critical need to build support for Israel during the unprecedented series of crises in the past twelve months.There has also been the need to be alert to any potential anti-semitic fall-out from the shift in economic power to the Arab States.All regions provide information and material to Jewish organisations in order to enable them to itensify their Israel program.Central Region Congress staff directly assist in the day to day operations of the Canada Israel Committee Central Region and shall continue to do so until full-time CIC staff is available.Thus, Congress efforts on behalf of Israel go far beyond the small allocations seen in the budget.All national Jewish organisations must continue to ensure that Israel public relations remains atop priority.2\u2014 Foreign affairs The Foreign Affairs Department of Canadian Jewish Congress 1s responsible for the development and implementation of programs to aid Jews in _ \u201call parts of the world.a.Soviet Jewrv The National Soviet Jewry Committee and its regional counterparts have been effective in bringing the issue of Soviet Jewry to the forefront of Jewish communal activity.Aside from demonstrations and public manifestations, a great deal of work goes on behind the scenes in organising educational programs, speakers\u2019 bureau, telegram banks, regular telephone calls to obtain information, briefing material for travellers to the Soviet Union, adopt-a-family programs and a myriad of small but important events.b.Jews in Arab Lands Increasing time and money has been spent in the past year on bringing the plight of the remaining 4,500 Jews in Syria to the attention of the Canadian public.We are continuing with our efforts to organise a national committee for the rescue of Jews in Syria and much ground work has already been done.-c.National Foreign Affairs Seminars National seminars on the situation of Jews in various countries in the spring and fall of 1975.Attention will be focused on the Soviet Union, Syria, - Morocco, Cuba, Rumania and Latin and South America.d.Relationships with organised Jewish communities throughout the world.Due to the fact that Canada has a great deal of influence among non-Arab third world countries, it is essential that Canadian Jewish Congress lend assistance to international organisations such as the World Jewish Congress in developing programs to foster better relationships between Jew and Gentile, particularly in many countries.in Africa which were formerly French colonies.e.Reparations from Germany Canadian Jewish Congress acts as the official spokesman of Canadian claimants to the Material Claims Conference Aginst Germany, Inc., and represents those victims of Nazi oppression who hold claims against the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).Recent developments have indicated a possibility that the GDR will make some payments to former residents who suffered at the hands of the Nazis.While the GDR still maintains its position that it is not and never has been a suc- + cessor state to the Third Reich, increased movement towards detente with the West is dependent on showing some good faith towards those who have claims against East Germany.A close watch is kept on these affairs and hopefully in the .coming years Congress will be able to negotiate some settlement on behalf of Canadian survivors.(Continues on page-t1} \u2014as \u2026 né a a mee ny | tad of\" vents, ; nd mongy past vear toîthere 1 Sri Canadian ling sith A ation rescue of heround done, Affairs 1thest- S Cou fall of focused Siri ia and 1 ge nities anal uence ward | that gress ation: s the n de ster fel Jody frica ench à JUNE 1975 @BCONGRESS\u2018REGIONS:IN°ACTION EASTERN REGION Charles Dadoun wgs appointed to the Executive Staff of the Canadian Jewish Congress (French Department).Community Services Committee are planning a Mobile Library for Smaller Communities, Dr.Melvyn Schwartzben and Flora Naglie were appointed representatives of C.JC on the Jewish Education Council of Montreal.The Labour Relations Committee of CJC met with the Jewish Labour Committee.An activities report and financial statement were given and a Banking Resolution was passed.Monroe Abbey on behalf of CJC pledged to support the world ORT program.CJC and Canadian Women\u2019s ORT will co-sponsor a vocational school in Israel.PACIFIC REGION The second -of the Jewish- Christian Dialogue Series, sponsored in Vancouver by the Council of Christian Chruches, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Council of Christians and Jews was held.ATLANTIC PROVINCES SECTION More than 60) delegates representing every Jewish community in the Maritimes attended the Founding Convention of the Atlantic Jewish Council held in Halifax.The Convention approved the establishment of an Atlantic Jewish Council of which the Canadian Jewish Congress is a founding member and full partner.300 People attended the celebration for Yom Hattzmut at the Beth Israel Synagogue in Halifax.» Regional Convention of newly formed Atlantic Jewish Council from left S.Paul Zive, Vice President; Elliot Jacobson, Treasurer; Ben Prossin, President; Frank Medjuck, Chairman, Constitution Committee; Michael Marcus, Exec.Director.CONGRESS BULLETIN A meeting was held in Toronto to discuss the formation of a National Jewish Historical Society in Canada.It was chaired by Victor Sef- ton, Chairman of the National t Library and Archives Committee of CJC.Saul Hayes, David E.Newman, David Eisen, Sid- nev Eisen, Arthur Kruger and Stephen Speisman attended.During the last Plenary Assembly of CJC a resolution was adopted encouraging the establishment of a National Jeuw- ish Historical Society.Its aims and objectives will be the collection, preservation, exhibition, publication and popularization of material dealing with the settlement, history and life of Jews in Canada.The plans call also for a learned journal which would appear 2-4 times a year and holding of a National Confer- encein 1976.paps fx Ma, UE CO) Van CE The twelfth Regional Conference on Jewish Education was held in Kitchener with more than 135 educators and parents in attendance.It was sponsored by the Dept.of Education and Culture Central Re- Lr eger gibn:\" FT CU VS rm, ; ELCOME DELEGATES 19 TO 4 CANADIAN JEW Hi | REGIONAL CONFERENCE + J Hail | sn RS ET pid CENTRAL REGION Clergymen of all faiths in the Hamilton area have been sent material regarding the PLO and Israel with a covering letter from the Community Relations Committee.the Committee has been active in sponsorship of the appearance at McMaster University of Dr.Chaim Shaked, Dean of Humanities at the University of Tel Aviv.B.G.Kayfetz, Executive Director, and Dr.E.Y.Lipsitz, Director of the Education Department, addressed a class n advances police science at Humber College on Judaism and Jewish community.The class is given to police officers as part of the law enforcement program of Humber College for a diploma in Advanced Police Science.The Joint Community Relations Committee held a meeting dealing with the activities and program of the \u2018Canadians Against PLO Terror\u201d Discussed were current black- white tensions as reported in the media, arising from recent events in Toronto.A special committee will be appointed to determine how the Jewish community could be of service in the situation.The Central Region Archives is involved in many activities dealing with the preservation of Jewish History.they are giving assistance to the Archives Committee in Windsor and they have produced a Handbook on how to conduct oral histories.A Committee for Jews in Arab Lands has been formed under the chairmanship of Judy Feld.Page 3 WESTERN REGION A youth rally for Soviet Jewry was held under the committee chairmanship of Sophie Kettner.Alan Bezell, a recent emigrant from Russia, addressed the Rally.a program was adopted of ongoing letter writing and plans are being readied for another rally.The Winnipeg Jewish Community Council presented six half-hour television programs entitled \u201cWinnipeg Jewish Community Council Presents\u201d hosted by Gerald C.Lasensky.Sydney M.Harris, President of CJC, congratulated the I.L.Peretz-Folk School in Winni- pegon its 60th Anniversary.The Holocaust Committee met to discuss local programs including a seminar for educators.Aba Beer, Chairman of the National Committee and I.Piasetski, Chairman of the Eastern Region Committee breifed them on national programming.The Jewish Cultural Committee met to review its role in the community and its relationship with the Jewish Community Council.The agenda included the question of strengthening the People\u2019s Division for the Combined Jewish Appeal Campaign and plans for cultural events.A \u201cSholem Aleichem\u201d evening was held at the I.L.Peretz Folk School.The Edmonton Jewish Community Council recently received a multicultural grant for its history and archives committee.Maurice Papernik, National Executive extended greetings to the National Council of Jewish Women during their bien:, nial Convention in Calgary. Be CONGRESS BULLETIN JUNE 19765 \u2018some of my best friends are Journalists \u201d Editor's note: Not too many months ago Canadian Jewish New featured an article dealing in part with the possibility of public bodies holding open meetings.Particular emphasis was placed on the presence of the Jewish Press.Since then this proposition has been debated, discussed, disputed, reasoned, unreasoned, traversed, argued and mulled.Even *hough | there have been no apparent signs of breastbeating or teeth gnashing, some weighty sighs and moans have been heard in hallways and elevators.In other words, it's heavy subject.Saul Hayes has responded to the seriousness of the proposal by assessing some of the pitfalls