THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, April 1, 1977 61 Jewish Jobless More Than Statistic to JVS-CW For an estimated seven- nine percent of Detroit's Jewish community, unemployment is more than just a statistic. Barbara Nurenberg. as- sistant executive director of the Jewish Vocational Serv- ice-Community Workshop and head of the JVS South- field office. knows the fig- ures only too well. She sees them as people—some 2.000 of them in 1976—who come ' -- ler agency for job coun- 1 ng and placement. JVS-CW, one of 16 mem- ber agencies of the Jewish Welfare Federation, provid- es those services as part of its wide-ranging vocational assistance program, funded in part through contribu- tions to the Allied Jewish Campaign-Israel Emergen- cy Fund. Stuart E. Hertz- berg is president of the agency. and Albert I. As- cher is executive director. The seven-nine percent figure is Mrs. Nurenherg's rough estimate since not all of the Jewish community's unemployed seek JVS assist- ance. On the other hand, the growing number of jobless who utilize the agency's placement services, includ- ing those seeking summer employment, rose by 93 per- cent last year over 1975. In addition to those 1.589 who sought general place- ment assistance (compared to 825 in 1975), the agency saw another • 410 persons considered hard to place be- cause of handicaps or "over-age" (50-plus): 373 who sought career coun- seling; and 168 who asked for scholarship counseling. In human terms it means a man of 55 whose business failed and who now can't find work because he's "too old.- • It means a recent col- lege graduate who suddenly learns that his field is over- crowded but who is over- qualified for any other job—even as a manual la- borer. • It's a woman seeking to return to the labor market after her children are grown—and finding that today's secretarial job re- quires skills she never learned. • A college student who won't be returning to col- lege unless he can find sum- mer employment to pay his tuition— • And a Russian immi- grant who has neither the necessary job-seeking skills nor an adequate knowledge of English to manage an in- terview. In a community that has such a high percentage of college graduates and that takes deserved pride in a hard-won affluence, the Jew- ish unemployed feel a par- ticular pain. Says Mrs. Nurenberg: "We tend to foi'get the ef- fect of unemployment on a community. Long-term job- lessness hurts the entire family unit, for beyond the financial toll there is a de- moralizing effect when the breadwinner is out of a job for six months to a year. Our agency can't work alone in this, - she added. We use the Jewish Family Service. Sinai Hospital and other mental health facil- ities where family coun- seling or other necessary services can be obtained." The Jewish Vocational Service tries -to find out functionally what kind of job the applicant is suited for. Job titles don't matter much. Perhaps a store man- ager can do well as a manu- facturer's representative and vice versa," said Mrs. Nuren-berg. "We may help the appli- cant develop-his or her re- sume. then offer feedback on the impression it makes. We help them learn about job interviews, even asking tough queEtions to help them learn the right an- swers for a smoother pre- sentation. Next, we try to teach them how to go about find- ing jobS. Some resources we tap; some are best tap- - - The resources of the Jewish Vocational Service library - are explained by JVS librarian Muriel Posner, standing, center, to Linda Ginsberg, left, and Arlene Frank while JVS staffer Kaorl Friedman, seated, left, counsels Andrea Goldberg. ped by the client himself." Often, clients must be made aware of alterna- tives. Law school graduates may have to settle for non- legal positions, or look for jobs in smaller towns. Stu- dents looking ahead to grad- uate school may be warned that affirmative action plans have cut down the number of places available to white Jewish males in the areas of law, dentistry and medicine. Different counseling tech- niques are applied to differ- ent clients. Recent college graduates are seen in groups of three to eight. There is one group session per week, each two-hour meeting focusing on job- seeking techniques and as- sistance in using the well- stocked JVS library. Staffed by a librarian trained in occupational in- formation, the library keeps up-to-date literature on educational opportu- nities, types of jobs avail- able and other information of use to the job-seeker and to the student seeking voca- tional guidance. Anyone is free to use the resources of the library dur- ing regular hours at the Southfield JVS building: 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. After the group session. clients go out on job inter- views, and there is individ- ual followup to check out -the progress of the job search. This group approach differs from that applied to the handicapped client, with whom a counselor will meet several times, and to those who graduated from college some time ago but who also require individual interviews. To meet certain needs. group sessions—also used with summer job appli- cants—have proven to he the most efficient use of per- sonnel. And for an agency that has too little manpow- er to fill the demand for services. efficiency is vital. The staff includes a five- person placement depart- ment, whose specialty is finding jobs. They engage in mailing and newspaper campaigns, telephoning and even knocking on doors—all with the goal of reaching prospective employers for present and future JVS clients. Also on the staff are 2 vocational counselor slots, filled by master's degree graduates in psychology and guidance. There is a constant wait- ing list. so we can't see - everyone who wants help." said Mrs. Nurenberg. "While those looking for a job can be seen within a week, the waiting list for those seeking vocational counseling and guidance is six to eight weeks long." She added that assistance to the handicapped, to the over-50 client and to the im- migrant gets the highest pri- ority "because they're least able to help themselves." To show what extra man- power can accomplish, Mrs. Nurenberg said that a young man who helped with the summer job placement program last year assisted the agency in developing 500 jobs for students. The Jewish Vocational Service has played match-- maker for thousands of em- ployers and job-seekers- without ever charging a fee. Schechter Opens Cairo Geniza to Scholars NEW YORK—Just before Shabat