Jewish, Vocational Service, Center Advance Internships Programs Through 'Project Join'
Bruce E. Thai, president of the Jewish Vocational Service
and Community Workshop, discussed Jewish community
relations at a "Project Join" seminar with interns Bonnie
Rolnierz and Dorothy Blechman. The Jewish Community
Foundation, led by chairman Hyman Safran, provided the
funds for the experimental program.
Project "Join" (Jewish Oc-
cupational Interns), an ex-
perimental program designed
to acquaint Jewish college
students with the organized
Jewish community and com-
munal services, is complet-
ing its first summer session
this month.
Funded by the Jewish Com-
munity Foundation of the
United Jewish Charities, the
10-week program was admin-
istered by two local Jewish
Welfare Federation agencies,
the Jewish Vocational Service
and the Jewish Community
Center.
Ten students, male and fe-
male, were selected after
preliminary screening and
agency interviews for Fed-
eration member agency sum-
mer jobs. Their goal was to
learn how the agency func-
tions and to "career test" a
future in Jewish communal
services.
Job assignments, based on
agency needs and student
preferences included assist-
ant positions as social plan-
ners, researchers, recrea-
tional-social service aids, and
summer program develop-
ment aids.
Interns received a $500
stipend and worked a four-
day week on job assignments.
Participating agencies
were the Jewish Center, the
Jewish Family and Children's
Service, the Jewish Home for
the Aged, the Jewish Voca-
tional Service and Commu-
nity Workshop and Federa-
tion.
To help incorporate the job
experience into a conceptual
framework, interns devoted
Wednesdays to a seminar.
Meeting under the super-
vision of a JCC educational
coordinator, they compared
-agency experiences, toured
Jewish agencies, attended
lectures by professional and
lay members of the JeWish
community, and debated lo-
cal Jewish community prob-
leMs.
The Jewish Vocational
Service was responsible for
recruitment, screening, job
placement, and referral of
students to the appropriate
agency.
The Jewish Center imple-
mented the educational cur-
riculum through the weekly
seminar.
Interns were receptive to
the program. Most found it
a valuable learning experi-
ence and are now consider-
tional counseling were pre-
viously unoffered to Jewish
students.
Interns received college
credit for their field assign-
ments.
Students interested in
ing professional careers in
Jewish communal services.
"It's been terrific," said
one intern. "Project Join has
made me aware of vocational
possibilities in Jewish com-
munal service I never knew
existed. A new door has been
opened for me.
A 21-year-old sociology ma-
jor said she previously held
incorrect notions about the
Jewish community.
"Working as a member of
an agency dispelled many
misconceptions I had had
about Jewish communal serv-
ices and the organized Jew-
ish community. This made
the opportunity invaluable."
Project Join coordinator
and JVS Southfield super-
visor Barbara Nuremberg felt
the experience was important
for interns and agency staff.
"We've learned from each
other. Through comments,
criticism, and observation,
agencies and interns have
discovered new options for
improving Jewish community
service and making young
people active participants."
Alan Gelfond, JCC director
of Group Services and Proj-
ect Join educational coordi-
nator, shared a similar view.
"The interns' exuberance
for the program and sincere
desire to learn made them
assets to the agencies. As
they learned about the ag-
ency, they brought new ideas
into focus for potential pro-
grams."
Working with the Jewish
Vocational Service and the
Bnai Brith Hillel Foundation,
Project Join also conducted
a 1974 winter session at the
University of Michigan.
Graduate students from the
school of social work were
recruited to provide social
and counseling services to
Ann Arbor's Jewish commu-
nity.
Services which included a
women's consciousness group,
an Israel Project, and voca-
DR. HARRY M. ORLINSKY
alism (vs. internationalism),
sin and punishment, a n d
worship of God — there is
a more basic concept that
must first be comprehended,
that of covenant and law.
The Bible, from beginning
to end, is a book of law.
This lawbook derives wholly
from the fact that the bibli-
cal writers believed that God
and Israel entered into a
mutually exclusive contract
(covenant) according to
which Israel agreed to wor-
ship God alone, and God, in
turn, vowed that He would
protect and prosper only Is-
rael among all the nations
of the world. As the only
real God in the universe, and
its actual Creator and Mas-
ter, God was understood to
be a universal God, who de-
termined all actions in the
heavens and on earth, involv-
ing sun, moon, stars, rain,
drought, earthquakes, sea-
sons, and the like, and all
animal life and all human
beings everywhere. But being
the God of no people other
than Israel — not of Moab,
or Egypt, or Assyria, or
Aram, and the rest — He
was not an international God;
he was exclusively the na-
tional God of Israel.
