UP FRONT

DAVID HOLZEL

Staff Writer

A

subtle but important shift
in the relationship be-
tween Israel's shaliach
(emissary) and Detroit's Jewish
community was signalled last week
when the United Jewish Charities,
the central financial resource
agency of the Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration, approved three-year fund-
ing for the next shaliach.
Until now, the shaliach, who
represents Israel through the au-
spices of the World Zionist Organ-

Germans To Honor
Survivors' Aide

Staff Report

An Oak Park resident who fled
from Nazi Germany in 1936 will be
honored next week at the Federal
Republic of Germany's Detroit con-
sulate.
Dr. Arthur Feuer will receive
the Officer's Cross of the Order of
Merit on Wednesday in acknowl-
edgement of his long relationship
with the consulate. Since 1957, Dr.
Feuer has been the examiner of
Holocaust survivors in West Ger-
man restitution payments cases.
"I have examined literally
thousands of Nazi victims," Dr.
Feuer said. "These people are (now)
receiving a monthly pension."
"It is a very delicate job," ex-
plained Consul Joachim Ruecker-
Kirschner. "He has done it in a
way which both sides have a reason
to be very, very pleased."

ization, was hired and paid by the
Jewish Community Center. The
new arrangement, under which the
shaliach will be hired by and con-
nected to Federation is "an
achievement," according to Benny
Schwarz, the current shaliach, who
pushed for the change.
"This was a kind of goal for
me," he said. "I want the shaliach
to have more contact with people
who are making decisions in the
community."
"(The change) signals that the
community as a whole is going to
be far more involved in Israel pro-
grams than just the Center," said
Dr. Morton Plotnick, the Center's
executive director.
Far from being disappointed
that the shaliach will be removed
from his jurisdiction, Dr. Plotnick
called the transfer "a positive
move," emphasizing Detroit's
"communal relationship" with Is-
rael, rather than just a "Center
programmatic one.".
The shaliach is a Jewish
community's primary official link
to Israel. The shaliach—or shlicha,
the female equivalent—is a major
resource on travel programs to Is-
rael and aliyah (immigration) to Is-
rael, participates in cultural pro-
gramming and often represents a
Zionist youth movement. His office
is in the Israel Aliyah Center, lo-
cated in the Jewish Community
Center. The office will remain
there after the transfer, Dr. Plot-
nick said.
Schwarz, whose shlichut (mis-
sion) ends July 31, promises that
his successor "is going to be more
exposed to the community and
more exposed to the decision mak-
ers."

Bob McKeow n

Detroit's Shaliach Process
Will Undergo Major Change

Abigail Schwarzberg, Marissa Rothstein, Rachel Ruskin and
Matthew Grace Perform at Sinai Hospital.

Hillel Students' Purim Spiel
Brightens Sinai Patients' Day

Ruth Gilan's fifth-grade class
at Hillel Day School knows the
story of Purim by heart. They've
performed their Purim Spiel (play)
four times in recent days — twice
for other students at Hillel, on
Monday evening at a Purim dinner
for all three Hillel fifth grade
classes and their families, and last
Friday for rehabilitation medicine
patients at Sinai Hospital.
The Sinai visit is part of an
on-going program of the hospital's
Guild volunteers to reach out to
Jewish youngsters and bring them
into the hospital. "The radiance of
youth in good health really makes
a difference to the patients, what-
ever their religion," says Sinai's
Pola Friedman, director of suppor-
tive services.
Youth visits to Sinai began 15
months ago after the Guild asked
Hillel students to decorate their
halls for Chanukah. Four hundred

students, parents and families vis-
ited the hospital- for the opening of
the Chanukah art show in 1985,
and 600 came for the opening in
1986.

Hillel seventh graders have
toured the hospital twice, and
Hillel ninth graders and Akiva
11th and 12th graders will
"shadow" Sinai professionals dur-
ing their regular work day for two
hours in the coming weeks. Temple
Israel eighth graders have also
taken the tour, and Yeshivah Beth
Yehudah fifth graders decorated
the hospital succah last fall.

"The program has been wildly
successful on all levels," says
Friedman. "It has been good for the
kids, the patients and the hospital."
The students, she says, have gained
insight into why Sinai was created,
and their presence has given a
boost to patient morale.

ROUND UP

Trotsky Heir
Born In Israel

Tel Aviv (JTA) — The
great-great-grandson of Bol-
shevik revolution leader Leon
Trotsky was born to an Or-
thodox couple in Kiryat Arba,
near Hebron.
The infant's father, David
Axelrod, is the son of Trots-
ky's grandson, Sergei Sedov.
His mother is Anat Axelrod,
a Yemenite woman David
married after he came to Is-
rael from U.S. and became
abaal teshuvah, newly obser-
vant Jew. He had not been
told by his parents of his
lineage or Jewish origins
until he was 15.
Leon Trotsky, who became
an archenemy of Stalin, was

assassinated in Mexico on
June 22, 1941, the day the
German army invaded Rus-
sia.

Israeli Officer
Killed In
Lebanon Clash

lel Aviv (JTA) — An Israel
Defense Force office was
killed and another soldier was
lightly wounded in a clash
between an IDF force and a
terrorist squad on the border
of the security zone, in the
central sector of southern
Lebanon, last week. The dead
man was identified as Capt.
Rami Ben-Zvi Hakman, of
Kibbutz Ein Harod Meuchad.
A statement issued by the

IDF spokesman said that in
the pre-dawn hours, an IDF
force encountered a terrorist
squad which tried to pen-
etrate the central sector of the
security zone north of Bint-
Jbail. In the exchange of fire,
the IDF officer was mortally
wounded and died on the way
to a hospital, and the other
soldier was lightly wounded.
The terrorists escaped, ap-
parently unharmed, leaving
only a backpack and car-
tridge cases behind.
In the area where the inci-
dent occurred, a South
Lebanese Army (SLA) had a
few days previously routed a
terrorist squad which tried to
penetrate the security zone in
order to lay mines and attack
SLA outposts.

Al Charges
Syrian Terror

London (JTA) — The Sy-
rian army and their Lebanese
militia allies killed hundreds
of civilians in Tripoli last De-
cember after the deaths of 15
Syrian soldiers, Amnesty In-
ternational charged in a
statement issued March 12.
On Feb. 25, 23 supporters
of the pro-Iran Party of God
were lined up against a wall
in Beirut and shots by Syrian
soldiers, the report continues.
The incident occurred during
the first days of Syria's occu-
pation of Lebanon's capital.
The human rights group
also said that hundreds of
people in both cities have
disappeared after being

seized by the Syrians or their
allies. It called for an inves-
tigation by Syria.

Arab-American
Leader Detained

New York (JTA) — U.S.
Customs officials detained for
two hours and then confis-
cated the passport of the
leader of an Arab-American
group after his return from a
recent visit to London.

The State Department said
that Dr. M.T. Mehdi,
secretary-general of the Na-
tional Council of Islamic Af-
fairs, violated a ban on travel
to Lebanon.

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