Yeshiva U. Students From Detroit Israeli Autlwr and Journalist Amos Elon -,„ • i Play Active Role in Scholarship Event Describes a Tanaticatty Civilian Society' By CHARLOTTE DUBIN A country which forces its gen- erals to retire after 40 must have something against a military elite. Tell that to the hysterical children who have dubbed Israel "a land of fascist pigs." One man who has told them, and, more surprisingly, been lis- tened to, is Amos Elon, author of "The Israelis: Founders and Sons." (See Review, Jewish News, May 21). Elon, in the United States for six weeks to promote his book, said he is as surprised as anyone to see the Holt, Rinehart product "take off like a rocket. They tell me it's being read by non-Jews in masses. And it's lucky for Is- rael, because it seems to have struck a chord in circles So far critical of Israel," The 45-year-old author and journalist said he has been swamped with speaking invita- tions from college students. "They are confused; they want to love Israel but they have heard so much propaganda against her. My book reassures them." For those who are concerned lest the war conditions forced on Israel result in her becoming a military society, Elon does have reassuring words. "American Jews who come to Israel find an Israeli who is averse to violence, sick and tired—no, nauseated—by war. We in Israel have been fortunate: In a constant state of emergency, warfare and unending conflict, you would ex- pect that the martial virtues would be advanced, but they haven't. You'd expect an erosion of the democratic process, yet ours is a fanatically civilian society. "Sure, a large part of the Israeli economy is geared to the military conflict," he added, "but there have been no moral consequences. We do not have a powerful mili- tary and industrial complex be- cause the culture of the society in Israel is a Jewish culture, and it would run against the grain." Take Israel's war heroes. "Ezer Weizman was the only general who jumped from 'Pentagon' to cabinet. But now he's finished politically—unless he gets a wider political base, that is." (Weizman Sonic Detroit area students at Yeshiva University go over plans for the Detroit Friends of Yeshiva University Heritage. Scholarship Fund Brunch, to be held June 27 at Cong. Shaarey Zedek. Pictured are (top, from left) : Stern College for Women students Deanne J. Sukenic, Marilyn Nussbaum and Susan Butrimovitz, Akiva Green- berg, Stern College instructor, who taught several of the students in Detroit secondary schools; and students Hannah Ulrych, Susan Blitz and Carol Perecman, who will speak at the event. Shown in the bottom photo are Yeshiva College students Seth D. Cohen and Ste- phen Richmond, Dr. Isaac Bacon, dean of Yeshiva College, and stu- dent Jacob Tewel. For Carol Perecman these have been busy June days. The Oak Park coed, who attends Yeshiva University Stern College for Women, attended the Yeshiva commencement June 10 to see her fellow student and then-fiance graduate. On Sunday, she married Joseph Robert Perec- man at the Young Israel of Oak Woods. In her spare time, she is studying the speech she will make this Sunday at Cong. Shaarey Zedek. In her first public appearance as Mrs. Perecman, the former Carol Duchan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Duchan of Harding Ave., Oak Park, will address the Detroit Friends of Yeshiva University Heritage Brunch. Representing her classmates, she will bring greetings from Dr. Samuel Belkin, president of Yeshiva University. A graduate of Yeshivath Beth Yehuda and Mumford High School, Mrs. Perecman is majoring in English at Stern. Her sister, Sharon Duchan Cohen, is a 1967 graduate of Stern College. Principal speaker at the brunch will be Rabbi Herbert C. Dobrin- sky, Yeshiva University's associate director of community services and director of rabbinic placement. Max Sosin, chairman of the 1971 scholarship fund campaign, will chair the brunch. Co-chairmen are Irwin I. Cohen, Nathan I. Goldin and David Pollack. Mr. and Mrs. Cohn and Mr. and Mrs. Harold Soble will be in- ducted into the Yeshiva University Society of Master Builders. Rabbi Hayim Donin will present each couple with a bronze Master Builder's Plaque. • No reservations are needed. All are invited. ISRAE[.wISMILE 1P111 1 /72041Vt A Conversation Series Released by: By Shlomo Kodesh TARBUTH FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF HEBREW CULTURE THAT'S THE WAY OF THE WORLD D'7117 '77) iDTT Cast : Two mothers. Scene: A telephone conversation. A: Good evening. how arc you? What's new at home? You have a "maze] 17? 