June 18, 1981
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, R. I. J e wi sh Hi s t orical As s ociation 1 1 1 3 0 Sessions Street P r ovidence , RI 02906 ,Support f1 Read By .. , Jewish . b More Than $ A9encies 1, 40,000 Wi th Y9ur People Membership Ii THE ONLY ENGLISH-JEW/SH WEEKLY IN R. I. AND SOUTHEAST MASS VOLUME LXVIII , NUMBER 30 THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 198 1 , _30$ P!cR GOPY Survivors Ga ther In Israel Jewish Shop Owner Arrested To Recall Pa st, Celebrate In Stolen Torah Case JERUSALEM - More than 4,000 sur fer want to make a statement, that this is NEW YORK - The owner of a yar involved in the theft and sale of stolen Torah vivors of the Holocaust gathered in Israel this what happened to us. We survived it and we mulka shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side scroll s. week fo r a four-day remembrance and pray that this will be a lesson so it will never was arrested this week on charges of posses Morgenthau said Levy "may have been a celebration of li fe, the first and last such happen again, to Jews or non-Jews. " sion of stolen Torahs. The arrest was made by major fence" and that an investigation in event since the capture and liberation of the Many of the thousands who came to Israel officers of the New York Police Department's volved in the trafficking of other stolen Nazi concentration camps. for the gathering brought with them stones Bias Incident Investigating Unit under the Torahs. Capt. Donnell y said 52 Torahs, Attending the event were surv ivors from marked with the names of relatives who command of Capt. Paul Donnell y. valued at between $5,000 and $1 3,000 each, the United States, Canada and Europe, as perished; the small gravestones for those who District Attorney Robert Morgenthau ·had been reported missing thus far this year. well as thousands more from Israel. The were denied a burial will be placed at Yad announced the arrest of David Levy, 49, Levy has operated the yarmulka shop on ceremonies opened at Yad Vashem, the Vashem. at a press conference, marking the first time Essex Street for 12 years, and had been monument in Jerusalem to the six mi ll ion Torahs had been recovered by the special arrested previously on a weapons possession Jews who perished, and continued with visits Included in the gathering were the unit. charge. children of the survivors, who conducted a to kibbutzim established by survivors, use of Morgenthau said Levy was arrested in his Last April , in res ponse to the rash of Torah one-day discussion of issues in volving their a computer to register information about sur shop while trying to buy three Torahs, thefts in New York City, a Brooklyn-based vivors, and delivery of tape casset\es with generation. stolen in November 1980, from a young , organization called Vadd Mish meres Stam Many survivors, Michel said, did not want personal histori es to Yad Vashem. The man who was cooperating with the author announced it wo uld attempt to register each to come. "They've had enough. The memory gathering <:oncluded with a ceremony at th e ities. Levy was found in possession of three of the approximately 500,000 Torahs in this is too difficult for them, , But we are proud Western Wall in Jerusalem Thursday. A writ other Torahs, stolen Torah cases, breast country and to record in unique charac that we have survived one of the greatest ten legacy of the Holocaust, signed by all plat es and crowns. He was booked on te ristics ot each in an attempt to aid in their tragedies in human history," present, was turned over to the children of charges of criminal possession of stolen identification and recovery should they be , the surv ivors. Su rvivors at the gathering carried some goods, stolen. Ernest W. Michel, an Auschwitz survivor signs imprinted with their names and Ma ic'olm Hoenl ein, executive director of who chaired the gathering, sa id it was nei th er hometowns in Europe, hoping to locate a the Jewish Community Relations Council of a conference, nor a meeting. "This is a long-lost relative never heard from after a New York, which has created a task force to Peres Says Begin onetime happening that has never taken wa r, or friends who were in th e same camp. deal with the growing number of such thefts place before, nor will it take place again," he Some even wore tee-shirts to identify them in the Greater New York area, hailed the said. "To us, this is something that we feel selves. arrest and said that the Jewish community Provokes Violence had to be done , Those who have been There were some reunioiis, but the re wanted the arrest and punishment of any JERUSALEM - Violent demonstrations through the worst that human beings can suf; membrance was largely solemn and silenc person, regardless of race, creed or religion, duri ng campaign rallies by the La bor Party ~========~==~====~ may have been organized by Menachem Reports Say U.S. Begin's party, Shimon