THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, March 1, 1980 49

Gesher: Promoting Judaism, Understanding in Israel

By SETH HURWITZ

NEW YORK (JTA) —
The major paradox that now
exists in Israel is that the
country "has a population of
Israelis more than it has a
population of Jews." Israeli
Jews, especially the youth,
have no Jewish identity,
and "little feeling for the
country. There's very little
they believe in — there's a
vacuum inside them."
These are the sentiments
expressed by Hillel Wiener,
liar executive vice president
__F— the Gesher Educational
Affiliates, a non-political,
independent organization
based in Israel which is now
tackling this problem.
Although the group is
little-known in the United
States, Wiener says that
Gesher is, in Israel, the
"largest Jewish education
system outside of the Israeli
government." Its purpose,
he said, is "to bridge the gap
that exists between the
religious and secularist
groups in Israel."
Along with that con-
cept, "what we've tried to
do is to set up what we
call 'Jewish Identity
Programs' ... which in-
volves trying to transmit
to youngsters, in the most
creative, intellectual, ra-
tional framework the
basic concepts of
Judaism, and to expose
the youngsters to these
ideas in such a way that it
will be most palatable to
them."
Gesher is trying to guide
the ideas of Israeli youth, so
that the non-religious sec-
tor may, if not follow Jewish
Law, at least appreciate its
culture and heritage, and so
that the religious sector

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understands why the sec-
ularists are the way they
are and, says Wiener, learns
not to denigrate and talk
down" to the non-religious.
Dr. Daniel Tropper, a na-
tive New Yorker, founded
Gesher in 1969, when he
went on aliya after, accord-
ing to Wiener, becoming
"disturbed at the disparate
elements and the an-
tagonism that existed in Is-
rael."
Tropper began to run in-
formal educational seminar
programs where the Israeli
religious and non-religious
could ask questions and ex-
change ideas, with, in Trop-
per's words, "no holds bar-
red." By using\ these
methods, said Wiener, he
was able to gest, the
youngsters to almost enjoy
talking to one another," and
to learn things previously
"so misunderstood by
them."

.

Over the years, the
organization developed
because of the increased
confidence it received
from both the Israeli
people and the Israeli
government "to the
point," said Wiener,
where we were able to
get direct subsidies from
the government, in terms
of running seminars."
Eventually, Gesher
began to run seminars for
the government — they

"

Miami Beach Mental Health
Unit Under Jewish Auspices

By BEN GALLOB

(Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.)

A new Miami Beach
Community Mental Health
Center, backed by an
eight-year federal funding
commitment, is currently
serving some 850 men and
women, most of them el-
derly.
The community mental

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health facility is a 'sub-
sidiary operation of the
Miami Jewish Home and
Hospital for the Aged, func-
tioning in a rented building.
A spokesman said that
while clients of the new cen-
ter are never asked about
their religion an estimated
50 to 60 percent are believed
to be Jewish.
Hal Spaet, president of
the new facility's -board,
said its opening made
possible expansion and
availability of the
Home-Hospital mental
health services to all
residents of Miami Be-
ach, Bay Harbor Islands,
Bal Harbour, North Bay
Village and Surfside, re-
gardless of age, sex, race,
ethnicity or ability to pay.
He said the new facility
reflected the national policy
of community-based care for
treatment and prevention of
mental illness. The new
facility began functioning
, last July 2.

Israeli Missile

By Popular Demand!

West Blopi;:!.eze 7i&J

were able to take
youngsters out of school,
a certain number of
hours a week, and work
with them.
In 1976 the organization
purchased a campus in
Safed where it expanded its
seminar programs to be-
tween 3,000 to 5,000
youngsters a year.
The facilities. in Safed
also gave them the opportu-
nity to run follow-up pro-
grams, including Shab-
batonim (weekend semi-
nars), coffee houses, study
circles, mini-seminars
within the school system,
and even those specifically
run to include the entire
family, not just the teenage
son or daughter.
At present, Gesher has
four "organizational arms:"
Mossad Gesher, which runs
the student seminars; the
David Schoen Institute for
Creative Jewish Education,
which trains the teachers
and produces curricula for
the junior high and high
school; Jerusalem Prod-
uctions, which is working to
produce a Sesame Street-
type television series em-
bodying Gesher's approach
to creative Jewish educa-
tion in a furthei attempt to
reach the entire family; and
finally, the Machonim, or
Institutes for Zionist and
Jewish Education, formerly
a separate organization
founded in the early 1970s

Mon. thru Sot.
6 TO 6

Sunday 9 to 5

'AR

WASHINGTON — Israel
Aircraft Industries has
completed development of a
third-generation Gabriel
surface-to-surface, ship-
launched missile. The de-
rivative of the Gabriel 1,
which sank Soviet-built
ships in the Yom Kippur
War, has an active homing
capability in addition to the
earlier passive guidance
systems. The missiles now
are controlled by a combina-
tion of radar and electro-.
optical methods.

by Mordechai Bar-On, but
which merged with what
was then called the Gesher
Foundation to become the
Gesher Educational Af-
filiates.

MAGICIAN

worth," rather than trying
to impose upon it the
Ashkenazic customs and
laws "which the govern-
ment has all too often been
doing."

The biggest arm of
Gesher, the Machonim,
now enables Gesher to
reach almost 50,000 stu-
dents. "And our projec-
tion is that this year,"
said Wiener, Gesher "will
be running seminar pro-
grams in basic concepts
of Judaism, Jewish- iden-
tity, values and heritage
for 85 percent of the 11th
graders in Israel, and
some 30 percent of the
12th graders."
In addition to regular
programs, Gesher now runs
experimental programs,
which include rehabilitat-
ing Israeli criminals, as
well as working with the Is-
raeli Sephardic population,
trying to give it, in Wiener's
words, "a sense of its own

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