THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, November 16, 1984 1
Budget
Continued from Page . 1
leaked the news that they for-
see a sharp rise in unemploy-
ment — from the current
10,000 to 20,000 — as a result
of civil service dismissals
alone. Newspapers listed un-
employment at 90,000 — a
five-year high equating to 90
percent of the workforce. Fac-
tory lay-offs due to the price
freeze could account for addi-
tional jobless, the sources said,
because frozen prices will re-
sult in slowed production.
Modai was forced to defend
the wage-price freeze package
over the weekend against pub-
lic figures who expressed
doubts about its viability.
At the same time, senior
Finance Ministry officials and
university economists are
working on plans to hold infla-
tion in check after the wage-
price freeze expires in
January. They predict that
February will be the critical
month for the economy.
Sources close to Premier
Shimon Peres expressed cau-
tious optimism Friday that
after initial confusion and
administrative errors over the
price freeze, the measure was
finally taking hold.
Jerusalem police began a
crackdown on Arab money
changers in East Jerusalem.
They served notice that legal
action would be taken against
anyone who trades in dollars
or other foreign currency
without a license. The police
are also taking action against
black market money changers
in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
However, high-level govern-
ment sources concede that it is
impossible to eliminate the
black market until the overall
economic situation improves.
A threatened strike by
municipal employees all over
Israel this week was averted
after the Prime Minister's
Office announced that Peres
would personally look into the
financial plight local town
councils.
Municipal workers in
Haifa and Tel Aviv went on
strike last week and teachers
walked off the job to protest
non-payment of their October
salaries, due Nov. 1. The
municipalities, unable to meet
their payrolls, blamed the
Interior Ministry for delaying
the disbursement of funds.
Garbage is piling up in the
streets.
Maof, Israel's privately-
owned charter airline, de-
clared bankruptcy last week
and stranded hundreds of
tourists in Israel and abroad.
LIFE IN ISRAEL
Israeli program blends aspects
of dig, kibbutz and yeshiva
BY CARL ALPERT
Special to The Jewish News
Safed — They live as a group,
cooking their own meals and shar-
ing in the chores, but they are not
a kibbutz. They are excavating
old ruins, but they are not ar-
cheologists, because they are re-
building the ruins for present day
use. They spend half a day study-
ing Judaism, history, Hebrew,
traditions, but they are neither a
yeshiva nor a school.
This is a unique program called
Livnot U'lehibanot (To Build and
to be Rebuilt). It is probably the
most unique of all the many over-
seas youth and study groups in
Israel. Recently, they were hard
at work on a deserted, week-
ridden mound on an empty lot. A
bit of poking revealed a large hol-
low, and a stone wall. The group
went at it with shovel and pick
and a bucket brigade, and before
long a ruined building emerged —
an abandoned synagogue, which
had apparently not been in use for
almost a hundred years. They
cleaned it out, shored up the
walls, mixed concrete, poured a
new roof, and before long they will
have reclaimed still another of
Safed's ancient buildings.
After a hearty lunch and rest,
they go at their studies. Young
Jews from all over the world, al-
most all of them without any prev-
ious Jewish education what-
soever, begin to perceive some-
thing of the richness of Jewish
heritage on every level. The
meaning of religion is studied, but
without dogma. The food is
kosher, but there is neither com-
pulsion nor expectation that the
members observe any of the ritu-
als. There is no permanent com-
mitment, because the entire
course lasts only three months,
and at the end of that period they
must move on, to make room for
the next cycle.
There is an intimacy induced by
the fact that the group is limited
to only about 20 men and women,
mostly singles between 20 and 30
years old.
Worried parents sometimes
drop in unexpectedly to see what
strange cult their offspring have
wound up with. They examine the
vaulted chambers (dug out of the
ruins) where the students sleep;
they look over the rich library of
books on Jewish history, philos-
ophy, Zionism. And they talk to
Aharon and Miriam Botzer, who
Continued on Page 22
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