SHOFAR BBG Sabbath: "Women Are A Nation Unto Themselves by Shari Miller BBG International N'siah B'nai B'rith Youth Organization ALEPH ZADIK ALEPH (AZA) The Sabbath, a time for ob- in a changing society. It's quite fitting for servance and a vital element of BBG Sabbath. B'NAI B'RITH GIRLS (BBG) Jewish living. Unlimited Program Possibilities BBG Sabbath is an integral part of the BBG Sabbath 1976, February 13-14, is a 17 BBG program, with religious and cultural time for BBG'ers all over the world to programs playing such an important part in gather together to celebrate this day of rest. JANUARY, 1976 BBG. The possibilities are endless as to the Just think, almost 18,000 girls around the types of creative programs that can be world celebrating the Sabbath. planned for your Chapter. Services, a Kallah In order to unify B'nai B'rith Girls around weekend, a discussion group, a speaker the world, a theme has been chosen for this program, a traditional Sabbath dinner, it's year's BBG Sabbath "Women Are a Na- up to each of YOU as to what you'd like tion Unto themselves.' (Sab 62a) This your Chapter to do for BBG Sabbath. You theme is to be used when planning services can have just a Friday night program, or ex- and programs for BBG Sabbath. tend it into the whole weekend. BBG'ers What can we, as youth, do for the Sab- can express their Jewishness by putting their bath today? First of all, in order to have a creative ideas into creative programs. Get meaningful Sabbath, one must have a de- those minds moving on planning super pro- sire to have a meaningful Jewish life. What grams for BBG Sabbath. The time to plan can the Sabbath mean to you if being Jew- is now, with BBG Sabbath only a month ish means nothing to you? away. Secondly, be in a group when cele- Use available resources in planning your brating the Sabbath. We thrive on together- program. Each Council and/or Regional ness and unity. n'siah is receiving a release with program- Thirdly, make sure the spirit of the Sab- ming ideas and resources to help out their bath is there when planning a service or areas in planning for BBG Sabbath. Get in program. touch with them for help. See the BBYO Fourth, whatever program is planned publication "Youth and the Living Sab- She Hunts Them Down should have some of the main ideas of the bath" and the BBYO Judaism Pamphlet Sabbath-a day of rest, together with our (just reprinted and revised) "The Sabbath" fellow Jews. A service and program for -both available from local BBYO offices. BBG Sabbath should include all of these Put your minds to work in celebrating BBG Wherever They May Be things. Sabbath February 13-14. "Women are a nation unto themselves" Make sure your Chapter is having a pro- a theme that can have a lot done with it. gram for BBG Sabbath. We'll join hands In this day and age, women's role in soci- around the world in celebrating this Sab- "It is not incumbent upon thee to finish the work, ety is changing constantly. Equality, liberty, bath that is so meaningful to us as Jews. neither art thou free to desist from togetherness are just some of the things that Each BBG'e should have the chance to Ethics of The Fathers can be related to the theme. Use the theme express her Jewishness through BBG Sab- The Holocaust was probably the most horrendous event in world history. Yet, for many in planning your BBG Sabbath program. bath. Let's "Remember the Sabbath day of us it is difficult to understand Today's BBYO members were not even born yet. It all This theme directly relates to us, as females, to keep it holy." seems somehow unreal. For many Germans the feeling is the same. They were either not born yet, only children during the period, or they don't want to remember. For one German-born Christian woman -born in 1939, as World War II began is not just past history, but a life-long crusade. Beate Klarsfeld, a petite French housewife but German by birth, mounted a West Berlin podium in November 1968, and delivered "the slap heard round the world" to the face of Kurt-Georg Kiesinger, Chancellor of West Germany. At the price of her own arrest and a prison sentence, Beate Klarsfled focused world attention on the Nazi leader's past. Mrs. Klarsfeld tells of this incident and her life story in her new autobiography WHEREVER THEY MAY BE! One Woman's Battle Against Nazism (Vanguard Press, New York; THE SHOFAR 352 pages with 12 pages of photographs; $10.00). The attack on Kiesinger was only one of a series of dramatic coups that have made Beate Klarsfeld a world-known figure and leader in the drive to unmask war criminals now serving government and industry in Germany, France and around the world. HOT-LINE This terror of the German government was born Beate Kunzel, a Christian in 1939, just three days before Hitler marched into Prague. She lived her early years outside Berlin and "never even heard the bombs fall." After a typical teenage, she went to Paris at the age of Having problems coping with school, BBYO, personal twenty. Waiting for a metro in Paris, she noticed a serious young man staring at her. They problems? Not quite sure to whom you can turn? Be- talked a bit. A few days later, Serge Klarsfeld phoned, and before long they were in love. He opened her eyes to a brand-new world of culture because of his "interest in everything-a ginning with the March issue, The Shofar will be pub- literature, politics. He taught me the true history of my own country and the full horror of lishing "The Hot-Line" with questions from BBYO Nazism." members along with answers prepared by experts in the When Beate met Serge's mother and Jewish friends, she was welcomed with warmth and friendliness despite her nationality. She learned that Serge's father, a French resistance field of youth rk-social workers, psychologists, fighter, had died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. She vowed she would not rest until she psychiatrists, rabbis, etc. had brought to justice the murderers of millions of Jews. In that way she hoped to expunge Ask anything which may be on your mind ranging the Nazi taint from her generation of Germans. As Beate's hatred of Nazis became stronger, she of and her husband, now an international lawyer, planned the successful capture and arrest from a question on Judaism to one on drugs or alcohol former SS Captain Klaus Barbie, "the Butcher of Lyon," who fled to South America or one on BBYO policy or history. All letters will be where he was living a life of ease and comfort. She chained herself to a tree on the main confidential and not shared with anyone but the expert street of La Paz, flanked by posters detailing his crimes. Her activity is generally credited with leading to his sentencing. assigned to prepare an answer. Although we ask that you sign your letter, your name will not be published Kidnap Attempt Fails unless you tell us it's okay to do so. In one of her famous escapades, Beate Klarsfeld tried to kidnap Kurt Lischka, former chief of the Gestapo's Bureau of Jewish Affairs in France, and now a senior bank clerk in Not all questions will be answered. We will try and The Cologne. The plan was to take him to France where he had been found guilty in absentia. select those which we feel are most typical of the plot failed when four male accomplices became frightened and fled. Beate herself was questions facing BBYO members today. arrested, President convicted and sentenced to a jail term by a judge who ignored the pleas of French Because of publishing deadlines, all letters for the Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Beate was expelled from Germany, while the criminal was result: never brought to court except to testify against her. But there was one very important March issue must be received by January 20. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt promised to urge the West German parliament to ratify Send your questions to: convention allowing German courts to try criminals already convicted in France. SHOFAR HOTLINE Others she exposed include: until Achenbach, political adviser to the German ambassador in Occupied Paris and, Emst BBYO on the 1975, a member of the Bundestag, at which time he was forced to resign his position 1640 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. foreign affairs committee because of Mrs. Klarsfeld's active campaign; Heinrich Illers, Washington, D. C. 20036 (Continued on page 2)