UP FRONT
Jewish Leaders Will Push For Consensus This Weekend
News Editor
H
e has traveled to Reykjavik,
Paris and Chicago this year
on "Jewish business," and
has made at least one trip per month
to New York. He estimates that he
spends an hour a day on the tele-
phone for the National Jewish Com-
munity Relations Advisory Council
(NJCRAC — pronounced nack-rack),
and in the course of his life has made
between 30 and 35 trips to Israel.
He incurred the wrath of his na-
tive Jewish community in Flint,
Michigan several years ago by pen-
ning his name to a New York Times
advertisement which called for
negotiations with the Palestinians.
But he and his wife Natalie and his
late father Morris have served Flint's
Jews in nearly ever capacity the
community has for public service.
He is Michael Pelavin, chairman
of NJCRAC and its domestic task
force. This weekend in Florida he will
continue the year-round task of try-
ing to get 11 national and 113 com-
munity Jewish agencies to agree or
reach a consensus on the multitude of
issues facing the Jewish people at
home and abroad.
Getting two Jews to agree on any
issue can be a difficult task. Yet five
hundred NJCRAC delegates this
weekend will put the finishing
touches on a Joint Program Plan,
covering topics as diverse as Soviet
Jewry, apartheid, anti-Zionism, a
U.S. constitutional convention,
Jewish-Catholic relations, federal
policy on poverty, and immigration
and refugee legislation.
The complete list last year
covered 52 pages, but it only repre-
sents a. portion of NJCRAC's work
throughout the year as its 12-person
staff serves as a resource for Jewish
community councils around the
country, as well as national agency
members: the American Jewish
Committee, AJCongress, Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai B'rith,
Hadassah, Jewish Labor Committee,
Jewish War Veterans, National
Council of Jewish Women, Union of
American Hebrew Congregations,
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congrega-
tions of America, United Synagogue
of America - Women's League for
Conservative Judaism, and Women's
American ORT.
NJCRAC's advisory role is de-
bated loudly by its supporters and de-
tractors. Pelavin sees the agency as a
coordinating, consultative body, giv-
ing support to the community rela-
tions councils (CRCs) throughout the
United States. "Only 19 communities
(including Detroit) have full-time
CRC staff," Pelavin told The Jewish
News, "and all the CRCs are basi-
cally reactive. They react to what is
going on around you.. For example, , Flint's Michael Pelavin, chairman of NJCRAC.
when a Farrakhan or Kahane come
to Detroit, the Joint Program Plan
tells what the experience has been in
other communities and suggests
methods of reacting to their visits."
Meir Kahane, the radical foun-
The Tamarack Camps Adven- ticipants in the teen programs at 4
der of the Jewish Defense League and
Israel's Kach Party who visited De- ture Center, a reproduction of the p.m. The Adventure Center will be
troit two weeks ago, is the subject of camp environment inside the former open to the general public beginning
Chatham supermarket south of Wednesday.
most of the comment on the one page
The Tamarack Camps Adven-
devoted to "Jewish-Arab Relations in Tel-12 mall, is scheduled to open for a
sneak preview for all Tamarack ture Center, with 30,000 square feet
Israel" in the 1986-87 Joint Program
Plan. The section concludes with campers on Sunday. Special reunion of space, is located between
Montgomery Wards and Glassmann
strategic goals for CRCs to "speak out programs will be held for Camp
Oldsmobile.
forcefully against extremist forces in Tamarack Brighton campers at noon,
for Camp Maas at 2 p.m., and for par-
Continued on Page 34
Continued on Page 32
Debora h Hitsky
ALAN HITSKY
Kids' Adventure Center
Will Open On Sunday
ROUND UP
Pollard Trial
Postponed
Washington (JTA) — Sen-
tencing for Jonathan Pollard, a
former U.S. Navy civilian in-
telligence analyst who has
pleaded guilty to spying for Is-
rael, which was to have taken
place Tuesday has been post-
poned until March 4.
The delay was at the request
of the lawyers for Pollard, who
could be sentenced to a
maximum of life imprison-
ment. Also to be sentenced is
his wife, Anne Henderson Pol-
lard, who has pleaded guilty to
conspiring to receive embez-
zled government property and
faces up to ten years in prison.
Both Pollards entered their
pleas last June before Chief
Judge Aubrey Robinson Jr. of
the United States District
Court for the District of
Columbia. Pollard has been in
federal prison in Petersburg,
Va., while his wife has been
free on bail.
While Pollard has admitted
to receiving $2,500 for his es-
pionage activities, he has
maintained in interviews and
a letter to a Boston doctor that
he is a "loyal son" of Israel and
acted when he discovered that
a "new generation of ultra-
sophisticated military equip-
ment" was going to the Arab
countries without Israel being
told about this new danger to
its security.
Reporter Tells
Of Iran Ordeal
New York — Gerald Seib,
the Wall Street Journal re-
porter held captive in Iran for
six days said the reason he was
singled out of a group of 57
Western journalists may have
been because the Iranians be-
lieved he was Jewish. He said
the possibility of his being
Jewish was the subject of an
intensive interrogation.
Soviet Patient
Dies In U.S.
Washington (JTA) — Inna
Meiman of Moscow, who was
allowed to go abroad last
month for treatment of a tumor
on her neck, died Monday in
the Lombardi Cancer Research
Center of Georgetown Univer-
sity Hospital. She was 54 years
old. She had refused to leave
the Soviet Union earlier be-
cause her husband, Naum, a
refusenik since 1975, was not
allowed to accompany her.
Meiman was admitted to the
hospital on Jan. 20 and was
undergoing tests for the start
of chemotherapy. When she
applied to go abroad, she said
she wanted to undergo spe-
cialized radiation treatment,
her only hope for survival. The
Soviets granted Meiman a
temporary visa for one year's
stay.
The Soviets would not allow
her husband to come with her
and had turned down his visa
request on grounds of knowing
"state secrets." He is also char-
acterized as a dissident by dint
of his membership in the now
disbanded Moscow Helsinki
monitoring group.
War Criminal
Report Altered
Jerusalem (JTA) — The
Canadian government has re-
vised portions of the Deschenes
Commission's report on Nazi
war criminals in Canada in
order to protect the privacy and
civil rights of persons investi-
gated, Justice Minister Ray
Hnatyshyn disclosed to the
House of Commons in Ottawa
Monday.
He denied vigorously that
the report is being purged for
political reasons or as a result
of pressure from East Euro-
pean ethnic groups.
Israel Recieves
F-16C Bombers
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Three Ad-
vanced F-16C fighter bombers
flown by American pilots,
landed at an airbase "some-
where in Israel" last Monday
after a flight from Thxas.
They are the latest additions
to the Israel Air Force and
the first of 75 such aircraft
ordered by Israel at a cost of
$3 billion.
A welcoming group at the
air base was headed by Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir,
Defense Minister Yitzhak
Rabin, Air Force Commander
Gen. Amos Lapidot and other
senior officers.