Hagadol . (the Sab- bath before Passover), 75 years ago, Solomon Schech- ter, a rabbinic scholar of Romanian birth and early education, having left his position as Reader in Rab- binics at Cambridge Univer- sity in England, assumed the presidency of The Jew- ish Theological Seminary of America. Bringing his wife and chil- dren with him, he sought to play an active role in the ever-growing, dynamic American Jewish commu- nity. At the same time, he left behind him more than 10 years of work on frag- ments of documents discov- ered in the geniza of Fostat (Old Cairo), Egypt — docu- ments which were to radi- cally alter the course of Jewish scholarship while at the same time providing new insights into Jewish his- tory. A young Jewish schol- ar of Scottish birth and early education recently came to the seminary to lec- ture, to research, and to "swap information" about the Schechter geniza finds. Dr. Stefan Reif. director of the Taylor-Schechter Gen- iza Research Unit of the Cambridge University Li- brary, and a member of the Oriental Studies and Divi- nity Faculties, spoke enthu- siastically about the discov- ery, dispersion, and signifi- cance of the collection. According to Dr. Reif, the Cairo geniza was not in ac- tuality discovered by Schechter. Scholars had known for some time of this repository for sacred texts and other documents the community had not wished to destroy, but had been dis- couraged from taking mate- rial from it by stories of misfortune that had beset those who had removed ma- terial, and by the super- stition that a snake pro- tected the entrance, attack- ing prospective collectors. Through various means, not the least of which was the payment of "baksheesh," the spell was broken during the 19th Century. Gradually material fil- tered out of Cairo into other -parts of the world. The Rus- sian Karaite, Abraham Fir- kowitch, sold a collection to the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg; the Russian Ar- chimandrite, Antonin, ac- quired an important collec- tion in Jerusalem; Elkan N. Adler, son of Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler, was allowed to place several thousand fragments in discarded Torah scroll mantles and brought them to London after one of hi_s visits to Fostat. In spite of all this activi- ty, however, as noted by Dr. Reif. "it must be stressed that the various collections of fragments had not yet been linked with each other or traced to the Cairo geniza. nor had - the material been adequate-- 1y exploited by any of the scholars involved. Further- more, no one Ntt seems to have had the idea of locat- ing the source of these col- lections. fully exploiting it and making it available in one seat of learning." Them in May. 1896, twin widowed sisters of Scottish origin, Mrs. Agnes Lewis and Mrs. Margaret Gibson, returning from one of their frequent trips to the Near East for the express pur- pose of acquiring valuable manuscripts, asked Schech- ter's help in identifying some of the material they had found. Determining that one of the fragments contained a long-lost Hebr- ew version of the Apocry- phal Book of Ben Sira (Ec- clesiasticus 1, Schechter quickly wrote a note to the sisters requesting that pub- lication of the discovery he withheld until a formal an- nouncement could be made. Schechter made up his mind to visit the source of this literary wealth, and Charles Taylor, Master of St. John's. a mathemati- cian, and himself an emi- nent Hebraist, provided Schechter with the funds necessary to make the trip. In December, 1896, armed with an elegant letter of rec- ommendation from the uni- versity to the heads of the Jewish community in Cairo as well as an introduction from the Chief Rabbi of England to the Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Schechter set off for Egypt. iza collection will be made available on microfilm to scholars throughout the world, along with much ma- terial from other geniza sources. Israel Elections Not in the Stars JERUSALEM (JTA)— Two Cabinet ministers and a number of Knesset mem- bers have consulted a Je- rusalem astrologer regard- ing their electoral chances, according to the astrologer, Ilan Pecker. Addressing Jerusalem's Rotary Club. Pecker would not reveal the identities of his new clients. His own pre- diction. he said, was that the May 17 election would prove inconclusive and a second election would have to he held before the end of 1977. Both Schechter's personal- ity and approach seemed to commend themselves to the leaders of the community. and he was authorized to take whatever he wished. Schechter's labors were con- siderable - mentally, phys- ically. and monetarily. En- trance into the windowless and doorless store-room was by way of a ladder through a hole high in the wall of the ladies' gallery. Dark. stuffy, and uncomfort- Polish Philatelists able, dust rose in clouds whenever Schechter rum- Honor Salomon maged through and among CHICAGO (JTA 1—The P o- the contents. lonus Philatelic Society of Ultimately, Schechter's Chicago prominently fea- perseverance paid off with tured in its recent exhibi- what he estimated to be up- tion Haym Salomon. a Pol- wards of 100.000 relatively ish Jew who helped in the fi- legible fragments ready for nancing of America's Revo- shipment to England. lutionary War. While he and Taylor of- Salomon. a merchant, fered the majority of -the banker and financier. had fragments to Cambridge fought for Polish independ- University, Schechter re- ence and was a close friend of the foremost Polish patri- tained some 200 for himself, ots. bringing them with him When Poland's cause was when he assumed the Presi- los,t and the country was dis- dency of The Jewish Theo- membered in 1772 by Rus- logical Seminary in the sia, Austria and .Prussia. spring of 1902. Salomon left for America. According to Dr. Reif, what Schechter had thought Hebrew College to be 100.000 fragments turned out to be closer to to Host Parley 140,000. Nearly a fifth of these were conserved, BROOKLINE, MASS.— treated, and placed under Leading scholars in Jewish glass between 1891-1902. studies will assemble at Today, under Dr. Reif's di- Hebrew College in Boston, rection, the remainder of April 25. for a one-day sym- the Material is well on its posium on the theme, "As- way to being preserved and pects of Jewish Scholarship catalogued by an 11-mem- Today: An Academic Con- ber team. Within the next ference on Major Trends in three to four years, the en- Contemporary Jewish tire Taylor-Schechter gen- Learning."