THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Mideast Arms Race Continues

By MAURICE
SAMUELSON
(COpyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

crease is 30 new MIG-7 tage of GNP devoted to de-
fighters- plus a few more fense by Israel was 36 per-
MIG-23s.
cent, as compared with 15
LONDON — The Soviet
The military balance percent for Syria and 17
Union has failed to sign notes that Syria has one percent for Iran. The av-
any new arms deals with reconnaisance squadron erage defense share of
Middle East countries in of 20 of . the advanced GNP in the Middle East in
the past year, while the
which
hich it believes 1975 was around 11.5 per-
West has made some two are probably Soviet man- cent compared with 4.8
dozen arms deals to pro- ned. Libya, which signed percent in NATO and 1.9
vide the states in the reg- a major arms deal with percent in Asia.
ion with military Moscow in May 1975, ap-
During the past year,
hardware worth more pears to have taken de- the
numbers of men
than $3 billion.
livery of the arms or- under arms in the Middle
The last major Soviet, dered. This has included East continued to grow.
arms contract was with 29 MIG-23s, a dozen The smallest growth was
- Libya in May 1975, and Soviet helicopters, as in Israel where the de-
* Aiese weapons have al- well as 150 T 62 tanks and fense forces went up
ready been delivered. 240 T 54/55 tanks.
marginally to total
This is revealed in the
In addition, Libya has 156,000. Syria increased
"Military Balance 1976- also acquired 10 new Mir-
77,'' the annual handbook age V jets from France, her military manpower
on military forces which with another 38 Mirage by 50,000, to 227,000,
while Egyptian man-
was published recently by FIA jets on order.
power rose 20,000, to 342,
the International Insti-
Commenting on the re- 500. The only country to
tute for Strategic port, the institute noted register a reduction in
Studies.
the burden which these the size of its armed
The extensive Western purchases placed on the forces. was Jordan, with a
sales of advanced arms to economies of the countries 12,000 drop to just under
the Middle East reflect in the region. The percen- 68,000.
the desire of the produc-
ers to offset high energy
costs and maintain in- Falasha Leader Tells Israelis
dustrial employment in a
recession, according to to Note African Community
the institute. However-
JERUASLEM (JTA) — and lead an intensive
both the Soviet-supplied
and the Western-supplied "Do not forget us. - This community life. Recently
Middle East nations have was the plea Falasha they have been engaged
increased their stocks of leader Yona Bogale, 68, in the economic reforms
military equipment dur- made to four- Israelis who conducted by the new re-
ing the past year as or- recently visited the gime.
ders made previously Falasha community in
The government has or-
Ethiopia.
were fulfilled.
gaized large cooperatives
The U.S. won the largest
One of the Israelis, Dov throughout the country
and most valuable arms Goldflam, described the and sends large groups to
orders during the past 12 Falasha community in an do so-called volunteer
months. Deals signed with interview
on Israeli work which usually con-
Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jor-
tinues for a year.
dan, Kuwait, Morocco and Radio, one of the few re-
Many Falashas par-
ports
on
the
Falashas
in
Saudi Arabia covering
ticipated in this volun-
recent
months.
items ranging from anti-
teer work. But they con-
tank missiles to the
Goldflam said the tinue to retain their
world's most advanced jet 28,000 members of the community structure,
fighter will net some $2.5 Falasha community still and pray for the day they
billion for American arms dream of immigrating to will be allowed to leave
producers.
Israel, sing Israeli songs for Israel, Goldflam said.
Britain and France
were the other two main
Western suppliers to win
TEL AVIV (JTA) — areas.
big arms contracts.
Their boat was repor-
British contracts with Saturday's "invasion" of
Iran, Egypt, Kuwait, the Tel Aviv beach by five tedly towed by a Turkish
Oman and Qatar will earn Arabs in a motorboat ap- freighter near the Israeli
more than $550 million, pears to have shaken Is- coast after they ran out of
while France sold arms rael's high command as fuel. The Arabs say they
worth over $300 million to much as it startled the finally convinced the
seven countries in the re- throngs of bathers who freighter's crew to sell
witnessed the incident. them enough gasoline to
gion.
Top-level consultations reach the shore.
Completion of earlier
arms-deals has led to an have been going on bet-
increase in the number of ween Defense Minister
combat aircraft at the Shimon Peres, Chief of Russian Jewish
disposal of Israel, Egypt, Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur Dancer Now in NY
Syria and Libya. Israel and Commander Michael
NEW YORK— Michael
has increased her aircraft Barkal, newly appointed
Korogodsky, a graduate
strength by 82, bringing chief of the navy. The
of the Riga Choreog-
the total to 543 planes. question is how the 15-
raphic and Ballet School,
The biggest single in- foot craft powered, by an
crease was in the acquisi- outboard motor, man- recently signed a con-
tion of 50 new Skyhawk . aged to evade Israel's tract for the fall season
Attack fighters, while the radar screen and air sur- with the New York City
onstruction of new Kfir veillance and beach itself Opera.
Korogodsky
is
a
__ ,Zighter bombers con- in the heart of Tel Aviv's
Russian-Jewish immig-
tinues to add to Israel's fashionable sea-front dis-
trict.
rant who left the Soviet
military air capacity.
The five Arabs were Union a year ago with his
Egypt almost doubled
the number of planes remanded in custody for wife and son. The family
within her air defense 15 days on charges of il- was aided in their settle-
ment here by NYANA,
command from 108 to 200, legal entry into. Israel
the report shows. The ad- and are under investiga- the New York Associa-
ditional strength in de- tion by the security ser- tion for New Americans.
After waiting four
fense was at the expense vices. At least one of them
of the air force proper was found to be carrying months for their Soviet
which registered a de- an El Fatah membership. exit visa and another four
cline in aircraft by a do- card. He claimed he be- months in Rome for U.S.
immigration permission,
zen, to 488. But the air longed to the terrorist
the family was brought to
force has enjoyed the ad- group in Libya but fled to
New York by HIAS, the
dition of 38 new French Egypt.
All five insist that they
world-wide migration
Mirage III fighter born-
agency and received and
bers, and 20 Soviet IL-28 left Egypt to escape in-
duction into PLO forces
assisted here by NYANA,
light bombers.
the only resettlement
Syria's air force has ac- fighting Lebanon and
agency for Jewish immig-
quired 40 additional that their intention was
planes, to bring the total to to visit relatives in the rants in the Greater New
York area.
440. The bulk of the in- Gaza Strip and El Arish