1:'71 toy" coming to you. Dalia has finished her finals. My Zahara says that Dalia excelled in all the exams, written and oral. B: 1$ 7- 7 n' 7;"? know what will be next. What's there to know? She is 18, and goes into the army. (Tzahal) There are no tomorrow's w ernes. Everything is clear. nit:717 71:7, 1 ;1i11) , -» nirnF) ;liar p:#7. .nitolnn rvilp Hi? nr.ti $?? rpri5; Zahara didn't want to pass up the army by any means. "I'm tired of studies," she said. "I want a rest from books and exams." There's something to that. Dalia's friend, Ziva, married her boy friend and is not being drafted. Marriage at this age? Nonsense! What's the rush? "Everything in its own good time." Thank God, there's no problem of finding a husband in the state of Israel. Let her enter the army. She'll be on her own, shell grow up. That's what a girl does in Israel. B: Yes, that's what all the girls in Israel think. But for me, a new im- migrant, it is hard to imagine our Dalia a soldier. It seems only yesterday B: B: - 1 ? . ? ,p t ?nr"' .r9r '732 -.1;!it jolt cnvi; rt •rT7117 7? 1 ?r,e7 1 t5t 3 rr, 5 7 7131 r ,Dy,r1 1 1 0 rF1 'Ill .11V7 ?P117171 17 ?nisrmi in! '7,p on.p0 - 3t rin ritliv 7R . 1P. clr, , rrt•P? ' 1 77 1 .0717, .$ntr rT7; 0 o0111,1ktl_ r x .', k5 1±tr.;213 nrtR ,71-rrj n'?iv ,or??? '7?x rtiFil 5a ninsitin ,p .7 .n'ry )3t7tr What did you finally decide? Where will she go? riL7n jK5 ?ont7'?nry 144 We decide! She has already decided. Two days after the exams she went down south. She joined a Nahal unit in the Negev. A: ;pp 17 1P 711 i, re:,,` 7rin1;:!r.o ,r4;:l nrt n'? In-rtcrp -nv`n0m o^10017 r113'? 14i1 - n-!i?t; t - -as-1757 • - °- P7 '4 .) ;1???11)7?"- that she was born... A: rrt.r. rryn?, The ROTC depends on her (decision). If she wants to continue her " studies immediately, they will certainly postpone drafting her. My B: n? ?rqr_r‘? nliFF Crt210 A: in? q9 t7 nr1"; ° '?i‘ .71t$171 71'T 717 C1'1. 771` t•I'7 tan1K .11:1771 Pi "7T' 7? ? ? 17 .Yf rn-1 1]? Yes, she has already reported to the draft board. Nonetheless, not all the girls are drafted. There are other possibilities: R.O.T.C. marriage, etc. A: New Life for Iran Ghetto Family. Begins With Asslstane c of ;bC .71?-'71,!lmrp? Thank you. Thank God, the exams are already behind us. It was dif- want to waste a minute. Now tomorrow's worries begin. ‘Ve don't B: 7117V oaf y'F??rrz; ;In r7vzi5 f'irr1F1 ficult to watch the girl's suffering. She studied day and night. She didn't A: tzln ri.p&7t.: :ri7ar:c .3 .0i717 rap.: nirriFT Then the problem is solved. Is there room for worries? it D77i, .719,'?71 1?? K^1ru0t71:1 $ . r11 rS.; 1 ?17 71 91Yr., tr ;-.1 ."t917°iP7717 .7:'9 71 :17F1 7E1 Dalia's problems were salted, but her mother's worries remain. Well, that's the way it goes... (the way of the world) St d .05'117 $S, 1451 -1? in Israel for only 20 years.'' As to their charges that the government f a v o r s immigrants from the Soviet Union: "When they complain that the Russian Jews are getting all the good apart- ments, they forget that all new immigrants get new housing. When the Sephardim came 15-20 years ago, they too were put into new housing. But the maabarot were not as well built as the housing being put up today. Consequently, their homes have deteriorated, and the areas have become slums." Elon sees it less of a dis crimination problem than of a question of poverty. "Israel's founding fathers dreamed. of egalitarian society—a dream AMOS ELON strong that any social differences ran counter to the central pub- is Herut Party leader) As for Gen. Moshe Dayan's graduation to polit- lic ideology. Salaries always were well balanced between high ical power, it could hardly be and low. Now that has changed called a meteoric rise, 15 years after his army retirement. Unlike to some extent, and it's not good. But what the government must Weizman, he's a dove on many do is not put down the well- issues. to-do, but push up the poor." If Elon's book has proved suc- He added that there is a tax of cessful abroad, it has created no less of a storm in his own "con- 87 per