Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 19, 1984 Page: 4 of 24
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TEXAS JEWISH POST THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 1984 POSTORIAL PAGE
postorials, opinions, etc
• ••
po/toricil
The Second Lynching
Of Leo Frank
The State of Georgia was presented with a unique
opportunity to correct the injustice meted out more
than 70 years ago, and its failure to act may now be
described as the second lynching of Leo Frank. The
plight of Leo Frank has been well chronicled. A Jewish
factory superintendent, Frank was convicted of the
murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta in 1913 and was
later dragged from his prison cell and lynched by an
angry mob in one of the worst anti-Semitic outbursts in
this nation’s history. Nearly half of Georgia’s Jewish
community fled while armed mobs roamed the streets,
forcing Jewish business firms to close their shops.
Last year, after extensive investigative report-
ing by two newspapermen from the Nashville
Tennessean, it was disclosed that 85-year-old Alonzo
Mann witnessed the factory’s janitor, Jim Conley,
carrying the limp, unconscious body of Mary Phagan to
the factory’s basement. Mann was 14 years old at the
time, working as an office boy, and claims today that his
fear of retribution prevented him from testifying at the
trial of Leo Frank.
But the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles
obviously didn’t feel that Mann presented any new
evidence to warrant action. In fact Mann did present a
new account filed in a sworn affidavit of the murder.
Since the original trial’s one prosecuting witness had
been Conley, the case should have brought into question
the conviction of Leo Frank. Extensive research into
the case and piles of other documents indicate that Leo
Frank was innocent.
This is by no means a moribund attempt by the
American Jewish leadership to resurrect the name of
Leo Frank, but a clear and honest challenge to the State
of Georgia to provide justice, even if it must be
posthumously awarded. It is expected that the
challenge will go forward to the state legislature, which
will be asked to consider the injustice done to Leo Frank
and to the many Jewish people of that state who were
forced to flee from angry mobs, solely based on the
testimony of a man who may have been protecting his
own neck.
TEXAS JEWISH POST
Dedicated to Truth, Liberty and Justice
Editor and Publisher............ J.A. Wisch
Managing Editor and Co-Publisher........... Rene Wisch
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Judy Levine, Judy Wisch, Raelynn Stephens and Linda McCoy
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monitor
Conference In S’dom
BY M. J. ROSENBERG
S’dom, Israel — the
Bible’s Sodom — has calmed
down considerably since
that day when Lot’s wife
made the mistake of looking
back. Today there is little
evidence of what must have
been a rollicking downtown
Sodom, only a strip of luxury
hotels along the Dead Sea
shore. These hotels cater to
the health trade — people
from Israel and abroad who
come to S’dom seeking skin
cures promised (and often
delivered) by the Dead Sea’s
water and mud.
cans are fundraisers for
Israel in their home com-
munities. When they come
to Israel on missions and on
other trips they get to hear
only official views of Israeli
life and politics. In S’dom the
Israelis and the Americans
were able to open up and
freely discuss the future of
Israel and Diaspora Jews.”
group along with their
American counterparts.
Late last year (Dec. 10-14)
S’dom was the setting for
what might have been its
most exciting happening
since those sinful days of
yore. It was host to the First
World Jewish Young Lead-
ership Assembly, an event
sponsored by the United
Jewish Appeal’s Young
Leadership Cabinet.
The S’dom assembly
brought together 75 Jewish
leaders from America and
another 75 from Israel. Both
groups were diverse: busi-
nessmen, lawyers, academ-
ics, journalists, two U.S.
Congressman and several
Knesset members. It was
the very diversity of the
delegations that impressed
many participants.
The Assembly’s agenda
did not evade the contro-
versial issues. Religious
pluralism in Israel, the role
of dissent, the importance of
aliya and Israel’s deteriorat-
ing economy were all raked
over in plenary sessions and
in smaller groups. AIPAC’s
deputy director, Arthur
Chotin, presided over one
stormy session on Israeli
and U.S. politics. Labor and
Likud figures, U.S. Con-
gressmen Larry Smith (D-
Fla.) and Dan Glickman (D-
Kansas), Deputy Foreign
Minister Yehuda Ben-Meir,
and Benjamin Netanyahu,
Israel’s minister in Washing-
ton fielded questions from
other delegates. The first
question came from Avra-
ham Burg, an Israeli who is
one of the leaders of the
Peace Now movement. Oth-
er questions came from
delegates active all over the
Israeli and American politi-
cal landscape. The session
was not boring.
