Concern Is Shown Over Effect of State's Economic
Decline on the Major Jewish Community Agencies

Administrative forces in basic movements involving assistance to the handicapped
as well as to the other social service agencies in the community are becoming seriously
concerned over the effects upon them of the economic pressures evolving especially in
Michigan's plight in the current conditions.
Special concern is expressed over the effects of the economic decline in efforts such as
the Jewish Vocational Service and its workshops which are of vital need in providing for

Reform Judaism
in Many Stages
Fascinatingly
Interpolated
in Recollections
of Jacob Marcus

Commentary, Page 2

the handicapped, as well as Jewish Family Service and other agencies.
The impact of the recession was the subject of a special report to the Jewish Welfare
Federation Board of Governors at its last meeting.
JWF President Avern Cohn noted that the experiences of two agencies —
Jewish Vocational Service and Jewish Family Service — are illustrative of the
(Continued on Page 11)

Human Rights
for All Paramount
in Rejecting
Threats from
Bigots and
Arsonists

THE JEWISH NEWS

A Weekly Review

of Jewish Events

Editorial, Page 4

Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.

VOL. LXXXI, No. 11

17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich.. 48075 424-8833

$15 Per Year: This Issue 35c

May 14, 1982

Jews, Christian Units Oppose
Reagan Over School Prayers

Jerusalem Day Progress in the Capital

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish organizations have joined the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Christian organizations in opposing
President Reagan's proposal for a Constitutional amendment to permit volun-
tary prayers in public schools.
At a press conference, opponents of the proposal, citing the need to maintain
the Constitutional separation of church and state, said that prayers cannot be
voluntary when mandated by a school system since a child who did not want to
participate would be subject to ridicule from classmates, or forced by peer.
pressure to take part in whatever ceremony was held.
"The Jewish community, in particular, is acutely aware of
government-imposed religion," Marc Pearl, Washington representative
of the American Jewish Congress, said at the press conference last
Thursday which was held on Capitol Hill. "It is for that reason that many
of our ancestors fled Europe."
The press conference was held just an hoUr after Reagan, in a nationat
prayer day ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, announced his support
for a Constitutional amendment to
permit voluntary prayers in public
schools. But he gave no details of the
bill the Administration will submit
to Congress.
"No one will ever convince me that
a moment of voluntary prayer will
harm a child or threaten a school or
Ivan J. Novick, president of the Zionist
state,"
Reagan told some 100 reli-
Organization of America, has announced
gious
leaders
attending the cere-
that the next expanded conference of the
mony. "But I think it can strengthen
ZOA National Executive Committee, the
our faith in the Creator who alone
organization's top governing body, will be
has the power to bless America."
held at the Sheraton-Southfield Hotel 'on
June 11-13.
Pearl said he was attending the
Novick indicated that the Southfield
press
conference also as the represen-
site had been chosen "in recognition of
tative of six organizations represent-
the exemplary services rendered by De-

ZOA Executive
to Meet Here
for First Time

.

c

(Continued on Page 5)

(Continued on Page 5)

PBS Series on 'Saudi Arabia'
Paints Veiled Picture of Bias

By DAVID SILVERBERG — Near East Report

These photographs show Jerusalem's Damascus Gate as it appeared at the
end of the 19th Century and the gate as it is today. Israel has done extensive
restoration work on the gate, built by Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
when the city walls were constructed between 1536 and 1539 on foundations at
least 20 centuries old. Since the Middle Ages, the Damascus Gate on the northern
side of Jerusalem has been the city's busiest gate. Jewry is celebrating the
re-unification of Jerusalem in 1967 -- Jerusalem Day — next Thursday.

The Saudis have launched an offensive to change their image in the United States
and two efforts on this propaganda front stand out. One is a Public Broadcasting System
series entitled "Saudi Arabia"; the other is a pavilion at the Knoxville World's Fair.
The three-part PBS series (aired Tuesdays in Detroit on WTVS, Channel 56) covers
Saudi history, society, oil policy and politics. Written and produced by former MacNeil-
Lehrer producer Jo Franklin-Trout, it provides a look at a Saudi Arabia once inaccessi-
ble. Previously secretive officials granted interviews, and Trout and her camera crews
were allowed access to social functions and institutions which had been strictly off-limits.
The PBS series won a good deal of critical praise for its "balance," by which
critics meant a kind of muted admission by Saudis that all is not perfect in the
Kingdom. The criticism does not really get incisive until the last program on oil
and politics.
Beyond this kid-glove criticism, two glaring omissions flaw the series.
The first is the failure to mention Saudi Arabia's pronounced anti-Jewishness any-
(Continued on Page 6)