Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 45, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 5, 1987 Page: 3 of 20
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Features
It is very tempting, in
the wake of all the news
of permissions granted
to such leading Soviet
Jewish activists as Ida
Nudel and Vladimir
Slepak, to declare that
the worst is over for
Soviet Jews. There is
reason for caution,
however. While a few
very big names have
been allowed to depart
recently., the total num-
ber of Jews that
emigrated in September
actually was down from
the August figure, from
783 to 724. This is the
second consecutive
monthly drop and the
third in the last four
months. 5,418 Soviet
Jews have left the USSR
in the first nine months
of 1987. If we want the
figure to remain at this
relatively high level, we
must continue to put
the pressure on and not
let the Kremlin think we
are satisfied.
Local News: Nearly
200 members of the
Dallas area Jewish
community showed on
Oct. 12 that they had
taken this advice to
heart. They gathered at
the fountain near SMU's
McFarlin Auditorium to
hold a candlelight vigil
for Soviet Jews in com-
memoration of the
opening night of the
Moscow Ballet. The
vigil, sponsored by
Dallas Action for Soviet
Jewry, included ad-
dresses by Rabbis
Stewart Weiss and Ken-
'*£
neth R.oseman, as well
as music by Cantors
Bernard Lowe and Yit-
zchak Cohen. In addi-
tion, several area
Hebrew school students
read biographies of
refuseniks, and Dallas
Action president Cheryl
Pollman reminisced
about a refusenik,
Yakov Ioffe of
Leningrad, whom she
had visited two years
ago. A leaflet
distributed by Dallas
Action at the vigil em-
phasized the plight of
refuseniks, including
Alexei Magarik, who are
artists denied the right
to perform freely at
home or abroad. The
vigil reportedly moved
several on-lookers who
had come for the ballet
and was deemed a great
success.
Prisoner Of Con-
science News: The
aforementioned Alexei
Magarik finally got a
taste of freedom after
18 months of imprison-
ment on a trumped-up
drug charge. Alexei was
released from his labor
camp in the Omsk
region of Siberia on
Sept. 14. Earlier this
month, Alexei and his
wife, Natasha, received
even more welcome
news-permission to
emigrate.
Although all of the
well-publicized POC's
now have been
released, other POC's
remain incarcerated, as
we reported last month.
Others, including Ari
Volvovsky and Alik
Zelichonok, have been
refused permission to
emigrate, in contrast to
the usual Soviet policy
for ex-POC's. In order to
monitor the condition
and treatment of these
individuals as well as
other refuseniks, or
Martin Motew of
Chicago has founded a
group called the Inter-
national Physicians'
Commission for the
Protection of Prisoners.
Dr. Motew, an ob-
stetrician gynecologist
affiliated with North-
western University,
visited the USSR earlier
this year. Interestingly,
he states that his com-
mittee knew of about 30
current prisoners and is
sure that there are
others. The
organization, with
members in the U.S.,
Canada, Britain, France,
Israel, and Sweden, in-
cludes among its mem-
bers Soviet Jewish
emigres Lev Goldfarb
and Dr. Vladimir Brod-
sky, the latter an ex-
POC. Le11erwr i t i ng
campaigns, speeches or
papers, and travel to the
USSR are the types of
activities pursued by
IPCPP. Physicians
wishing to join this
group should contact
the IPCPP at 1724 First
St., Highland Park, II.
60035.
Refusenik News: We
learned the latest news
about the AI Congress'
adopted refuseniks,
Viktor and Batsheva
Yelistratov, in a conver-
sation with the co-chair
of the International
Committee for the
Yelistratovs in mid-
October. Batsheva's
pancreatic problem ap-
parently is not as bad as
first thought, with no
sign of malignancy, and
it appears tied to ten-
sion. Viktor, usually a
cautious optirri.st, has
become depressed
because so many of his
friends, including
Slepak, are receiving
permission to emigrate.
He is in desperate need
of phone calls, which
can be made by
messenger through the
international operator.
Contact the AJCongress
office or the ICY, 555 F.
78th St. Apt. 2C, N.Y.
N.Y. 10021.
• • •
Soviet Jewry Report
State attorneys
general, including
Texas' Jim Mattox, who
are in the USSR this
month were urged by
James Shannon of Mas-
sachusetts to make the
case of cancer-stricken
refusenik Benjamin
Charney of Moscow a
priority. You may recall
that Benjamin, a 49-year
old mathematician, was
the subject of a vigil by
his brother Leon in front
of the Soviet Embassy in
Washington last spring.
His daughter, Anna, and
her husband, Yuri Blank
received permission to
emigrate in August but
did not leave out of
concern for Benjamin's
condition and the
memory of 1979, when
the departing Leon was
assured that the rest of
his family soon would
follow. We should con-
tact Mr. Mattox to see if
he complied with Mr.
Shannon's request.
Criticism Of Holocaust
Education Program
Rightwing Zealotry
BY ROBERT E. SEGAL
(Copyright 1987, Jewish
Telgraphic Agcy. Inc.)
A rightwing ideologue
employed by the U S.