Peres has charged. Peres, the Labor Party chairman, said he Gave Israelis Data could say "with certainty" that disruptions were organized by the opposition Likud On lraqj Reactor party. " People are bused in, they are paid, TEL AVIV - The Israeli newspaper and yesterday one of them even brandished a Maariv reported this week that American of knife," Peres said . ficials visited Israel in secret several times last A spokesman for Begin de,iied the allega year to update the Israelis on the progress of tion. Peres had call ed a news conference to Iraq's atomic bombs program. discuss the violence after a fist-fighting, The most recent such visi t, according to window-smashing incident on the campaign the newspaper report, was last falL " The traiL About 8,000 Labor Party supporters Americans shared the Israeli assessment that had been disrupted by 200 hecklers who the Iraqis were stri ving to produce a nuclear jeered Peres and threw tomatoes. There were bomb as soon as possible," Maariv said, 23 arrests. quoting unnamed Israeli sources. The head of the Likud campaign, Gideon The American officials were not iden Gadot, denied the accusation, saying that the tified, and the meetings were not detailed. Labor Pa rty was trying to ' ' drag the Likud But the report said the meetings were held to into a violent confrontation." He said adver exchange information on the Iraqi nuclear tisements that depicted Begin and other program, Likud candidates in an ·· unflattering man Another Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, ner'.' were incit ing violence. reported that Israel had reli ed on U.S. in Ehud Olmert, a member of the Knesset for tell igence data, besides its own findings, in Likud, who is also a campaign organizer, said making the decision to attack the nuclear the violence had not been organized. He reactor on June 7. Israeli military censorshi p had held up asserted the people's right to shout, but not publication of this information until it to resort to violence. According to a police spokesman, fighting became known t hat Prime M inister broke out when 100 policemen moved in to Menachem Begin planned to discuss it TRIBUTE TO LEADERSHIP - Philip J. Macktez (third from left), received the 30th An• arrest six instigators. publicly on an American television inter niversary State of Israel Bonds Medal In recognition of outstanding leadership and· ser view. vice in the economic upbuilding of Israel. The occasion was the Woonsocket Lodge, No. After Pe res left, about l ,200demonstrators But on the television show, the CBS " Face 989, B'nal B'rith's brunch in his honor and In behalf of Israel's economic development crowded the area and were dispersed by the Nation" program, Begin stopped short of held at congregation B'nai Israel, Woonsocket. (From left:) Sidney and Yvonne Dressler, police, A group smashed a window at the giving the Americans credit for the tip. " I general chairmen of the Rhode Island Israel Bond Executive Committee; Macktez, local Labor Party headquarters, and burned. cannot accept such a statement," Begin said. Lawrence B. Sadwin, Tribute Committee co-chairman, who presented the medal; Alan Labor Pa rty leaflets, The police said 8 of the "But we had all the information months ago Bruce Wayne, Tribute Committee chairman; and Lester Macktez. Not shown; Herbert B. 23 people arrested would be tried for disor from reliable sources," Stern, Tribute Committee co-chairman. derly conduct 14 Women Join In First B'not Mitzvah After a year of intensive H·ebrew study, 14 Most of the women.who will participate in Dlsorgiinit ation Of women of Temple Sinai will become B' not the B' not Mitzvah received no Hebrew Rabbi Sholom Strajcher: ·rhe Org!![litatlons: Mitzvah (plural fo r Bat Mitzvah) on Fridal'. background before coming to the class, while Overseeing An June 19 at 8: 15 p.m. They will lead the con- others simply never had the opportunity to 'Politics Of The Pocket gregation in worship, and read a selection become a Bat Mitzvah as young women. Ideal School page 19 pages 16, 17 from the week's Torah and Haftorah portion. Many were reared in conservative or Their preparation for the B'not Mitzvah orthodox branches of Judaism where such a involved more than the learning of Hebrew. ceremony was unavailable to them. School For The Deaf: Local Producers Put They attended two five-week lecture series as The B' not Mitzvah class includes: Carol part of the tem ple's ad ult education Alfa no, Marcia Bronzek, Miriam Flint, Livia Know-How Off The Record program, and were given class lectures on the Greenberg, Susan Hall, Marcia Helpern, On The· Air page 1s significance of prayer, the holidays of Purim Sheila Kaufman, Ann Miller, Marilyn Goes To Israel and Passover, the history of the Bar and Bat Mosko!, Selma Nasberg, Phyllis Solod, Mitzvah and the significance of the weekly Suzanne Spitzer, Marlene Stein and Lorraine 01ili 1l19 Jiaftqrah·pp · jqn .