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Page 4-THE NEWS-January 1989 WORLD BEAT Europeans May Force Israel to Raise Cigarette Tax JERUSALEM (JTA) - Israel’s low tax on cigarettes may prevent it from becom ing a full-fledged trading partner with the European Community. The 12 nations of the com munity are trying to reduce smoking for health reasons by, among other things, heavily taxing tobacco products. But the Israeli Finance Ministry sharply reduced the tobacco tax last year. A pack of cigarettes that costs $2.50 in Britain averages about 60 cents in Israel. These facts were raised at the First European Confer ence on Smoking Prevention held in Madrid. It was pointed out that cigarettes sell in Israel more cheaply than in most other countries. The conference recom mended a series of measures to restrict smoking in public places and to raise the price of cigarettes. If the E.C. countries adopt these mea sures and Israel does not, Israel may not be accepted as a full trading partner. Amos Hausner, legal adviser to the Israel Society for the Prevention of Smok ing, said that the lowered tobacco tax increased the portion of the Israeli popu lation that smokes from 29 to 36 percent this year. The Health Ministry also welcomed the recommenda tions of the Madrid confer ence. It promised to work with the Ministry of Com merce and Industry for a substantial increase in the tobacco tax, despite opposi tion by the Finance Ministry. First Jew Conquers Everest SEATTLE (JTA) — Dr. Geoff Tabin, 32, of Chicago, became the first Jew to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 29,108 feet. Tabin reached the summit Oct. 2. He has been rock climbing and mountain climbing for the past 15 years around the world. This was his third attempt to scale Everest. “I always focused on my goal and that was to get to the top of Mount Everest,” he said. A graduate of Yale Univer sity and Harvard Medical School, Tabin is now in his fourth year of residency at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. Israel Plays Ball In Moscow TEL AVIV (JTA) - The champion Hapoel volleyball team from Kiryat Ata is the first sports team to break the ice that has frozen Israeli- Soviet sports competition for more than 20 years. They went to Moscow to play the Muscovite “Dyna mos” in the European Cup contest. A week after that. the Russian players came to Israel for a return match. The good news was a dis appointment for Maccabee Tel Aviv, Israel’s champion ship basketball team. They had expected to be the first Israelis to play in the USSR. Acid Hurled by Holocaust Survivor JERUSALEM (JTA) — A 70-year-old Holocaust survi vor hurled acid into the face of Yoram Sheftel, chief defense counsel for con victed war criminal John Demjanjuk, during the fun eral for Dov Eitan, a member of the Demjanjuk defense team. Sheftel was rushed to a hospital, where doctors treated damage to one eye. A woman with him was also treated for slight injuries. Israel Radio identified her as author Edna Shabtai. Eitan, 53, a retired Jerus alem district court judge and former military court presi dent, committed suicide by jumping from the 15th floor of a downtown Jerusalem office building. Ultra-Orthodox Harass Feminists JERUSALEM (JTA) — About 100 Diaspora Jewish women, many of them Amer icans, were called “pigs” and otherwise harassed by reli gious extremists when they held a prayer service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City. The worshipers, who were among 500 women from 25 countries attending the first International Conference on the Empowerment of Jewish Women, were the targets of insults and curses by ultra- Orthodox men and women who pray regularly at the holy site. A Reform rabbi fromTo- ronto, Debra Brin, con ducted the service, which marked the final day of the conference. As the feminists, many wearing skullcaps and- prayershawls, prayed and read from the Torah, black- garbed men shouted and pounded on the wooden bar ricades that separate male and female worshipers at the Wall. Said one pious Jew, “The spectacle of a woman carry ing the Torah is as scandal ous as bringing pigs to the Kotel,” as the Western Wall is known in Hebrew. “In the name of God, I protest,” shouted another. “This is a holy place for all of Israel and they are defil ing it.” An elderly Orthodox woman pushed and shoved the foreign women, scream ing that they were desecrat ing the Torah. “Disgraceful,” snorted Rabbi Yehuda Getz, the functionary in charge of the Western Wall. He was refer ring to the foreign women, not the behavior of his ultra- Orthodox colleagues. Quebec Rabbis Make Mandatory Prenuptial Get Agreement MONTREAL (JTA) - Jewish couples planning to wed here must promise to obtain a religious divorce in the event that their marriage ends in divorce, the Quebec Region of the Rabbinical Council of Canada ruled. The Orthodox group has instructed its member rabbis to require couples to sign a prenuptial agreement to obtain a Jewish bill of divorcement, known as a get, if they should ever seek a civil divorce. The problem occurs when a spouse refuses to grant a religious divorce. It is usu ally the woman who suffers because religious law stipu- lates that the husband issues the get. In extreme cases, the partner seeking a religious divorce from a recalcitrant spouse could apply to the civil courts to enforce the religious agreements. The Quebec Region of the Rabbinical Council has a membership of more than 20 Orthodox rabbis, who represent 80 percent of all rabbis in Montreal. Rally Held to Protest Army Exemptions for Yeshivaites TEL AVIV (JTA) - High- ranking reserve officers in the Israel Defense Force and disabled war veterans addressed a mass rally here protesting the exemption of yeshiva students from com pulsory military service. The theme of their speeches was that anyone claiming benefits from a democratic society must ful fill its obligations. The rally drew between 25,000 and 30,000 Israelis. Speakers at the rally warned that rabbis who avoided military service because of their yeshiva studies should not be made ministers in a government that might be required to decide questions of war and peace. Jewish Women Prone To Ovarian Cancer NEW YORK (JTA) - Jew ish women are at nearly twice the normal risk of non- Jewish women to developing ovarian cancer, according to an article published recently in Contemporary Issues in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Black women, however, have one-third fewer inci dences of ovarian cancer than white women, accord ing to the article. These racial and ethnic differences may only reflect sociological, economic and childbirth variables. Specif ically, women with diets high in saturated fats,with homes or jobs in a city, and with few or no children are at higher risk. “The prototype that has emerged is a well-educated, affluent white woman living in an urban area, who has no children or only a single child,” said Dr. Carolyn Runowicz, author of the article. Single women are 14 times more susceptible than mar ried women, but married women who have never been pregnant are at even greater risk, suggesting infertility or subfertility may be a factor. If a malignant tumor is detected in the early stages, the rate of cure runs between 80 and 90 percent. Runowicz suggests that all women have i>€lvic exams twice a year, especially women with high risk factors. For women over 40, she recommends checkups as frequently as every three months, along with a sonogram twice a year. Tid-Bits TEL AVIV (JTA) - Police and government agents See WORLD BEAT page 7 Money For Tomorrow — It’s Our Business Call on me Paul S. Kronsburg EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY OF NY Suite 415 2100 Rexford Rd. Bus; 365-3523 Res: 535-5775 TRAVELS Ask Mr. Foster OWNED BY I GARY & MAXINE SILVERSTEIN Travel Service Since 1888 ^'CHARLOTTE^S FLLL SERVICE TRAVEL AGENCY'^ • FOREIGN & DOMESTIC • CRUISE AND VACATION BOOKINGS • CORPORATE & INCENTIVE TRAVEL • COMPLETELY COMPUTERIZED • TtCKET OUTLETS FOR ALL MAJOR AIRLINES DOWNTOWN 333-1511 CHARLOTTE KA2A MATTHKWS 847-1542 I #00 MATTMFmemeUIW CRUISE cmiisc SMCIAUSTS 372-0646 SOUTH PARK 366-8315 6S2S MOWttSON aLVO. 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The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 1, 1989, edition 1
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