Department of
Education attempted to
build a case against
"Facing History and
Ourselves," the highly
regarded Holocaust
education organization
and program. She not
only failed, but actually
enhanced the stature of
the program.
In her zeal, Christine
Price, assigned to help
evaluate the Holocaust
teaching organization
and its materials, con-
demned the program as
anti-Christian and ac-
cused it of failing to
present the Nazi and Ku
Klux Klan point of view.
Before deciding to give
the project a score of 40
out of 100, she con-
demned it for being an-
ti-war and anti-hunting
To top off her insipid
judgments, she branded
as "leftist" the New
York Times foreign
correspondent-. Flora
Lewis, who was quoted
by Facing History and
Ourselves.
Price and a second
Education Department
staff person, Shirley
Curry, who gave Price
the assignment, both
are said to be enthusi-
astic true believers in
the extreme right views
set forth by Phyllis
Schlafly, leader of the
Eagle Forum. In her
book, "Child Abuse in
the Classroom," Schafly
names "Facing History"
as one of the abuses. "It
is," she wrote, "an
organization deceitful
in design."
Apparently unmin-
dful of her own efforts
to mold opinion, she
goes on to upbraid
"Facing History" for
trying to "change young
people's attitudes on
political and social
issues."
For one to eraso the
depth of Schlafly's
alarming prescriptions
for the proper indoc-
trination of im-
pressionable minds, it is
essential to note that
she urges children to
"bless the nuclear bomb
as a marvelous gift from
a wise and wonderful
God to America." She
also has disparaged
prelates of her own
church for warning
against the possibility of
nuclear destruction.
Father Robert
Bullock, board chair-
man of "Facing
History," called Price's
appraisal of the
organization "absurd."
He knows its true value
as a teaching and
teacher-training unit. "It
is imperative for this
valuable curriculum
concerning the
Holocaust to be used in
our Catholic schools,"
he said.
It is noteworthy also
that during his
American tour, Pope
John Paul II, in referring
pointedly to the Shoah,
Hebrew for an-
nihilation, emphasized
that he has assigned to a
special commission of
Catholic scholars the
work of preparing
parochial school texts
dealing with the
Holocaust.
Some 35,000
educators and 15,000
other persons have
profited by Facing
History and Ourselves
training courses. The
carefully produced tex-
ts are put to use by
450,000 school children
annually, in training
seminars that bring
teachers from all over
the country to the
Brookline, Mass.,
headquarters of the
organization. Audiovis-
ual teaching aids and
pertinent material from
Yale University's ar-
chives are disseminated.
School administrators
and teachers in rural
areas, aware of the need
to diminish stereotyping
and to build mutual
respect among minority
ethnic groups, are soon
to benefit by the supply
of teaching materials
and the assistance of
members of Facing
History and Ourselves,
now in its 12th year.
For a better under-
standing of the
firestorm about the
Holocaust teaching in
the U S. Department of
Education, the
following facts are
helpful:
‘Facing History and
Ourselves has long been
accredited by the
Education Depar-
tment's National Dif-
fusion Network, which
is mandated to help ob-
tain teaching programs
for dissemination
‘The Department of
Education was in the
process of trying to
create a Program
Significance Panel to
determine whether a
given program would be
generally acceptable to
those who provide
education services to
parents.
‘The proposed panel
was soon viewed by a
number of alert
educators and Con-
gressmen as a potential
vehicle for censorship
of superior programs. In
fact, Max McConkey, a
spokesman for the
National Diffusion
Network, characterized
the nascent panel as a
body able to blackball
educational programs
for obvious ideological
purposes.
‘When it became
clear that Price was
using her assignment as
a club with which to
pummel Facing History
and Ourselves, Ronald
Preston, a deputy
assistant secretary in
the Department's office
of educational research
and improvement,
called the damage a
disaster and made it
clear that the depar-
tment does not want a
"stilted panel of right-
wing ideologues."
Two measures of the
success of Facing
History and Ourselves
come from a glance at a
list of some of the
organizations that have
provided grants, and a
gratifying undertaking
in cooperation with the
famed Boston Public
Library.
Grantors include the
Boston Globe, General
Cinema Corp., Ford
Foundation, Bank of
Boston, Hearst Foun-
dation, the New York
Times, Polaroid Corpor-
ation, Boston Founda-
tion, Gannett Founda-
tion, Rockefeller
Brothers Foundation,
Massachusetts Founda-
tion for the Arts and
Humanities and the
Prudential Foundation
In April, when Facing
History and Ourselves
brought an exhibit
about Anne Frank to the
Boston Public Library,
150,000 children,
teachers, and citizens
from all walks of life
saw the impressive
displays. Prior to that,
the largest number of
exhibition viewers
recorded by the library
was 50,000.
One deeply moved
child wrote in the guest
book accompanying the
exhibition: "Hear-
tbreak! Heartbreak!
Heartbreak!" People
learning of the wrong
done to Facing History
and Ourselves by the
Education Department
zealots could well utter
the same lament
Oj
THURSDAY, NOVEMBERS, 1987 TEXAS JEWISH POST
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 45, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 5, 1987, newspaper, November 5, 1987; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753843/m1/3/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .