48 Friday, June 20, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Vocational Services and Counseling Is Doubled; JVS and Workshop Showing Marked Progress Vocational counseling and placement assistance to a doubled number of Russian immigrants during the 1974-75 year was reported by Bruce E. Thal, president of the Jewish Vocational Service and Community Workshop at the annual meeting of the agency Tuesday. Thal, who was re-elected president, also highlighted the other agency services to the community. He said in the past year the twin factors of a depressed economy and the inflationary cycle resulted in heavy service demands on the agency. Increased numbers of young college students sought scholarship assistance and a record number of interest-free loans was provided through the Jewish Scholarship Service. Approximately $60,000 was distributed to 151 students ac- cording to Chairman John L. Greenberg. The poor economy also resulted in service demands from the unemployed in the community who sought job placement and career re-direction assistance. Thal also pointed to the agency's service to the elderly and to the retarded who are not capable of competitive employment in industry. Record numbers of such clients were served in the sheltered workshop program at the Arnold E. Frank Community Workshop. - He noted the cooperative program that exists with the Michigan Department of Social Services. This "Adult Serv- ices Program" serves 50 elderly low-income citizens and provides productive work opportunity and a crafts program at the workshop plus a variety of cultural, social and recreational activities. Through the federally funded "Food and Friendship" program a hot lunch is served daily to clients in this program and through funding provided by the Jewish Welfare Federation the agency was able to provide kosher hot lunches to those sen- ior citizens who observe the die- tary laws. Thal announced that negotiations have been concluded with the state of Michigan which will permit the Voca- tional Rehabilitation Service to lease the second floor of the JVS-CW building on Woodward Avenue. Thal noted that the occupancy of the second floor by this state agency will further solidify the good relationship between the two agencies and will result in better service to the disabled community. Albert I. Ascher, executive director of the agency made mention of the steps the agency had taken in cooperation with VRS to improve delivery systems and programs for the severely physically disabled. He spoke also of the need for a continued strong vocational counseling service — not only because of the present poor economy but because of the im- Project JOIN (Jewish Occu- plications to the Jewish community of a decreasing number BRUCE THAL pational Interns) completed its of jobs requiring college degrees and the resulting disloca- second successful year. The tion and career re-direction service demands. program which was funded by the Jewish Community Ascher commented on the successful experience in Foundation, provided Jewish college students with intern- ships in local Jewish communal agencies and on-campus in- service to the aged under the Adult Services Program, em- tennships in cooperation with the University of Michigan phasizing the importance of work as a therapeutic activif- Hillel Foundation. Finally, he paid tribute to the professional sta., Ten students were placed in five Jewish agencies in De- troit this past summer for their internship, and at the Uni- versity of Michigan during the winter four student interns provided service to 190 students. Included in the program was an educational component with weekly seminars that included discussion of the his- tory and current and future problems of the Jewish commu- nity. JVS-CW for their leadership roles in the community and to the highly successful in-service training program de- . veloped this past year. William Avrunin, executive vice president of the Jewish Welfare Federation, also spoke at the meeting. Officers elected at the meeting included Thal; vice pres- idents John L. Greenberg, Stuart E. Hertzberg and Julian H. Scott; Mrs. Arnold E. Frank, secretary; and Walter S. Increased numbers of disabled clients referred by Nussbaum, treasurer. the Michigan Vocational Rehabilitation Service, were Re-elected to a three-year term on the board of trustees served in the Arnold E. Frank Community Workshop were Mrs. Jerome M. Ash, Sydney H. Bluestone, Dr. Myron and in addition, the JVS-CW engaged in an innovative M. LaBan, Norman J. Levey, Walter S. Nussbaum and Joel cooperative program with that state agency and with the M. Shere. Epilepsy Center of Michigan to serve clients with epi- New members elected to the board were John Bloom, lepsy. Sidney Freedland, Mrs. Jerome C. Hirsch, Emery I. Klein, Intensified screening, counseling and job exposure op- Seymour H. Rowe and William Rubenfaer. portunities were provided to clients in the program. It is The award to the "Employer of the Year" was pre- anticipated that the program will be continued next year and that it will serve as a model for extended community sented by Robert M. Zell, of the job placement commit- tee, to Rodkey Craighead, president of the Detroit Bank efforts in the rehabilitation of