THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Boris Smolar's
`Between You
. . . and Me'
Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)
;=,
THE JDC CONCLAVE: The two-day semi-annual
meeting of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Com-
mittee, which opens in New York on Tuesday, is like a
barometer on Jewish life in communities overseas.
In the center of the discussions at the present meeting
will be projects in Israel which the JDC finances — there
are more than 100 such projects; also the JDC relief work in
the Jewish communities in the Communist countries in
Eastern Europe which are now — with the exception of the
oviet Union — all open again for JDC relief activities.
–;'here will, naturally, also be evaluations of Jewish needs
in the other countries where the JDC operates, including
Moslem countries in North Africa, and relief programs for
the small and needy Jewish community in Egypt, now that
Egypt may permit JDC relief operations for the Jews there.
Strong reverberations are anticipated at the JDC con-
clave on the issue of assisting Soviet Jews to proceed as
"dropouts" to the United States and other Western coun-
tries, instead of Israel — the destination marked in their
Soviet exit visas.
The Jewish Agency considered the HIAS activities in
this direction as undermining emigration to Israel and as
giving the Soviet government an excuse to drastically cut
the issuance of exit visas to Jews.
The issue became dormant through an experimental
agreement reached last December between the Jewish
Agency and the five leading American Jewish national
organizations engaged in helping the emigration and ab-
sorption of Jews from the Soviet Union. The five organiza-
tions are: HIAS, JDC, United Jewish Appeal, United Israel
Appeal and the Council of Jewish Federations.
THE HIAS CASE: The issue of the dropouts has now
been revived by a decision of the HIAS board of directors —
by a vote of 40 to 12 — to terminate the agreement unilat-
erally. The argument was that the agreement was not
successful in its objective and did not increase emigration
from the Soviet Union to Israel.
The controversial issue is now coming again to the
forefront in the Jewish community. The presidents of the
five most prestigious Jewish organizations which are
partners in the agreement with the Jewish Agency, in
addition to HIAS, sent a jointly-signed letter to the
president of HIAS — three days before the board of this
agency decided to divorce itself from the agreement —
urging the BIAS leadership to abstain from any new deci-
sion on servicing Jews from the Soviet Union until after
Oct. 25 when a World Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry is
scheduled to open in Paris. They pointed out that any with-
drawal by HIAS could break the unity of world Jewish
organizations in campaigning against the drastic reduction
in visas.
The HIAS disregard of the request is being looked upon
as imposing the will of a minority of one of the partners to
the agreement upon a majority.
THE TESTING EXPERIMENT: HIAS leaders
argue that the agreement with the Jewish Agency was for
three-months' duration and was only a "temporary experi-
ence" aimed at establishing whether the provisions of the
agreement lead to the reduction of the proportion of drop-
outs which is now reaching over 80 percent of the groups
arriving from the Soviet Union to Vienna; also whether the
experiment will lead to increased Jewish emigration from
the Soviet Union. They claim that the experimental
agreement failed to bring the desired results.
Some HIAS leaders also claim that the experiemental
agreement is "putting HIAS out of business." They point
out that the dropouts, not receiving any assistance from
HIAS, are turning for such assistance to the American
Jewish Orthodox group "Rav Tov" which operates in Vie-
nna and had refused to join in the agreement with the
Jewish Agency. Some of the dropouts, they assert, also seek
assistance from the Quakers, the Tolstoy Foundation, an
,tether non-Jewish American groups operating in Europe
d aiding refugees from the Soviet Union.
ORT Fund Drive
for Engineering
School at H.U.
NEW YORK — Women's
American ORT (Organiza-
tion for Rehabilitation
through Training) haS
launched the second phase
of a broad-based, nation-
wide campaign to raise
funds for the building and
maintenance of the ORT
School of Engineering on
the campus of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem.
The first phase of the
school was opened in 1976
and has a current enroll-
ment of 1,000. The second
phase, which is scheduled to
open in September, is the
mechanical engineering
complex.
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students attend Jewish day
schools in France.
U.S. Unreliable?
TEL AVIV (ZINS) — "We
(Israel) should not rely at all
on an agreement with
America," Ariel Sharon, Is-
rael's Minister of Defense
stated in a recent interview
with Haretz. "I have no
faith in Americans," Sharon
said.
• "4".,.:••
4
France to Offer Education Prize
PARIS (JTA) — The
French Chief Rabbi's office
has decided to award an an-
nual prize for Jewish educa-
tion to encourage Jewish
schools and individual
educators.
The prize, whose amount
has not yet been decided,
will be awarded in conjunc-
tion with the Jewish Agen-
cy's Department for Torah
and Religious Education.
More than 6,000 Jewish
Friday, May 21, 1982 13
BR
e on a
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©1982 Kraft, toc