cent on any earnings over trary, lively, soul-searching" coun- $500 per month. A man earn- try, where many may resent being ing $350 a month pays 60 per cent in taxes. told: Born in Vienna, educated in "There is a symmetry between the Israelis' traumatic memory England, sent by his newspaper Haaretz to report from the United of holocaust and the neurosis of States, Germany and Poland, Elon shame • and anger, humiliation and white rage that has been brings to his subject a sophistica- generated among Arabs by Is- tion that marks the new breed of rael's recurrent successes. Both Israeli intellectual. But it is with awe that he describes the "Found- sides are in a sense 'possessed' ers" of his book. . . . Whatever their subsequent follies and outrages might be, "Fewer than 3,000 fantastically the punishment of the Arabs for inspired men established this the sins of Europe must burden country, hoping to create a new, the conscience of Israelis for a just society. They brought a tradi- long time to come." tion of humaneness and a concern Yet, Elon said in an interview for social welfare—a utopian idea here, "The Israeli occupational that is generally unknown today. regime in the West Bank is the "The Zionists," Elon continued, most humane in modern history. I "were part of the radically revolu- don't think in this century there tionary movement of Eastern Eu- has been another occupational rope. Trotsky and Ben-Gurion regime without one case of rape. came from the same moral frame- Fewer than 120 people are cur- work. Their roles could have been rently imprisoned under suspicion interchanged. "Much of the -golden dream of sabotage. You can travel in the occupied territories for days with- didn't come true," said Elon. out seeing one Israeli. Of course, "There's an element of irony and it's no pleasure to be the occupant, sadness to that, but it is more or the occupied." human." What Elon views as Israel's With all her achievements, gravest internal problems are the there is a mood of melancholy "church"-state issue ("Change will among Israel's people. "After come from the young Israelis who the Six-Day War, they thought don't want to live in a theocracy") peace had come at last. But it and the integration of Oriental im- didn't come. There's a twist of migrants into the political system the tragic there that can be seen and an egalitarian society. in Israeli literature being written. Elon admits that polities so today. far remains the.-sport of Ashkena- "Yet," Elon said, "they face the.. zim (Europeans), and the Sephar- situation without losing their moral dim (Orientals) have not been awareness. It .would be easy to playing. But he explains: "Don't become beasts: but they don't let forget the SeAtrelim have been Atfr. happen." 11'lltrt711 71: 17117 ilnor ni^vo1 .a Excerpted from the book "Israel With A Smile", published by Tarbuth Foundation, 515 Park Ave., N. Y. C. 10022 Her name was Parvine, she was 4 years old, and there she stood, all eyes and filthy, matted hair, shuffling from one foot to the other in her broken sandals, look- ing around her with a mixture of fascination and fear. It was her first morning at the day care center which the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) had recently organized for preschool children in the mahalleh (ghetto) in Teheran, and she had never seen anything like it in her life. A young woman came over to her and gently took her by the hand, drawing her into the group. At that moment, 16 years ago, Parvine's life, like a twig, was bent in a new direction — and a teacher was born in Teheran. 48 Friday, June 25, 1971 — . The parvareshgah (Persian day care center) • where Par , found herself is one of the which the Joint DiStribution Committee has created in Iran as a • way of giving disadvan- taged children like Parvine ade- . quate food and health care, ,,as well as play activities which broaden their very limitedliori- zons. Today, the centers are run by local women's commit: tees, with JDC's financial sup- port and technical assiStance...1 ' Financed by funds the 'MC re- ceives from the United Jewish Ap- peal, they are part of a whole range of health and social services designed to help Iranian Jewry in their struggle to emerge from centuries of grinding poverty. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS