Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1989-06-15

              Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community for Over 60 Years
VOL. 67   NO. 24
JUNE 15, 1989-SIVAN 12
Devoted to American
ond Jewish Ideals.
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PLO Informs U.S. It Might Accept
Israeli Plan If Conditions Are Met
Temple Israel Religious School students (top photo, 1. tor.)
Aaron Robbins, April Ehmann, Megan Bloom and Adam Lin-
hart, present a check for $400, collected from the school's
Passage To Freedom fundraising drive* to Rabbi Leonid
Feidman, (center) keynote speaker for the May 3t, "Passage
To Freedom" Solidarity Gathering held at Temple Israel.
The Torah Academy Choir, (bottom photo), composed of
American and Sovief-born day school students, provided a
musical medley for the evening's entertainment,
Columbus Shows Solidarity
For'Passage To Freedom'
On May 31, over 400 Jewish
community members gathered at Temple Israel in a
show of solidarity and support for the Columbus Jew-
, ish Federation's "Passage to
Freedom" community
event.
Co-sponsored by the Federation and Jewish Family
Services; the evening reaffirmed the community's
commitment to New Americans, as stated by Rita
Cohen, Temple Israel president, in her opening welcome remarks:
A musical medley was per-
formed by the Torah
Academy youth choir, composed  of  American  and
, Soviet-born day school students, with introductions
presented bottL. in Russian
and English,
During the evening,
Sherrod Brown, Ohio secre-,
tary of state and a past supporter of Jewish concerns,
presented a proclamation
and official designation from
Governor Richard Celeste
declaring May 28 through
-June 4, "Passage To Freedom" Week;
Miriam Yenkin, "Passage
To Freedom" Campaign
vice-chairwoman spoke of
the Soviet Jews' plight in
emigrating from the Soviet
Union and the obstacles
faced. "Forty-thousand
Soviet Jews need a different
demonstration of support
... support of the historic
Passage To Freedom Campaign to raise funds now!" ,
Holly Kastan, JFS Resettlement Committee co-chair,
thanked the many volunteers for their hard work and
dedication and focused on
the variety of programs to
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)
, PARIS (JTA) - A ranking
official of the Palestine Liberation Organization indicated last week that the PLO
could reverse its position on
the Israeli peace initiative,
which it has so far flatly
rejected.
But Yasir Abed Rabbo, a
member of the PLO's executive committee, made Clear
that certain conditions would
have to be met with respect
to the Palestinian elections
IsraeTproposes in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
Rabbo spoke to reporters
in Tunis just before meeting
with the U.S. ambassador to
Tunisia, Robert Pelletreau.
Pelletreau is, the only
American diplomat authorized to have official contact
with the PLO; Their meeting
was the third formal session
in the U.S.-PLO dialogue
that began Dec. 16.
It was the first U.S.-PLO
session since the Arab League summit meeting last
month in Casablanca,
Morocco, at whicb the Arab
states rejected the -Israeli
initiative,
Rabbo said he would ask
the American administration for detailed "clarifications" and said he hoped for
a "statement of principles"
that could help the PLO
change its negative position
on the election plan.
The PLO's primary condition is a commitment from
Washington that Israeli
troops will be pulled out of
the territories before the
elections and that Arabs in
East Jerusalem will be
allowed to vote.
It also wants international
Agudas Achim, NCSY Receives
'Sustained Excellence1 Award
. The Central East Regional
Board of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth
bestowed the honor of "Sustained Excellence" on the
Agudas Achim Ohr Chadash
NCSYChapter at -the
Twenty-First Annual Regional Convention held at
Camp Wise May 25-29.    '.
NCSY is the youth arm of
the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Through educational,
cultural, social and recreational activities, NCSY
enables today's Jewish
youth to experience a traditional, meaningful Torah
lifestyle.
Agudas Achim Synagogue
founded the Ohr Chadash
NCSY Chapter in the fall of
1985) under the guidance of
Rabbi Alan G. Ciner, and in
supervision of the polling
stations.
Pelletreau and the PLO
official held their dialogue at
a government-owned guest
house in Carthage, about 30
miles from Tunis.
As usual, each sat at a*
rectangular table; At their
first meeting, nearly six
months ago, the tables were
placed more than three feet
apart. At their second
meeting on March 22, they
were moved slightly closer.
