AWARD WINNING PHOTOGRAPHY BY BUZ HOLZMAN 0 TO GRAPHERS 284 S. HUNTER BIRMINGHAM - 48011 540-6922 THE SOVIET JEWRY DEAL GREAT AMERICAN BASKETCO. SAY "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY" THE GREAT AMERICAN BASKET WAY!! Home delivery nationwide et t.RIc4,,p m,-111 • .......b.., k 7 C C r -I " Call our basket We begin with a basket . . . 0 • . • 4 : n ,.., , - planners at then fill it with -- ; 1- f ; ,,, ------, -,---•.-_ _-- 626-9050 imagination! 29594 Orchard Lake Rd. • At 13 Mile .0 T. r , Some 200 mothers left their children behind when they emigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union. Now they have organized to campaign for their children's aliya. the finest expressions of love come from . GEM/DIAMOND SPECIALIST Established 1919 AWARDED CERTIFICATE BY GIA IN GRADING & EVALUATION 30400 TELEGRAPH RD., BIRMINGHAM, MI 43010, SUITE 134 50 Friday, May 8, 1987 Phone: 642-5575 Daily Thurs. Sat. 10-5:30 10-8:30 10-5:00 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS a lot of dissatisfaction," he says. "But the government and the Jewish Agency never really came to grips with the absorption problem. "And when the numbers of immigrants fell to almost nothing, there was simply no pressure on the leaders to come to the table. "Now the pressure is increasing. There is pressure from the Israeli public, from the Soviet immigrants who are settled here, from American Jewry and from Soviet Jewry organizations — all have made it clear that they will be playing very activist roles as involved and interested watch- dogs. "Perhaps the answer is to separate areas of responsibility, giving the Jewish Agency exclusive control over immigration, and the ministry exclusive control over absorption. "Perhaps we should look at taking politics out of the Jewish Agency alto- gether. Certainly, we have to get our act together on this issue." For all that, a large question mark still hangs over the ability of the government and Jewish Agency to successfully absorb the new immigrants. Without a resolution to the struggle for control of the absorption process; without any diminution in the overweening bu- reaucracy; without any fresh ideas on how to create jobs at a time of economic malaise and rising unemployment, it would be a brave or reckless Israeli who would confidently predict that past mistakes will not be repeated. But an even more intractable problem awaits the Israeli bureaucrats on the tar- mac of Ben-Gurion Airport when the first flights carrying the new immigrants touch down. In the past, Soviet emigrants who chose not to settle in Israel were able to "drop out" in Vienna and proceed to the United States or some other Western country as refugees. In terms of the deal struck in Moscow last month, however, the emigrants will be flown to Rumania and from there, like it or not, they will be put aboard planes for Tel Aviv. Thousands of reluctant Soviet Jews are thus expected to arrive in Israel unwilling- ly over the next 12 months, and Israel could then be faced with the acutely em- barrassing predicament of Soviet Jews refusing to accept Israeli citizenship; of thousands of Jewish refugees in the Jewish homeland — giving new meaning to the term Prisoners of Zion. The Jewish Agency's Howard Weisband is concerned about the lack of attention this potentially combustible problem is receiving in Israel. "No one in Israel is saying, `Dammit, we have to sit down and really understand the implications of the problem and how we will deal with it,"' he says. "The Israelis simply say: 'We should only have such problems: "They feel they can tough it out, but they can't if they don't first have a decent understanding of the issue with American Jewry and a decent absorption process." Weisband believes that the prospect of a massive Soviet immigration should be the catalyst for the formulation of a "global Jewish policy" involving Diaspora leaders, the Jewish Agency and the politi- cal establishment of Israel. "If we can pull this thing together we have a real chance of success," he says. "Anything less will result in a chaotic situation which will do us no good. The Jewish people will be the losers." ❑