Page 4-THE NEWS-February, 1986
WORLD BEAT
edited by Marta Garelik
Increase In Cult Activities
(JTA) — There has been a
significant increase in cult ac
tivity within Israel. These
groups include:
♦ Transcendental Medita
tion, whose plans to construct
a kibbutz in Migdalim in the
West Bank have been approv
ed by the Jewish Agency. The
Health Ministry in Israel was
unaware until recently that
TM was not only a therapeutic
but also a religious group.
* Hare Krishna, a sect of an
Eastern religion, recently had
two of its members tour
Israel’s major cities and
deliver talks to large audiences
in an attempt to gain recruits
for their planned kibbutz.
* Church of Scientology,
headed by Ron Hubbard, is
one of the largest groups ac
tive in Israel. It has been
reported that 20 percent of the
teachers in the Beersheba
educational system are affirm
ed Scientologists. The Church
has translated Hubbard’s
basic book, “Dianetics,” into
Hebrew.
♦ Unification Church headed
by Rev. Sun Myung Moon,
has attempted to gain legiti
macy for its organization by
inviting on a regular basis top
Israeli professors to con
ferences sponsored by Church
“front” organizations.
Free Health Insurance Chopped
JERUSALEM (JTA) - The
Knesset Finance and House
committees acted to end free
health insurance for some
4,000 people, including
Cabinet ministers and their
deputies, judges of the civil
and religious courts and
Knesset members themselves.
Senior civil servants whose
wages are linked to those of
deputy Cabinet rank, are
threatened as well with cuts in
their health benefits.
The beneficiaries were en
titled to free coverage both at
home and abroad. For Knesset '
members and their spouses,
the benefits were a lifetime
privilege. Their children were
covered up to the age of 18.
Knesset members received
over a half billion Shekels in
health insurance funds during
the first half of fiscal 1985.
The Finance Committee has
allowed for appeals and a
special subcommittee will hear
appeals from the judiciary.
Gentile Teaching Holocaust
Message To Gentile Community
NEW YORK (JTA) - The
New York State Board of
Regents honored both a
teacher and a school volunteer
for outstanding contributions
to Holocaust education.
The 1985 av ard went to
Clayton Adams of Kenmore,
New York. Adams, a social
studies teacher in Kenmore
West Senior High School,
created an elective Holocaust
Studies course 14 years ago
£ind has been teaching the sub
ject since then.
In accepting his award,
Adams told the Regents: “The
Holocaust is not the private
suffering of the Jews and
other victims of the Nazis. It
was and should be treated as
a public tragedy. I want my
students to understand that it
was mankind’s disaster and
that its message and its im
pact didn’t stop 40 years ago.”
He pointed out that most of
his students are not Jewish.
Arab Birth Rate Exceeding
That Of Jews
JERUSALEM (JTA) - The
Arab birth rate in Israel and
the administered territories
exceeds that of Jews, accord
ing to the latest figures releas
ed by the Central Bureau of
Statistics. In 1984 there were
78,600 births among the Arab
population compared to
74,500 Jewish births.
About 24,000 of the Arabs
were born in Israel proper and
30,400 in the West Bank. The
balance of Arab births was in
the Gaza Strip. Demographic
experts expect this trend to
continue in the coming years.
In 1984, 3,472,000 Jews lived
in Israel and the territories
compared to two million
Arabs under Israeli
jurisdiction.
House Approves Bill Requiring
Universities To Disclose
Foreign Donor Gifts
(JTA) — The House legisla
tion, requiring universities to
disclose sizeable gifts from
foreign donors, was introduc
ed by Rep. Robert Matsui (D.-
Calif.) and was passed in
December. Based on a propo
sal drafted by American
Jewish Congress lawyers, the
bill is designed to discourage
intrusions on academic
freedom by foreign sources
that attempt to tie political or
propaganda strings to such
gifts or obtain exclusive rights
to university research find
ings. Such arrangements have
become increasingly common
in recent years.
Similar legislation is ex
pected to come before the
Senate this year.