Mike Gross says that the
economics group discussed
Israel in a “different way”
than it is “usually discuss-
ed, particularly by the
Americans who fundraise
for Israel and often forget
the country’s economic po-
tential.” He said that few
supporters of Israel in
America think of the “oppor-
tunities for investment in
Israel or about distributing
Israeli products here.” He
believes that Israel has
great potential, particu-
larly in the area of
sophisticated technology
— which even in Hebrew is
referred to as “high tech.”
The recent moves by the
Reagan Administration to-
ward the establishment of a
“free trade area” with Israel
should only advance the
development of Israel’s
“high-tech” industries.
Michael Gross, partner in
a Washington, D.C. law firm
and a Young Leadership
Cabinet member, said that
the Assembly was unique in
that it brought together
“Israelis and Americans who
had never gotten together
before. Many of the Ameri-
Nor were the smaller
discussion groups. Michael
Gross is particularly inter-
ested in Israel’s economy.
He joined 30 other delegates
in working on a program
that would encourage Amer-
ican investment in Israel.
There were 10 to 15 Israeli
business people in that
Gross argues that invest-
ing in Israel is a natural
extension of many Ameri-
cans “pocketbook relation-
ship” with Israel. “Israel
needs U.S. economic and
military aid, and it needs
charitable contributions, but
it also needs to establish a
sound economic relationship
with the United States.
Investment in Israel will not
only benefit the investor and
Israel’s industries but it will
also enhance the personal
connection between the in-
vestor and the State of
Israel.”
Gross says that the
Assembly will encourage
movement in this and other
See Monitor Page 21
No Change In Middle East
BY MORRIS J. AMITAY
Judging by recent events
in the Middle East, it would
seem that some things,
unfortunately, never
change.
For instance, a besieged
Yasser Arafat is again
evacuated from Lebanon,
this time under the United
Nations flag. Shortly there-
after, Arafat proclaims a
great political victory, as he
is warmly embraced by
President Mubarak.
Again, defeated in battle
and exiled, Arafat is resur-
rected politically — not only
by Egypt but more impor-
tantly by the United States
which hails the Arafat-Mu-
barak meeting as a step
forward in the quest for
peace in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, on Israel’s
eastern border, Jordan’s
King Hussein is making the
same old new hints that he is
prepared to discuss a peace
settlement. The Saudis, we
are told, are also continuing
to assert their “moderating”
influence in the Middle East
while at the same time
bankrolling the Syrians and
their PLO surrogates. These
similarities to the situation a
year ago would not be
complete without yet anoth-
er U.S. Mideast envoy re-
inventing the wheel before
discovering the extent of
Arab duplicity in the nego-
tiating game.
immediately after a “new
era” of U.S.-Israeli coopera-
tion which we also had in
1981. Incidentally, Adminis-
tration spokesmen now in-
sist in the face of Arab
protests, that this latest
“era” is not new after all.
be learned?
Given this dismal back-
ground there is scant reason
to believe that the joint
U.S.-Israel working groups
meeting this week to imple-
ment the Shamir-Reagan
understandings on strategic
cooperation will amount to
much.
And finally, we have the
resuscitation of the ill-con-
ceived Reagan Peace Plan.
All of this deja vu,
curiously enough, comes
As long as an American
Administration can be mis-
led into believing that
genuine peace arrangements
can be worked out with the
likes of Arafat and Assad,
and that the Saudis and
Jordanians can be reHed
The Jesse Jackson “coup”
in Damascus, whatever else
its political consequences,
must be viewed as anotitr
manifestation of Black-J
ish estrangement over
die East policies. Although*
the mainstream and more '*
Black
J
I
I
upon to protect U.S. inter-
ests, self-defeating policies
will continue to be perpet-
uated in the Middle East.
The question is — how many
times must the same less^s
ity and expresses genial
support for Israel, the rrBe
radical elements, inclu<®g "
Jackson, have made it clear 4
See Amitay Page 23
I
respectable Black leader-
ship still maintains its ties to J
the liberal Jewish commun-
I
I
I
I
I I
11
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 19, 1984, newspaper, January 19, 1984; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753442/m1/4/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .