B Nai B Rith

Jewish leaders here and across the nation, horrified by reports of detention camp atrocities and "ethnic cleansing" in far-off Bosnia-Herzegovina, are demanding immediate American intervention to head off a disaster they compare to the Holocaust of half a century ago."Not since the Cambodian massacres [of the 1970s] have I seen the Jewish community so agitated and so energized," Rabbi A. James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee said yesterday.Rabbi Rudin referred to "the trains, the camps, families separated, people with the 'wrong' last names or who are part of the 'wrong' group," and likened the new horrors not only to the World War II Holocaust but to the three-year reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s that killed more than a million of Cambodia's 8 million people.

Bernard Simon, who served for more than 20 years as public relations director for the Jewish humanitarian organization B'nai B'rith International, died April 20 at his home in Olney of complications from spinal stenosis. He was 89. Mr. Simon's death was confirmed by son David Simon, a former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of the HBO TV series "The Wire" and "Treme." Early in his career, Bernard Simon was a freelance journalist who wrote for the Saturday Evening Post, Coronet magazine and the Toronto Star.

The Nathan and Mary Hackerman Lodge #2664, B'nai B'rith, regrets the passing of our Member DORIS PATZ and sister-in-law of members Willard and Lillian Hackerman. We extend sincere sympathy to the family.

The Nathan and Mary Hackerman Lodge #2664, B'nai B'Rith regrets the passing of their charter member and passed president MR. SIDNEY N. CHERNAK and extends sympathy to the family.

WASHINGTON -- Today's music, comedy and literature are doing more than reinforcing unflattering racial and sexual stereotypes, minority leaders fear.Popular culture, they say, is teaching a generation of Americans it is OK to hate.The latest evidence they cite is the release this week of an annual study by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith that shows anti-Semitic crime rose for a fourth consecutive year. It also found eight out of 10 people charged with hate crimes were under 21."

A variety of hate literature was distributed in the Dunloggin section of Ellicott City yesterday under the name of a purported group called "National Alliance." One flier requested a $2 donation to a post office box. The three-page flier attacked the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, a Jewish group dedicated to defending the rights of Jews, people of color and so-called "race mixing." Howard County Police Chief Wayne Livesay said his officers responded to calls and collected copies of the brochures.

J. Richard BergmanTypographerJ. Richard Bergman, 92, a typographer who founded Jay-Bee Press in 1919, died April 22 of heart and lung complications at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center.The longtime Park Heights Avenue resident specialized in handset and Ludlow typesetting. A tireless artisan, he had a meticulous eye for spacing and type blending and manually set vTC type as a hobby even after his company installed computers and automated equipment.He retired in 1980. The Bergman family still operates the business in Woodlawn.

Bess Cohen, a retired Social Security Administration employee, died Wednesday of a stroke at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Mass. The former Baltimore area resident lived in Sun Valley, Calif. She was 78.She retired in 1989 as assistant manager of Social Security's Canoga Park, Calif., office. She started working for the agency in 1969 and held positions in Baltimore, San Francisco and Santa Ana, Calif.She was the mother of Ellen Naomi Cohen, who grew up in Baltimore and became Mama Cass Elliot, who sang during the 1960s with the Mamas and the Papas and who died in 1974.

TCIsraeli youth ensemble to performRishon LeZion Symphonic Youth Orchestra, a 45-piece Israeli wind ensemble composed of 13- to 18-year-olds, will perform at 7 p.m. Aug. 31 at Oseh Shalom synagogue in Laurel.Directed by Aharon Alkalai, the orchestra is from Rishon LeZion, a city southeast of Tel Aviv.The group's first visit to the United States is sponsored by B'nai B'rith's 150th anniversary celebration. It will include performances in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas.Concert tickets are $5 in advance or $7 at the door.