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Friday, February 15, 1985
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
OP-ED
THE JEWISH NEWS
Proud Israelis Now Face
'Operation Moses' Reality
Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish Community
with distinction for four decades.
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BY RABBI RICHARD C. HERTZ
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VOL. LXXXVI, NO. 2 5
A Raw Nerve
The Reagan Administration is trying to sock it to the middle class again
(as if it ever stopped), and this time it has hit a raw nerve. For any parent who
has tightened his belt to send his child,to college, Education Secretary
William J. Bennett's warning that parents may have to "tighten the belt even
more" in the face of reduced or eliminated student loan money was ominous
enough. But he rubbed salt into the wound when he implied that many
students were living high on the hog, saying that economies "may require
from students divestiture of certain sorts: stereo divestiture, automobile
divestiture, three-weeks-at-the-beach divestiture."
It reminds us of former Interior Secretary Watts' taunts that middle class
Americans ought to .stop complaining about high food prices and stop
hoarding meat in their freezers. And spend less on their pets, too. Who do
these guys think they're talking to? What parent who has had to take out an
education loan is giving his kid stereos, cars and three-week vacations at the
beach?
We think the Administration is thumbing its noses at people who
sometimes have to put off paying the mortgage so Mark or Pam can stay
another semester at the university. The White House is sneering at folks who
buy cheap cuts of meat so Josh and Carol can buy text books that cost
anywhere from $20 to $50. What's all this nonsense about Sonys, Porsches
and Where the Boys Are? Maybe that's the world that President Reagan's
pals live in, but it sure isn't ours. You can't get federal education assistance
unless you take the Pauper's Oath right now. We strongly suggest that
Bennett, Stockmen, et. al raise their sights a bit when they take aim at those
who are abusing federal assistance programs.
Ending Wastefulness!
From Israel, via the ZINS (Zionist Information News Service) comes a
revelation that carried with it a serious'warning. Quoting the Hebrew daily
Haaretz, the shocking revelation is of an overwhelming number of shlichim
— emissaries to Diaspora communities — whose ranks demand drastic
reductions. The statement in Haaretz exposing the existing conditions -
asserts:
"There are upward of 800 emissaries from Israel in 30 different countries.
It is alleged that every emissary costs the country between $50,000-$60,000
yearly. The largest contingent consists of teachers who are engaged in
teaching positions in religious schools. There are also 192 emissaries to
various youth groups. A third group consists of fund raisers. The Jewish
National Fund has 32 permanent emissaries abroad and the Keren Hayesod
maintains 58 such professionals. All of these, the writer continues, are in
addition to an indeterminate number of prominent Israeli Jews who travel
abroad frequently 'to stir the Diaspora communities into some action.' "
There is no doubt that links between Israel and the Diaspora are vital
necessities. But they must fulfill necessities. Under no circumstance are they
to be a payoff in the form of jobs to political parties in Israel. It is becoming
evident that the number quoted must be drastically cut.
Also — those who are selected for special missions must be properly
tested and briefed to qualify for their assignments.
Israel cannot affort extravagances in missions and the Diaspora should
not tolerate waste. The lesson is clear. It must be applied properly.
abroad at official dollar rates is now
critical. •
At Soroko Hospital in Beersheva,
I saw how medical supplies were
dwindling, oxygen and surgical
supplies down to a few days. Dr.
Seymour Glick, chief of internal
,
(C) 1985 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520)
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 5:47 P.M.
A • black Ethiopian Jew who was
waiting for a bed in Soroko Hospital in
Beersheva looked like a skeleton of a
man. His legs were spindles, his eyes
bulging. He seemed confused, dis-
oriented, unable to speak or communi-
cate. He had just arrived in Israel the
day before at a nearby airport.
"He looks 60," I said to the doctor.
"No, Rabbi, that is his weight, not
his age."
That was the day the news of Op-
eration Moses broke in the headlines,
leaving some 2,000 Ethiopian Jews
stranded before being airlifted. The
Sudan is on friendly terms with their
Arab neighbors. They were embarras-
sed to be caught cooperating with Is-
rael's humanitarian act of rescuing
human beings.
I saw dozens of Ethiopian Jews in
various Kupat Holim hospitals in Is-
rael. They came with unbelievable
diseases . . . typhoid, TB, malnutri-
tion, cholera, parasitic diseases of the
bowels, dysentery. One doctor told me
at Belinson Hospital, "I had to go back
to my medical school textbooks to
identify and treat some of their dis-
eases . ."
Israelis feel invigorated by rescu-
ing these Ethiopian Jews and taking
them to their hospitals for treatment.
This was why Israel was established in
the first place. But there is a crisis in
the Kupat Holim hospitals. These
' Ethiopians Jews are arriving at the
very moment when an erosion in the
value of monthly membership dues
paid by Israelis to support Kupat
Holim means that the ability to buy
large quantities of medical supplies
.
Richard Hertz is rabbi emeritus at Temple
Beth El and the newly-appointed national
chairman of American Friends of Israel's
Health Service. He has just returned from
a fact-finding tour of Israel's Kupat Holim
hospitals and clinics.
Israeli officials examine Ethiopian
Jewish patients at a Kupat Holim
hospital.
medicine there, told me they are al-
ways short of drugs, equipment, even
bandages. "We can't keep up with
malaria drugs. We are always running
out."
At Golda Meir Medical Center,
where some 200 Ethiopian Jews are
treated each day, I learned about Is-
rael's first successful kidney trans-
plant from a living donor, involving a
transplant from a mother to her son.
At Soroko Hospital, I saw Ethio-
pian men and women lying in their
beds with their sheets pulled over
their heads in fear, but _the children in
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