UP FRONT
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
up
nited Hebrew Schools was
completing negotiations this
week with the wife of a local
agency head to serve as UHS acting
administrator. Meanwhile, UHS has
suspended the search for a permanent
replacement while the Jewish
Welfare Federation begins a study of
Jewish education in Detroit.
Mrs. Ofra Fisher, wife of Fresh Air
Society executive director Sam Fisher,
was expected to start her new duties
Sunday if contract negotiations could
be finalized. She has extensive educa-
tional administration experience in
the United States and Israel.
At the same time, Federation
president Dr. Conrad Giles and UHS
president Dr. Barbara Goodman
issued a brief joint statement confir-
ming the new study and the halting
of the selection process. Giles said the
Federation became uncomfortable
during the search for a successor to
Dr. Gerald 'Miler, who left in August.
"We felt we could do a better job of
delivering education. If left the way
it was, UHS would continue as in the
past. We (Federation) made a decision
that we should examine this before a
new person was in place:'
Although the joint statement said
"there are no planned changes in the
current delivery system for the
forseeable future," Giles told The
Jewish News that "numbers" — low
enrollment at UHS and its annual
$850,000 annual subsidy from
Federation — are part of the reason
for the study. But he emphasized that
the Federation is interested in the
total picture.
"There was a high point in terms
of the number of Jews being educated
in the entire system," he said, "but
now the numbers have changed. The
demographics have changed.
"Federation is the community-
wide provider of Jewish education. We
have to look at what we are doing for
the Orthodox, what we are doing for
the Reform . . . The numbers indicate
that our primary provision of educa-
tion to the community is reaching on-
ly 35 percent of the community. The
community will have to decide if what
we are doing is appropriate."
Giles said communal leadership
does not want to commit more funds
to a shrinking program. "Politically,
if we are going to increase our fun-
ding of Jewish education we will re-
quire broad-based community sup-
port?'
Federation leadership is in com-
plete agreement, Giles said, on the
need for an education study. "It may
make some people uncomfortable, but
we believe the timing is fortuitous. We
believe we need more Jewish educa-
tion, and if we are going to have more,
we have to make sure that it is going
into the right mode"
Giles is expecting to appoint the
study committee within the next two
weeks. It will be headed by former
Federation president Joel Tauber and
will include Goodman. "When the
caliber of the committee becomes
public," Giles said, "the community
will know that we are deadly serious
about doing the best job?' He added
Continued on Page 14
Rel igious News Service
New Administrator Starts
Sunday At United Hebrew
Actress Jane Fonda embraced Ida Nudel with Nudel's sister, Elana Fridman, and Israel Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir looking on when Nudel arrived in Israel from Moscow this month
after a 16-year fight to emigrate.
Shapiro Plans To Retain
His Ties To Maize And Blue
LILA ORBACH
Special to The Jewish News
U
niversity of Michigan presi-
dent Harold Shapiro is leav-
ing home.
He's going back to his alma mater
in Princeton, New Jersey — but not
forever.
The 52-year-old, highly-acclaimed
economist who seven years ago
became the first Jewish president of
the U-M, is moving on to become the
first Jewish president in Princeton
University's 241-year history. The op-
portunity arose and he took it.
But Shapiro isn't sure he'll ever be
able to call Princeton home. After all,
for more than two decades the only
place he called home was Michigan.
"This isn't a homecoming;' said
Shapiro of his upcoming move. "Ann
Arbor is more of a home to me than
anywhere else."Shapiro feels so
strongly about Wolverine country
that he plans to return here one day
— though he was reluctant to say
when or in what capacity.
"Maybe I'll just retire here and
think a lot," he quipped.
To insure a future return, the
Shapiros will keep their Michigan
homes, including a vacation home in
Leland where they spend the month
of August and several weekends
throughout the year. In addition,
Shapiro boasts that he's already ar-
Continued on Page 12
ROUND UP
Demjanjuk
Thal Resumes
Jerusalem (JTA) — The
trial of suspected war
criminal John Demjanjuk
resumed in Jerusalem Mon-
day after a two-month recess,
with a determined effort by
the defense to discredit a key
document that could prove
the 66-year-old, Ukrainian-
born former automobile
worker from Cleveland, Ohio
is the brutal Treblinka death
camp guard known as "Ivan
the Terrible."
The defense, in fact, was in
shambles when the trial ad-
journed last August. Demjan-
juk fired his American at-
torney, Mark O'Connor, and
hired an entirely new defense
team after a succession of
Treblinka survivors identified
him as "Ivan."
Even more damaging was
the testimony of experts that
an SS identification card
bearing a photograph of Dem-
janjuk at about age 22, was
authentic. The ID card was
issued to Ukrainains and
other prisoners of war who
volunteered for guard duty at
Treblinka.
The prosecution obtained
the original card from Soviet
authorities. The defense in-
sists it is a KGB forgery. The
first defense witness Monday,
Avraham Shifrin, a expert on
the KGB, tried to convince
the court of this.
He said he was convinced
that the document in-
criminating Demjanjuk was
forged and that once the trial
is over and the suspect is con-
victed, the KGB will admit to
the forgery, making Israel's
legal system a laughing stock
throughout the world.
The defense contends the
KGB wanted to incriminate
Demjanjuk as a measure
against Ukrainian na-
tionalism. Shifrin said it forg-
ed thousands of documents
accusing Russians and Ukrai-
nians of collaboration with
the Germans during world
War II. He said the KGB
regularly sends Christmas
cards to famous people and
when a-polite thank-you note
is returned, the signature is
filed for future forgery.
The prosecution is not buy-
ing Shifrin's testimony. State
attorney Yona Blatman ac-
cused the witness of seeking
a platform to dramatize his
opposition to the Soviet.
JDL Members
Are Sentenced
New York (JTA) — Three
members of the Jewish
Defense League were sentenc-
ed Monday for carrying out a
series of "terrorist" bombings
aimed at protesting the treat-
ment of Jews in the Soviet
Union.
Victor Vancier, 30, of
Queens, a former chairman of
the Jewish Defense League,
was sentenced to 10 years in
prison Monday by Judge I.
Leo Glasser of the federal
district court in Brooklyn.
In imposing the sentence,
the judge told Vancier, "You
.don't go bombing innocent
people to make a point."
At a separate session
earlier in the day, Murray
Young, 60, of East Meadow,
N.Y., received a five-year term
and Sharon Katz, 44, of
Manhattan, was given a
three-year suspended
sentence and five year's pro-
bation, which includes six
months of house arrest.
Hot Water Over
Close Shave
Tel Aviv (JTA) — The Or-
thodox minority in the town
of Netivot, east of the Gaza
Strip, would deny their
secular neighbors a close
shave. They are boycotting
shops that sell razor blades on
grounds that Jewish tradition
forbids the use of blades to
remove or trim beards.
The Orthodox insist there is
no organized boycott.
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