Bound by the contract be-
tween them, Israel was sub-
ject to punishment and suf-
fering, at the hand of God,
on the other hand, conceived
as He was as wholly just no
less than utterly omnipotent
— would not inflict suffering
upon His covenanted partner
Israel unless Israel were
guilty of wrongdoing, of vio-
lating the covenant in some
way. So that the mere pres-
ence of suffering in Israel
indicated rather obviously
that a sin of some kind had
been committed.
In this light, it is clear
that the Bible is not a book
about God, nor is it a book
about Israel, nor does it deal
with either one more than
with the other; it is a book
about the interrelationship
between the two, the two in
action in relation to one an-
other. As the only two main
characters in the biblical
drama, everyone and every-
thing else—the other nations
of the world and their gods,
the heavenly bodies, natural
phenomena, the animal world
— all these play only the
most subordinate, walk-on
roles, with no lines to recite
and with no independent
raison d'etre.
So that violence and de-
fense can only be understood
as activities that derive from
and can be justified and ex-
plained by the roles that God
and Israel play as the two
partners of a contract. What-
ever forms violence and de-
fense may take and whatever
be the occasion for their oc-
currence, domestic or inter-
national — invasion of Israel
from without, exile and cap-
tivity, destruction of Shilo,
which finances demonstra-
tion, pilot and research pro-
grams related to Jewish com-
munal service. Its funds are
derived from the United Jew-
ish Charities of the Jewish
Welfare Federation.
United Jerusalem: City's Dynamic Development
By MOSHE RON
Jewish News Special Israel
Correspondent
The capital of Israel, Jeru-
salem, is passing a stage of
huge enlargement, building
and absorbing new immi-
grants. The Ancient City, holy
for thousands of years to
Jews and other religious de-
nominations, is being mod-
ernized. Old and new archi-
tecture mix, past and present
meet in this huge develop-
ment scheme.
Old quarters, old buildings,
which remember generations
of history, stand beside new
quarters, which are the latest
expression of modern archi-
tecture. Houses with red tiled
roofs, which stand hundreds
of years, look with envy on
the luxury building of the
Hilton Hotel and similar sky-
scrapers which present more
and more the skyline of Je-
rusalem.
Old inhabitants, Jews with
beards and long side-locks,
Moslems with turbans, Chris-
tian priests with their robes,
Moslem women with veils
and young girls with short
skirts mix in the streets.
The streets, lanes, parks,
gardens and boulevards are
witnesses of an ancient city
which breathes with a new
spirit. We, a group of news-
paper editors, who visited
Jerusalem on invitation of
Mayor Teddy Kollek hardly
recognized some parts of the
city, which have developed
over night. We visited Neve
Yaakov and Arab quarters,
in which the rich effendi
Nusseiba had built 20 apart-
ments for Arabs.
Violence and Defense in Biblical Period Defined
By HARRY M. ORLINSKY
To understand properly the
concepts of violence and de-
fense in the biblical period—
no less than such other con-
cepts as nationalism-univers-
Project Join may contact
Barbara Nurenberg at the
Jewish Vocational Service,
557-5341.
The Jewish Community
Foundation is a United Jew-
ish Charities committee
'
or Samaria, or Jerusalem
and the Temple, and the like
—all are explained in the
Bible as the direct conse-
quence of breaking the con-
tract with God. On the other
hand, should a powerful en-
emy attack be contained, or
if a threatened defeat or in-
vasion fails to materialize,
then the successful defense
is readily explained as Israel
being given another chance
by its covenanted partner, by
God having decided — for
reasons sometimes known
only to Him — to spare His
chosen people, at least for
the time being. (The precise
explanation when given in the
Bible, will depend on the spe-
cific historical circumstances
involved.) The military su-
periority of the enemy, the
need or the desire of a coun-
try to expand imperialistic-
ally, the invasion by a locust,
the persistence of a drought
— these have no meaning in
themselves, but are the di-
rect result of God's punish-
ment of Israel. But if Israel
Is not involved, they receive
no mention; none of Egypt
or Amman or Babylon or a
drought is ever mentioned in
the Bible unless it is in con-
nection with God and Israel
in their active interrelation
ship.