Israel Probes Invasion

Friday, October 1, 1976 53

Women Seek Reform Rabbinate

By BEN GALLOB

(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

A record total of 35
women candidates for or-
dination as Reform rab-
bis are attending semi-
nary schools during the
new academic year, ac-
cording to an official of
the New York branch of
the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute
of Religion.
There are 180 male
candidates, for a total of
215 rabbinic students
currently studying for
the Reform rabbinate,
said Rabbi Lawrence W.
Raphael, assistant dean
of the JIR.
Rabbi Raphael had
published a report in
which he suggested that,
for 1975-76 academic
year, there had been an

unexpected increase in
enrollment of both men
and women candidates
for ordination. •
He also suggested a
growing awareness of the
fact that the Reform rab-
binical school accepted
women applicants. His re-
port appeared in a recent
issue of the Journal of the
Central Conference of
American Rabbis, the as-
sociation of Reform rab-
bis. -
Noting that, to date,
only three women have
been ordained as Reform
rabbis, he. nevertheless
rejected any automatic
assumption that Reform
pulpits are generally
closed to women rabbis.
He noted that the first
graduate, Rabbi Sally
Preisand, is assistant

rabbi at Stephen Wise
Synagogue in New York
and reported that Rabbi
Marcia Bernstein is leav-
ing her post as director of
college programs at the
United Jewish Appeal to
take a full-time pulpit
this year at a San Jose,
California synagogue.
He said Rabbi Laura J.
Geller of New York, the
lone woman graduate at
the seminary last year,
who took a post as direc-
tor of the Hillel Founda-
tion at the University of
Southern California, did
so by choice and not be-
cause she could not get a
pulpit. Rabbi Raphel said
the CCAR placement
committee felt it could
have placed Rabbi Geller
in a pulpit if she had
sought one.

Jewish Identity of Israeli Youth

By HAIM SCHACHTER

World Zionist Organization

Has the process of sec-
ularization had a serious
effect on the Israeli youth
and their feelings as
Jews? Is the young Israeli
generally to be charac-
terized by the statement
that is oft repeated: "I am
an Israeli more than a
Jew"?

The connection of the
Israeli youth with their
Jewish past and with the
Jewish people of the
Diaspora is the theme of
"The Social Psychology of
Jewish Identity," a book
that is due to be published
shortly by Prof. Simon
Herman of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Here he will prove that
the Israeli youth is more
Jewish than one is wont
to believe.

Prof. Herman is the au-
thor of several works of
research on the Jewish
identity of the Israeli
youth. In 1965, 3,700 high
school pupils and 500 pa-
rents, who formed a rep-
resentative sampling of
all sections of Israeli soci-
ety, were questioned. The
teachers of the pupils in-
terviewed also . under-
went questioning.
In 1974, following the
Six-Day and Yom Kippur
Wars, and the drastic
changes that took place in
the Jewish as well as in the
general world, 1,875
pupils drawn from various
communities and various
outlooks — secular, tradi-
tional and religious —
were interviewed.

These inquiries show
that the Israeli youth are
fully conscious of the
close relationship bet-
ween their Judaism and
Israelism. Seventy per-
cent of the pupils ques-
tioned in 1965, and 74 per
cent of those questioned
in 1974, said that they
were fully cognizant of
the close links between
their feeling as Jews and
their being Israelis.

The Holocaust was
taken as a criterion for
the attitude of the young
Israeli to the past of the
Jewish people in the
Diaspora. About half of
the young people ques-

tioned in the two in-
quiries replied that they
felt as though they them-
selves had experienced
and survived • the
Holocaust.

Prof. Herman points to
the fact that the process
of secularization has had
deleterious effects on
Jewish identity but that
there is a difference in the
process of secularization
Prof. Herman, who is a among the Oriental and
social psychologist en- o Ashkenazi communities.
gaged in research in the
Institute of Contempor-
ary Jewry.and in the De-
Among the latter this
partment of Psychology process has created a wide
of the Hebrew Univer- gap between grandfather
sity, stresses that one and father, but has nar-
cannot speak of the rowed between father and
Jewish identity of the Is- son, while among the
raeli youth without draw- Oriental communities the
ing a distinction between gap between father and
the religious, the son is most marked. A
traditional, and the non- situation has arisen in
religious outlooks of the which many of the young
youth interviewed.
people in the Orienta,!
communities wander away
The religious youth take from the traditions of their
prime of place not only as home, yet find no substi-
regards the intensity of tute for them. "This is the
their Jewish awareness problematic generation
but also as regards their from the point of view of
attitude to Jews wherever content in life," Prof.
they be. Next come the
traditionally-oriented, and Herman says.
last the non-religious ele-
ments.
The inquiry instituted
The majority of the in 1974 shows that the
youth (84 percent) said: process of secularization
"Our fate is linked with is stronger among the
the fate of the Jewish members of the Oriental
people as a whole;" 85 communities although
percent replied that "we they are still more religi-
in Israel are part and ously inclined than the
parcel of the Jewish Ashkenazim. The Orien-
people as a whole." tal Jewish youth finds it
Eighty percent of the difficult to stand up
youth interviewed in against the challenges of
1974, and 70 percent of secularization and mod-
those interviewed in 1965 ernization.
replied that "if we were to
be born anew. we would
"Clearly they have
like to be born Jews."
need of some Jewish-
What does the Israeli cultural content to fill the
youth think about aliya to vacuum that has been
the country? In 1974, the created among them,"
principle that "A good Prof. Herman says. In
Jew in the Diaspora must this task an important -
come on aliya to Israel or role is ascribed to the
encourage his children to school in addition to the
do so" was placed at the home and surroundings.
head of their scale of It is vitally necessary to
priorities by the majority train teachers capable of
of those questioned. In. imparting both know-
1965, this principle oc- ledge and values.
cupied third place after
"he must support Israel"
Himself a traditional
and "he must come to the
Jew, Prof. Herman be-
aid of his community."
lieves that the religious
The conclusions drawn youth form the soundest
by the inquiry concerning nucleus in Israeli society.
members of the Oriental Seeing that the process of
communities among the secularization affects
youth questioned, where Jewish identity most
the percentage of religi- harshly, the question
ous youth is much higher, arises as to how to attract
are of particular interest. the youth to religion.