clients with epilepsy. & Trust Company. This award is granted to businesses Thal also looked to the future growth of the agency and which have cooperated with JVS in its placement pro- indicated that planning is underway for expansion of the grams. Southfield office in order to meet the increased demands for Zell also presented a special award to Dr. Julien Priver, suburban services including programs for the aged, the re- executive vice president of Sinai Hospital in recognition of tarded, immigrants and unemployed. the hospital's cooperation in providing "job exposure" op- The agency is also formulating long range plans which portunities to clients in the epilepsy program. will include a satellite workshop in the suburbs to answer Julian H. Scott, of the Arnold E. Frank Community the need for sheltered employment facilities. Workshop Committee presented the "Contractor of the The Detroit facility is scheduled for renovation to Year" award to Ben Wish, president of Milben Inc., for its permit increased service to disabled clients. In addition cooperation in providing work contracts to the agency. Soviet Actions in October War Studied by Hebrew U. Prof. The Jewish Vocational Service and Arnold E. Frank Community Workshop honored several community busi- nesses and corporations Tuesday evening during its an- nual meeting. Shown above, at top, are JVS president Bruce Thal, left, and board member Robert Zell present- ing the JVS "Employer of the Year" award to the De- troit Bank and Trust Co. Accepting for the bank was Rodke Craighead. In the center photo, Dr. Julian Priver of Sinai Hospital accepted a special award for the hospi- tal recognizing its cooperation with the JVS programs. In the bottom photo, Thal and board member Julian Scott present the JVS "Contractor of the Year" award to Ben Wish of Milben Inc. JERUSALEM — Direct military intervention by the Soviet Union in the event of a Middle East war, by the deployment of conventional forces, was not feasible up to the Yom Kippur War. This is the conclusion drawn by Dr. Amnon Sella, of the Center for Soviet and East European Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, from his re- search on "Soviet Rules in the Middle East Game" and other studies on the Soviet Union's military capability. Russia's practical inca- pacity for efficient military intervention in the region has stemmed mainly from her lack of sufficient trans- port means (aircraft) to bring a force of operative size fast enough to be of use in a case like the Yom Kip- pur War, he said. The Soviet Union com- mands eight airborne divi- sions, each numbering some 7,000 soldiers and equipped with tanks, can- non and armored vehicles. The transport capacity of these aircraft is limited. Only a few of them are the giant Antonov 22's, and if the Russians wanted to transfer forces to other parts of the world, it would take their entire air fleet a whole week to move three or at most four airborne divi- sions. In Dr. Sella's opnion, it is very doubtful that the Rus- sians would get involved in such a complex flight ma- neuver, especially in view of the fact that three divisions, numbering 21,000 soldiers, is a relatively small military force in a war like the Octo- ber 1973 conflict. In a wide-ranging study that analyzed the policy guidelines of the USSR in the Middle East and the development of relations between her and the Arab countries in general and Egypt in particular, Dr. Sella finds that: The mo- tives for the Russian threat of military inter- vention in the October War were not solely a re- sult of fears for the total collapse of Egypt and Syria, but also an attempt to restore the Russian "rules of the game" in the Middle East to the position they were in before July 1972, that is, before Presi- dent Sadat expelled the Russian advisers from Egypt. According to Dr. Sella, two basic concepts underlie Russia's involvement in the Middle East. One is the im- portance of the region both strategically and in terms of resources (this also dictates their support of the Arab states), and the second is the need to assure a "le- gitimate" presence of the USSR all along her south- ern borders, in the very wid- est sense. UNESCO Halts Biology Parley HAIFA — An interna- tional biology conference sponsored by UNESCO has been cancelled following the decision by Dr. Nathan Nel- son of the biology depart- ment of the Technion-Israel Institute of Techology not to attend the meeting. In a letter to the organiz- ers of the conference, sched- uled to be held in Stock- holm, Dr. Nelson wrote that because of the political reso- lutions adopted by UNESCO against Israel, he could not participate in a conference sponsored by that organization. The meeting on "Mem- brane-Bound Enzymes" was to have been attended by 83 scientists from 37 nations. Following Dr. Nelson's decision, the conference or- ganizers decided to cancel it, and wrote to the partici- pants: "As a consequence of some unfortunate political actions taken by the 18th general conferen- UNESCO against o: member states, Israel actions that are in conflict. with the principles of univ- ersality of UNESCO and that have elicited justified protest by scientists all over the world — we find it im- possible to carry out the course . . ."