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December 19, 1980 - Image 62

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1980-12-19

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

62 Friday, December 19, 1980

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

ADL Head Explains Jewish Vote

NEW YORK — Jews vote
their own interests, and
need make no apology for
doing so, according to
Nathan Perlmutter, na-
tional director of the Anti-
Defamation League of Bnai
Brith.
In an analysis of the
"Jewish vote" in the current
issue of the Bnai Brith
newspaper, Metropolitan
Star, Perlmutter stated in
part:
The inference of the term
"Jewish vote" depends on its
phraser and his audience.
There are obvious dif-
ferences between a social
scientist discussing the
"Jewish vote" in a
classroom and an anti-
Semite attributing base
motivations to political
office seekers because of the
"Jewish vote."
Still, no matter the dis-
avowals by many Jews of
the existence of a
"Jewish vote," there
nonetheless is a demon-
strable Jewish voting
pattern. The disavowals
over the years can be at-
tributed to Jewish self-
consciousness, itself the
consequence of feared
visibility in an environ-
ment deemed hostile.
But, of course, close ob-
servers of American voting
patterns have known for a
long time that there is a
Jewish pattern. Jews have
been voting for candidates
whose political platforms
they deem compassionate of

the needs, caring of the change in Jewish voting.
underdog, and which are The Democratic Party's
critical of such socially mis- Presidential candidate, the
chievous conditions as ra- candidate of the party of
cism, discrimination, ul- FDR, and of Harry Truman,
of John F. Kennedy, and of
tranationalism.
This voting pattern has Lyndon Johnson (the latter
seen Jews vote against received 90 percent of the
Jewish candidates and in Jewish vote), actually re-
favor of non-Jewish candi- ceived less than half the
dates when the former's Jewish vote!
views trailed — socially —
Without commenting on
the latter's. Moreover, the respective qualities of
Jewish voting singularly Messrs. Reagan and Carter,
among ethnic voting pat-
this stunning shift in
terns, has been supportive Jewish voting patterns,
of political platforms fre- whether it be an aberration
quently at odds with the or a precursor of real
economic interests of the change, is, I believe, a posit-
relatively well-off Jewish ive contribution to Jewish
community.
interests. Said plainly and
All of this is by way of say- simply, it suggests that four
ing that there is, indeed, a years hence, the Republican
Jewish voting pattern and Party need no longer write
that it reflects very favora- off the Jewish community;
bly on the civic-mindedness conversely, the Democratic
of the Jewish community.
Party may no longer take
The 1980 Presidential the Jewish community's
elections have witnessed vote for granted.
a change in Jewish vot-
That our voting pattern
ing patterns, which may,
in 1980 was reflective of the
with the passage of years,
be looked upon as having nation at large should
been politically very sig- satisfy us that electorally
we are politically prescient
nificant.
The published estimates or as politically naive as our
this November reveal that neighbors.
President Carter received
45 percent of the Jewish Cultural Week
vote while Ronald Reagan
MUNICH — This city
was estimated as having re-
ceived 39 percent of the hosted Israeli Cultural
Jewish vote. When this lat- Week in December, de-
ter figure is added to the 16 scribed as the largest, most
percent of Jewish votes es- comprehensive Israeli cul-
timated for John Anderson, tural exhibition ever held in
we find a remarkable sea Europe.

• a*

• °

414A • .

In our town,
you can
count on

Israeli Students Learn Arabic
Through Special 'Newspapers

By SIMON GRIVER

World Zionist Press Service

JERUSALEM — At last
Israel is talking to some of
her Arab neighbors. But the
country will always remain
linguistically and cultur-
ally isolated from the Arab
world if Israelis cannot
speak Arabic. In the wake of
the peace treaty with Egypt,
the _teaching of Arabic in Is,-
raeli schools has taken on a
renewed significance.
To cater to this crucial
linguistical need, and for
the teaching aids which it
demands, David Herman, a
Jerusalem publisher and
educator, is introducing his
own Arabic newspapers in
Israeli schools. Herman, a
graduate in modern lan-
guages from Selwyn Col-
lege, Cambridge, emigrated
from England in 1966.
He emphasizes the impor-
tance of language in ad-
vancing the spirit of cooper-
ation and coexistence

`My America'
Depicts Lower
East Side Life

Reading "My America"
by Eliot Wagner one has the
feeling of being catapulted
back through time to the
heyday of Hester and De-
lancey Streets of New
York's Lower East Side, but
that's the book's only saving
4H•••••• •
grace.
•••
Published by Kenan
Press, the novel is a noble
venture, particularly in its
depictions of the Jewish
lifestyle in the post-World
War I era, but falls short in
••• •••
its tediousness.
••••••
::••••
The book focuses on
••• •••
•••••• Hymie Share, an inscruta-
ble womanizer, and his fam-
.••• ••
ily, all of whom are caught
••••••
••••• •
..•• • •
up in the race to make a bet-
•••••
•••••
ter
life for themselves, by
..•• ■ ••
••••••
....GO taking advantage of the
••••••
••••••
..••• ■ •
goodies to be grabbed in
••••••
••••••
America.
-•••••
.•••••
•••••••
Unfortunately, the
••••••
••••••
••••••
vernacular in which the
.••••••
story is written makes for
.••••••
.•••••
confusion and often pas-
•••••••
••••••
sages will have to be re-
..•••••
..• • •• read for clarification.
..•• ••
Wagner has to be given
credit
for trying, but he just
••••••
..••••
news ••••••
doesn't make it.
. ••• ■ •
—H.P.

THE JEWISH NEWS

to bring you
local, national
and international
of Jewish interest

.

...e s .
... e•
.. . alp

Let your mailman
deliver this news
to your door
every Friday

No need to

.••••••
••••••
..••••
S.. . ..

--:
1



To: The Jewish News
17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865
Southfield, Mich. 48075

"Please send a year's subscription

to

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY

FOR:

FROM

STATE

stal• occas•on II gill

through better communica-
tion. "Look at Israel's
President Yitzhak Navon,"
he says. "He is one of very
few Israeli leaders who is
an accomplished Arabic
speaker and on his recent
trip to Egypt, this helped
him to win the hearts of the
Egyptian people."

More than 140,000
pupils now learn Arabic
in Israel's Jewish
schools, which repre-
sents almost 10 percent of
the school population.
The figure would be far
larger but there is a shor-
tage of qualified Arabic
teachers.
All the same, after
English; Arabic is now the
most commonly taught
foreign tongue in Israel's
schools. When Shlomo Alon
and Haya Dahan, two
Jerusalem school inspectors
and writers of Arabic text
books, were approached by
Herman with the idea of
publishing an Arabic news-
paper, they responded
enthusiastically.
Herman already pub-
lishes four "easy" English
newspapers at various
levels. Many of the 60,000 a
month that he distributes
are used by Arab schools,
while others are taken by
Diaspora schools because of
their Israel content. "When
I surveyed the education
scene in Israel at the begin-
ning of the 1970s I couldn't
believe there were no news-

Jewry's Diminished Numbers

JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
Speaking of the demog-
••••••
..••••
••••••
raphic situation of the
..••••
..••••
Jewish people, Gideon
•••• •
Hausner, a member of
••••••
Knesset, told the last ses-
sion of the Knesset, "We,
••••__
..
the Jewish people, have re-
mained with diminished
numbers we are the only
people in the world that has
not recovered since the
roam, . . . the best
great catastrophy of World
•••• •
is here at home!
War II.
"There are today 20 mil-
1515 enclosed
lion more Japanese than
there were at the time of the
attack on Pearl Harbor.
ZIP
There are now 18 million
more Russians than there
•••••
•••• •
were on the 21st of June,
1941 when Germany
• •
launched its assault on the

..•• ••

An Israeli student
scans one of David Her-
man's "newspapers" de-
signed as a teaching aid
for Arabic.

papers available to lan-
guage teachers."
The Arabic newspapers
are called "Salamat," mean-
ing greetings and "Jaridati"
"My Newspaper."
Salamat is for beginners
and is printed in Hebrew
letters to ease pupils into
the complexities of the lan-
guage without the extra
problem of a strange al-
phabet. Jaridati is for more
advanced students and is in
Arabic print.
The newspapers are
also a mine of informa-
tion about Arab culture;
the articles contain in-
formation about the Mos-
lem religion and thus the
first issues explain the
concept of the "Haj" (pil-
grimage to Mecca). There
are humorous Are .
stories, Arab proverbs;
photo quiz about
President Sadat and a
picture of the Egyptian
flag, as well as features of
Jewish interest.
The newspapers have
been introduced on an ex-
perimental basis in the
Jerusalem area, where the
25 percent of the population
who are Arabs nearly all
speak Hebrew, while very
few of the Jewish majority
speak Arabic. The response
of both teachers and pupils
has been- encouraging and
the newspapers will soon be
distributed nationwide.
Herman sees his news-
papers as spearheading a
revolution in Arabic teach-
ing in Israel and hopes that
they will contribute in the
revolution from war to
peace. "I am taking lessons
in Arabic myself," he says.
"As a Semite it will be good
to be able to speak both the
great Semitic languages."

Soviet Union, and there are
now 17 million more Ger-
mans than there were on
the 1st of September 1939,
when Hitler began his war
against Europe.
"Only the Jews have
failed to increase their
numbers. We entered the
period of World War II
with approximately 18
million souls, and today,
35 years after the war, we
only number some
15,200,000."
(Some demographers
have begun using a lower
figure of 14 million Jews
and a Hebrew University
expert recently said he be-
lieves there are no more
than 11 million Jews in the
world.)

11)

Dobin Aiding
in Nazi Hunt

MIAMI BEACH — In an
effort to gather eyewitness
testimony for forthcoming
trials of Nazi war criminals,
the U.S. Justice Depart-
ment recently sent Rabbi
Rubin R. Dobin, chairman
of the American Anti-Nazi
Association to Israel.
In addition to Israel,
there are some 150 cities
and villages in Europe in
which survivor-witnesses
are being sought. Rabbi
Dobin is working in con-
junction with the Yad Vas-
hem Government Holocaust
Authority and the Nazi war
crimes branch of the Israel'
police force.

Rabbis' Board
Marks Centenary

NEW YORK — The New
York Board of Rabbis will
have its 100th anniversary
dinner May 17 at the Wal-
dorf Astoria Hotel.
Among the guests invited
to the dinner are Israel
President Yitzhak Navon,
President Jimmy Carter
and President-elect Ronald
Reagan.
Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz
is chairman of the centen-
nial dinner.

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