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n054  1515  19 Aug 75
MIDEAST (am lead)
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
c.1975 N.Y. Times News Service
    WASHINGTON - Egypt, Israel and the United States hav
agreed to support the establishment of an independent peace-keeping
force in the Sinai if the Security Council should unexpectedly
refuse to renew the present United Nations buffer force during
the three-year life of the projected new accord between Israel
and Egypt.
    Both United States officials and informed diplomats said
Tuesday that the understanding on establishing a substitute
peace-keeping force - if necessary - was reached recently after
Israel had asked for further guarantees that the buffer force
would not be disbanded.
    The officials stressed that the substitute force would be
international, would not include American or Russian contingents,
and would probably have at least the endorsement of the United
Nations General Assembly.
    Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, who has served as the
mediator between the two sides, leaves Wednesday night for the
Middle East in the hope of completing the negotiations for the
agreement. Kissinger met with Ambassador Simcha Dinitz of Israel
again Tuesday to discuss remaining issues and later for more
than an hour with American Jewish leaders to assure them that the
projected accord would be in the interests of Israel.
    Under the tentative agreements worked out so far by Kissinger,
Egypt has agreed that the projected accord would last for three
years. The United Natios peace-keeping force would be renewed
annually for a total of three years.
    The Israelis, in the negotiations, however, asked the United
States to guarantee that if for some unexpected reason the Soviet
Union or China decided to veto theSecurity Council's extension
of the force's mandate, some substitute would be found.
    This was agreeable to Egypt, the officials said. As a result,
Israel now has assurances from both Egypt and the United States,
in separate secret documents, that a peace-keeping force
would be maintained in Sinai regardless of the Security Council
action.
    One method of doing so would be to seek General Assembly
endorsement for the present buffer force to remain, one official
said. There are now about 4,000 troops assigned to the United
Natios Emergency Force, its formal name.
    The agreement on what to do about the buffer force was only
one of a series of unpublished accords that will emerge from
the intense negotiations now going on. There will also be a
public text showing the new demarcation lines for a further
Israeli withdrawal in Sinai from territory occupied in the 1967 war.
    The Israelis have agreed to withdraw from virtually the
entire length of the strategically - located Mitla and Gidi
Passes and to return to Egypt the Abu Rudeis oil fields
currently producing, according to Israel, about 55 per cent of
her needs.
    These are regarded as major concessions from Israel. In
return she has received some Egyptian political conciliatory
gestures, such as an end to the trade embargo on American
concerns dealing with Israel, Egyptian non-participation in
any steps to oust Israel from the United Nations, and an end to
pressure on African states to avoid diplomatic relations with
Israel.
    Israel, more importantly perhaps, has also been assured of
significant American military, economic and political support.
    In his meeting Tuesday morning with a delegation
representing the conference of presidents of major Jewish
organizations, Kissinger reportedly stressed that if the accord
was reached, Israel would not have to fear any attempts to suspend
her in the United Nations.
    He also told the leaders, according to one participant,
that the United States would support Israel's aid requests
in both military and economic fields.
 
b-jf 8-18
**********

a045  0113  20 Aug 75
Current Quotes 220
By The Associated Press
    ''The concern of the Jewish community is that Israel would be
pressured into taking stances that are not in its long-term benefit.
We expressed the concern and we were reassured.'' - Rabbi Israel
Miller of New York, after a group of American Jewish leaders conferred
with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.
 
    ''People outside of government were willing to write in what they
might consider unpopular views - even views which in the light of 
history might prove to be stupid. But they would do so usually only if
they felt they were not going to be held accountable therefore in the
public forum.'' - Former President Richard M. Nixon, in challenging a
new federal law giving the government possession of his papers and
tape recordings.
 
    ''If the unions . . . are so concerned about high food prices they
should stop some of the feather-bedding practices that jack up those
very prices.'' - Agriculture Secretary Earl L. Butz, on a boycott of
International Longshoremen Association dock workers on loadings of
American grain destined for the Soviet Union.
 
    ''We don't mind feeding the world, but we say America first. We're
trying to help the American farmer, too. We're trying to help him get
the best price for his product. But we say something to eat in your
belly is better than a dollar in your pocket.'' - Al Chittenden,
president of ILA Local 1418 in New Orleans.
    
