Hostages Return Home with Mixed Feelings About Their Abductors; Cheered by Hundreds

With chorus upon chorus of “Hevenu Shalom Aleichem” rising to greet them, 33 former hostages of Arab guerrillas in Amman landed last evening at John F. Kennedy International Airport and were happily crushed by newsmen, relatives and friends. I just want to go home!” exclaimed Fran B. (Foozie) Chesler, a 20-year-old student at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. But she was not put off by the hot lights and the rapid-fire questioning, during which she contended that “We don’t condone the hijacking, but we understand their cause.” It was not long before she was engulfed by a 15-member bouquet-bearing ad hoc Foozie Fan Club from Stern College, which had enlivened the atmosphere of the Trans World Airlines terminal with a string of rousing Hebrew songs and now importuned her to “Take the darned flowers, already.” Thirty-one of the returnees were released Sunday. For the majority of them who were Jewish, they were just in time for Rosh Hashanah. David Raab of Trenton, N.J., wearing a yarmulka and greeted by fellow Noar Mizrachi members, flashed a wide smile as he declared: “It feels great!” He, too, said he did not have a feeling of anger toward his abductors, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Mitchell Meltzer of Orlando, Fla., also said he was “not bitter against them.” Under questioning, he said that while he did not believe Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had been a “moderate,” he had nevertheless “helped us a lot,” in their desert ordeal. Two former hostages–Miriam R. (Mimi) Beeber, 20, of Brooklyn, a senior at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and Sarah Malka of North Bergen, N.J., a senior at Rutgers University, New Brunswick made an attempt to submit to question under the hot glare of the television lights, but were apparently overcome by that combination and withdrew almost as quickly as they had appeared. All three of those who ran the gauntlet–Miss Chesler, Mr. Raab and Mr. Meltzer–stated separately but with equal assertion that their experiences in Amman would not deter them from flying again. “Yes,” answered Miss Chesler with finality when asked if she would consider taking another plane. “Yes,” echoed the two young men. Jeffrey Merle Newton of the Bronx, a student at Yeshiva University High School, agreed. Returning to the ground after a mini-flight on the shoulders of his classmates, he exclaimed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “Not fly? That’s just what they (the guerrillas) want me to do. Next summer I’m going right back to Tel Aviv.”

‘SCARED’, ‘ANXIOUS’, ‘PAIN’, SOME OF THE FEELINGS EXPERIENCED DURING THE HIJACKING ORDEAL

Capt. Carroll D. Woods of Prairie Village, Kan., who had not expected to spend his 52nd birthday as a prisoner of Palestinian commandoes, told the press he and his passengers had been treated “fairly” and “humanely.” and that “at no time were we ever starving to death.” In addition there was “no threat, no indoctrination.” The temperature during the drama ranged from 55 degrees at night in their temporary “cells” to 110 degrees inside the airliner before they were taken out, he said, and four shells landed within 20 to 40 feet of them. “It isn’t the best experience,” he conceded. “I wouldn’t recommend it more than once in a lifetime.” But he said he would not hesitate to captain another flight to the Middle East–“I don’t see why not.” The only bitter note expressed by a former hostage at the terminal came from Myron (Myer) Fund of Brooklyn, who was encountered by the JTA amid his relatives near the airline bus depot. Asked if he felt as little hatred for his abductors as some of his fellow prisoners had expressed inside the terminal, he said of the guerrillas: “They are a bunch of murderers. Whatever reaction you think you would have with a gun to your head, that’s my reaction.” The 33 ex-hostages, who were met away from the news conference hubbub by 175 relatives, were also deluged by cheers from several hundred more classmates, friends and general well-wishers. “Scared,” “anxious” and “pain” were some of the feelings friends told the JTA they had experienced during the hijacking ordeal halfway around the world.

In addition to the outpouring of Miss Chesler’s classmates, some 90 Yeshiva classmates of Mr. Raaband Mr. Newton showed up–four at the point of arrival and some 85 in a receiving room upstairs. There was difference of opinion on Col. Nasser. A young man from Yeshiva said that it did not matter who the leader of Egypt was, as “the situation is being controlled by the Russians, more or less.” A young lady from Stern College said: “He was very moderate–for an Arab leader.” A woman who called the release of the hostages “a joy to the whole Jewish people” averred that “If he (Nasser) had had it in his power to push the Jews into the sea, he would have done it.” Twenty-seven of the 33 passengers, including Miss Beeber and Miss Malka, declined to face the press. They included Rabbi and Mrs. Jonathon David, Rabbi Isaac Hutner and Yaacov Drillman, 19, all of Brooklyn, the last-named a rabbinical student and son of Rabbi Solomon Drillman. Sebastian Leone, the new borough president of Brooklyn, told the JTA he was planning a reception Thursday at Borough Hall for the eight returning Brooklynites. A beaming Mayor John V. Lindsay, after expressing his “thrill” at the release of the captives, added a holiday note: “We are now on the threshold of the Jewish New Year, days of prayer and contemplation. I hope and pray that the happy return of the hostages will signify for mankind a year of peace among nations and reconciliation among the people of the world.” For another two dozen or more households that had feared the worst, Rosh Hashanah was again to be a family affair after all.