At the meeting last week,
the tables torched. Experts
are pondering the diplomatic
significance, if any, of the
narrowing gap.
In Washington, Secretary
of State James Baker said
that the United States "got
into a fair amount of sub-
the spring of 1988, the chapter was recognized as the
Chapter of the Year. In
March of 1989, the Agudas
Achim Chapter hosted the
first Central East/Midwest
Inter-Regional Shabbaton,
which attracted over 350 participants.
Agudas Achim Ohr Chadash has become one of the
largest NCSY, Chapters in
the «ntire Central East
Regiona. "Its extensive programming has produced
youth involvement and participation in activities which
make Judaism relevant to
their lives," noted Rabbi
Ciner. This summer, the
Agudas Achim chapter is
sending a large contingent to
Israel on the National.NCSY
Israel Summer Seminar.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 12)
Community members enjoy a snack after donating blood
during last summer's Jewish Community Blood Drive at the
Leo Yassenoff Jewish Center. This year's drive will beheld
on July 5, also at the Center. -
Jewish Community Blood Drive
to Be Held July 5 At Center
The Jewish Community
Blood Drive will be held on
Wednesday, July 5, from
12:30-6:30 p.m. at The Leo
Yassenoff Jewish Center,"
1125 College Ave.
"Last July, 183 pints of
blood were collected,! which
was a 100 percent increase
over last summer's drive,"
said Christie Kaufman,
member of the Jewish Community Blood Donor Council,
which sponsors the two
drives each year. The council is made lip of representatives from all area synagogues, B'nai B'rith Mawa-
bee and Zion Lodges, B'nai
B'rith Women of Columbus,
Hadassah, Jewish War Veterans, Heritage Village Auxiliary, Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Center and the Columbus
III Tlie Chronicle
At The Center.,...,,..... II
At Hie Federation  5
Classified..,,.,,.,,,..,., 8
Editorial Features....... 2
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Obituaries.;,............ a
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Jewish Federation. Financial support for the drive- is
provided by the Federation,
several local companies and
private donations.
The blood drive is conducted under the supervision
of the Central Ohio Chapter
of the American Red Cross
and its trained staff.
Anyone wishing to make a
contribution may contact
Barbara Grundstein at
231-3696. ■ 7^...
stance" during the talks in
Tunis.
The talks dealt with "serious and practical ways that
we might progress, in a step-
by-step fashion, toward the
goal of a comprehensive
settlement, through negotiations based, of course, On
U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338."
Baker, answering questions after a luncheon ad^
dress to the National Press
Club, stressed that the U.S.
dialogue with the PLO
"should not be and cannot
be, as far as we are concerned, an end in and of
itself.
"It can only be productive
if it can move us forward
toward the goal of peace in
the Middle East," he said.
Speaker Of House
Friend Of Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
Rep. Thomas Foley (D-
Wash.), -who was elected
speaker of the U.S.House of'
Representatives last week,
is considered a good friend of
Israel and supporter of
issues of concern to the
Jewish community.
Foley was named by the
House to replace Rep. Jim
Wright (D-Texas), who
resigned as speaker after
being charged with ethics
violations.
The 60-year-old congressman from Spokane was
majority leader during the
little more than two years
Wright was speaker. He is
highly respected by both
Democrats and Republicans
and is known as a conciliator
and consensus-builder.7
"We are pleased that he
has been elected as speaker
of the House," said Jess
Hordes,  director  of  the
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 5)
Confirmation Services Held
At Tifereth Israel On June 9
Confirmation services
were held in honor of^tenth
grade students of the Tifereth Israel Hebrew High
School at Shavuot services
on Friday evening, June 9.
The evening began with a-
dairy dinner served in honor
of Shavuot and the confirmands. The dinner was pre-*
pared by the synagogue
staff. The confirmands presented special speeches at
the dinner.
Services in honor of Sha-
vout were conducted at 8.
The confirmands participated in the services and led
the congregation in all of the
prayers.
"We are very proud of the
members of the confirmation class," noted Debbie
Schwartz, educational director. "They have been outstanding students and their
participation in services
shows that they continue to
develop their synagogue
skills as well as their academic skills. I wish to
express my special thanks to
Margaret and Les Armstrong who prepared - a
marvelous meal for us for
Shabbat and Shavuot."
Members of the conf irma-
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 4)