*•*. '<W'v i'^ -.
V y^ \<5«\-' *•
(^ CouncU oJJeioisfi Feikirationa Award Winning Newspaper
•]©wi
J/ SERVING NEBRASKA AND IOWA SINCE 27 Tavat, 57S2—Friday, Jan. 3, 1992
Jews will remember Gorbachev as man who freed Soviet Jews
America's Bill of Rights Congressman Peter Hoagland explains the Bill of Rights to Gregory Gorbatov and his twin song, Elie and Eugene. The Gorbatpvs are being resettled in Omaha from the Soviet Union through the Operation Exodus Campaign of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. They visited the Congressman at kis Omaha office recently to thank him for expediting the departure of the twins.
Scholarship established by David W. Frank family By Jill KuBhner Belmont Foundation Public ' relations director _ f A scholarship fund for Jewish college students has been established bv Carole Widman and Barbara Lashinsky as a memorial to their father. Da' yid W. Frank, according to Joseph Kirshenbautn, Board of Trustees chairma^ of the Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Omaha
« •
t
V
David W. Frank
Raises concern
By Susan Birnbaum NEW YORK (JTAIMikhail Gorbachev, whose resignation sounded the death knell of the 74-yearold Soviet Union, will be reipembered as the man who dramatically improved the lot of Soviet Jews, both thcise he allowed to leave and ttiose who remained behind.' For it was Gorbachev who t,hnist open wide the gates of Soviet Jewish emigration and allowed freedom of religious practice for the first time in the atheist nation's history. When Gorbachev entered office in March 1985, some 11,000 Jews were counted as refuseniks, and more than a score of prisoners of conscience languished in prisons and labor camps for the crimes of trying to emigrate or teach Hebrew. The first omens of the Gorbachev era were not good for Jews. The already paltry emigration figure of I, UO for 1985. slid even more frighteningly low, to 914. .in 1986. Soviet'Jewry activists in the West at first feared Gorbachev would' be even worse than bis reform-resistant predecessors. then the numbers -of Jews allowed to leave began to grow, reaching 8.155 in 1987. swelling to 18,965 in 1988, then surging to 71,217 in 1989 and 186.815 in 1990. Few Soviet Jewry activists wUl'ever forget the day of Feb. 11,1986. when the prison gates swung open; and nine-year refuseoik Anatoly Shcjaaransky took his first steps toward freedom. He was soon foUowed by other long-term refuseniks', suchas Vladimir and Maria Slepak. Ida Nudel and Yosef Begun. Emigration reforms .wereeventually' ' a long-delayed L^ by the Supreme: Soviet last sprmg. This led to the lifting of U.S. trade sane'ions against the Soviet II. mandated by the v'ackson-Vanik
By i«»a Cohen ATHENS (JTAI-'While (ireece is worried by ' reports that Turkey . is seeking nuclear weapons and know-how from the Moslem republics of the former Soviet Union, Israeli circles are pondering the possible effects of hav; ing a \toslen\ nuclear [tower as a nearby neighbor, ' even a non-hosXile one. According to the Greek daily Kathimerini, the Athens government is deeply disturbed by the news. Diplomatic sourceif said Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis has asked the Greek sect'et service for an assessment' of the situation. Animosity between Greece and Turkey goes back a long time and runs deep, despite their common membership in NATO. During the Cold War, '\\ukey was generally favored LD terms o( aid because of its contiguous borders with th Now. ; it may be m fi favor, sition to obtain n It. technology from' Kazakh luwl ware the Stan, the only one of the former Soviet Moslem chang«« Gorbachev anactrepublics knowp to have ed in the realms of amigranuciwar waapetta inwiil^ ita Ihdi. iiol wen the uoat '. of the
he is survived by his wife, Minnie, of Omaha. "I always wanted to do something to honor my dad, " Mrs. Widman said.' •The David W. Frank "He wasn't able to'go. to Memorial Scholarship college. Hft was a selfFund will be admixiistered made businessman and he the Foundation and will always wanted us to go to l«r an annual $1,000 school. He would be very holatship to students happy with this scholar- > who have completed tht;ir ship fund." . ' ihomore year and who Mrs. Lashinsky deid a tninimum 2.75 scribed her father as ".» _ ade point average. " Mr. very quiet, unassuming Kirsheabauui' said. He ad- person, very generous in a tM that applicants must quiet way. No one knew be full-time students and. about the things he did for kkow need for financial as- other people. ^ sistance. my mother Uu know." -A native' Omahau, Ox. '' Dad put several young, Frank co-owned Peter Pan people through college," fWnitum with hia brother. Mrs. Laahinsky noted, adMorion Frank. In the ding that "he enjoyed ^W70's and early 'SO's. he helping people and never owned the Dundee expected a 'thank you.' He eater. Mrs. Widman WMH :i vi>rv unusual man." Ue waa a nwmber of . scholar »h«p will .1 n,..l h,ll M, I'iiiu^I '^viia^oguu. I' I ia honM r,„M .1 W. (.'v
jiii'nl
diplomatic ties with the Jewish state in October. Gorbachev "will • go down in history as the man who let my people go," jgaid one strong admirer, , Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the ecumenical Appeal of Conscience Foundation. Schneier presented an award to Gorbachev, the Appeal of Conscience's first Man of History Award, when the Soviet leader was in Washington in June 1990 for a summit meeting with President Bush. "Not only did Gorbachev remove all restrictions imposed by previous Soviet regimes, against Jewish emigration and Jewish religious expression, he was the first leader of the USSR to recogitize and publicly state that religious believers were vjdued and valuable citisens of the Soviet Union," Schneier said. Even the most ardent critics in the Soviet Jewry camp were lauding Gor-. bachev's legacy. Lynn Singer, executive director of the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry, described Gorbachev as "a pragmatic politician, who understood " that allowing Jews to emigrate "opened new vistas" for his country. His pragmatism led him to respond positively to criticism, she said. "Much of what happened from
1985 until even yesterday was the result of Gorbachev's response to the West," she said. "He did in five-and-a half years to six years what it took decades for us to try to do." The stalwart Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, perhaps the toughest aitic of the Soviet Union, remarked that even "though Gorbachev was late in breaking out of the human rights gate, "the "positive changes he ultimately initiated would have been unthinkable to us in the Soviet human rights advocacy movement a decade ago."
Plays Wagner By Hugh Orgel TEL AVIV (JTA) After weeks of controversy, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra played music by Richard Wagner. But the program took place in the guise of a working re hearsal, before aca'-**"'U screened audience The musicians .. ^^ dressed informaU>' as ihe> took their positions un stage at the Mann Auvl^ torium here. So was maestro Danid Barenboim, the Israeli concert, pianist and conductor who is oiie of the foremost exponents of Wagner's music.
1992 l)JA/federation Campaign:
Moving toward our goal
2,500,000 ^.too.uoo
1
2,2(W,00O 2,100.000 2,000,000 1.400.000 1 juiaQaO
1,700,000 MOOiOOO IJM^OOO t.4O«,0OO IJOOMO IJ0O.0OO t.100,000 tVniinumx
of
Sorsud
Id (I
ijUg-
toItlV (I^V iJI
' u.
Ill
i to Kia dftughUra,
Suuno, Jcwiih I'«iJ«f*uuu at 9iattui
airucior. if. !.)•» ry-'MV. r.>n.
•ilb.
in th
• >n of full
d