THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 18 Friday, February 22, 1980 Co-Production WASHINGTON — Israel is continuing to press the Carter Administration to be allowed to manufacture some of the 200 military aircraft Israel is expected to receive in the early 1980s. According to Newsweek magazine, Israel wants to help build the F-18 because it has more "growth room" for sophisticated equipment than the F-16. CREATIVE TABLES, ETC. LTD. • custom made just for you • laminates, glass, lucite, marble • tables, wall units, credenzas, etc. • delightfully fine workmanship • delightfully low prices We Come To You! Muriel Wetsman 354-1126 Vicky Leebove 851.0789 The Coupling of Reparations With Nazi Pensions Is Hit TORONTO (JTA) — The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) has written to the West German embassy in Canada complaining about pending legislation to fur- nish restitution to Jewish victims of Nazism. The complaint is based on the report that the restitution "is encumbered by an at- tempt to restore pension rights of former civil ser- vants who were disqualified from receiving pensions be- cause of their Nazi past." The debate on the pro- posal is scheduled in the West German Bundestag by March 31. "It is difficult to com- prehend," says the letter signed by Alan Rose, CJC executive vice president, "why the long delay in enacting reparations legis- lation which it was agreed to introduce into the Bun- destag during the incum- bency of Chancellor (Willy) Brandt should be threatened by coupling the fate of the victims of Nazism with former members of the NSDAP, the SS and concen- tration camp guards. "We believe that if such Joe Slatkin's DEXTER CHEVROLET 45 Years Of Dependable Sales & Service For The Best Deals On New and Used Cars Stop In At Joe -Slatkin's DEXTER CHEVROLET 20811 W. 8 Mile between Southfield & Telegraph Rd. 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Kosher Meals at Hospitals OKd NEW YORK (JTA) — Blue Cross and the Greater New York Hospital Asso- ciation have sent letters to member hospitals in the Greater New York area re- affirming that Blue Cross, Medicare and Medicaid take the position that Jewish patients are entitled to full coverage for re- quested kosher meals, Julius Berman, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, reported. The UOJCA raised the issue last December when Berman said that while most area hospitals do not charge extra for kosher me- als, the few hospitals which did so included some of the area's largest hospitals. UJA Conference Begins Sunday NEW YORK — Senators Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) and Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) along with Ephraim Evron, Israel's ambassador to the United States, will be among the participants at the National Young Lead- ership Conference of the United Jewish Appeal, Sunday through Tuesday at the Sheraton Hotel in Washington, D.C. The 1,500 delegates, ranging in age from 25-40, are members of the UJA Young Leadership Cabinet and the Young Women's Leadership Cabinet, and represent some 30 states. N • V Boris Smolar's `Between You .. and Me' . Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.) THE EDUCATION SCENE: Jewish education is climbing higher and higher on the ladder of allocations by Jewish federations. It is becoming a priority concern of the federations. This can be seen from a five-year analysis of federation support for the field of education just completed by the Council of Jewish Federations. The analysis reveals that in 109 cities the federation allocations for education have increased during the five years by more than 48 percent. In the same period, alloca- tions for all local purposes increased only over 44 percent. The allocations for education totalled $31.7 million in 1978. Five years earlier their total was $21.4 million. They are today about a quarter of all local allocations. In New York the allocation soared to $4.7 million. In Chicago it reached over $2.5 million. Allocations from Bal- timore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles and Philadelphia were in the one-to-two million dollar range. Miami allocated close to a million dollars, while Metropoli- tan New Jersey, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washing- ton, D.C. have each allocated between one-half and three- quarters of a million dollars to Jewish education in 1978. At the General Assembly last November, Morton L. Mandel, in his speech as CJF president, emphasized that one of the major goals of the CJF under his administration will be "to continue to work diligently towards creating significant new directions in Jewish education." Similarly. Robert I. Hiller, the new executive vice president, told a national conference ofJewish communal workers that local federations will be encouraged by the CJF to give appropri- ate attention to quality ofJewish education and the need to plan and finance high quality Jewish education. CJF AND DAY SCHOOLS: A further analysis by the CJF shows that day schools have received over 48 percent of the allocations by 118 federations. This represents tremen- dous recognition of the day school movement. I remember the time — not so long ago — when a delegation of the Orthodox Jewish day schools was not given even a chance for a hearing at a CJF General Assembly. Federations opposed at that time the idea of day schools. The day school movement received in the Federations more sympathy after it was given a strong boost by De- troiter Max M. Fisher in an address he delivered as CJF president, at a CJF General Assembly. Today, more than 450 Jewish day schools — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and communal or independent — are being subsidized by federations. Every community with a population of 7000 or more has at least one Jewish day school, but almost 90 percent of all day school pupils are found in the 10 largest Jewish population centers. Considering that only 15 years ago federation alloca- tions for Jewish education totalled less than $7 million a year, the CJF analysis shows the road on which the federa- tions have gone during the last decade in providing finan- cial aid for education. There is now a growing trend toward a closer relationship between federations and day school,. indicated by the review of school budgets by federations and submission of periodic financial reports. While the day schools receive more than 48 percent of the allocations for education by Federations, the congrega- tional schools receive only about 3.5 percent. Other schools receive approximately 11.5 percent. The remainder goes for Jewish institutions of higher learning and for services and programs by local central agencies for Jewish education which provide a substantial part of their services to congre- gational schools in various areas. $260 MILLION FOR EDUCATION: The cost of Jewish education in this country is not small. From avail- able figures one can see that more than $260 million was spent on Jewish education in the U.S. in 1976 when there was already a decline in enrollment which is still prevalent today. It is estimated that there are 35 percent fewer pupils in Jewish schools today than the 600,000 who were enrolled in the peak year of 1961, the day schools being the excep- tion in the decline. Of the $260 million, about $200 million is being covered by tuition and congregations. The rest is covered by allocations from federations and funds raised by the schools themselves. With inflation affecting the Jewish school sys- tem as much as any other area in American life, tuition is going up and this is one of the factors leading to the de- crease in the number of pupils in the schools. Other factors are: the shift of the Jewish population from one city to another; low birth rate; apathy of parents. The latter plays a significant role in the non-enrollment picture. Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a certain potency of life in them, to be as active as the soul whose progeny they are; they preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy and extraction of the living in- tellect that bred them. — Milton