26
Friday, June 6, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
O
SOMETIMES A
WARNING
THESE PREMISES PROTECTED BY
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Coming Together
Continued from preceding page
MEZUZAH
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PROFILE
ception in 1970. In 1978, he was
invited to be a special assistant
to Israel Minister of Education
Zevulun Hammer. In 1980, he
became the first director of a
joint program for Jewish educa-
tion in the Diaspora, a post he
held until 1983, when he re-
. turned to Gesher as director.
A graduate of Yeshiva Uni-
versity, where he earned
semichah, Rabbi Tropper made
aliyah in 1969. The seeds for the
Gesher Foundation were sown
while he studied in Israel prior
to aliyah.
Rabbi Tropper said that in the
mid-1960s a group of people
with which he was studying
came back to the U.S. feeling
that Israel "is in trouble" be-
cause of the religious vs. secular
problem.
They decided to set up a base
of support in the United States.
Today, 15 years later, the group
gets equal support from Israelis
and American Jews. "It's a real
partnership between Americans
and Israelis," Rabbi Tropper
said.
The problem for such an
organization is acceptance. The
aim is to make it apolitical.
Rabbi Tropper said the group
was hard pressed to convince
potential supporters that it had
no political affiliation.
"Everyone was suspicious at the
beginning," he recalled, but soon
the suspicion was dispelled.
Today, Rabbi Tropper hopes to
"build a stronger base of people
who know about Gesher."
He feels the gap between the
communities is widening be-
cause of the "growing strength
of the religious right" and the
"secular community's ignorance
of tradition." But he's optimistic
that by educating the youth
there can be movement to nar-
row the rift.
"If we can make the religious
more open and change the secu-
lar, then we can make the kind
of Israel we want.
"Survival is the commodity
that holds Jews together in Is-
rael. But it's not enough to give
spiritual resurgence to the state.
We can have commonality if we
share tradition."
To Akiva eighth-grader Raffle
Zuroff, that sounds like a pretty
good deal. ❑
Event Highlights
Biblical Wildlife
Washington (JTA) — More
than 150 people sat down at the
Israel Embassy last Sunday to
eat a dinner of food that might
have been served during Biblical
days as a way of stressing the
need to preserve in Israel the
animals, flowers and other
wildlife that existed during that
period.
The event was sponsored by
the Hai-Bar (Wildlife) Society of
Israel, which maintains three
wildlife reserves dedicated to
preserving animals mentioned
in the Bible, and the Friends of
Hai-Bar, the Holy Land Conser-
vation Fund. Samuel Lewis, the
former United States Am-
bassador to Israel, was the
guest of honor.
Dr. Bertel Bruun, president of
Friends of Hai-Bar, said while
Israel was a "beleaguered coun-
try" fighting for its survival, it
has "become the pioneer in the
conservation of nature" in the
Middle East.
Lewis noted that he was able
to endure the long hours that his
ambassadorial duties required
by getting out to see the varie-
ty of Israel's outdoors. He not
only became a scuba diver in
Eilat but "tromped the length
and breath of the country" with
his wife, Sally.
Dan Peri, executive director of
the Israel National Reserves
Authority to which the Hai-Bar
reserves are attached, noted
that before 1964 it was only a
handful of volunteers, like those
in Hai-Bar who sought to pro-
tect animals and flowers in
Israel. But then the Knesset
passed a law setting up the
authority.
Peri said that many Biblical
animals such as Ibex, the
Orynx, the Wild Ass, and the
Fallow Deer are now in the Har-
Bar reserves. He noted that the
last El Al plane to leave Iran
after the Khomeini revolution
carried eight deer whose an-
cestors roamed Israel in Biblical
times.
Peter Andrews, board chair-
man of Friends of Har-Bar, said
14 species are being preserved
and some animals have been
released to the wilds. He noted
that the leopord has returned to
the Israeli wilds.
Recently, Peri and Rosenne
presented to the National Zoo
an adult male fennec fox, the
first of seven animals being sent
from the Har-Bar reserves to
the zoo. The other amimals, two
female fennecs and four dorcas
gazelles, will arrive this summer.
Sharon Downplays
Jobless Rate
Jerusalem (JTA) — Minister
of Commerce and Industry Ariel
Sharon maintained that there is
no "hard" unemployment in Is-
rael at present, "just pockets
here and there." He also claimed
there is "a problem of people not
wanting to work."
Sharon, a Herut hardliner,
angrily denied claims that
money invested in West Bank
settlements was money denied
to development towns inside Is-
rael.
Such claims have been made
by Labor Party and other politi-
cians against the background of
rising unemployment and eco-
nomic stagnation in some de-
velopment towns.
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