he foresees if open meetings were to be held by CJC.Let\u2019s have an argument, albeit a friendly one.The sub- ject-matter is on the thesis of the advisability opening the meetings of public bodies e.g., Executive Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress to the Jewish press as advocated by Sydney M.Harris and Milton Harris.First, I want to establish my firm and unequivocal belief in the following statements: a.The editor and reporters of the Jewish press are as responsible and honest as any other members of our community and are as much a part of it as anyone else.We have irres- \u201cponsible people in Congress and there have been egregiously irresponsible members of the Jewish press please note the tenses in this sentence); b.The newpaper fraternity is as interested in the well- being and progressive welfare of the Jewish community as are the officers and other members of the Congress executive; c.The reporters of the Jewish Press in so far as my experience is concerned, are trustworthy and competent; d.Further, my experience has been that any materials given to them with an injuction that they are \u201cconfidential\u201d or \u201cnot for publication\u201d have been respected.e.The Jewish public has a right to know what their elected or appointed officials are doing, how they are doing it and the whys and wherefores.Having said what I truly believe, let me also say that all of it is irrelevant to and immaterial in the issue being considered indeed if the representatives of the press were otherwise as above described, we would not bother to traverse the issue at all.Let us first test the validity of the brave-new- world proposed policy of .Woodrow Wilson who called for \u2018open: covenants, openly arrived at\u201d.Frankly, I think.that in the conduct of foreign affairs and the evolution of a foreign policy, this proposal is not only a preposterous and silly one but detrimental and even impractical.If it were changed to \u201chonest covenants honestly arrived at\u201d, it would be a valid concept but in the realm of nations\u2019 foreign affairs an impossible dream.I know I run the risk of a metaphysical rejoinder that the mess of international affairs may prove Woodrow Wilson\u2019s concept, but, such a rejoinder would be more smart-alecky then serious.It is and should be possible on the stage of Jewish affairs to be guided by intergrity.Integrity does not mean premature disclosure, however.To continue the metaphor of the theatre: the scenario calls for debates in Congress on many matters; viz., education, taxation sharing for Jewish education, immigration, exemptions for charitable contributions, foreign policy of Canada, human rights and implementation thereof, Christian- Jewish relations, Israel\u2019s foreign policy, mass communications as they affect Jews, and so on and so on (sometimes unhappily adnauseum).The scenario continues: an invitation is extented to the working Jewish press to listen to discussion and be privy to how and why ultimate decisions are taken for relay to the reading public.I foresee the developments as partly included in a play which Pirendello could have written.Act 1, Scene 1: Many of- Congress\u2019 demagogues will carry their demogoguery to inordinate lengths and beyond that considered normal in a closed meeting.The presence of the press in a Pavlow set of conditioned reflexes will result in sensational statements for the sake of capturing the attention of the reporters.The press would be quite right in reporting the resultant bombast, inaccuracies and theatrical performances, giving an absolutely cockeyed idea of what Congress does.It will be Gresham\u2019s Law of reportage that bad argument and comment will drive out good.Congress cannot correct this by eliminating demagogues and party hacks because, as a democratic organisation, it cannot hand pickits executive.Act 1 Scene 2: Congress officers and officials are supposed to report their intimate and sensitive reports of conversation with civil servants, cabinet ministers, politicians of the Oppositions, opposite numbers of organisations (Jewish and non-Jewish) with which Congress is in active relationship.Since names make news (I am led to believe) you.can be sure that the reporters, justifiably and legitimately, will feature such reportage making it inevitable that severe inhibitions will characterise all Congress officers and officials in how they present reports leading to the policy-making process.There could be Acts 111 and IV but let the reader (if he hasn\u2019t already left the theatre) write them himself after he has read the epilogue.- Epilogue.After the experience of open meetings, Congress officers will decide that all meetings will be preceded by a closed one where the serious debate will occur, including revelation of sources, attributions, personal analyses and judgments.Decisions will have to be made and then presented in a synthetic way to the succeeeding open meeting.You see, it is not the _ press which is in issue at all or the public\u2019s right to know what its own creation is doing that is debatable, it is simply that the road to decision- making has so many detours and blocks, including the sensibilities of one\u2019s informants, the psychological bumps of one\u2019s discussants, friends, adversaries.One cannot, at an early stage, make one\u2019s speeches to the press.It is reminiscent of the advice of an experienced and shrewd mother to her nubile daughter, \u201cDarling, when you write to your boy-friends always start, \u201cDear John and members of the jury.\u201d For instance, what happe: at meetings of certain public bodies which by law are forced to open their meetings to the public?They afte forced to ad: vertise that meeting will be at 8:30 in the town hall but the officers or executive committee meet at 5.30 p.m.until 8.30 p.m.really discussing the agenda and all its intricacies and complexities.The 8.30 open meeting receives an etiolated version of the issues and a nondescript one of the decisions \u2014 in other words, a pat oral press release.Is this what Congress wants to do?Is this what the Jewish press wants to force it to do?Is this what the Congress Executive Committee expects as a means of discharging its responsibilities?In reminscing of my own long experience I shudder to think what kind of perform@nce would have been possible if Congress meetings had been open to the press.I try to reconstruct the possibilities.Congress officers or officials forget to tell the press, \u201cNot for publication\u201d, or we did so adjure the reporter but he fell asleep (highly likely) or wasn\u2019t listening at the time, or was wide-awake and listening but later forgot the injunction.The consequences of reporting on Pearson\u2019s calls on refugee situations (in one case in Shanghai); conversations with ants; setting up immigration # missions; discussions on war criminals, restitution tax matters; woula all have been appalling and negative if prematurely reported.I could but mercifully won\u2019t, recall a hundred other examples of what I mean.I conclude this phase by saying all our credibility would have evaporated.Had the press been present at the early meetings of the Claims Conference for Material Claims against Germany, I can dogmatically say this tremendous accomplishement of obtaining vast sums from Germany could never have been accomplished.I compliment my friends, Sidney Harris and Milton Harris, for their desire to get away from secrecy, private decision making and the like.It may be possible for the Mount Sinai Hospital or the Montreal Convalescent Home.It is, to mind, clearly impossible in respect to organisations like Congress whose daily fare is a mixture of confidential information, fact finding, negotiation, all of which will be negated if carried in the press before the time is propitious.There is one alternate method.Reporters should be present at the close of meetings and be able to ask questions pertinent to the agenda and receive newsworthy honest answers.I don\u2019t mean prepared dessi- cated releases.I mean a session where able and shrewd reporters can traverse the agenda with the principal officers.The responsibility of what can be told and what withheld is then up to Congress officers.Congress needs all the publicity it can get including expression of disagreement with its actions if honestly arrived at.The Canadian Jewish News has been of great value to Congress and I hope it continues to cover its activities.The fact that I disagree with their belief that it is in the best interests of the public and Congress itself for the executive meetings to be open to the Jewish press does not make me happy.Since I implicitly outline the dangers I dare not be inhibited from expressing this disagreement publicy.However, - many others might be severely restrained from having their opinions and reasons for such opinions publicly aired.Need I say Koheleth sums it up in one phrase, \u2018Unto everything there is a season\u201d, but who is to decide when is the time to keep silence and when is a time to speak?Only those elected to carry out duties can make the decision.Some time it will be wise, some time unwise.However, there is no oth- * internees and camp comnraird-© «ef Jary.er judgesoamake the decision.ep [ ion ny i iy | Ye bem n | le De | Lang, il by, Sl vhy | 4 5 phage by J lly À i d ED pres \u20ac 8S of the or Mare érmans, | À say this À ishemen ins from Ver have friends, | Milton 210g vate de Jie I Mount lontreal Lis te eine.ke (on.Ami forms- lation ated i Ie he sone ortes dle où ik ne#- rs! ess Sion por: ends Te J be hen fd fd If 0 $ CONGRESS BULLETIN JUNE 1078 + N ; Fae barney: 5 « Soviet Jewry Committees were in full swing with activities ranging from telephone calls to demonstrations.Viktor Polskv, a Russian-Jewish activist who recently emigrated to Israel, visited Canada for a week.he met with mayors of Toronto'and Winnipeg.in Ottawa he briefed parliamentarians on the condition of Jews, .