Roman Tombs Provide
Priceless Information About
Italian Jews
(JTA) — Scholars estimate
that in Imperial Rome, under
ground labyrinths were lined
with up to 100,000 tombs. The
tombs provide priceless infor
mation on the daily lives of
Jews in the earliest European
diaspora. The Italian Jewish
community is seeking finan
cial support and archaeolog
ical expertise to aid in Italian
Jewry’s mainteneuice of the
catacombs which will no
longer be under the custody of
the Vatican but will become
the Italian government’s
responsibility.
Since Italy’s reunification in
1870, and more formally since
the 1929 Concordant between
the Italian government and
the Holy See, some Jewish and
Christian catacombs in Italy
have been under the control of
the Vatican’s Pontifical Com
mission for Sacred Art.
In February 1984, the Secre
taries of the State of Italy and
of the Vatic£m signed a revis
ed version of the Concordant
under which the Holy See
agreed to relinquish its
management of all “non-
Christian” catacombs.
Though Italy’s 35,000 Jews
had long and anxiously
awaited this move, they now
fear that lack of funds and ar-
chaeologicsd know-how might
well impede the restoration,
further exploration and, above
all, conservation of the
catacombs.
There are about a dozen ma-
jor Jewish catacombs —
underground burial networks
going back to the first century
BCE and spanning the next
five — known to have existed
in Italy. Archaeological ex
plorations dating back to the
1600’s testify to their ex
istence in Rome, Sicily, Sar
dinia and the southern region
of Apulia — especially Venosa
and Bari.
The epigraphs in the cata
combs — about 75 percent in
Greek, most of the rest in
Latin and a small number in
Hebrew — reveal the wide
range of arts, trades, and pro
fessions of early Italian Jews:
from the artists, actors and
scribes to lawyers, bankers,
physicians, merchants and
sailors — sis well as their fam
ily, social and religious
community.
Most of the Jewish cata
combs were plundered in the
long centuries before the
Vatican authorities took over
their supervision, and their
treasures still surface at
private auctions. These thefts
stopped with the Vatican take
over in 1929.
Laws Drafted To Curtail
Press Freedom In Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) - At
torney General Yitzhak Zamir
disclosed to a shocked and
outraged audience of journa
lists that certain government
quarters have drafted dracon
ian laws which would severely
curtail freedom of the press if
they were ever to be adopted.
The bill presently under con
sideration by the Cabinet
would forbid the media from
publishing the names of a
suspect until the person has
been formally charged with an
offense. “There are values of
freedom of the press and of the
public’s right to know,” Zamir
said, “but they cannot sup
plant the right of an individual
who stands defenseless
against the might of the
media.”
Tid-Bits
TEL AVIV (JTA) - A
69-year-old resident of Acre,
known locally as the pick
pocket champion of the Soviet
Union, was sentenced by the
Acre magistrate’s court to five
months in prison and a
250.000 Shekel (nearly $200)
fine — for pickpocketing. Ask
ed by the judge why he con
tinued picking pockets from
passers-by after he had come
to Israel he replied: “That’s
my profession.”
•
TEL AVIV (JTA) - Mice
on the Golan Heights are com
mitting suicide in large
numbers by leaping to their
deaths off high cliffs. Scien
tists explain the phenomenon
as an instinctive response to
over-population. The sudden
shortage of mice is being felt
by the Golan Heights owl
population, which depend for
their food on a plentiful supply
of rodents.
•
JERUSALEM (JTA) -
Three hundred and thirty
thousand Jews have emi
grated from Israel since the
establishment of the State.
These figures are substantial
ly lower than previous esti
mates of between 500,000 and
750,000. The report, compiled
by the Central Bureau of
Statistics, edso noted that a
further 120,000 non-Jews had
left during this period. Some
170.000 “yordim” (emigrants)
live in the U.S., according to
the report. Thirty-two thou
sand of them are academical
ly educated, including about
8.000 engineers.
•
NEW YORK (JTA) - The
editors of The New York
Times Book Review magazine
selected “The Abandonment
of the Jews: America and the
Holocaust 1941-1945,” by
David Wyman as one of the 10
best books of 1985.
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