We visited the new airport
in Atarot and saw the prep-
arations for building a big
industrial center. We saw the
new quarter Ramat Eshkol,
which serves as a model for
all new quarters in the coun-
try, because it has everything
necessary for a new settle-
ment such as social, cultural
and educational institutions,
gardens, clubs, supermarkets
and etc.
Then we visited the Valley
of the Cross (an ancient mon-
astery), around which a beau-
tiful garden had been plant-
ed and saw on the hill the
Knesset 'building from one
side and the Campus of the
University, the Israel Mu-
seum and new quarters on
the other side.
In the surroundings of Je-
rusalem we visited the quar-
ter Gila, an ancient place
from the time of King David,
in which big modern houses
with thousands of apartments
were built. We saw the huge
national square with the gar-
dens around "Cistern" on the
slope of Mount Zion near the
Wall around the Old City.
Here we heard from Mayor
Kollek interesting dynamic
plans for further development
of the capital.
Today Jerusalem has 312,-
000 inhabitants, of which
232,000 are Jews, 68,000 Mos,
lems and 12,000 Christians.
In •the Old City 17,000 Mos-
lems, 6,000 Christians and a
few hundred Jews are living.
The old Jewish quarter, which
had been destroyed by the
Jordanians, is being recon-
structed and will have 600
Jewish families. Wiring the
last seven years, each year
about 2,000 new immigrants
settled in Jerusalem.
A very positive scene are
the many new parks and
gardens for children and the
city population. The National
Park has been planted on an
area of 200 dunams, and parks
and gardens occupy 2,600
dunams in the city. A special
youth city was opened, in
which each evening 12- to
15,000 Jewish and Arab
youngsters come to spend a
good time in friendship and
mutual understanding. Some
16,000 families, among them
3,000 in Arab Eastern Jeru-
salem, live on social welfare.
There are 23 centers for
mother and child, serving
Jews and Arabs. In Je
;
lem are 1,800 school-ch.
and 1,000 new ones are being
built. There are 14 clubs for
youngsters and 16 public li-
braries with more than 60,000
books in several languages.
Ninety-six per cent of the
tourists visiting Israel come
to Jerusalem. Last year tour-
ists had 2,000,009 night-lodg-
ings in Jerusalem. There are
56 hotels with 4,000 rooms in
the capital; 15 new hotels
with 3,000 rooms are being
built. In Jerusalem. are 800
industrial enterprises. The
budget of the city amounted -
in 1973/1974 to 300,000,000 Is-
rael pounds. The city spends
each year 100,000,000 pounds
to build new roads.
The editors were interested
especially in the question of
relations between Jews and
Arabs in the city. Mayor Kol-
lek stressed with satisfac-
tion, that Jerusalem could be
an example for future rela-
tions between Jews and
Arabs, which are based on
mutual understanding and
respect.
Today one does not feel
any more in Jerusalem the
close family life, which was
characteristic for the city in
the years between 1930 and
1950. Also the old special
building-style of the city has
vanished. Visiting the new
modern quarter. Neve Yaa-
kob we would not find any
trace of the ancient Neve
Yaakob with the quiet rural
atmosphere. In the struggle
between the modern standard
of life and recollections from
the past, today the first fac-
tor is decisive. Before we left
Jerusalem to return to Tel-
Aviv we paid a visit to the
Wailing Wall and the lost old
Jewish quarters in the Old
City which are now being
reconstructed.
JN Editorial on Refugees
Inserted in Congress Record
Taking into account the
seriousness of the refugee
claims in the Middle East,
Congressman William S.
Broomfield of Michigan's 19th
District on Aug. 19 inserted
in the. Congressional Record
the editorial which appeared
in the Jewish News, Aug. 9,
under the heading "Who Will
Solve the Refugee Problem?"
In his introductory remarks
introducing t h e editorial,
Rep. Broomfield said:
"Mr. Speaker, one of the
tragic aftermaths of war is
the problem of the homeless
refugees. The Geneva con-
ference w i 1 I be meeting
shortly to deal with the Mid-
dle East situation, and the
48 — Friday, August 30, 1974
refugee problem will sureiy
be high on the list of priori-
ties.
"Philip Slomovitz, editor
of Michigan's only English-
Jewish newspaper, the Jew-
ish News, questioned how the
conference will resolve this
problem in a recent editorial.
"The editorial outlines the
Israeli position on this vital
issue, and raises questions
we should all be asking. The
answers to these questions
may well determine the fu-
ture course of events in the
Middle East, and I offer Mr.
Slomovitz' timely comments
to my colleagues for their
consideration."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS