July 4, 1985

Two dispatches from Dallas last week discussed a speech on Jewish-black relations by Rabbi David Saperstein at the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The rabbi, who is Washington representative of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said most Jewish organizations had views supporting goals and timetables in the cause of affirmative action.

An article in Metropolitan Report on Friday about The Village Voice incorrectly described the departure of a Voice writer, Alexander Cockburn. Mr. Cockburn, a critic of Israel, was suspended in February 1984 for having accepted a $10,000 grant from the Institute of Arab Studies to write a book about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The Voice's editor, who had said the grant created a conflict of interest, later invited Mr. Cockburn to return, but the writer declined. He was not dismissed.

Until the night of June 12, when he lay dying outside Morningside Park of a gunshot fired by a plainclothes policeman who was not much older than he, 17-year-old Edmund Perry seemed bound for a destiny far removed from his Harlem surroundings. So, it seemed, was his 19-year-old brother, Jonah. ''Don't look for praise,'' Edmund had written the month before to a girlfriend at Milton Academy outside Boston. ''Don't ask for pity. Don't rise for glory. But know yourself and command respect.'' To many who knew Edmund and Jonah Perry - and to many who knew the police officer - the turn their lives took that warm June night seems inexplicable even now.

The 83-year-old Chinese prelate recognized by the Vatican as Bishop of Shanghai, the Rev. Ignatius Kung, was released from prison on parole today after spending nearly 30 years in jail, the New China News Agency announced. Bishop Kung, whose Chinese name is Gong Pinmei, is the best-known of the hundreds of Chinese clerics who were persecuted by the Communists in the 1950's for their refusal to bow to a movement that severed ties between the Roman Catholic Church in China and the Vatican. The movement, in effect, placed the church under Communist control. Despite the recent liberalizing of many aspects of Chinese life, that control is still in effect.

An obituary on June 26 of Walter R. Staub, retired chairman of the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand, erroneously located the firm's headquarters. It is in Manhattan.