0414aED 08-20
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n021  1030  20 Aug 75
SOV-VISA
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
c.1975 N.Y. Times News Service
    MOSCOW - An American Congressman visiting the Soviet Union
said Wednesday that Soviet visa officials had conceded to him
that the recent Helsinki declaration might necessitate some
change in Soviet emigration policies.
    But Rep. Robert F. Drinan, D-Mass., reported that the officials
in Leningrad and Moscow had not indicated whether any change
was being planned. He said he believed that pressure from the
United States would be needed to make Moscow implement the
pvovisionxon the reunification of families.
    The congressman, who is also a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest,
said that he had originally planned to come to the Soet
Union this month as part of a group of nine clergy concerned
about Soviet Jewry but that their visas were revoked because
of ''unforeseen circumstances.'' He said he then came alone
on a trip sponsored by the State Department.
    ''It means to me that someone in a high place knows that
Christian clergymen in Russia could be a lot of trouble,''
Drinan said, adding that he intended to return home and seek
more support for Soviet Jews among American Christians.
    Drinan said that while in Leningrad last Friday he had
asked the chief of the office for visas and registration,
whom he identified as Mr. Surotov, whether the Helsinki agreement
would make a difference in Soviet policies on family reunification.
After evading the question, Drinan contended, the official
replied ''Yes, it will,'' but did not elaborate.
    The congressman said that the head of the Ovir office in
Moscow, whom he identified as Mr. Obidin, had responded that
Moscow might have to change its policy on fees after it was
pointed out that the Helsinki agreement stipulated fees could
be charged on renewed applications only when they were granted.
Present Soviet practice is to charge 40 rubles (about $55)
for each application.
    Drinan, who met with a number of Soviet Jews here, said he
knew of one refused applicant who had paid the fee four times.
    He said that officials had also told him they were ''reconsidering''
the case of a 65-year-old American-born woman in Lithuania,
Maria Daskeviciene, who has been trying since 1956 to join
her two sisters in Massachusetts.
    Drinan's remarks, which were made to American reporters on 
the eve of his departure for Romania after a week here, contrasted
with the account of one Russian applicant in Moscow who said
he had been told by an Ovir official the week after the Helsinki
declaration was signed that it would have ''absolutely no
effect'' on Soviet emigration.
    The Soviet Union has not yet given any evidence of implementing
the provisions of the accord dealing with the freer movement of
persons and ideas, though it has repeatedly stressed that it
will honor the agreement in full.
 
p-bb-bc 8-20
**********

n030  1218  20 Aug 75
1st ADD MOVIES (ADVANCE), N.Y. x x x victory.
    The film then cuts back and we see the old live actor-narrator
with the glory and the hilarity of his story still upon him.
We also see that the sun is rising, the get-away car is hopelessly
delayed and the prison escape is doomed. It is a tearing,
desolating transition to which the change from animation to
live action is perfectly suited.
    At oter points, where the cartoon figures appear together
with live ones, the risk of failure is greater, but Bakshi
makes them work, too. For instance, when a black stripper
(played by a real woman) dances before a corrupt detective
(a maddened, twitching cartoon), the film manages a biting
switch. Instead of the stripper being depersonalized, it is the
onlooker.
    But Bakshi's biggest risks are in the matter of taste. Because
cartoons have no softening human texture, their bite, their
bitterness, is unrelieved. I suspect that not even ''Coonskin's''
greatest admirers can see it without experiencing some shock
and distress. This is not intended as a condemnation of
Bakshi: shock and distress can be legitimate esthetic effects.
And in ''Coonskin'' they are overwhelmingly legitimate, though
I have doubts in a few places; for example, in some of the more
hellish Mafia scenes, with a Godfather who would have given
Hieronymus Bosch bad dreams, and his sadistic, transvestite sons.
    It is the whites who are monstrous in ''Coonskin.'' The blacks
are smart, weak, violent, hopeful, crooked, enduring and
desperate. They are human; the whites are not. Bakshi - a
Brooklyn Jew whose ancestors go back to Russia and India - is
not denying humanity to white people. It is simply that
''Coonskin'' doesn't deal with whites in themselves. Bakshi's
movie is about a segment of black experience as he can grasp it,
one where the white man - policeman, redneck, city grafter - swims
into view as someone who will make you poor, scared and sometimes
dead. He is not saying that white people are nightmares in
fact; but that they are nightmares for many blacks. At least
that is his principal message; at a deeper level he gives
expression to a tentative horror about life itself.
    Of course, it is ironic that such a film should be attacked not
by Italians or policemen or rednecks, but by a black organization.
Core has campaigned against ''Coonskin'' for nearly a year,
delaying its opening and pressuring Paramount to withdraw as
its distributor. The campaign argues that ''Coonskin'' is a
savage and unfair caricature of the black community.
    ''Coonskin'' clearly is savage, and a cartoon clearly is
a caricature. But it seems stupid and blind not to see that
Bakshi is making a most serious and difficult kind of artistic
commitment in trying to capture black Harlem's human condition
by heightening rather than softening its miseries. The propriety
of a white man's doing so is another matter. In recent attacks
on Bakshi the suggestion is that he has committed an act of
social effrontery. Hehas, of course. It has always been an act
of effrontery to twist human life into art.
(NOT FOR USE BEFORE SUNDAY, AUG. 24)
 
