Page 2-THE NEWS-December, 1985
Editorial
On The Issues •••••• By lraGiSMn,Va/NC Director ADL
I*m On Everyone^s ^^Pitch** List!
Have you noticed the deluge of “junk” mail you
Eire receiving? I have... notices from “would-be” baby
sitters (I now have an empty nest) ...free gifts, if I
will inspect various resort communities/condos with
my spouse in certain areas in the mountains and
along the shore... locations, many of which I not on
ly have never been to, but never have heard of. Let
ters come from stock brokers, insurance companies,
banks. Visa cards, oil companies, etc. Catalogs
galore... fruit baskets costing as much as a whole
week’s groceries, toys, jewelry, plants, farm
machinery, the list goes on eind on, from towns that
£iren’t even on the map. Then there Eire the notices
that tell me that I received a brochure or sample or
notice in my mail. Now really! I not only get these
addressed to me, my husband, my children (they do
not live at home), occupsint, but also my neighbors,
some as feir away as a mile.
And oh, those requests for contributions! More and
more organizations each year... most of whom must
just emerge during the holiday season and then dis
appear during the rest of the year.
If this isn’t enough, how about the phone calls that
begin... “Hello! Are you the lady of the house? How
are you today?” And then in a monotone, they read
on indefinitely, until I finally ask them what they £ire
selling and then hang up. One morning, I received
seven of these calls ranging from “Congratulations,
you have just won a prize which you can pick up if
you answer the following question. What state pro
duced the most presidents... Va., Ohio or N.Y.?”
Naturally I answered Va. and then told the girl I was
not interested in what she had to offer.
Then there was the handicapped person who call
ed again, and again, and again (five times this past
month) to sell light bulbs. I have compassion for these
people who unfortunately make their living this way,
£ind bulbs do bum out rather rapidly today, but to
call five times!! How about the pitch that you’re call
ing for a Senior Citizen group (which I had never
heard of) and want to sell 50-gallon plastic trash bags
to me. I don’t even have a trash can that size! Or the
gal, who must have a wad of bubble gum in her
mouth, trying to convince me that I need siding... I
have an all brick home. Or how about The Charlotte
Observer representative who wants to sell me a
subscription to their paper? I’ve only been receiving
the paper for over 23 years, 22 years at the same
location!
The last C£ill came when I finally had one foot out
the door to do my own shopping. It was from the Viet
nam Veterans (a womgin with a decided foreign ac
cent) selling skating tickets.
During the dinner hour it started all over again...
the surveys began. “Would you mind answering a few
questions for me?” The questions became more 2ind
more involved as he continued. Knowing that they
get paid for these surveys, I tried to oblige, only to
find that I hadn’t even finished my soup when my
husband was asking for his dessert. So be it for
surveys from here on in.
To top all of this, invariably I receive phone calls
for Eastern Airlines, Coplon’s and Piedmont Employ
ment, as well as for private pgirties whose numbers
are so different from mine that the callers must be
dialing with their toes. And oh, those children who
love to play “telephone” and refuse to hang up!
There are times I wish that I could take the phone
off the hook (but then, maybe, someone important
might just try to reach me). How often I’ve been
tempted to get an unlisted phone number, but that
would really drive my husband’s business associates
Euid the “CJN” readership crazy... how would they
be able to contact us?
Maybe now that '85 is almost over, the selling craze
will stop, the philanthropies will wait again until next
fall, and the developments will have sold all their
units. Then and only then wiU I look forward to the
click of my mail box and the ring of the telephone.
HAPPY 1986 TO YOU ALL!
— R.M.
Anti'Semitism on the Farm
The Populist Party is the
major right wing extremist
organization in the nation at
tempting to exploit the farm
crisis by recruiting distressed
farmers.
It is closely linked to the
anti-Jewish Liberty Lobby
propaganda organization bas
ed in Washington and headed
by Willis A. Carto, who is a
member of the Party’s Ex
ecutive Committee. Liberty
Lobby is the most profession^
and successful anti-Jewish
propaganda organization in
the United States. Populist
Party activitists have been in
volved in the neo-Nazi move
ment, the Ku Klux Klan, arm
ed paramilitary organizations
and other hate groups.
