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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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CAPITOL REPORT
Assembly Yields New
Israel-Diaspora Respect
BY WOLF BUTLER
Special to The Jewish News
Sodom — The Israeli brigadier
general, wearing jeans and a sport
shirt, and the former Soviet
Jewish refusenik — now an Is-
raeli citizen — were deeply in-
volved in an argument over
dinner one night at the Second In-
ternational Young Leadership
Assembly at the Moriah Hotel in
Sodom earlier this spring. They
were roughly the same age, but
had a completely different atti-
tude toward the proposal to estab-
lish American radio transmitters
in Israel that would penetrate
audiences in the Soviet Union.
The Soviet immigrant, Yuri
Shtern, a graduate of Moscow
State University who arrived in
Israel in 1981, was completely in
favor of the proposal. He did not
fear that such a public demonstra-
tion of an emerging Israeli al-
liance with the United States
would hurt Israel or the Soviet
Jewry movement. In fact, he felt
the opposite was the case. The
more the Soviet Union saw Israel
standing alongside the U.S., the
greater the prospects that the
Kremlin leadership would im-
prove relations with Israel and
ease the plight of Soviet Jewry.
"You have to be tough with the
Soviets," Shtern said, applauding
the recently-enhanced U.S.-
Israeli strategic cooperation
agreement.
The brigadier-general, a former
kibbutznik, took a completely
different position. He saw the
placement of the Voice of America
transmitters in Israel as basically
counterproductive to Israeli na-
tional interests. He was also op-
posed to the U.S.-Israeli strategic
cooperation agreement of No-
vember 1983 because it addressed
only the Soviet threat to the
region — and not the Arab threat
to Israel.
"The Soviet Union is not Is-
rael's enemy," the officer said,
echoing a controversial comment
made late last year by General
Moshe Levi, the Chief of the Gen-
eral Staff, during a visit to Wash-
ington.
To the half-dozen Americans
and Israelis listening to the in-
formal debate, there was no
clear-cut winner or loser. Both
speakers scored points. They each
had some good things to say. It
was, as one American delegate
commented, an honest and candid
exchange over tactics between
two committed Jews over how
best to help Israel and Soviet
Jewry.
To many of the 180 delegates
invited to the Dead Sea, indeed, it
was exactly that type of personal
and even casual discussion which
basically made the four-day con-
ference a success. The more for-
mal speeches, for the most part,
were predictable. But the oppor-
tunity to explore some of the most
important and sensitive issues
facing Israel and the Diaspora —
from the perspective of very
bright and talented Jewish lead-
ers, almost equally divided from
the U.S. and Israel, under the age
of 45 — was the highlight of the
conference. These open exchanges
occurred during meals, at the
many smaller "workshops," or
simply over coffee and drinks in
the hotel's lobby.
Detroit sent one of the largest
contingents of any American city
to Sodom for the gathering. Stan-
ley Frankel, Jane Sherman and
Lawrence Jackier, all veterans of
the initial Young Leadership As-
sembly in December 1983, made a
return trip to the Jewish state.
They were joined by Peter Alter.
Because there were so many
familiar faces, Frankel said, the
barriers that hindered the 1983
conference were virtually
nonexistent. "We were able to set
out and accomplish things, par-
ticularly the economic part of our
agenda, that just weren't possible
last time."
"Israeli Jews have
acquired a new
perspective on
non-Israelis, and vice
versa."
Frankel praised what he felt
was the emphasis on action,
rather than wordy proclamations,
citing the creation of the Israel
Forum, a volunteer organization
designed to deal on a permanent
basis with deepening the dialogue
between Israel and the Diaspora.
The discussion involving the
"Who is a Jew" question was per-
haps the most emotionally
wrenching of the conference.
There were about 20 people who
participated in that workshop.
They represented virtually the
entire spectrum of Jewish reli-
gious opinion, from the ultra-
Reform to the ultra-Orthodox.
Among the Israelis, for example,
was Rabbi David Nahshon of the
Lubavitch movement. He had for
an ally in the discussion a senior
IDF officer who recently has come
to embrace some elements of
Lubavitch Chassidism.
In the room was one American
Jewish woman, very active in the
Young Leadership Cabinet of the
United Jewish Appeal and many
other Jewish causes in the United
States, who had herself converted
to Judaism — but not by an Or-
thodox Rabbi approved by the
Rabbinate in Jerusalem. Her
home is today kosher and her
children attend Jewish day
schools.
Another American participant
was a man who has been president
of his synagogue back home. His
mother had been converted to
Judaism by a Reform Rabbi — as
had his wife. Does that mean, he
asked, that his children are not
really Jewish even though they
celebrate all the holidays and
attend religious schools? And
what about himself?
At the first workshop, the Is-
raeli delegates seemed to want to
circumvent the entire controversy
by defining the discussion as
"What is a Jew" rather than "Who