À Canadian Com- mittée of Lawyers and Jurists for Soviet Jewry was established in Toronto with Judge Emmett Hall, a retired Supreme Court Justice as chairman.in Ham- iltôn more than 125 local physicians, of all faiths, signed an appeal for the release of Dr.Mikhail Shtern who is impri- .soned in the Soviet Union.about 100 Hamilton children sent letters to children of Soviet Jewish activists.in Toronto Sam Filer was appointed chairman of the Steering Committee for Soviet Jewry of CJC Central Region.in Montreal over 2,000 people attended a Solidarity March for Freedom of Soviet Jews.the demonstration was sponsored by the Montreal Group of 35\u2019s and the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jewry.Montreal held a leadership conference.the guest speaker was August Shtern, son of Dr.Mikhail Shtern.adopted was a resolution calling upon the Soviet Government to cease repressive policies, practices and actions being directed against _ Soviet Jewry.it also called upon the Canadian Govern- - ment to take positive action to intervene with the Soviet Government.the Montreal Committee sponsored a \u201cFlight into Freedom\u201d on behalf of the Jewish Prisoners Conscience which took place in Ottawa.A number of Jewish and non-Jewish leaders flew Montreal to Ottawa where they were joined by Members of Parliament at the Russian Embassy.the participants announced their adoption of Prisoners of Conscience.The group also attempted to present food packages to the Soviet Embassy to be delivered to the prisoners.The Ottawa Committee for Soviet Jewry coordinated the Ottawa part of the program.Top: Solidarity Sunday in Toronto with (Left to Right): Shirley Worth, Phyllis Sugar, Elena Polsky, Viktor Polsky, Jerry Goodman (New York), Carole Warren, and Sam Filer.Left: August Shtern, Son of Mikhail Shtern, holds a news conference in Montreal.Lisa Lewis acts as translator.Bottom: Two of the demonstrations that took place (left) in Montreal and (right) Toronto a dawn to dusk hunger strike.NN YY Page 6 JUNE 1975 Two Viewpoints on Pending Toronto Merger I have followed the lively discussion regarding the merger in Toronto of Canadian Jewish Congress Central Region and United Jewish Welfare Fund.Having favoured the merger policy when it was first discussed by the National Executive of Congress, I am impressed that the trend towards unification has finally reached a constructive stage.There are many practical reasons favouring the merger in Toronto and elsewhere.My friend, Joe Salsberg, emphasised his opposition toit in a recent debate with Milton Harris.Salsberg said, \u201cIt is not a question of efficiency but of principle of what values in Jewish life will determine the policies evolved, introduced and implemented.\u201d (the C.J.N., January 24, 1975).It is precisely the principles that have prompted me to participate in this debate.Joe Salsberg knows that as a community we are exposed to For Merger: Professor Arthur Lermer forces that can erode genuine Jewish life in the Diaspora.Without the adoption of a distinct philosophy for creative survival, we can hardly hope to succeed.The end-of the rich Eastern European hinterland, that nourished every new Jewish \u2018\u201cYishoov\u2019\u2019 throughout the world, may be compensated by Israel.However, we must underline the formidable limitations, because of socio-cultural and political differences.On the one hand we see the danger- of disintegration through practical assimilation.But there is a countervailing resistance that shows a tenacity for seeking identification in the Diaspora.A task force of the \u2018\u2018American Jewish Committee\u201d (once a bulwark of assimilation) calls for a revival of creative Jewish belonging, rejecting outright the \u201cmelting pot\u201d theory.At the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations & Welfare Funds held in Chicago, Raymond Epstein, President, stated: \u201cWe are engaged in an enthusiastic search for meaningful Jewish identity, for an enhancement of our life as Jews.\u2018\u201cJewish Peoplehood requires the nurturing of Jewish communities in every country.\u201d The interdependence of Israel, American Jewry, South America, Russia, etc., \u201cis the concept upon which our future activities \u2014 cultural, political, religious, financial \u2014 must play, plan and build\u2019.(The sequence of objectives should not be overlooked \u2014 A.L.) What'a contrast to the notorious Cleveland Resolution of Reform Rabbis in 1885 when the leaders of the budding American \u2018\u2018Yishoov\u2019\u2019 proclaimed that Jews ceased to be a people and henceforth remain a religious group.One of the causes that has brought about the metamorphosis of American Jewryisthe phenomenal growth of Jewish Communal Institutionalism.In the past the development of this institutional superstructure lacked genuine ideological motivation.Ît reflected a strong \u2018\u2018Zedokah\u201d (Philanthropic) tradition which avoided fundamental issues of peoplehood.In a way, the most commendable fulfillment of the biblical credo, \u201cAm I my brother's keeper?\u201d found enthusiastic support independent of the prevailing philosophies of Jewish life.Until the 1920\u2019s the powerful labour movement, the Jewish plutocracy, and the upper middle class adhered to a negative view regarding the principle of Jewish Peoplehood.In Canada this trend was somewhat weaker.The division of the Montreal community regarding the formation of a separate school panel also proved that there was opposition to a distinct national philosophy.- Nevertheless there was a sol- _idarity in anti-defamation activity and concern for the indigent which provided a common bond for the Jewish community.However, American Jews rallied with greater determination regarding their global belonging.It was triggered by the pogroms following World War I, the Balfour Declaration, anti-Semitism in Poland and the rise of Nazism.Zionism, especially Labour Zionism, played a particularly\u2019 important role.Canadian Jewish Congress, by virtue of its objectives, focused towards the theory of peoplehood.Welfare Funds assumed a more prag- \u2018 matic philosophy with emphasis on philanthropy with a lukewarm attitude towards the ramifications of Jewish Nationhood.The dividing line between both centers of gravity in Canadian Jewry runs along cultural and economic lines.While the constituency of the Canadian Jewish Congress included many of the lower income brackets, the Welfare (Continue on page 7) x as i Differences of opinion were heard during a merger meeting in Toronto.Left: Milton Harris in favour of merger voices his opinions.Waiting to be heard areithree opponents of merger Jacob Egit, Max Federman and Sam Bierstone.Right: Proponents Phil Granovsky and David Satok.The issue of a proposed merger between Canadian Jewish Congress and the United Jewish Welfare Fund in Toronto.is one which will determine the shape of the Jewish community for generations to come.Those who support the proposal, as do those who oppose it, bear a heavy responsibility.I oppose the merger.I fail to see that it will make any contribution at all to Jewish unity.I fail to see that it will effect any worthwhile economies in the administration of the affairs of the community.I see it, rather, as an effort to consolidate the hold which a self-pro- claimed elite has already fastened on Jewish life \u2014 the \u2018\u2018big givers\u201d and those who find themselves most comfortable within the circle of these \u2018big \u201cgivers\u201d.Any merger would de- \u2018stroy.the national character of Against Merger: Julius Hayman.Congress.The future of the Jewish community would be decided by what each community in Canada regards as essential to it and the function of the Canadian Jewish Congress would be limited to a vague, inchoate, indeterminate area in which it would lose all claim to being the spokesman for Canadian Jewry.The whole idea of merger disturbs me.But what disturbs me just about as much is the method in which negotiations are being conducted between the officers of the United Jewish Welfare Fund and those of the Canadian Jewish Congress.An article in the Toronto Ang- lo-Jewish weekly speaks of the \u201cHarris proposals\u201d.It declares that \u201cmembers of the Congress executive were involved\u201d in the selection of the new executive director who will succeed Ben Schneider.It refers to two meetings of the United Jewish Welfare Fund executive committee with members of the Canadian Jewish Congress executive.It gives the information that \u201cHarris has brought before the senior officers of the Central Region.his proposals for the creation of the Toronto Jewish Congress.