Major Israeli Causes, Rabbinical Vaad Issue Calls for Communal Aid Numerous Israel Bond functions, the Jewish National Fund and the Vaad Harabonim are currently conducting their major appeals for aid by this community . . The annual dinner of the Jewish National Fund will be in recognition of the major contribu- tions to this community by Phillip, Frieda and Max Stollman. The dinner will be held at Cong. Shaarey Zedek, June 18 . . . The eminent brother of Phillip and Max Stollman, Rabbi Isaac Stollman, who now makes his home in Jerusalem, will be honored by the Vaad Harabonim . . The Allied Jewish Campaign and Detroit Technion Society functions, together with these JNF, Israel Bond and Vaad events are summarized on Page 56. THE JEWISH NEWS . Evaluating the Allied Jewish Campaign Results and the Current Leadership Commentary Page 2 A Weekly Review VOL. LXVII, No. 9 e ' 17 - 9 of Jewish Events 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833 $10.00 Per Year ; This Issue 30c Reassessing the Reassessment Urgency of Community Problems Editorials Page 4 May 9, 1975 Israeli Overtures to Egypt Predicted Ahead of Talks Boycott, Viet Effects Seen by AJCommittee NEW YORK (JTA) — The executive head of the American Jewish Committee, applauding post-Vietnam statements by Pres- ident Ford "rejecting recriminations and calling on Americans to unite in facing the problems of the future," called upon the U.S. government to reaffirm the importance of Israel to the Western alliance system, as a permanent American ally, and as the corner- stone of regional stability in the area, in its reassessment of Mid- dle East policy. Bertram H. Gold, executive vice president, in his keynote ad- dress to the 69th annual meeting of the agency at the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel here, called upon its members to be more forceful and sophisticated than ever before in countering the arguments against support of Israel and in demonstrating "how the whole (Continued on Page 6) By DAVID LANDAU JERUSALEM (JTA) — Seasoned observers here are convinced that Israel will make some new political initiative or overture to Egypt before President Ford's meetings with President Anwar Sadat and Premier Yitzhak Rabin next month despite vehement and insistent denials from official sources that any such move is contemplated. The observers base their belief on certain signs and hints that have emerged in recent weeks and or the fact that, with President Ford having placed his personal prestige on the line in a renewed U.S. effort to achieve some sort of interim accord between Israel and Egypt before the Geneva conference reconvenes, it is incumbent on Israel to create as promising a basis as possible for the success of the American initiative. Official sources maintain that Israel will make no new moves before it knows the results of the U.S. policy reassessment in the Middle East ordered by President Ford following the suspen- sion of the bilateral talks conducted by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger in March; and before Rabin has his meetings with Ford and Kissinger in Washington June 11-12. The official sources' point out that the cabinet will hold a full dress "political debate" just before Rabin leaves for Washington and insist that the government can make no new moves before that debate is held. (Continued on Page 16) U.S. Assembly on Soviet Jews Signs Declaration of Freedom WASHINGTON (JTA) — A "Declaration of Freedom" for Soviet Jews was signed on the Capitol steps Mon- day by more than 250 American Jewish leaders and representatives of Jewish communities abroad, marking the close of a two-day assembly convened by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry to discuSs the current crisis facing Jews in the USSR. The declaration urged President Ford to "communicate to the Soviet government that in the best American tion we seek an end to all discrimination and repression of Soviet Jews." It condemned anti-Semitic propa- a in the Soviet Union and urged that "the plight of Soviet Jews must be kept on the agenda of every appro- priate international forum." The declaration also declared support for Congress in its legislation linking American trade with the USSR with Soviet emigration practices and called for a careful study by the lawmakers of Soviet violations of human rights in the area of restrictive emigration practices. The delegates were addressed by Senators Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Both assured the gathering that Congressional support for the Jackson-Vanik legislation is not eroding and U.S. friendship and assistance for Israel will continue. Dr. Victor Polsky and Dr. Aleksander Voronel, two Soviet Jewish scientists and activists who were permitted to emigrate from the Soviet Union last year, urged that immediate steps be taken to prevent the Soviet authorities from destroying the Jewish activist movement in the USSR. The opening plenary session was chaired by Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, vice-chairwoman of the NCSJ. The NCSJ received two messages from Moscow on the occasion of the assembly. One was from Vladimir Slepak who announced the end of his three-week hunger strike. The other wa's signed by 10 Jewish activists who expreSsed the belief that "our friends in the U.S. will do everything in their power to save Soviet Jews, the prisoners, the "refusniks' and all of those striving to be reunited with their people." The Detroit Committee for Soviet Jewry has been main- taining telephone contact with the Slepaks. In a recent conver- sation Slepak warned that Soviet secret police authorities be- lieve there is a relaxation of attention to Russian Jewry in the West. (Continued on Page 10) Members of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry are shown beginning a sympathy hunger strike for Soviet Jewish activist Vladimir Slepak at the opening of a Soviet exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum.