17
•
know how to take care. There are
ways and means for everything. You
can be positive the hole on TWA
would not happen on El Al."
How Israel can be positive, said
Shoshani, is something it would be
more than happy to share with TWA
and anyone else. "We are not the most
clever people in the world. We're
normal people who have found ways
to cope. We've lived with terrorism for
many years and succeeded. We want
to share our know-how. We believe
the world can do it just like we have."
But until the world takes him up
on that, said Shoshani, the situation
will remain tense. Which means the
situation for tourism will remain un-
certain.
"We're finding that, unlike in the
past, people are not booking far in ad-
vance," said Lavi. "Now, it's wait-
and-see. It's a very unsure market,
hard to predict. It changes day-to-
day."
Which means how the summer,
Israel's and El Al's peak season, will
go remains uncertain. To try and do
all it can to make it more certain, said
Lavi, El Al is planning to make some
changes, the most important of which
is increasing the number of direct
flights between the United States and
Israel.
"The key words are non-stop," she
said. "People want to get on in New
York and get off in Tel Aviv and not
worry about anything in between."
The airline has also hired a new
advertising agency and plans to move
up the introduction date of its SunSa-
tional Package, which offers round-
trip airfare, a week in an Israeli hotel
and a rental car for $899. Still, said
Lavi, even with all that, El Al knows
now is not the time to try and get
first-timers to try Israel.
"We're not looking to attract new
customers: For now, we're aiming at
three groups — those who have al-
ready been to Israel, the Orthodox
and Israelis living in the United
States. This is not the time for new
travelers: You can't put a band-aid on
the situation. We're talking only to
those whO already know Israel, have
family and friends there.' We're tel-
ling them -there's no reason not to go.
Israel hasn't 'changed. We'll talk to
the average American tourist after
this is over. For now, we can't tell
them it's n great time to go. We can't
compete with Qaddafi." _
That it is individuals that are
most effected by Qaddafi can be seen,
said Lavi, by the fact that it's not been
groups who have been canceling trips,
though groups going have been
smaller than expected. It is rather in-
dividuals who have been doing most
of the' canceling. "They figure if
they've Waited this long, they'll wait a
little longer."
Cancellations, however, have not
been the problem for the American
Jewish Congress, which runs the
country's largest Jewish group travel
program. The problem, instead, is
that people are simply not signing up
to begin with. ;
It s not a banner year," said
Hanneke Bomnewit, sales Coordinator
for AJCongress which takes
thousands of people a year to Israel
and other. places._ "Nobody is going' to
0.0
)
13trlip.
Terrorism Is Reducing
Detroiters' Travel
BY ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
A 10-year-old girl in Far-
mington Hills heard sounds
through the open window as she
was going to sleep this week. "It's
just a bug or a bird," her mother
told the youngster. "Are you sure,
Mom?" the girl asked. "Are you
sure it isn't Qaddafi?"
•
'
David Hermelin, Detroit
Jewish communal leader, interna-
tional president of Israel Bonds and
tourism chairman of Operation In-
dependence, made a statement that
was quoted widely in recent weeks
in the Israeli press:
"I won't let Qaddafi be my
travel agent."
•
These two conflicting views
are tearing at the 'consciences of
Detroiters who want to visit the
State of Israel this year, but are
concerned about the recent ter-
rorism incidents in Europe and the
Middle East. So far, concern ap-
pears to be winning over con-
science.
A tour sponsored by Adat
Shalom Synagogue and led by its
rabbi, Efry Spectre, is leaving soon
for Israel. The group has been re-
duced < to 26 persons, which Rabbi
Spectre blames on "family
pressure."
Sunday's murder of a British
tourist outside a Christian shrine
in the Arab Quarter of the Old City
of Jerusalem "didn't help any,"
Spectre said. • -
This and similar events led
Temple Israel to postpone its
planned spring trip to Israel, shift-
ing the date to November. Parents,
especially young parents, said
Rabbi Harold Loss, were receiving
pressure from their children. "They
were hearing directly from their
own kids that 'the whole time you'll
be gone we will be terribly
frightened.' There was concern
about husbands and wives travel-
ing together," he said.
Temple Israel has annually
sponsored a trip to Israel for youth,
and a trip every other year for
adults. Some 40 persons had signed
up for the adult trip this spring.
"Not everyone called to cancel,"
Rabbi Loss said, "but enough can-
celed to make the trip not viable.
There were others who were just
hanging on by a thread." All of the
Temple Israel travelers were first-
time visitors to Israel.
