8 Friday, February 25, 1977 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Travel With YESHIVATH BETH YEHUDAH to ISRAEL — and EVERYWHERE BY Plane-Train-Bus-Ship We Make HOTEL RESERVATIONS 557-6750 Eve 559-7567 WEDDING 00 SPECIAL g 31/2 x 5's r Color Pictures $150" w/Album Color Passport Photos - 2 for ' 6 while you wait Bel-Crest Studio 23352 Farmington Rd. 4Eigi RM BA41A F l il Downtown Farmington Center 474-7762 CD, Diplomat Asserts Poland Recognizes Jewish Claims ago. LONDON — A major breakthrough in Poland's attitude towards Jewish claims was signalled in a statement by the Polish consul-general in Lon- don, reports the Jerusalem Post in a re- cent article. IVIeeting recently with leaders of the Association of Polish Jews in Britain, W. Rybczynski said that Poland recognizes in principle that its former Jewish citizens have legitimate claims and Po- land wished to settle this matter. The association had submitted 'a memoran- dum on the matter of Jewish claims to the Polish ambassador a year The Polish diplomat said that the meeting un- derlined his government's sincere intentions • and goodwill. As to their' de- mand for compensation for the huge quantity of Jewish communal prop- erty taken by the Polish authorities, Rybczynski said the matter will be taken up in Warsaw. His government will se- riously consider the pro- posal that an interna- tional Jewish delegation conduct these negotia- tions, he said. • • Mordecai refused to pay homage to Haman even though the penalty was death. "THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE SUBSTITUTED FOR , SEEING ISRAEL FOR YOURSELF. Yitzhak Rabin. Prime Minister of Israel "I don't believe that there is a better way to express your feelings than to actually go to Israel....There is something special about the Holy Land....Those who go, come back entirely different. They see something that no words can describe' So spoke Yitzhak Rabin; Prime Minister of Israel, at the beginning of this Solidarity Pilgrimage Year. Yet, what Rabin said is an echo of what every person has felt who has .ever visited Israel. You know this. If you don't you'll learn it at Pesach, when, sitting at the Seder in Israel, every symbol of this festival of freedom will take on richness that almost aches. You'll know the feeling when you join the crowd and dance through the streets on Purim or Independence Day. You'll feel it on Shavuot, as the First Fruits are paraded through the kibbutz with so much bursting pride. And at the Western Wall, where the ancient chanting through the night seems to make centuries melt away. You'll know what "no words can de- scribe" when you walk through the streets of Israel at Sukkot, and find yourself sur- rounded by beautiful Sukkot booths in every yard and on every balcony. You'll feel it at Chanukah, at the candle lighting ceremony atop Mount Zion. But you don't need a celebration to share these experiences. Because every day of Solidarity Year is a celebration of your partnership with Israel. And once you go and feel these things for the first time, as many times as you return will never be enqugh. Boris Smolar's 'Between You . . and Me' Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc.) FEDERATION-SYNAGOGUE FRICTION: The Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds — central body of the organized Jewish communities —is now actively engaged in stimulating better relations between the federation and the synagogue in this country. The relationship between the two is not what it should be. .In some congregations the lay leadership and the rabbis are openly critical of the local federations with regard to a number of problems, while in some com- munities the federations openly disapprove of certain communal programs initiated by synagogues. The larger the community, the greater the divisiveness and the conflict between the two. In New York, for instance, where congregational affiliation is approxi mately 5-10 percent of all the Jews in the city, the rift i greater than in communities with a smaller Jewish population. In cities where congregational affiliation is between 60 and 80 percent the friction is small; some of the conflicting problems are almost non-existent there. The core of the federation-synagogue issue lies in the fact that the American Jewish community is un- dergoing rapid changes. The federations are growing in influence, while the synagogue community — with its approximately 3,000 congregations of all three de- nominations — is undergoing a period of waning influ- ence in comparison to the 1950s; membership in synagogues is diminishing. The federations, constituting the fund-raising arm of the organized communities, are raising about $500 million a year for Jewish needs, local, domestic and overseas. They are today the backbone of every major Jewish philanthropic cause, including the Un- ited Jewish Appeal. At the same time, they are also the distributors of the funds they collect. They decide on priorities in allocations and have an influence on edu- cational policies, on community relations activities, and on almost everything that affects Jewish com- munal welfare. The congregations and their rabbis view the fed- erations as secular, non-religious or irreligious in- stitutions. Some rabbis discourage the members of their congregationS from involvement in federation work. On the other hand, federations claim that the ...??1,14 4 ,-.:5 f • Contact your travel agent Or The Israel Government Tourist Office, 5 South Wabash Ave. .Chicago. Illinois 60603 synagogues are not active enough in the community's fund-raising efforts. CHARGES AND COUNTER-CHARGES: Concern over the friction between the federation and the synagogue is now high on the agenda of the Council of Jewish Federations. It is also a souce of worry to the Synagogue Cotincil of America, the central body of religious Jewry. Both have established national task forces to seek a way for friendly cooperation between the two camps. The synagogues are extremely unhappy over the fact that many federations consider synagogue schools as private religious schools to be maintained by the congregations themselves. Congregational lay leaders, as well as rabbis, point out that the federa- tions allocate funds for Jewish community schools, in- cluding all-day schools, but refuse to give financial aid to synagogue schools. (This is not true in Detroit.) Synagogue leaders and rabbis also complain that they are not welcome to participate in the direction of federation policies, and that rabbis have no influence on the allocation of funds by the federations and on program planning. Some rabbis and congregational leaders also maintain that among the professional Jewish com- munal workers in institutions financed by the Federa- tions, there is a lack of Jewish education and of Jewish commitment. THE FEDERATION VIEWPOINT: The federationists take the attitude that the synagogues, in addition to not being active enough in local fund- raising campaigns by the organized community, have for years planned, built and funded —with community dollars — new sanctuaries and schools irrespective of general community patterns, concerns, planning or policies. Federation leaders in some cities charge th6.1 synagogues with moving into non-religious areas of - - communal work — aging, youth or social action — all of which, they say, may be dealt with better on a community-wide basis. This transfer has often dupli- cated and wasted community sources, they claim. Philip Bernstein, executive vice president of the Council of Jewish Federations, who is the engineerinc, force in the effort to bring about friendly understand- ing and cooperation between the Federations and the synagogues is optimistic about the explorations which the federations and the synagogues have started now for productive cooperation. thinks that these be- ginnings will be carried much further in the next few years, and that they will result in stronger federa- tions, synagogues and communities.