Page 6-THE NEWS>January, 1988
«diteil by Marta Garelik
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Israeli Ambassador to
Head UNESCO^s European
Group of Nations
PARIS (JTA) — Israel has
been chosen to head the
United Nations Economic, So
cial and Cultural Organiza
tion’s 24-member European
Group of Nations at UNESCO’s
24th biennial session.
Yossef Amihud, Israel’s am
bassador to UNESCO, was
elected by acclamation to
serve as chairman of the group
for one year, starting Jan. 1. It
was the latest and most
impressive gain by Israel in
the traditionally anti-Israel
world body.
UNESCO is divided into
five groups of member states.
The European Group consists
of the 12 members of the Euro
pean Economic Community,
the four Scandinavian coun
tries, plus Switzerland, Tur
key, Malta, Cyprus and Israel.
The U.S. and Canada have ob
server status.
The other groups are Asia-
Pacific, Latin America, Eas
tern Europe, and Africa and
the Arab states.
The group chairmen serve as
liaisons between the director
general, the highest executive
of UNESCO, and the 158
member states comprising the
organization.
This is the first time Israel
was elected to head a UNESCO
group.
Budapest Mayor Vows
Never to Forget
Hungarian Holocaust Victims
NEW YORK (JTA) -
Budapest Mayor Pal Ivany
vowed “never to forget” the
600,000 Hungariein Jews who
were killed in the Holocaust.
Addressing more than 750
guests at a fundraising dinner
sponsored by the Emanuel
Foundation for Hungarian
Culture at the Grand Hyatt
Hotel, the mayor said that the
Hungarian government is
planning to erect “a special
monument” in Budapest in
memory of the Hungarian
Jews who perished at the
hands of the Nazis.
The Emanuel Foundation
was established here last year
to assist Hungarian Jewry,
and was named in honor of the
Hungarian-bom father of ac
tor Tony Curtis, who served as
chairman of the dinner. The
Foundation plans to restore
synagogues and other reli
gious buildings that were part
of the vibrant Jewish life in
Hungary prior to World War
II. Presently there are 100,000
Jews in Hungary, the largest
Jewish community in Eastern
Europe outside the Soviet
Union.
War Crimes Files
Opened to Public
NEW YORK (JTA) - The
United Nations war crimes
archives, containing files on
more than 40,000 suspected
Nazi w£U" criminals and their
collaborators, was opened re
cently to governments euid in
dividual researchers and his
torians.
The opening of the archives
is expected to help locate and
bring to justice many war
criminals who have found
shelter in various countries
around the world.
The archives, located at 345
Park Avenue South, 12th
floor, N.Y.C., contain hun
dreds of cartons of files.
UN Secretary General
Javier Perez de Cuellar said
that governments and re
searchers will be granted ac
cess only to microfilm versions
of the files £uid not the original
documents. Individuals who
want to enter the archives
have to submit an application
through their government to
the UN. Israeli citizens who
want to examine the files can
receive an application at the
Israeli Mission.
Nakash Deported to France
TEL AVIV (JTA) -
William Nakash, an Algerian-
bom Jew, was deported to
France after losing a two-year
battle against extradition that
raised the passions of nation
alist elements in Israel and pit
ted the rabbinical authorities
against the secular courts.
Nakash came to Israel in
1983 under an assumed name
and was granted automatic
citizenship under the Law of
Return. His identity was re>-
vealed when he was arrested
here for armed robbery. In the
interim he had become a baal
teshuvah — a Jew who returns
to the religious fold — and em
braced Orthodoxy.
He had fled to Israel to
escape an arrest warrant, was
tried in absentia for the crime,
convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment. The French
authorities agreed recently to
give him a second trial.
Liberal and left-wing circles
noted that a French court
found Nakash to have commit
ted a criminal act that had no
bearing on the fact that he is
a Jew and his victim was an
Arab. They argued that Israel
should not be turned into a
“haven for criminals just
because they happen to be
Jews.”
Court Upholds State Dept.
Order to Close
Washington PLO Office
WASHINGTON (JTA) -
The State Department was
acting within its legal rights
when it ordered the closing of
the Palestine Liberation Or
ganization’s information office
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here, a U.S. District Court
judge ruled.
The State Department deci
sion was an “expression of our
country’s resolve to go beyond
preachment and rhetoric in the
fight against terrorism. The
action by the State Depart
ment effectively declares that
all ideas are welcome in this
country, but the operating
centers of terrorist agencies
will not be tolerated.”
The State Department order
came in the wake of strong
pressure from Congress to
close both the information of
fice here and the PLO’s ob
server mission at the UN in
New York. The department
said it could close the
Washington office, which it
considered a foreign mission,
but not the UN office, because
of treaties with the United
Nations.
German City Reopens JCC
BONN (JTA) - A multi
million dollar synagogue and
Jewish community center
was opened recently in Frei
burg, in the state of Baden-
Wuertemberg, to replace the
synagogue destroyed by the
Nazis 49 years ago.
The new center was built on
land donated by the local
authorities, who, along with
the state and federal govern
ments, contributed toward its
cost. No more than 300 Jews
now live in the vicinity.
Mayor Rolf Boehme of Frei
burg recalled that 1,400 Jews
had lived in the south German
town before the Nazis ctme to
power in 1933. By 1941, none
were left. “What we inherited
was shame and guilt,” Boeh
me said.
Freiburg’s original syna
gogue stood on land now oc
cupied by the local university.
A memorial plaque at the site
reminds visitors of its
destruction.
East Berlin's Jews Keep Eye on
Trial of Neo-Nazis
BONN (JTA) — Western
observers and East Berlin’s
small Jewish community are
closely watching the trial in an
East Berlin district court of
neo-Nazi thugs accused of an
anti-Semitic attack on a Pro-
stestant church that main
tains friendly relations with
Jews.
The trial amounts to the
first acknowledgement by the
(East) German ^mocratic Re
public that neo-Nazis are in
deed active in what the auth
orities like to call the “first
anti-fascist state on German
soa.”
The state prosecutor has
demanded prison sentences of
14 months to two years for the
neo-Nazis.
According to observers, the
charges against the group
have never before been heard
in the East German courts.
East Germany has repeatedly
claimed that neo-Nazism and
anti-Semitism are “capitalist”
manifestations that do not ex
ist in the communist Demo
cratic Republic.
More recently, the authori
ties charged that East Ger
man youths were incited and
“poisoned” by West Geman
neo-Nazi activists. Western
reporters say they have seen
on many occasions East Berlin
municipal workers rushing to
erase swastikas on walls and
buildings.
The Zion Church has been
promoting Christian-Jewish
dialogue and its leaders have
warned of recent outbreaks of
anti-Semitism in East Ger
many. The East Berlin Jewish
community was seriously
disturbed recently when the
secret police, Stassi, arrested
several church activists in
East Berlin and elsewhere and
confiscated books.
Israeli Military Sources
Wary of SDI Participation
TEL AVIV (JTA) - Israeli
participation in the American
Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI) is likely to result in
losses that will make the
millions squandered on the
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