UP FRONT
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
T
he business and legal affairs
of Benny Hershkovitz and
B&H Travel have become
even more tangled since Hershkovitz
was charged last June with embez-
zlement. The original case charges
that he did not refund $96,000 to 20
Temple Israel couples for a canceled
trip to Israel.
Thirteen other lawsuits have
now been filed against Hershkovitz
and others, claiming more than $1
million in unpaid business loans. An
Oakland County auditor has been
poring over B&H Travel records and
prosecutors are continuing their in-
vestigation of charges that B&H
owes hundreds and thousands of dol-
lars for unpaid airline tickets. The
Temple Israel couples have recovered
$71,000 of the $96,000 through an
insurance policy, but that case is the
basis for the felony charge against
Hershkovitz that is still pending in
Bloomfield Hills' 48th District Court.
In a telephone interview from
Atlanta last week, where Her-
shkovitz is working for his son's ven-
ding company while on bail, Her-
shkovitz blamed his former business
associate, Harold Bremer of
Franklin, for his business and legal
problems.
Bremer this month filed a $1
million lawsuit in Oakland County
Circuit Court, claiming that B&H
Travel paid back on $250,000 of $1
million in business loans that Bre-
mer claims he procured for B&H
around the country.
Bremer charges in his suit that
included in the $1 million is $40,000
of his own money. Hershkovitz coun-
tercharges that Bremer owes him
$355,000.
Bremer guided Christian pil-
grimages to Israel, Hershkovitz said,
and asked B&H to help him after he
worked as an outside agent for
eight-to-ten years. "He would go to
the airlines, book trips and get pil-
grimages," Hershkovitz said, "but he
started to lose business and asked us
to take it over."
Hershkovitz claims that when
Bremer asked others for business
loans, he told them he was doing it for
B&H. "We tried to cover it," Her-
shkovitz said.
Neither Bremer nor his attorney
would discuss the cases with The
Jewish News. However, only some of
the cases filed against Hershkovitz in
Oakland County mention Bremer.
Hershkovitz and his wife Haya
were sued by First Federal Savings
for two business loans made in 1985
totaling $300,000. $1,068 has been
repaid and the courts have issued a
consent judgment against the Her-
shkovitzes.
A consent judgment for $64,000
was granted in September to Joan
Dwyer against Sheldon Lepler,
Trivest I, Trivest II, M&S Mortgage,
and B&H Travel totaling $80,000.
Dale Johnson of Ypsilanti has
Continued on Page 14
J7'A/WZPS
B &H Travel Tangle Leads
To Lawsuits, Countercharges
NOT DOING ENOUGH: Soviet Jewry activists confer with Israel's Absorption
Minister Ya'akov Tsur, right. The protestors claimed that the government is not doing
enough for Jews who want to leave the USSR. Police briefly detained six protestors after
they chained themselves to the gate of the Prime Minister's office.
Wolpe Hits American
Policy Toward Africa
MIKE ROSENBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
U noted States policy toward
Africa, especially South Af-
rica, is marred by a view of
issues "through a racial prism," ac-
cording to Michigan Congressman
Howard Wolpe, chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs subcommittee
on Africa. Wolpe says the racism is
not necessarily malicious, but it is
there.
Speaking recently at the Wayne
State University Center for Peace
and Conflict Studies' 21st anniver-
sary dinner in Berkley, Wolpe said,
"The images of Africa that are held
by Americans are much more based
on racist mythology, upon
stereotypes, upon a whole set of im-
ages, that bear no relationship to
that reality.
Some of the same factors are at
work in Israel's relations with South
Africa, he told The Jewish News la-
ter. But the Jewish state has other
considerations, he said, among them
Continued on Page 14
ROUND UP
EEC Backs
Peace Parley
Brussels (JTA) — An inter-
national conference for Middle
East peace was endorsed in
principle Monday by the 12
member-states of the Euro-
pean Economic Community. It
was the first formal statement
of support for such a conference
by the EEC foreign ministers,
meeting here under the chair-
manship of Belgian Foreign
Minister Leo Tindermans, cur-
rent president of the EEC
Council of Ministers.
The statement did not ad-
dress the form or composition
of such a conference, but
suggested it be held under
United Nations auspices with
the participation of the parties'
concerned and any other par-
ties that could make a positive
contribution to peace in the
Middle East and the region's
economic and social develop-
ment.
Tindemans disclosed that he
.
received a message from the
Soviet Union last week outlin-
ing its position on an interna-
tional conference. He did not
divulge the contents, but said
he would convey the EEC's
position verbally to the Soviet
ambassador in Brussels.
The EEC statement said an
international conference
should provide a suitable
framework for the necessary
negotiations between the dis-
puting parties and that it was
prepared to contribute, both as
an international body and as
individual states, to bringing
closer the positions of the par-
ties concerned.
Lavi Testing
Continues
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Israel is
continuing to test its second-
generation jet fighter plane,
the Lavi, despite uncertainty
about its future due to U.S. ob-
jections that it costs too much.
A Lavi prototype last week
made its tenth test flight in
less than two months. It was
flown by Menahem Shmuel,
chief test pilot of Israel Air-
craft Industries (IAI), which
designed and built the techni-
cally advanced plane.
According to IAI, test flights
will continue at an accelerated
rate of two a week. A second
prototype will enter the pro-
gram in April and three more
prototypes will be built and
tested after that. IAI said a
total of 1,800 test flights will be
made with all prototypes be-
fore the best is selected and put
into production in about two
years.
But the United States, which
is financing the Lavi through
military grants, has urged Is-
rael to abandon the project in
favor of an American-built air-
craft, the F-16C. Defense Sec-
retary Caspar Weinberger ap-
peared before the House
Foreign Affairs Committee in
Washington Feb. 18 to explain
why the United States is op-
posed to the Lavi.
He said the Israel-built
plane would be inferior to the
F-16s, which are already part
of the Israel Air Force, and that
U.S. aid should not be used to
further the Lavi project. The
Israel Air Force has been fly-
ing the F-16A and F-16B for
some time. The first three
F-16Cs were delivered to Israel
earlier this month. Israel has
ordered 75 of the advanced
F-16Cs.
Israelis In U.S.
To Get Amnesty
Los Angeles (JTA) — A fed-
eral immigration law, due to go
into effect May 5, will make an
estimated 18,000 Israelis liv-
ing illegally in the U.S. eligible
for amnesty.
Aliens who entered the
country without valid
documentation before Jan. 1,
1982 will be "forgiven" and
allowed to apply for legal resi-
dence.
WSU To Host
Judaic Scholars
Wayne State University and
the Jewish Welfare Federation
will soon announce the estab-
lishment of a Judaica scholar-
in-residence program.
WSU President David
Adamany told The Jewish
News that the university will
bring noted scholars to the
campus and into the general
community for four and five-
day periods, beginning next
fall.
"This is an effort to explore
. in-depth issues in contempor-
ary Jewish life," Adamany
said. The program will not be a
Judaic studies program simi-
lar to the University of Michi-
gan's, which coordinates
courses and faculty in several
departments.
5