B-RB 8-20
**********

a242  1447  20 Aug 75
URGENT
Burton-Taylor 110
    NEW YORK (AP) - A spokesman for Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
said Wednesday that the couple had decided to reconcile permanently.
    ''This is not a trial reconciliation, it is permanent,'' he quoted
Burton as saying.
    Miss Taylor, who has been in Leningrad making a film, met Burton in
Switzerland over the weekend and they immediately agreed to
reconcile, the spokesman said.They are going to Israel next week and the spokesman -
quoted Burton
as saying, ''We might be married in Israel. After all, Elizabeth is
Jewish.''
    
1641pED 08-20
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a251  1510  20 Aug 75
URGENT
Burton-Taylor ADD 280
    NEW YORK Burton-Taylor a242 add: Jewish.''
 
    The spokesman, John Springer, said that while the couple had not
seen each other recently until last weekend, they had been in constant
communication by telephone for some time.
    ''Whether they will get married immediately is not absolutely
certain,'' Springer said. But he said it was probable that Miss
Taylor, 43, and Burton, 49, would remarry.
    In the 14 months since their divorce, both Burton and Miss Taylor
were linked with other romantic interests.
    Miss Taylor was frequently seen in the company of used car dealer
Henry Wynberg and earlier this year he joined her in the Soviet Union
w
ere she was filming ''The Bluebird,'' a joint U.S.-Soviet movie
undertaking.
    Burton, four months after the divorce, announced plans to marry
Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia who at that time was still married to
British banker Neil Balfour, but the marriage never came off.
    Burton was Miss Taylor's fifth husband. She was divorced from her
first two husbands, hotel heir Conrad Hilton and British acor Michael
Wilding. Her third husband, producer Michael Todd, died in a plane
crash in 1958.
    A year later, singer Eddie Fisher dissolved his marriage to actress
Debbie Reynolds so he could marry Miss Taylor. It was then that Miss
Taylor converted to Judaism.
    She and Burton fell on love on the set of ''Cleopatra'' in 1961.
They were married in 1964 after Miss Taylor divorced Fisher and Burton
divorced Sybil Williams.
    After 10 years of stormy marriage, highlighted by Burton's
extravagant gifts of jewelry to Miss Taylor, a Swiss court awarded
Miss Taylor a divorce from Burton on grounds ofincompatibility.
    
1736pED 08-20
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a272  1634  20 Aug 75
URGENT
Burton-Taylor a254-242-251 2nd Lead Precede New York 180
    GSTAAD, Switzerland (AP) - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton have
reconciled after 14 months of divorce and are together ''somewhere in
Switzerland,'' Miss Taylor's secretary said here Wednesday
    ''They are driving around in Switzerland and are expected to be back
here before going to Israel next week,'' the Swiss secretary said. He
added he did not know anything of a report that they were planning to
remarry in Israel.
    A spokesman for the pair in New York said earlier Wednesday the
couple were together and ''this is not a trial reconciliation, it is
permanent.''
    The Swiss secretary said: ''The reconciliation is confirmed. They
are now driving around together in her car but I don't know where they
are.''
    The New York spokesman said Miss Taylor, who has been in Leningrad
making a film, met Burton in Switzerland over the weekend and they
immediately agreed to reconcile.
    He quoted Burton as saying, ''We might be married in Israel. After
all, Elizabeth is Jewish.''
    The spokesman 8th graf
    
1915pED 08-20
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a312  2005  20 Aug 75
Drinan 230
    MOSCOW (AP) - Rep. Robert F. Drinan, D-Mass., said Wednesday Soviet
officials had indicated to him that the 35-nation, East-West accord
signed early this month in Helsinki could ease Soviet treatment of
Jews who want to emigrate.
    Drinan, a Jesuit priest, spent several days in Leningrad and Moscow
talking to Soviet officials and to dissidents and Jews who have been
refused exit visas.
    Drinan said one Soviet emigration official told him ''Helsinki would
make a difference'' in cases where Jews want to leave to be reunited
with their families.
    Drinan told newsmen he repeatedly pointed out that Soviet handling
of the problem was inconsistent with the document on signed at
Helsinki.
    The Helsinki accord on European security contained acknowledgement
of basic human rights.
    Drinan said most Soviet officials argued that nearly all Jews who
want to leave are granted permission and that there is no Jewish
problem in the Soviet Union.
    During the first seven months of 1975, only about 5,000 Jews have
been allowed to leave - a figure far below the level of previous
years.
    Drinan had formed a nine-member group including members of the
National Interreligious Consultation on Soviet Jewry for a 10-day trip
to look into the situation. But at the last minute, the Soviet
tourist organization said the visas were canceled because of
''unforeseen difficulties.''
    Drinan then made the trip himself under sponsorship of the U.S.
State Department.
    
2305pED 08-20
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a024  0015  21 Aug 75
Burton-Taylor Bjt 410
Wirephoto NY5
    GSTAAD, Switzerland (AP) - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were
reported traveling together ''somewhere in Switzerland'' today after
14 months of divorce and another reconciliation. Burton was quoted as
saying they might remarry in Israel.
    ''They are driving around in Switzerland and are expected to be back
here before going to Israel next week,'' said Miss Taylor's secretary
at the home the star maintains in Gstaad to reduce her taxes.
    ''The reconciliation is confirmed,'' she added. ''They are now
driving around together in her car, but I don't know where they are.''
    A spokesman for the couple in New York, John Springer, said Burton
had told him: ''This is not a trial reconciliation; it is permanent.''
    Springer said Burton also told him they might remarry during their
visit to Israel because ''after all, Elizabeth is Jewish.''
    Miss Taylor converted to Judaism in 1959, between her third and
fourth husbands, producer Mike Todd and singer Eddie Fisher, both
Jews.
    Burton, now 49, was Miss Taylor's fifth husband; she is 43 and was
his second wife. Their marriage lasted 10 years, and for much of that
time they were among the movies' biggest - and highest paid -
attractions. In the latter years, the marriage turned stormy, and last
year a Swiss court awarded Miss Taylor an uncontested divorce on
grounds of incompatibility.
    Since their divorce, Miss Taylor has been constantly companioned by
a Los Angeles used car dealer named Henry Wynberg while Burton has
had a string of girl friends. But Springer said they had been in
constant communication by telephone for some time.
    He said Miss Taylor returned to Switzerland last weekend from
Leningrad, where she had been making the film ''The Bluebird.'' Burton
joined her, and they were reconciled, Springer reported.
    ''Whether they will get married immediately is not absolutely
certain,'' he said, adding that it was probable they would remarry.
    Miss Taylor, a star since ''National Velvet'' when she was 12, was
married first when she was 18 to hotel heir Nicky Hilton. That
marriage and her next one to English actor Michael Wilding ended in
divorce; Todd, her third husband, was killed in a plane crash, and she
divorced Fisher to marry Burton.
    Burton was divorced from the former Sybil Williams to marry Miss
Taylor.
    
