16
Friday, January 29, 1982
COMPUTER
PORTRAITS
A fun idea for your
• Bar Mitzva
• Wedding
• Business Guests
etc.
tc.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ORT Expands Computer Classes
NEW YORK (JTA) —
ORT (The Organization for
Rehabilitation through
Training) will significantly
expand its computer train-
ing curriculum at ORT
schools in- Israel, France
and Latin America in line
with recent forecasts that
computer-based industries
will provide one of the few
growth careers, with more
jobs than people to fill those
jobs, throughout the 1980s
and into the 1990s, accord-
fields such as avionics, digi-
tal electronics and laser
technology, which are in in-
creasing demand in the job
market.
ORT Israel, which has a
student body of 70,000 in
103 schools and training
centers, recently acquired
100 micro computers, and
plans to acquire more in the
coming year.
ing to a report by American
ORT Federation president
Sidney Leiwant, speaking
at the organization's na-
tional conference banquet
Saturday evening.
According to the report by
Leiwant, ORT will continue
to train students in more
traditional trades, such as
carpentry and the needle
trades, but many of these
courses will be gradually
phased out in favor of
sophisticated training in
The small courtesies
sweeten life.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 • NOON-5 PM
ONE DAY ONLY 1/2 OFF SALE
The
awmoRe Shop
Panache-Can Sale!
Final Winter Clearance
Incredible Savings!
Suits, Blazers, Overcoats, Shirts, Sweaters,
Shoes—Now Reduced to 1/2 Off
MEN'S
SUITS SelectGroup
• •
• • •
•
•
$710195
ar
adir
SPORT
JACKETS • • • • • • • • • • $4995
WOMEN'S CLOTHING
Suits, Blazers,
Skirts, Accessories
POLO BOY'S DEPARTMENT
Suits, Sport Jackets, Slacks
/2
OFF
Boris Smolar's
`Between You
and Me'
Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)
THE JEWISH SCHOOL PROBLEM: There is
unanimity among Jewish leaders of all groups that some-
thing must be done — and done effectively — to stop the
constant decline of enrollment in the Jewish school system.
This academic year there are only 350,000 pupils enrolled
in the Jewish schools of all types, including about 100,000
in the all-day schools. This is the lowest figure ever re-
corded in the Jewish school movement. It is 10,000 less
than last year.
There is a drop of an average of 11,000 pupils a year in
the Jewish schools. Ten years ago their number was more-
than 450,000. Twenty years ago the total was 600,000
about one-half of the 1,200,000 children of school age aL. -
that time.
The loss is largest in the supplementary schools which
are maintained primarily by Conservative Jewry and by
individual congregations. The all-day schools — 82 percent
under Orthodox auspices, 10 percent under Conservative
auspices, six percent under communal direction; and less
than two percent under the Reform movement — had been
growing in previous years, but their growth appears to
have stopped. The one-day-a-week schools, mostly Sunday
schools, are still functioning as a major part of the Reform
school system, but they have practically vanished from the
Orthodox school systems.
Jewish leadership is greatly worried. The constant de-
cline in school enrollment affects not only the schools but
potentially also Jewish continuity. Fewer pupils in the
Jewish schools means the prospect of a young generation
with weak feelings for Jewish values; this in turn spells a
diminishing interest in Jewish communal life.
THE UNDERMINING CAUSES: Leaders of the
Council ofJewish Federations, together with leaders in the
field of Jewish education, have been giving much thought
to the Jewish school situation. They now consider the
Jewish education problem a "priority problem" for the
American Jewish community. They seek solutions.
What has brought the drastic reduction in the enroll-
ment of children in Jewish schools?
Studies conducted recently on this subject advance the
following reasons: the low birthrate among Jews; the mov-
ing ofJewish families from one city to another; the increase
in tuition fees because of inflation.
There are also other causes, such as the indifference of
many parents to the Jewish education of their children;
mixed marriages; "one-spouse family"; increase in divorces
among Jews, and a decrease in marriages. However, the
decline in the Jewish birthrate — which also decimates the
total number of Jews in this country — is given as the
primary cause.
CJF ACTION: The Council of Jewish Federations is
now engaged in seeking ways to strengthen the Jewish
education system. It assisted actively in the reorganization
of the 41-year-old American Association for Jewish Edcua-
tion — the central body of Jewish education in the United
States and Canada — into a new central agency called the
Jewish Education Service of North America.
Recognizing that Jewish education must be considered
a "priority" in Jewish communal life, the CJF has also
undertaken to stimulate local federations throughout the
country to increase their allocation for Jewish schools and
the various services provided for them.
Federation allocations in 1980 for education were over
$35 million, compared to $24 million four years ago. They
represented about 25 percent of all allocations for local
needs.
PLO Called Modern Nazis
NEW YORK (JTA) —
Naphtalie Lavie, Israel's
Consul General in New
York, charged last week
that the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization has
adopted the methods of the
Nazis in its aim to liquidate
Israel.
OUTSTANDING SAVINGS ON MOST ITEMS
OF CLOTHING IN OUR STORE
The
cukymoRe Shop
722 North Woodward, Birmingham, Mi. • 642-7755
SUNDAY, JANUARY 311
NOON-5 PM
...
Le.
1 ' • .1
•
"The PLO has learned
well from the methods and
systems of the modern and
skillful Nazis," Lavie, a
Holocaust survivor, told 80
people who attended an ob-
servance marking the 40th
anniversary of the Nazi
Wannsee Conference that
set the Holocaust into mo-
tion. The observance also
served as a memorial to the
victims of the Holocaust. It
was sponsored by the
Anti-Defamation League of
Bnai.Brith.
The PLO, Lavie said,
has been taking steps to
improve the methods of
the Nazis "by means of
the most sophisticate(
weapons which ark_
knowingly supplied to
them.
Allan Ryan, Jr., director
of the Office of Special In-
vestigations of the U.S. De-
partment of Justice ., which
has been prosecuting Nazi
war criminals living in the
U.S. said that the depart-
ment is prosecuting at pre-
sent 24 alleged Nazis in the
TT
ct,