"There was a general sense of
what is going on in the world, and
people just didn't feel that this was
the time to go. We lost a few people
(canceled reservations) after the
TWA incident" when a terrorist
bomb killed four persons aboard a
TWA' flight near Greece in
March."We lost a few more after
the next incident. When dynamite
was found by El Al officials in Lon-
don, that was the final straw."
Rabbi Loss said that most
people do not believe that travel to
Israel is a problem in itself, and he
vowed to "keep our people together
and keep their spirits high about
travel to Israel. It diminishes us
and diminishes Israel when ter-
rorists have this kind of control."
Three area rabbis, including
Spectre of Adat Shalom, Milton
Arm of Beth Achim and Lane
Steinger of Temple Emanu-El, par-
ticipated in a February conference
in Israel that was called to boost
tourism. The 200 participating
American rabbis pledged to lead
tours of their congregants to the
Holy Land. Both Beth Achim and
Temple Emanu-El are planning
their trips for November.
"A few people have inquired
and are planning to go," Rabbi Arm
said. "We are not stopping in
Europe and we are eliminating vis-
its to Christian places of worship in
East Jerusalem and other places
,
that may be dangerous. We are also
using El Al, and there will be no
stopovers." Rabbi Arm distributed
literature about his trip to his con-
gregants yesterday, the last day of
Passover.
While local Jewish tourism to
Israel appears to be following the
national trend, Israeli officials are
also concerned about an even
greater decrease in Christian pil-
grimages to Israel. The Israel
Ministry of Tourism is working
with American Christian clergy,
including Southfield's Rev. James
Lyons, to sponsor a conference in
Israel for 200 clergymen similar to
the rabbis' mission in February.
Rev. Lyons is compiling a list
of names for the Israelis, and work-
ing with others on a tour guide for
Christian clergy. The first draft is
expected to be completed in two
weeks, and Israel plans to publish
10,000 copies.
"Sunday's incident (the mur-
der of the British tourist) won't
help," Rev. Lyons said, "but that is
exactly why it was done. Staying
away is just giving in to terrorism.
You give them an inch and they'll
take a mile — staying away will
only make things worse" by
encouraging the terrorists to make
more attacks.
Lyons, an expert on the
Church struggle in Germany dur-
ing the Holocaust, warned against
"staying on the sidelines like the
Church in the Third Reich. I'd go to
Israel today, not because I'm a fool,
but because I think it is ,impor-
tant."
And Rabbi Spectre told his
congregation during Passover,
"Our blood is no more red than Is-
raeli blood. Jewish mommas and
poppas are sending their children
to be our pilots and our security
guards. They are the best in the
world and we have an obligation to
show that we' are one."
,
•
Egypt, Europe is off, China, the
Orient and Alaska are very good and
Israel is down between 25 and 35 per-
cent. People are avoiding anything
that hints of terrorism."
Bomnewit said those who have
never been to Israel before are "espe-
cially leery" and that, inigeneral, how
busineis is depends on how the news
is "Right after an incident, people are
nervous, don't want to go. The ma
ment.things calm down, they rebook."
The news at the Hadassah Travel
Department is "terrible," says direc-
tor Sonya Stollman. "It's been terrible
since last summer. Winter is usually
our best time but it wasn't this year
We're down well over 50 percent to
Israel!'
Stollman said Hadassah which'
runs an average of two missions a'
month, has had to cancel some of its
Israel trips completely, "Many people
call asking for reassurance. But I
can't tell others how to feel or not to
be afraid. HoW can I tell them that
nothing's going to happen?"
Both American Jewish Congress
and Hadassah have increased their
advertising to drum up business, With
Hadassah, the country's largest
Jewish Organization, holding meet-
ings around the _country urging its
members to go to Israel. Ruth Popkin,
the national president of Hadassah,
has called on Jews and non-Jewish
friends of Israel to not permit tourism
to become a hostage to terrorism
"If we allow our travel plans to be "
dictated by terrorists, we hand them a
•
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victory and penalize Israel and other
democratic countries they 'have
targeted." Popkin said the best re-
sponse to terrorists would be to go to
Israel to "express solidarity with Ia-
rael and support 'for her people and
her economy." Practicing what
they're preaching, Hadassah plans to
hold meetings for its officers in Israel
this summer. Reservations for Hadas-
sah's 75th anniversary celebration, to
be held in Israel next March are, said
Stollman, "coming in like wildfire.
People really react to the news. They
may be worried about what's on the
front page now but they don't worry
about next March."
- Which is why, said the Baltimore
Sun's Kelly, he doesn't think the drop
Continued on next page
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