Rabbis and congregations throughout the United States and Canada will memorialize the 11 Israeli victims of the Olympic massacre during the first Rosh Hashana services tomorrow evening. A proposal for such memorial services was issued today by Rabbi William Berkowitz, president of the New York Board of Rabbis which represents Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis throughout the metropolitan area.
A memorial service was held in the rotunda of New York City Hall after Mayor John V. Lindsay proclaimed today as an official day of mourning. Francis Cardinal Cooke, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, ordered that special prayers be offered throughout the day at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.
In Washington, Secretary of State William P. Rogers and Undersecretary John N. Irwin were among more than 1500 people who attended a memorial service at noon today at the Lincoln Memorial. Also present were members of Congress and White House officials in addition to religious leaders. The memorial was initiated by Washington’s Jewish community and sponsored jointly by the Council of Churches of Greater Washington, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington.
The State Department took the unusual step of issuing a memorandum to all employes of the department, the Agency for International Development and the US Information Agency, encouraging them to attend the service. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass,) told the meeting that "the question is not whether Israel can survive these events but whether the civilized world can survive them. If world law can have any effect, it can act to bring Arabs and Israelis together, in direct negotiations, to make a peace, and end this terror for all time."
FLAGS FLOWN AT HALF-MAST
More than 1000 mourners gathered yesterday at an interfaith memorial meeting in Boston sponsored by the Associated Synagogues at which Archbishop Mederos was represented. Gov. Francis Sargent declared Sunday a state-wide day of mourning and ordered flags flown at half-mast until after Rosh Hashana. At an interfaith memorial meeting, which drew more than 500 at the Jewish Agency building in Manhattan, Zionist, Protestant and Catholic leaders condemned the Arab nations for encouraging the acts of terrorism which culminated in the Olympic massacre.
David Rivlin, consul general of Israel in New York, urged the UN to isolate the Arab states from the community of nations until they changed their policies toward the terrorists. Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation, said the "real goal" of the terrorists "was not only to kill innocent Israelis but also to destroy any form of cooperative effort among the forward-looking nations of the world." Dr. Emanuel Rack-man, member of the WZO Executive, blamed the Munich disaster on the nations of the world "which have aided and abetted this insanity."
(Rabbi Tibor Stern of Miami, who was in the Soviet Union last month, reported that a kaddish service for the 11 Israeli athletes was held today in the Moscow Choral Synagogue.)
The New York and American stock exchanges stopped all trading for one minute yesterday for silent prayer. In Connecticut, Gov. Thomas Meskill ordered flags on all state buildings flown at half-mast. In East Orange, N.J., the New York Giants football team, in training at Upsala College joined with the college players for a memorial service for the murdered athletes.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., Sargent Shriver, the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee, cancelled most of his campaign schedule. Sen. George McGovern, the Presidential nominee, met with a group of rabbis and at their suggestion, decided against a temporary halt in his campaigning. The performance of "Jesus Christ, Superstar," last night in New York, was dedicated to the memory of the Munich victims.
AVOID FUTILE ACTS OF RETALIATION
In one of a series of statements issued by various organizations, Bruno Aron, chairman of Americans for Progressive Israel-Hashomer Hatzair, warned that Jews must not permit themselves "to be goaded into futile acts of retaliation." The United Zionists-Revisionists of America declared, in a letter to Secretary of State William Rogers, that the United States must bring the problem of Arab terrorism before the UN.
The American Professors for Peace in the Middle East urged the US to recall its diplomatic representatives in the Arab states for consultations aimed at helping to "ensure that Arab terrorists no longer have a haven for their murderous attacks." The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland warned that what happened at Munich "threatens the basic foundations of society."
Last night, some 700 persons attended a memorial vigil at the Hammarskjold Plaza organized by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. More than 1500 Protestants, Catholics and Jews attended an interfaith memorial service today at Temple Israel in Dayton, Ohio. Some 100 JDLers demonstrated near the Lebanese Mission to the UN.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