0316aED 08-21
**********

a216  1032  21 Aug 75
burton-Taylor NL 450
    GSTAAD, Switzerland (AP) - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were
reported traveling together in Switzerland Thursday after their aides
announced a ''permanent reconciliation'' and the possibility of a
weddingsoon in Israel.
    In New York, Burton's most recent companion, black model and actress
Jean Bell, was quoted as saying Burton had always wanted to return to
Miss Taylor as soon as he had controlled his drinking.
    ''So now he doesn't drink anymore, okay?'' Miss Bell told New York
Post columnist Earl Wilson.
    If the pair were to remarry, it would be the sixth marriage for
44-year-old Miss Taylor. Burton, 49, divorced his first wife, Sybil,
to marry Miss Taylor.
    Miss Taylor's Swiss secretary said by telephone that the couple was
driving around in Miss Taylor's car and would go to Israel next week.
    ''I don't think they will come back here today,'' added the
secretary, who was reached at Miss Taylor's chalet in this luxurious
Swiss Alpine resort. ''But I certainly expect them back before they go
to Israel next week.''
    A spokesman for the couple in New York, John Springer, said Burton
had told him, ''This is not a trial reconciliation; it is permanent.''
    Springer said Burton also told him they might marry in Israel. Miss
Taylor converted to Judaism years ago between her third and fourth
husbands, producer Mike Todd and singer Eddie Fisher, both Jews.
    An official in Israel said a rabbi could marry the couple only if
Burton also converted to Judaism. But a spokesman for the Christian
Information Center in Jerusalem said there would be no difficulty
finding a Christian priest or minister in Israel to marry them.
    Miss Taylor came here aout two weeks ago from working on a new
movie in Leningrad. The secretary would not say when Burton joined
her.
    Miss Taylor and Burton, who met on the set of ''Cleopatra,''
obtained a Swiss divorce 14 months ago in parallel suits following a
stormy 10-year marriage in which they separated and reconciled several
times. She was granted custody of their adopted child, Maria. Burton
announced in London last year that he and Princess Elizabeth of
Yugoslavia were engaged. She is a relative of the British royal family
and an old friend of Elizabeth Taylor.
    Miss Bell, the first black nude published in Playboy magazine's
centerfold, said Burton began dating her after he broke up with the
princess.
    Admitting she still loved Burton, the actress said, ''I'm very fond
of Elizabeth (Taylor), although we've never met. She was often on the
phone and he always talked to her. They're really in love.
    ''They make a beautiful couple,'' she added.
    
1328pED 08-21
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a107  0830  22 Aug 75
Family-Reunification 140
    MOSCOW (AP) - The United States has appealed to the Soviet Union on
behalf of about 650 Soviets, mostly Jews and Armenians, who want to
join relatives in the United States.
    A list of the Soviets, which make up 249 family units, was presented
to the Soviet Foreign Ministry Monday, informants said Friday.
    It was the 17th such ''representation'' list presented by the United
States to the Soviet Union since World War II, the informants said.
    In most cases, relatives of persons on the list were displaced
during the war and then went to the United States.
    Of the 790-name list presented in April 1974, about 38 per cent have
been allowed to leave.
    In presenting the new list, U.S. Ambassador Walter Stoessel recalled
that the European security conference document signed Aug. 1 by 35
nations, including the Soviet Union, provides for a positive attitude
toward applications of persons who wish to be reunited with family
members.
    
1131aED 08-22
**********

n038  1335  22 Aug 75
SULZBERGER COLUMN
(not for use before Sunday Aug. 24)
EDITORS: Please identify the following as commentary
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
By C. L. SULZBERGER
c.1975 N.Y. Times News Service
    JERUSALEM - Like everybody else in the Middle East, Israelis
disagree sharply about the shape of things to come. Among
those I asked to speculate about the condition of this region
20 years hence where Premier Rabin, Defense Minister Peres and Gen.
Ariel Sharon, who commanded the African invasion and
encirclement of the Egyptian army that would up the stalemated
Yom Kippur War of 1973.
    Speaking with deliberate hesitation, Rabin thought peace
would prevail but that in two decades ''instability and
hatred'' might still be evident in the area He hoped,
nevertheless, for some kind of ''confederation'' between
Arab-dominated Jordan and Jewish-dominated Israel by then,
with joint condominium over the West Bank in between, a
Palestinian-Arab region once part of Jordan, now held by
Israel.
    Sharon, who tried his hand at politics but was squeezed
out of the Knesset to hold his reserve command of an
armored corps, is now Rabin's special defense adviser. He
is far more pessimistic than either the Premier or Defense
Minister. He foresees war again - and much sooner than five
years from now. But he also foresees another Israeli victory
and a vague federative scheme of a Jewish-Arab Palestinian
confederation similar to Rabin's conjectures.
    By far the most optimistic vision was that of Peres. He
said: ''I believe that in two decades we may have a European
community type of situation. Economic factors as well as wisdom
call for one large community. Each member would keep its
own identity but there would be open frontiers, joint ventures
and mutual defense arrangements.
    ''Time is on the side of peace. You can't escape from this.
But I am not convinced formal peace must precede the
establishment of agreed frontiers and a community. On the
contrary, the economic approach often provides a better
beginning than the political one. You can have open bridges''
(as Israel has with Jordan) before final borders are arranged;
and that is what I would like to see.
    ''Some people are preoccupied with the immediately pressing
issues. For the time being there are changes in expression,
not changes in relationships. The Arabs used to talk about
throwing Israel into the sea. But today (Egyptian President)
Sadat talks of a sea of peace. Even talking about peace instead
of war is a change.
    ''We see a mutual distaste developing between the Arabs
and the Russians. Dialectics sometimes work against the
Russians. They can be invited into a country and then welcomed
by that country. But a third dialectical stage can come - a
growing desire to get rid of them. The Russians may look on
themselves as liberators but other people look on them as
foreigners.''
    Rabin is far more cautious than his Defense Minister. He
stresses: ''What we will see in the Middle East today is a
combination of tremendous oil-wealth and a backward Arab
society. A backward society and medieval ideas confront the
capabilities and realities of the second half of the twentieth
century.
    ''It is a society in convulsion. And the most significant
element is the resulting instability. This condition differs
in degree among Arab countries but it will continue to one
or another extent for at least the 20 years you speak of.
    ''I hope this period of instability and hatred will be ended
for the sake of the Arab nations, for Israel, and for a more
relaxed world. But I'm sure it won't happen in the near future.
It might well continue through the 20 years you mention.''
    For Rabin, Moscow is a source of danger, seeking to maintain
tension in the Middle East and to encourage difficulties in the
flow and price of oil for the industrial free world. He adds:
    ''Unless that world is more unified in its position by action
of consumers vis-a-vis producers, it will be eroded. To
relate this to the Arab-Israeli conflict is an illusion.
The real issue is the ability of consumer nations to withstand
pressure from the producers. That issue will decide the fate of
Western society.''
    It is hard to compose or even to relate these three divergent
views coming from three key Israeli leaders and then to deduce
conclusions. However, knowing both Rabin and Sadat, I venture
to say they share more views in common than either suspects
and that Cairo is by no means so far from endorsing the
Peres dream as today's emotional arguments might indicate.
 
(not for use before Sunday Aug. 24)
w-bb 8-22 
**********

n084  2100  22 Aug 75
CZECH-JEWS
By .1975 N.Y. Times News Service
 
    PRAGUE - The Jews of Prague believe that Judaism, which for
seven centuries was a powerful factor in the intellectual,
artistic and architectural flowering of this city, will be
dead in Czechoslovakia within 20 years. But it will leave an
almost indelible legacy behind.
    Judaism suffered its heaviest blow here during World War
II with the extermination of at least 77,000 Jews by the
Nazis. Of 360,000 Jews in the country before the war, 5,000
practicing Jews remain.
    Little is left of Judaism in Prague but two functioning
synagogues, a kosher restaurant catering mainly to aging
pensioners, social get-togethers during the High Holy Days
and memories.
    The last rabbi, Dr. Richard Feyder, died five years ago at
the age of 90. Eastern Europe's only rabbinical seminary is
in Budapest, and Hungarian-speaking rabbis have little
inclination to move to Czechoslovakia. Two cantors do what
they can to keep organized religious life alive.
    Despite the adversities, there is no discernible pressure
from the few remaining Jews to emigrate in significant
numbers, as there is in the Soviet Union and some European
Communist countries.
    ''Those who wanted most to leave did so after the war
or during the upheaval in 1968,'' a pensioner said. ''Most
of the rest of us are old. The Nazis left no middle generation.
To leave would mean giving up our pensions to face very
uncertain lives abroad, cut off from our beloved
Czechoslovakia. Here, provided we don't make trouble, we
don't get trouble.''
    The Jews seem to cause the Communist authorities neither
difficulty nor embarrassment. There apparently are no
quasi-political groups, no appeals to the West, no underground
journals.
    The community is closely watched, and its members know it.
A prominent member is considered an informer for the
Interior Ministry.
    The 1,200 practicing Jews in Prague rarely meet in large
numbers except in synagogue. Their main center is the
Staronova (Old-New) Synagogue, built in 1270, the oldest
continuously functioning synagogue in Europe and one of
Prague's major early Gothic architectural achievements.
    Swarms of foreign tourist wander through the former
ghetto - across a square from the brand-new Inter-Continental
Hotel - to see the graceful old buildings and the vast
Jewish cemetery used between 1439 and 1787.
    Many of Prague's greatest Jewish landmarks -N some of the
finest 18th-century and 19th-century houses, including the
palace that is now the American Embassy, were built or owned
by Jews - were spared by the Nazi occupation, which decided
to preserve them as relics of a civilization they intended
to make extinct.
    The tourists wander through the shady graveyard to look for
the stones of such notables as the 16th-century astronomer
David Ganz, the modern writer Frank Kafka and David Oppenheim,
an 18th-century ancestor of the late American nuclear physicist
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
    Jews delight in showing foreigners places connected with
the legend of the Golem, a clay monster supposedly brought
to life by the 16th-century Prague rabbi Judah Low Ben
Bazalel to help his people combat the persecution of
Emperor Rudolf II. As recently as 1938 the Golem was thought
by the superstitious to be lying dormant in the attic of the
Old-New Synagogue, ready to save the Jews from the imminent
horror of Nazi occupation.
    Visitors still drop notes containing personal wishes into
the red marble mausoleum of Rabbi Low, hoping the mysterious
scholar's spirit will make them come true.
    ''I am afraid the Golem has let us down once too often,''
a Jew said with a smile. ''Like him, we seem to be
destined to return to lifeless clay. But what a beautiful
monuments we are leaving behind!''
 
w-jm 8-23
**********

a058  0301  26 Aug 75
Soviet Jew 230
    MOSCOW (AP) - An Odessa Jew arrested while trying to get to Moscow
last month for a meeting with visiting U.S. senators has been
sentenced to two years in prison on a charge of violently resisting a
police officer, Jewish sources reported today.
    Lev Roitburd, a 39-year-old activist who has tried for three years
to emigrate to Israel, was sentenced Monday after a two-day trial in
Odessa, the Black Sea port, the sources said.
    They said they were informed of the verdict by telephone from Jews
who had traveled from Moscow for the trial, held in a Communist party
meeting room at Odessa airport.
    Roitburd was arrested July 2 at the Odessa airport as he waited to
catch a plane to the capital where Jewish activists were to meet with
Sen. Jacob Javits, R-N.Y., and other senators.
    The prosecution alleged that Roitburd punched a police officer in
the chest after refusing to submit to a search, the sources said.
    Roitburd denied the charges, claiming he was manhandled by officers
of the KGB, the security police, the sources reported.
    They said Roitburd testified that the KGB men told him they were
getting even with him for his militant Jewish activities.
    The sources said they did not know if Roitburd would appeal.
    Anothzr visiting delegation of U.S. congressmen this month raised
the Roitburd case with Soviet officials who reportedly said they would
look into it.
    
0602aED 08-26
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a062  0319  27 Aug 75
Meir 170
    NEW YORK (AP) - Former Israeli Premier Golda Meir has asked Harpers
Magazine Press to retract a sentence about her from a book it
published which concerns, in part, her stint as Israeli minister to
the Soviet Union in 1948.
    Edward Miller, a lawyer for Harper & Row, of which Harpers Magazine
Press is a division, said the publishers are investigating the facts
of the sentence in the book, ''The Education of Lev Navrozov.''
    The sentence, written by Navrozov, author of the book, says,
''Indeed, Stalin himself was said to have suggested to Golda Meir
drawing up lists of Jews in Russia who wished to defend Israel.''
    Miller said the book does not say Mrs. Meir drew up such a list.
However, it does say such lists were drawn up and that Stalin turned
them over to the secret police who arrested the Jews on the lists.
    In addition to asking that the sentence be deleted from subsequent
editions of the book, Mrs. Meir wants Harpers to retract allegations
that she was in any way involved with such lists, Miller said.
    In July, Mrs. Meir filed a $3 million suit against Commentary
magazine for an article Navrozov wrote for the August 1974 issue.
    
0620aED 08-27
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