Fridayp Mardi 28', 1975 17-
THE DETROIT NIEWISW NEWS.-
Teacher, School Shortages Hurt
Jewish Education in France
NEW YORK — After 30
years of steady progress,
the growth of Jewish educa-
tion in France has come to a
virtual standstill because of
the lack of funds for new
buildings and better-trained
teachers.
Stanley Abramovitch,
consultant on Jewish educa-
tion for the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee, on his re-
turn from a tour of French
Jewish schools, reported
.hat "unless the French
wish community under-
akes an immediate effort to
provide added facilities,
thousands of North African
youngsters from deeply reli-
gious families will be lost to
Judaism."
He noted that, in addition
to technical aid, the JDC
still uses a limited amount
of the funds it receives.from
the United Jewish Appeal to
help support educational
programs in France.
4
,
These include some 20
full-time Jewish schools
with an enrollment of 4,000
children, he said. A num-
ber of them have boarding
facilities for pupils from
outlying communities.
They are located mainly in
and around Paris and in
Strasbourg and Mar-
seilles. Another 18,000
children are served by Tal-
mudei Torah scattered all
over the country.
the pupilsgIn French Jewish
schools today are of North
African origin. Their educa-
tion and family life were
completely disrupted when
they were transplanted to
France's highly industrial-
ized society.
The JDC educator empha-
sized that the situation
would be much worse had it
not been for JD C's massive
postwar reconstruction ef-
forts and the capital invest-
ment program whiCh JDC
and the Conference on Jew-
ish Material Claims Against
Germany began in 1955.
This enabled the French
community to lay the foun-
dations of a comprehensive
network of full- and part-
time schools, he said.
_
Abramovitch praised
the efforts of the French
Jewisll social service
agencies and religious
bodies to meet the new-
comers' overwhelming
cultural and educational
needs. He also stressed
that the JDC made avail-
able its own and Claims
Conference funds to build
dozens of multi-purpose
community centers with
facilities for synagogues
and Talmudei Torah. In
many cases, he noted, the
newcomers improvised
their own makeshift in-
stallations.
In the past five years,
An estimated 40-50,000 through a special invest-
Jewish children of school ment fund set up by JDC
age receive no Jewish in- and the Fonds Social Juif
struction at all, Abramov- Unifie (the central French
itch stated. "The rapid ex- Jewish social service
pansion of the full-time agency), with the generous
schools is an immediate and support of the Rothschild
pressing problem," he said. F,oundation, additional day
"Until now, these schools schools and yeshivot have
have somehow managed to been built, renovated and
keep taking in more pupils enlarged in Marseilles, Nice,
even though it has meant Strasbourg, • the Paris sub-
severe overcrowding and a urbs, Aix-les-Bains and
heavy burden on the teach- Lyons.
ing staff. But the limit has
Parallel effortS have been
been reached. Hundreds of made by the,FSJU and the
children are being turned JDC to enlarge and improve
away."
the administrative and
Abramovitch pointed out teaching staff, with special
that the great majority of / emphasis on scholarship
help and expanding the kin-
dergartens.
Israel Corporation
Shows Net Profit
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The
Israel Corporation will show
a net profit of not less than
$5.7 million this year de-
spite the loss of some $9 mil-
lion through the failure of
financier Tibor Rosen-
baum's companies in Vaduz,
ichtenstein.
41
—
Israel Gilead, -the new
managing director of-the
Israel Corporation, said its
favorable financial condi-
tion was the result of the in-
creased income of its princi-
pal subsidiaries.
The loss of $9 million in
Rosenbaum's dubious enter-
prises has been charged to
the corporation's former
managing director, Michael
Tsur, who faces criminal
charges of having allegedly
invested monies ear-marked
for Israel's capital develop-
ment in the Vaduz enter-
prises without the knowl-
edge or consent of the Israel
corporation's board of direc-
tors.
Arabs Discover Dollars Are Mightier Than Bombs -
By WILLIAM SAPHIRE
.
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)
In 1973, or thereabouts,
the Arabs, discovering that
the buck is mightier than
the bomb, embarked on a
excursion into economic
imperialism that previously
had been the prerogative of
only the more enlightened
and advanced nations of the
world. The colonized have
now become the colonizers,
remarked Israel's former
Foreign Minister. Abba
Eban recently, referring to
the new topsy-turvy juxta-
position of haves and have-
nots that emerged after the
Yom Kippur War and the
Arab oil embargo.
The "haves" are the na-
tions, principally Arab,
which by sheerest chance sit
atop the largest known oil
reserves in the world, lo-
cated in the Middle East.
The "have-nots" in the pre-
sent circumstances are any
other nation that has a
wheel to turn or a plane to
fly — but principally the
highly industrialized na-
tions of Western Europe,
Japan and the United
States. The imbalance was
created by the four-fold in-
crease in the price of a bar-
rel of oil, an arbitrary and
artificial hike having noth-
ing to do with the classic
laws of supply and demand.
This was accomplished,
some say, by a strategy
more psychological than ec-
onomic. The Arab oil em-
bargo of October-November
1973 gave the comfortable
Western world a taste of
panic and the words "energy
crisis" entered the vocabu-
lary of everyone. Once es-
tablished, the quadrupled
price of oil remains and may
even go higher, unless and
until alternative energy
sources are developed, a
very long-term process.
nancial community believe and other courses in those
the figure might have been
countries, Washington Post
as much as 50 percent
writer Eric Wentworth re-
higher. The Arab eco- ported recently. He said
nomic drive becomes more
they are also out to solicit
understandable when it is
major gifts from wealthy
reduced to the neighbor- - Arab rulers.
hood level..
There is a body of opin-
Ghaith. Pharaon, an ion in the U.S. that views
American-educated Saudi Arab investments in
Arabian businessman just American corporations as
bought a substantial inter- not necessarily sinister.
est in Detroit's Bank of the The inflow provides capi-
Commonwealth, with the tal for use by the govern-
aim of establishing Detroit ment and American busi-
as a major center for, U.S.- ness, relieves pressures,
Mideast trade. Henry Ford particularly in the market
II and Wayne S. Doran, for Treasury securities
coordinator of Ford's $600 and helps the nation's bal-
million Renaissance Center, ance of payments, these
announced that they were sources say.
seeking Arab financial sup-
port for the project which
has soared in costs due to in-
flation — inflation induced
in large measure by the
price of Arab oil.
In Prichard, Ala., Mayor
Jay Cooper, president of the
70-member Southern Con-
ference of Black Mayors,
disclosed that the group was
seeking to attract Arab in-
vestments in industry and
farming in southern towns
and rural areas with local
merchants marketing their
,:roducts in Arab countries.
Financially hard-pressed
American colleges and univ-
ersities are seeking a share
of the huge Arab oil dollar
surpluses by soliciting con-
tracts from oil producing
states to teach public ad-
ministration, management
ther foreign policy goals of
their states?"
The wealth of the Arab oil
states is the most prodi-
gious. As one observer
noted, they "cannot use
their oil income at home —
even if they pave their
streets with gold and build
all the hospitals and schools
they will ever need, billions
will be left over." The Arab
oil states alone are expected
to add $400 billion to their
assets within the next dec-
ade.
But Daniel Yergin, a re-
search fellow at the Center
for International Affairs at
Harvard, warned "The enor-
mous foreign assets now
accumulating in the oil-ex-
porting states give them the
capacity to purchase major
interests in large numbers
of Western firms, a process
already begun. We may
wonder if the OPEC (Oil
Producing and Exporting
States) investors will be
simply interested in maxim-
izing company profits, or if
they will also seek to fur-
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Exciting, Original Works of Art —
sculptured by Shep Shapiro
Meanwhile, Treasury
Secretary William E. Si-
mon estimated that about
811 billion in oil money
was invested directly in
the United States in 1974.
Some members of the fi-
The Purpose of Prayer
_ By RABBI SAMUEL FOX
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)
Some rabbinical sources
trace the purpose of prayer
to a commandnient in the
Bible which asks man to
serve the Almighty `with all
your heart" (Deuteronomy
11:13). Prayer, then, is a ful-
fillment of this command
and a means of serving the
Almighty.
Other sources say that
prayer is a means of sacrif-
ice. Originally prayers ac-
companied the various sac-
rifices in the temple of old,
Since we have no sacrificial
offerings today, at least the
prayers that once accompa-
nied sacrifices are recited.
In prayer, man is somehow
sacrificing his ego and de-
claring himself helpless
without the Almighty's aid.
There are those who claim
that prayer serves as a
means of man's communica-
tion with the Almighty,
which is a rewarding experi-
ence in itself. Others claim
that it is man engaged in a
debate with himself as to
his worth and, therefore, a
judgement with the Al-
mighty Himself takes place.
Man elevates his self-
esteem by engaging in
prayer. This, in turn, some
claim, makes man a
higher being who recog-
nizes his human responsi-
bility when he finally asks
himself, "Am I really wor-
thy of the Almighty's at-
tention and considera-
tion?" Some claim man
fulfills his need of self-ex-
pression through prayer.
Beautifully detailed heads carved , from
real apples, carefully shaped during hy-
dration, and permanently preserved with
special plastic coating.
Remarkable Lifelike Figures
displaying incredible human facial ex-
pressions and detailed with hair, teeth,
Man is sometimes at a
loss to find the proper words
with which to express his
emotions. The rabbis, realiz-
ing that man can be "at a
loss for words" have given
him an economical means of
"self-expression." In fixed
texts the rabbis have man-
aged to express most or all
of man's basic needs and
emotions. Furthermore, a
fixed text is the means by
which a group can engage in
communal prayer.
lips, noses, beards, eyelids, and eyebrows
manipulated out of apple flesh.
An Exquisite Collection
of Elizabethan and Dickensian heads
handsomely mounted on driftwood or
marble bases or in velveteen shadow
boxes.
Original Shep Shapiro Apple Sculptures Available in Michigan Exclusively at —
North Park Plaza Tower, Room 120
17117 W. Nine Mile Road
Southfield, Michigan 48075
(313) 559-6140
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