\u201d Last year\u2019s Plenary Sessions of the Canadian Jewish Congress gave no authority to the present executive to conclude any agreement with the United Jewish Welfare Fund for a merger.No convention of the Central Region of the Canadian Jewish Congress has given its executive authority to enter into the intimate discussions which are now going on.I do not believe that the Regional Council of the Canadian Jewish Congress has the authority to effect the merger now being treated by some Congress lead-\" ers as though it has been consummated.The National President of the Canadian Jewish Congress and its Central Region President were elected to serve the Canadian Jewish Congress, not to destroy it; and there are -many who believe that what they are now doing will, in fact, put the Canadian Jewish Congress out of business.One of the \u201cmain arguments Harris has used in his persuasion of merger to CJC leaders\u201d is the threat that the UJWF will set up a communal structure paralleling that of the Canadian Jewish Congress and starve Congress to death.We question the authority of the present Congress executive to sign the documents of capitulation without a clear and .unequivocal vote by those who elected them, signifying their submission to the UJWF threat.The proponents of merger are trying to give the impression that the community is solidly behind the merger and that only the formal acceptance of the plan is required to bring it into being.Nothing is further from the truth.There is a solid body of opinion which rejects it.The opponents of the merger lack the advantage of a subsidized press but their voices are being heard and the sanguine predictions that the merger will be overwhelmingly approved by the community are being made not on the basis of fact but as a strategic ploy.It is in the same category as the threats being made by the leadership of the United Jewish Welfare Fund that a parralel structure to the Canadian Jewish Congress will be set up if the merger fails to go through.*- (Continue on page 7) y.poral str tent 10° movemen North An munis\u201d vations n the magn mations inCanad 1, The anti-Sen against Holocaus ing st romple sise ant JUNE 1975 FOR M E RGE R (Continued) Funds attracted mostly the well-to-do and those who were more inclined towards pragmatic assimilation.However, recegt trends reveal a diminutioll of the gap that once set both groups apart.A brief review of the dynamics of the suciology of our institutional and socio-cul- tural structure reveals the extent to which the concentric movement has reshaped the North American Jewish community.The following observations may help us appreciate the magnitude of the transformation in organised Jewish life in Canada.1.The post-war decline of anti-Semitism as a reaction against the horrors of the Holocaust is unfortunately losing strength.This has prompted many to re-empha- sise anti-defamation action, AGAINS > FN N % NN RY 3 3 xX Ww 4 T MERGER (Continued) | particularly the increase of anti-Israeli propaganda.Under these circumstances growing solidarity of our entire community is assuming greater significance.2.The unusual post World War Il phenomena of increased access to key positions in higher education, governments, corporations, etc., eliminated the need of individuals seeking to escape from the so-called \u201cGhetto Mentality\u2019.Broader horizons ceased to be predicated upon turning away from full identification with one\u2019s own people.3.The race for moving up the material ladder lost some of its former passion because of successes achieved by many.Fulfillment of other needs replaced some of the past motivations.4.Emphasis on education, i Just what attitude would the Jewish public adopt towards the United Jewish Appeal if proceeds of the Appeal were directed to \u2018setting up a parallel structure\u201d to the Canadian Jewish Congress?In any case, this is an issue k 22° which \u2018involves the entire:.Je- » -mocratit process.à wish community of Canada.It .is an issue which deals with a change which will alter the entire direction of Jewish community activity.To suggest that a hundred or so members of a regional council are entitled to make so important a decision is a travesty on the de- training of scholars, professionals, etc., modified the value system of the younger generation.Consequently the business and professional approach to ethnic belonging underwent profound changes.5.Improved economic standing was responsible for the unprecedented social mobility among North American Jews.Class difference was bound to lose its former rigidity.People who were raised in one milieu moved over to another, taking with them some of their cultural heritage.6.Support for Jews in Arab and Communist countries further extended the scope of Jewish solidarity.This support was formerly confined to assist the local community.À global sense of responsibility broadens the acceptance of people- hood.A \u201cJewish Peoplehood\u201d was further deepened with an identification with the plight of Israel.7.Philanthropy also motivated those who were not yet ready to accept the concept of peoplehood.They acted pragmatically in response to their sense of ethnic solidarity and in realisation of growing welfare role of the State.Thus, philanthropy in addition to its commendable social role, serving also as a powerful subconscious lever for active Jewish involvement, is on the decline.The \u201cmoment of truth\u201d is rapidly approaching, calling for a shift from an ambiguous to full commitment to Jewishness, through Jewish People- hood.8.Ethnic belongings, on the rise all over the world, strikes a deep chord in the Canadian scene, where principles of cultural pluralism are rooted in Canada\u2019s ethno-religious composition.Cultural Pluralism, adds additional strength to Jewish Peoplehood in Canada.9.The shocking impact of nazism and its tragic aftermath upset the views formerly held by some of those living on the \u201cright side of the tracks\u201d.10.Great significance must also be attached to the role of Canadian Jewish Congress.It provides an organisational roof \u2018over the widely scattered Jewish communities.Its endurance and development has enhanced the evolution towards peoplehood.In view of the financial responsibility towards Israel and local needs, the economics of merger should not be minimised.Particularly when the cyclical downswing in the economy may turn out to be far more serious than a temporary slump.The \u201climits of growth\u201d of the \u201cClub of Rome\u201d are a warning Page 7 to be taken very seriously.A diminution of our standard of living, hopefully combined with a more equitable distribution of income may be unavoidable.The post-war period of rising affluency is gone.We must examine many other non-eco- nomic ramifications.The most fundamental problem is still the improvement creative life in the Diaspora.From that point of view Jewish history has evolved a strong preference for different kinds of functional autonomism.-Autonomism played a major role in the survival of Jewish Peoplehood, according to Simon Dubnow, the foremost historian of Eastern European Jewry.There were some auto- nomists who harboured visions of ideal cultural democracies, that would provide full autonomous legal frameworks for ethnic minorities.Otto Bauer, an Austrian Social Philosopher and Advocate of Cultural Au- tunomy, proposed a system which would assure each ethnic group full Personal Cultural Autonomy within a heterogeneous state.(By personal he meant independent of territorial or regional belonging, i.e., Jews would enjoy cultural autonomy in the entire Austrian Empire not only where they lived in great numbers.) (Continued on page 8) Max Federman articulates and gesticulates his opinions against merger of CJC with UJWF.Perhaps the Jewish community in Canada is willing to see the Canadian Jewish Congress lose its position of primacy.If it is, it should have every opportunity to understand what is involved.I have suggested that the merger question be removed from an atmosphere of crisis.Remove the threat that if it fails to be accepted, the United Jewish Welfare Fund will use its muscle to squeeze Congress out of the community by setting up a \u201cparallel structure\u201d.Provide tion of opinion on the issue so that at the next Plenary Session of the Canadian Jewish Congress the communities will have an opportunity of voting for candidates pledged to a specific point of view \u2014 merger or non-merger.On this basis a decision may be made which will \u2014 however it goes \u2014 unite the community rather than divideit; a decision which will so obviously have the approval of the whole of Canadian Jewry that every one of us will have to support it, whether we agree with it or not.Expressing unqualified confidence in outcome of an election\u2019 is a recognized political technique.This technique is being used unabashedly by those who are attempting to convince Toronto Jewry that the proposed merger between the United Jewish Welfare Fund and the Canadian Jewish asa Congress: is just a short step an opportunity for a polariza- .from implementation, that it\u2019s all over but the cheering.This view disregards the large body of opinion which regards the proposed merger as bearing within it the seeds of disaster for the Toronto Jewish community.Much has been made by the proponents of merger about the contribution which it would make to the \u201cunity\u201d of the community.But just what evidence do they find of disunity in our ranks?Are we not agreed on the need to support Israel?Are we not agreed on the need to support Jewish education?Are we not agreed that there are conditions within the Canadian community, manifestations of racism and bigotry, which must be fought?There has probably-never been a period in Canadian Jewish life when Jews were more united in their objectives and in the way to achieve their objectites.There is a danger to jewish unity.But this danger arises not out of any lack of harmony within the community, which is working with unprecedented cooperation to meet the urgent needs of the times.The danger comes from the very individuals who are crving \u201cdisunity\u201d.Just what is to be made out of the threats by the United Jewish Welfare Fund that it will \u201cimplement bylaw 100\u201d, which it claims would give it a similar structure to Congress and severely cut the Canadian Jewish Congress\u2019 \u2018already diminishing powers\u201d?Milton Harris urges the merger because he says the community cannot afford to be split between two major organizations, \u2018particularly when one organization (the CJC) has no fiscal powers and therefore has no power to implement its own programs\u201d.Is this not, in fact, an admission that the United Jewish Welfare Fund claims the power of life and death over Congress by its control of money the entire community contributes?And if the leadership of the Welfare Fund does not believe that the present program of Congress justifies financial support, will it not make its support conditional on Congress willingness to change its policy to conform to the Welfare Fund dictate?If the leadership of the United Jewish Welfare Fund now has the power of life and death over the activities of the Canadian Jewish Congress, will they relinquish this power to anybody?Not very likely.What appears more probable is that the whole merger idea is designed to strengthen the hold of the United Jewish Welfare Fund on the entire apparatus of the Jewish community.There is much talk too, of the economy which would result from a merger of Congress and the United Jewish Welfare Fund, including the economies of an \u201camalgamation of staff\u201d.If there is any value to ex- (Continued on page 8) \u2014 ct CONGRESS BULLETIN JUNE 1975 AGAINST MERGER (Conclusion) perience, it should be obvious the merger would ultimately create a proliferation of staff.The merger would create a-vast bureaucracy, pushing its was into every cranny and crevice in Jewish.life.Not even the most dedicated professional would be able to escape the inevitable drive for \u2018\u2018empire- building\u2019.And the result would be a further alienation of the professionals from the people they are expected to serve, an alienation, incidentally, which Congress, closer to the Jewish people, to amcha, has been able to avoid.The Canadian Jewish Congress has, over the years, developed a position and prestige in the Jewish community which has made it almost unique in Jewish life.Its authority has not been questioned by theaves rage Jew \u2014 the worker, the intellectual, the merchant, the professional, the manufacturer \u2014 in whom it inspires confidence and respect.To be sure, Congress has not fulfilled all of its promise.One can only imagine with what scorn Sam Bronfman would have greeted the proposal that the Congress\u2019 national identity should be diluted by the creation of regional Congress- UJ WF substitutes.And, surely, some of the proponents of this divisive \u201cmerger\u201d philosophy should give a thought to the fragmentation of Jewish life which would be the result of Congress affiliating with local Welfare Funds across the nation.What national presence would there be for Congress, what national voice to speak for all Jews, whether thev live in Sydney, N.S.or Prince Rupert, B.C.?Certainly, there is room for improvement in the Canadian Jewish Congress structure.There is an urgent and inescapable need to question the position \"in which it is placed when it has to come to the Welfare Fund, cap in hand, for the funds for its-survival.But perhaps if national and regional Congress leadership would direct the energies to making Congress stronger, more effective, more independent, in its own right, which it is now dissipating in chasing the will-o\u2019- the-wisp- of merger with the Welfare Fund, it might make Congress what it should be, the undisputed instrument of Canadian Jewrv\u2019s development.After all, isn\u2019t that what the present National President and the present Regional President were elected to do?In an interview with an Anglo-Jewish weekly Milton Harris is quoted as saying that the opposition to merger comes from \u201cthe Old Guard\u201d and in another context speaks of \u201cover fiftv-year-olds.\u201d Does Milton not know that: Sir John A.Macdonald was re-elected in 1891.He was 76 at the time.Sir John Abbott, who served as Canada\u2019s Prime Minister in 1891-92 was 71.John Thompson, who served in 1892-94 was 73.Sir Mackenzie Bowell, who served in 1896, was 61.Sir Charles.Tupper, who was P.M.in 1896, was 75.\u201c Sir Wilferd Laurier, P.M.in 1911.was 70.Sir Robert L.Borden, Prime Minister in 1916, was 62.Arthur Meighen, the voungster of the group served briefly at the age of 52.William Lyon Mackenzie King fought his last election in 1945, when he was 71.Richard B.Benneft, P.M.in 1930, was born in 1870.Louis St.Laurent, who followed King in 1953 was 71 when he became Prime Minister.John Diefenbaker was 62 when he became P.M.and \u201cMike\u201d Pearson took the job in 1963 at the age 0f66.The \u201cOld Guard\u201d at 50?Nonsense.FOR ME RGER (Conclusion) The Jewish Socialist, Vladimir Medem who in 1905 formulated the national program of the \u201cBund\u201d in Eastern Europe adopted the principles of Cultural Autonomy.The role of many ancient Kehillahs inspired a great deal of optimism regarding the role of Autonom- ison in modern times.However, nothing warrants such expectations of statutory auto- nomism, as experienced in the Middle Ages or in some pre-in- dustrial societies.For example, in the XVII century Poland, when the so-called \u201cVaad Arbah Haarazoth\u201d (the Jewish Parliament) united Jews of all four provinces of Poland.No modern democracy can and should tolerate such autonomous structure.Instead, a unique form of \u201cVoluntary Autonomism\u2019 a kind of neo-Kehillahs (local and country-wide) as in South Africa, the Argentine, in Great Britain, Australia, Mexico, France and Canada evolved.That process of evolution has in my opinion already reached the level of maturity conducive to full integration into local as well as nationwide voluntary autonomism in Canada.Creative continuity of Jewish life in the Diaspora depends to a great extent on the adoption of a consistent theory flowing from the philosophy of Jewish Peoplehood of those residing among different majority cultures.Over 80% of the world\u2019s Jewry live outside of Israel and cannot retain its viability as a satelite of Israel, despite the crucial role Israel plays in the life of world Jewry.Democratic integration on national and regional levels with flexible decentralisation built in could streamline the entire structure of our community life.Merger should not and shall not wipe out differences of outlook and philosophies.On the contrary, an integrated kind of a \u2018\u201cKehil- lah\u201d can serve as an excellent democratic forum for divergent views.However, Joe Salsberg argues that the grinding poverty of many (particularly the aged) hardly favours merger with the affluent.Plutocratic leadership in welfare organisations, is simply not able to adapt to the euphemistically called masses.Hence, claims Salsberg, the existing institutional split runs exactly in accordance with the scenario of class conflict and class struggle.On the surface it sounds plausible.In fact, in Eastern Europe rigid class divisions were rooted into the social fabric of that society.Class differentiation divided our people sharply even with respect to national aspirations.Ideological assimilation of the rich and adherence to folk culture characterised both groups of the Jewish community._ Fierce class struggles raged in small craft industries of the pale.Paradoxically it fell upon the \u201cpariahs of the pariahs\u201d (as Karl Kautsky called Jewish Labour) to revolutionise the stagnant and monolithic power structure of the Jewish community.À virtual coalition between the theocracy and the \u201cGewirim\u2019\u2019 (the, well-to-do) ruled the Jewish community with an iron fist Mendele Moy- cher Sforim, Yizehok Lejbush Peretz and Shalom Alejehem, three classic writers of Yiddish literature, attacked the formidable evils of this ultra reactionary autocracy.Mass immigration to North America deepend the class conflicts.The rapid proletari- sation process of immigrants strengthened the sense of class consciousness of the victims of sweatshops dominating the East side of New York.Militant unions flourished and spilled over into Canada.The phenomenal rise of the daily \u201cVorverts\u201d, the rapid deve}- opment of such fraternal organisations as the \u201cWorkmen\u2019s Circle\u201d and later the Labour Zionist \u2018\u2018\u201cVerband\u2019\u2019 prove the point.However, two major factors reversed this trend in North America.The unprecedented socio-economic mobility of the second generation, opened opportunities to heights found in philanthropy an effective outlet for their sense of responsibility towards the former generation.À chance to resume the ancient Jewish \u2018\u2018Mitzwah\u201d or \u201cZedo- kah\u201d, undoubtedly played an equally important role in shaping the nature and scope of American Jewish philanthropy.Community assistance differed from the old country\u2019s treatment of the needy.Concern for the dignity of the indigent gained growing recognition.Soon, world-wide care for victims of pogroms and anti-Jewish persecutions gave rise to the establishment of the \u201cJoint Distribution Committee\u2019\u2019; the strengthening of \u2018\u2018JIAS\u201d, \u201cORT\u201d, etc.Thus, North American Jewry responded to the challenge by broadening the scope scope of assistance.The Nazis and WW2 magnified the global range of Jewish philanthropy.As a result the sensitivity of the privileged to the suffering grew.Israel\u2019s independence and the massive assistance to help in the struggle for survival, added new dimensions to Jewish community fund raising.This brings us to the problem of ideology and class conflict as we should assess it in North America as it relates to Jewish Peoplehood.Lionel Trilling\u2019s (Columbia University) statement re Des- toyewsky\u2019s views of the need to concentrate on ideological rather than on class conflicts may be a good way, of approaching our debate.Dos- toyewsky minimised class aspects and maximised ideological determinants, One does not have to subscribe to Dostoyewsky\u2019s theory in order to detect validity related to the development of North American Jewry.Those who study the political behaviour of the majority of wealthy American Jews tend to support Professor Trilling\u2019s observations regarding the incongruity of most wealthy American many.Some who sueceeded, in: : Jewss between their professed their climb to material liberal ideology and class interests.Analysis of their voting pattern and support for enlightened liberal causes prove the point.Summarising, primarily it is not class division and institutional inertia but a powerful quest for creative unity that must motivate and guide us towards merger.Latent plutocratic habits will not disappear overnight.However, through exposure to other groups, some of the remaining edges of arrogance and autocratic traditions can be much better mitigated than within a divided community system.In turn, prejudice and biases against the leadership of Welfare Funds should diminish and hopefully disappear altogether as a result of a constructive merger process.Merger should by no means result in a monolithic community.On the contrary it will strengthen chances for creative differentiation within the framework of a national organisation that the Canadian Jewish Congress readily provides.Local communities avoiding costly duplication should discharge their respective obligations with much greater success following an initial period of birth pangs.Jewish Voluntary Autonom- ism should mature within an integrated community.A.N.Whitehead\u2019s memento expresses most vividly the meaning of our conclusions: \u201cThe art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.\u201d Lavy Becker, Chairman of the World Jewish Congress Commission on Small Communities and an Honorary Vice-President of the Canadian Jewish Congress, has just returned from one of his periodic visits to a number of Jewish communities in the Caribbean, particularly Cuba.While there, he met with the Boards of Directors of the Jewish communities of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Kingston, Jamaica.He urged a strengthening of ties with world Jewry and encouraged them to continue their Jewish survival programs.According to Becker, the Cuban Jews have a tremendous sense of gratitude towards Canadian Jewish Congress who for 14 years have been respon- fsible for sending Passover products and for many services throughout the year.As a result, Jewish visitors from Canada are most welcome.For the first time in many years, the Cuban government granted special permission to arrange a Kabalat Ponim.Mgre, than.200, people, some LAVY BECKER VISITS CUBA 20% of the total Jewish community, attended and heard Becker\u2019s \u2018\u2018refarat\u201d in Yiddish which was translated into Spanish by Marcus Mattarin.While Becker met with many Jewish organisations, of special significance was his meeting with a member of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations.The meeting was arranged by the Canadian Embassy in order to discuss some special requirements of the Jewish community.Becker was encouraged by their positive responses.The condition of the Jewish community has not changed.They are still free to participate in all forms of Jewish life.The five synagogues are open and the Hebrew School is flourishing.Adult Hebrew classes still go on and Schechita is performed and Milah is still available.The Youth Group and its Hebrew-Yiddish Choral Society still function.Despite the fact that diplomatic relations with Israel were severed in August 1973, they were permitted to celebrate Yom Haatzmaut in 1974 and 1370., il tte fete of Con five! ped Haste fuel of Buen Thess polis © es! fsa TUS the cuit yong.the bon fongues white me awa ba tree thesbyss There dietionar several of pepe as secular fa ViédshR ea conf Rojan ind be bo | on the Thee ' fhienber Tomei tial con nes Ba Mein Vi rg] 4 Isp S4En soup Sages Au él the] Sour, ln ' 5 Phin\u201d wh 10085 log Hoveyg \u201c\u201cnèdian Er focus \u2018ler Nei thy a ftp i To Weta 8 they ie peron Bo.Si, the Ive iam ugh then nef, 80, ll: When ster, When le\u201d 4 ba Lin peans mou; nthe | nga jer | ils, ding 4 i di blige 7 su perd ono + bin à AN to er Ta slope: and pet.a il aie SI.JUNE 1978 BOOKS At last we have a single book that tells us something about that fine theme: the Yiddish Literature of Canada.It took Argentine initiative to create it.Canada has entered the 62-volume collection of Masterpieces of Yiddish Literature edited by Samuel Rojansky of Buenos Aires.The series is a large monument to his concerns and to his pedagogue\u2019s love of Yiddish.The book is a must for anyone interested in the culture of Canadian Jews.For anyone concerned seriously about the human culture in various tongues which were imposed by white men upon Canadian lakes, snow and wooded prairie this book is a treasure that reaches across the abyss of language.There are those for whom the dictionary of Yiddish has joined several other word thesauri of our people as one of our religious and secular faiths.For them who love Yiddish Rojansky\u2019s anthology will be a confirmation and a joy.Rojansky is an organised man and he has imposed organisation upon the jungle of these Jews\u2019 CONGRESS BULLETIN See Canada through Yiddish eyes.creativity.By the very divisions of the anthology he has made certain that we can read in Yiddish about the crossing of the oceans, the Canadian landscape, the Ghenna escaped and survived and about the charred scars it has left in the deepest part of us.There is also such phases of Jewish concern in Ca- nadaas Lermer\u2019s ideas on cultural pluralism, Rabinowitch\u2019s musicology, Dunsky\u2019s Midrash and Wiseman\u2019s pedagogy.Rojansky has made certain that we know of the many Yiddish writers from Canada.He has been generous in his definition of a writer.Orthographer might sometimes serve him as a synonyms.The number of writers is impressive.There are literally dozens of Montrealers in the book, several Torontonians and a Winnipegger.If he had scratched some more he could have added Edmonton\u2019s Hanson, Vancouver's Jaffe and Edenbridge\u2019s Ussishkin.He might have found place for Treister, Benjamin, Katz, Goodman, Shmuel- son, Malamut, Goldstein, Hirsch and others of earlier generations.Open as he is to disciplines beyond belles lettres he might have found space for the better known Rosenberg who is also a writer in Yiddish both in social science and in journalism.Brainin, Noveck, Bercovitch, Bercovici, Wolofsky, Krüäger, Belkin, Menachovsky, Rapaport, Mark, Ginsburg, Piet- rushka, Hershman and Rabbis Zlotnik, Hirsch, Cohen and Hirschprung could also have been included.It is easy to forgive the editor for his omissions.It is hard to draw a line and harder to keep it.We can be grateful for what he has given us.He works on a large canvas.He reminds us that Yiddish in Canada is not solely a heritage of the past.Some of his finest entries are dated in the seventies.One of his biggest names only began to publish his poems this half of the decade.Yehudah Elberg\u2019s most recent book, among the most powerful in Canadian literature, appeared too late for the anthology.The continuing vitality of Yiddish is one of the major miracles (is there a minor miracle?) in the history of Jewish languages.A bittersweet discovery of his Jewish Father\u2019s identity The Jewish Mother has been given her tull share of attention from wits, satirists, novelist social commentators and analysts.She has been the subject of a Second Avenue song, Mein Yiddishe Mama.The Liturgical praise, eschet chayil, has inspired jokes about chicken soup from thousands of stages.Author Philip Roth has dealt the legend, a dubious favour, in \u2018\u2018Portnoy'\u2019s Complaint\u201d which carried the myth tonew lows.However.in recent years two Canadian Jews have turned their focus on the Jewish father.Neither are professional authors and their writing has been in response to an inner imperative from those promptings they simply couldn\u2019t escape.The earlier writer, Morley Torgov, is a lawyer whose book.\u201cA Good Place to Come From\u201d deals with many phases of small town Jewish life in Northern Ontario.Much of the book centres on his father, an irascible retailer who settled in Sault Ste.Marie.The present writer is Paul Kligman, known to television viewers and playgoers throughout Canada as a versatile and gifted actor capable of serious roles, such as Sender in the Dybbuk.and for his many roles \u201cin çomedy.His book \u201cIt All n Ends Up A Shopping Bag\u201d published by McClelland and Stewart relates the discovery of his father.To him this discovery.takes place only after the parent's sudden death\u2019of a.: heart attack in the late 1950's when Paul was performing i .the annual Toronto satirica .revue \u201cSpring Thaw\u2019\".Torgov\u2019s gnd Kligman's father have close parellels.Both weré Jewish, of the same generation and came from the same part of Eastern Europe (Ukraine) after the Russian Revolution.Both settled in Winnipeg and Torgov later moved eastward to the Sault.Both were retailers, one in women\u2019s wear and one in food products.Both were men who had exposure in their youth to traditional Judaic learning, having studied at Yeshiva or its equivalent and were familiar with sacred lore.Definitely not amaratzim.In both cases the storm and stress of North America, the rat race of scratching and clawing for a livelihood badly eroded their learning and piety leaving the shtetl lifestyle far behind.Both had problems in their married lives.The elder Torgov clearly failed, having struck out twice in two marriages.The elder Kligman\u2019s marriage was clearly a love match.However, in + .later years his push for success as a retail grocer never seemed to draw the kind of response he felt he was entitled to from his wife.Both men were strong- willed, determined, irascible, quick-tempered and stubborn, who found Canada a hard row to plow but who would never go back to the harassing destructiveness they had left behind in the Eastern European environment.One way or another each found their own kind of adjustment tothe Canadian scene.Moishe Kligman put all his hopes, yearnings, zeal and his sister-in-law\u2019s savings, into his - Spanish Court grocery in Winnipeg.He could never under- \u201cstand why his wife and two children failed to share his single-minded ambition.In the end he was to die alone in his apartment having just closed and daughter were abroad and his son in Toronto.The store, his life\u2019s goal, died with him.Paul Kligman discovered his father only after his death.Flying home from Winnipeg, talking to the airline stewardess who came to the store as a little girl, the police officer-who surrendered his effects, a chance meeting with a salesman when closing the store.Casual occurrences, but they bring a flood of startling memories which provide new insights and revelations that he had never guessed about \u201cthe old man\u201d.The elder Kligman, incidentally, was capable of turning away hundreds of dollars worth of reparations from a \u201cpop\u201d company insisting on a kind of higher justice that responded more to his sense of due retribution or \u201csatisfaction\u201d as he called it and which he eventually received.Oddly enough, it was from these strangers, all Gentiles, who gave him a new perception about his father and the gnawing need to put it all down in writing, which has given us this book.Kligman has arranged a glossary of Yiddish expressions which include a Ukrainian one his mother used to ask his father not to beat him as a child.The expressions are listed in order of sacred, secular, and vulgar.Clearly a sequence in keeping with the type of person Moishe Kligman was.One wonders why a certain one fecal noun is given a euphemistic translation while a similar adjective is treated more literally.We don\u2019t know if Kligman has helped create a new literary genre but it is a welcome contribution to Jewish Cana- diana andstoits sub-category of Western belle-lettres.thé store for'the night.His wifet \"1\"! \u2014B!G! RAYFETZ He has been generous in his welcome and hospitality.His well peopled democracy gives an impression of civic equality in his kingdom of the pen.Furthermore, the framework he has chosen for marshalling them takes us far from literature.Almost by definition literature excludes numbers and crowds and even bridles at company.From the vantage point of his Masterpieces of Yiddish Literature the collection is self-de- feating.Scores of writers of masterpieces?On his title page the editor is more modest.He calls his anthology \u201cfragments of research on the nature and the recollections\u201d of Canada.In point of fact there are litterateurs among the scores.Three, four, \u2014 want to make it five?This reader stops after Segal, Ravitch, Rachel Corn and Husid.But this anthology does them no justice.It is not only that the men are lost among the boys.It is not only that Ravitch has only one poem while Shemen has more pages than Husid and Ravitch together.More important: you cannot fit individual persons \u2014 each a voice for a universe \u2014 into the 8-chapter framework established by the editor.The reader has to meet them in their own world, their own colour, experience their dreams, think their own ganglions in their own media.When Rojansky will edit volumes on each of them in his Masterpieces series \u2014 hopefully soon \u2014 he will use another mode for making his selections.As it is, Canada and its Jewry come through in this collection better than its great Yiddish artists.There have been so few books on Canadian Jewry in recent decades that our debt to the Argentinian editor and publisher is consid- \u2018erable even if, inevitably, weaknesses may be found under the microscope.Translations into French and English, with or without some revisions, are in order.\u2014 DAVID ROME Husid\u2019s yiddish poems An important yiddish poet in our midst has published his second collection.How to tell of his Yiddish mood and value to readers who do not read that Jewish language and possibly do not read poetry all?Not even short ones.Perhaps one way is to translate some of his own words (not poems) and let their colour do their many things to whoever turns our pages.The words in hisambiguous title are characteristic: Is it \u201cA Shadow Carries my Crown\u201d or is it \u201cMy Crown Wears a Shadow?\u201d The last poem in the collection evokes the eternal shadow carrying away the man of crowns, leaving but a trace of man, a smudge on paper.Our book.The poet told Sister Marie Noelle and colleague-painter, Jan Menses, that the first reading of the title is his own.In a Husid poem it is not phrasing that aids the reading.Rather it is the images splashed on the canvas.The echoes of his Yiddish words do the painting.In his poem \u201cWhat Matters to God a Ceiling?\u201d his words paint heavenly choristers, a piercing Satan, creaking choirs, weeping tables, a nervous whistle, crawling thoughts, straying patriarchs, forgetful unbeljevers, vanishing actors and my$\u20acinging cradle.The poet\u2019s words and images are not only his own inherited share but are the common heritage of his Jewish world, - impregnated and pregnant at its richest Yiddish.So with Jewish words and Jewish images Husid speaks his Jewish dreams in authentic idiom of twentieth-century Yom Kippur.Not for the smoothies: a decorated church on empty Jew Street, with Him on a silent cross and a priest singing Halleluyah while a mob kneels.Suddenly He burns in anger, drives His dream into my face.He Fears: have I made Him into a Gentile?In another poem on an Image of Jesus, Goyim find sickly pleasure in the holy days in watching a bleeding Jew hang high in all their churches.: Of all the situations, past and future! of which he s'keerdy aware Splash with Imagery not the least is of children playing and learning, folk women experiencing and bearing, the simple man joking, games and idioms, folklore and tale.His words and stance are real to the thinking man and to the sensitive man.But that does not make them distant from those enslaved tothe day.In today\u2019s universe of the Jewish myth Husid strides comfortably and without condescension permits us at his side.Beyond the Chumash-trounded Jewish galaxy he is sometimes cosmically reconciled to the meaningless of the other Milky Ways.But even so can he be satisfied to blame it all on God?Does the universe owe us nothing?So for 150 pages there are experiences worthy of communication.What is poetry for?Not for many of us, we are sometimes told.Possibly.It matters not.It is certainly for some.: That suffices so that the reality of mankind can subsist.The rest of mankind lives on their dragging coattails.Or, on anoth@level, how can we educate a Jewis®vhild or an adult to honest citizenship that will not be deceived?How to make a man or woman out of a child, or out of an adult?Teaching them (a) the words, (b) the images and (c) the instants of a Husid poem can doit.His own self-portrait is a love poem: \u201cMy Life isin you.Go, facing joy.We have turned the heads of clouds.The sun turned like a red spider.The crow crowed.Who heard them?Now I fear the demanding earth, The winds will bring you a dress of flowers, Trees will freshen in the lap of days, Drunken taverns will flee, But ask: \u2018He had been among you; Which eye had seen him?\" IEA \u2014BEN TAUBE WAT Ey CONGRESS BULLETIN SIX MILLION REMEMBERED JUNE 1975 \u201cForgetfulness leads to exile, while Remembrance is the secret of Redemption.\u201d .Baal-Shem Tov Yom Hashoah, the 27th Day of Nissan has been designated by Israel as a day of mourning commemorating our 6,000,000 martyrs and heroes.Canadian Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly 1974 officially adopted it for the Canadian Jewish community.The day has special significance.It is the anniversary of the heroic uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto against their German oppressors.To encourage each region to hold special services the National Holocaust Committee distributed kits containing material on the planning and observance of Yom Hashoah.We provided information, guidance, speakers plus appropriate prayers.This year Yom Hashoah was observed from St.John\u2019s, Newfoundland to Vancouver in a meaningful YOM HASHOAH 1975 way that will leave a lasting impression on everyone who attended these services.The programs were impressive and one of the greatest satisfactions was in the participation of youth.\\ In addition to observances, many communities organized teach-ins, group discussions, special school programs, lectures, movies and dramatic presentations.More than 6,000 people in Canada attended special services.in Vancouver 400 people were present at a commemoration which was also attended by Christian clergy.Calgary held a community- wide observance with local rabbis and cantors participating.survivors and children lit the memorial candles.700 persons in Winnipeg attended commemoration services where Genia Silkes, a former teacher ini\" the \u201cundergroind- held\" Jewish schools in Poland, was the main speaker.she also spoke to students at Jewish schools and at the University of Manitoba.participated in the ceremony of renaming one of the city streets to \u201cAvenue of the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes\u201d for the week of the commemoration.in Toronto more than 2,000 people attended special services where Gerda Klein, a Jewish writer an® a survivor, gave the major address.candles were lit by school children and children of survivors.there was a display of literary materials by the Jewish Public Library and of Holocaust artifacts at the Beth Tzedec Museum.Commemoration services were held in London.the speaker was Chava Kwinta.A Memorial Assembly took place in Windsor.about 300 people in Hamilton attended commemorative services.a public tribute wa and it\" some 250 people .tended by 300 persons.500 persons viewed a display held in the Jewish Community Centre.in Montreal about 1,000 persons attended a com- munity-wide Com - memoration.a Teach-In on the Holocaust was held at the Jewish Public Library.The Holocaust Memorial Committee, Eastern Region, in cooperation with the Nathan Igelield Foundation of the Jewish Public Library sponsored a memorial weekend seminar on the \u201cAnthology of Holocaust\u201d Literature.a program was held at the Bialik High School with the participation of a number of survivors who acted as resource persons for groups of students.Memorial Services were held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.tributes to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising were made by the Polish Friends of Israel and the Polish Canadian Congress.In St.a ie Oh B\u2019nai Israel.the congregation there erected a monument in memory of the Six Million.This year marked the thirtieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany and the liberation of the infamous concentration camps.survivors of Nazi Oppression held liberation rallies and special ceremonies with the participation of Government and community leaders.While these commemorative services were well programmed with excellent attendance we cannot permit ourselves to stop there.The ignorance of our tragic past is frightening.Knowledge of the catast- rophies of the Holocaust is so vague that it is imperative for all of us tomake a greater effort in the field of education in order to remember this period of history.Aba Beer, Chairman.es = tior 1 RY t.CE Hiolosavs Below: Sha'er§ Dr.Wan Hein, Ps cus Cant JUNS-1078 Far Left: Toronto Holocaust Remembrance Commemoration held at Beth Tzedec Synagogue.Right: In Winnipeg Rene Tou- pin, Minister of Tourism unveils the sign designating a street to be called \u2018\u201cAvenue of the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes\u2019.Attending the ceremony are left to right: Rabbi L.Berkal, J.J.Wilder, S.Leszcz, Harold Buchwald, (in front of the ladder), Phil Wal- dman, Councillor Abe Yanefsky, Rabbi L.Nesis, Genia Silkes, a survivor of the Uprising.Below: Halifax Service at Sha\u2019ar Shalom Synagogue with Dr.Warren Harvey, Rabbi Leo Heim, Paul Zive, Michael Marcus, Cantor George Lecherman.AWARDED Sigmund Unterberg was presented with an \u2018\u201c\u2018Award of Service\u2019 from the Jewish Immigration Aid Services for his significant contribution to Jewish immigration and welfare.This award carries with it the profound gratitude of JIAS, the community and the numerous newcomers the Agency has rescued and helped in their resettlement and rehabilitation.Mr.Unterberg was associated with the JIAS for many years in his capacity as Executive Treasurer of the Canadian Jewish Congress and Executive Director of the United Jewrish Relief-Agenejes.CONGRESS BUDGET 3.Community relations The National Joint Community Relations Committee (JCRC) and regional JCRC\u2019s are joint programs of Canadian Jewish Congress and B\u2019nai Brith.They are staffed by Congress and fully serviced by Congress.They are charged with the development of programs to foster good relationships between the Jewish and non-Jewish community.The National Committee through its various regional offices has been keeping a close watch on hate mongering activities carried on by various neo-Nazi and similar groups in various parts of the country.The work of Eastern Region JCRC has been greatly increased due to numerous bills of the Quebec National Assembly which required lengthy briefs to represent the position of the Jewish community.Central Region JCRC has field of human rights and civil liberties, dealing with outbursts of anti-Semitism.The recurring question of religion in the public schools, the Western Guard party, the United Church Observer, in addition to relations with the growing black community of Toronto, have consumed a good deal of the central region time.4\u2014 National religious affairs There is every indication that the Jewish community accepts the National Religious Affairs Committee as its religious voice authorised to speak for all shades of opinion.Efforts are continuously made to expand and strengthen this support.A national conference is being planned which will bring together religious leaders, rabbinic and lay, from all across Canada.A National Synagogue Council would be established and fully integrated within the framework of the Canadian Jewish Congress.The area of interfaith activity becomes increasingly important in view of the international developments such as theissuanceof the Vatican guidelines, international conferences with World Council of Churches, etc.It is envisaged that an ongoing association with the Canadian Catholic Conference will be established and arrangements will be made with the Protestant community (Canadian Council of Churches).This committee will service the cause of Israel through contacts with Christian groups.5\u2014 Youth: Canadian Union of Jewish students.The Canadian Union of Jewish Students, organised in 1969-70, is a national student organisation designed to assist groups at universities with small Jewish populations to organise effective Jewish programming on campuses.In September, 1974, the structure of CUJS was revamped.There are approximately 20 univer- over the years worked in the\" + sities requiring services from: Page 11 (CONCLUSION) CUJS and at this writing 17 have been visited by the field worker.6.National archives program Archival work in the Jewish community has suffered greatly over the past few years from a lack of funding and personnel.This situation is now being rectified.There are full- time archivists in Toronto and Montreal.Active lay committees have been organised and material has been catalogued.There are enormous tasks to be done.7\u2014National Holocaust The National Committee was organised for the purpose of bringing national imput into the planning and development of holocaust programming.Efforts are being made to compile teaching tools for Jewish and non-Jewish educators.8.Canadian jewish museum The relatives of Samuel Bronfman, CC, who have established a fund to create a Canadian Jewish Museum.9.Education CJC has always maintained that Jewish education has a high priority.Educational programs are carried out by CJC which serve to intensify Jewish identity.In the Central Region over 20 isolated Jewish communities are visited regularly.Jewish Music Month and Jewish Book Month are being expanded.Congress serves basically as a coordinating agency.Minimal community dollars are_spent with increasing results.10.Yiddish During the past five years, the National Yiddish Committee has become the recognised body for Yiddish activity.Efforts are being made to introduce Yiddish courses into the post-secondary educational institutions and to ensure that the current \u201cYiddish revival\u201d continues.11.Community services A lack of staff time and funds has severely hampered CJC in developing adequate programming for smaller Jewish communities.In keeping with the recommendations of the NBC Sub-committee on CJC we have allocated greater staff time and for exporting Jewish content programming.NATIONAL AFFAIRS The National Foreign Affairs Committee of Congress recently convened in Toronto.Matters traversed included Soviet Jewry conditions in Roumania, Syria, Cuba and Eritrea, restitution from the German Democratic Republic (East .Germany) and the European Conference on Security and Cp-operation. A HANDBOOK OF INFORMATION ON THE MIDDLE EAST In an effort to counter Arab mythology regarding Israel, Joe King, Director of Public Relations for AJCS, Montreal, has compiled a 40-page reference booklet directed at the main thrust of Arab propaganda.Scores of books, papers and studies have been written about Israel\u2019s right to exist which perhaps have muddied the issues for many who have sincerely looked for answers when trying to cope with Arab propaganda.\u201cBackground to Conflict\u201d takes an orderly, unemotional overview of the propaganda that Arabs have been grinding out in order to undermine Israel\u2019s position in the world.King uses authoritative, well-documented information which answers the basic Arab charges against Israel such as the refugees, who started what war, the British Mandate, the terrorists, the United Nations and provides answers on other specific problems.The booklet sells for $1.00 each but diminishes is price with bulk orders.ABBEY T0 BE HONOURED Monroe Abbey, CJC Honorary President, will be honoured by Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal at a State of Israel Bond Dinner June 18.Ambassador Michael Comay, Israel\u2019s first Ambassador to Canada and Special Advisor to the State of Israel\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be the evening\u2019s special guest speaker.ÿ T,X | 6cu+ D i Zoom |! 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