The Party’s campaign to
make inroads among Ameri
can farmers is based on
simplistic and extremist solu
tions to the farm crisis. Por
traying itself as a reincar
nation of the 19th century
Populist Movement, it seeks
to cloak itself in seeming
respectability; it put forward
a Presidential candidate in the
1984 election, former track
star Bob Richards, an Olympic
Gold Medalist, who received
66,000 votes in 14 states.
Richards has since left the
Party.
Its efforts to attract Ameri
can farmers went into high
gear in March of this year
after a strategy session held in
Chicago. Specific outreach to
Letters to the Editor
New England Couple Support Shalom Park
Phyllis and Howard Kaplan
of Swanscott, Mass., recently
sent a $500 contribution to the
Foundation. Their total contri
butions now are over $1,000.
Mr. Kaplan, owner of Pocket
Point, a line of garment bags,
travel kits and tote bags, has
been giving 10% of each pur
chase made by “Yours Truly
Needlepoint” to the Founda
tion.
Very active in Jewish ac
tivities in the Boston area,
Howard is president of Temple
Israel, Swsmscott; both are
very involved with the Jewish
Rehabilitation Home of the
North Shore, of which Howard
is president.
When they were in Charlotte
for the recent Southern
Women’s Show, my wife
Lynn, with the help of some of
her “Yours Truly” customers,
manned their booth. For this
help, “Yours Truly” was given
a generous gift of Pocket
Point merchandise. After they
arrived home they mailed the
$500 check and the following
note to Lynn:-
“It w£is nice to see a peu-t of
Charlotte we haven’t seen
before and getting to see
Shalom Park was a treat.
After seeing your new Center
and the dedication of you and
your friends, please accept this
personal check from Phyllis
and me to the Foundation
which you so ably support.”
— Sam Lerner
farmers was a central aspect
of the Party’s 1984 national
convention. Liberty Lobby’s
publication, The Spotlight,
which promotes the Populist
Party, also targets farmers
with articles on the farm situa
tion and their plight in almost
every issue. Conspiracy
theories are often advanced in
these articles to explain the
difficulties faced by farmers.
Although the Party achiev
ed official ballot status last
year in Midwestern farm
states, there is little evidence
that the Party’s outreach to
farmers has met with any
significant success. To the
credit of leaders of farm
organizations, to date no
Populist Party representative
has been permitt^ to address
farmers from the platform of
any major farm meeting or ral
ly. Nevertheless, the Populist
Party message is spread every
week in the pages of The
Spotlight, which has a circula
tion of more than 150,000.
The Party is a vehicle
launched to promote the agen
da of Liberty Lobby. It repre
sents the latest effort by the
Lobby’s leader, Willis Carto,
to generate an aura of legiti
macy for this 30-year-old pro
gram of bigotry. Carto has
called the defeat of Adolf
Hitler “the defeat of America”
and blamed it on “inter
national Jews.” The strategy
is, in effect, to use the Populist
Party as a “Trojan Horse” to
break through the boundaries
separating mainstream Ameri
can politics from extremism.
The Populist Party, previous
ly housed in Liberty Lobby’s
headquarters building in
Washington, DC, is now
located in San Diego, CA. In
addition to close involvement
with Liberty Lobby, some im
portant activists in the
Populist Party have links to
other extremist organizations.
They include:
• Jerry Pope, chairman of
the Kentucky Populist Party,
a veteran figure in the Na
tional States Rights Party, the
virulently anti-Semitic and
racist political vehicle of
Georgia hatemonger J.B.
Stoner.
• Van Loman, chairman of
the Ohio Populist Party and
its candidate for the Cincin
nati City Council, previously
Grand Dragon of the Ohio
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
• Keith Shive, acting chair
man of the Populist Party of
Kansas, a militant anti-Semite
and the self-proclsdmed leader
of the “Farmers Liberation
(cont’d on page 19)
THE CHARLOTTE JEWISH NEWS
Published monthly by:
Charlotte Jewish Federation Marvin Bienstock, Director
Foundation of Charlotte Jewish Community
Jewish Community Center
N.C. Hebrew Academy Qeanor Weinglass, Director
Lubavitch of N.C Rabbi Yossi Groner, Director
Editor Rita Mend
Advertising Blanche Yarus
Copy deadline the 10th of each month
P.O. Box 13369. Charlotte. N.C. 28211
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