LIFE IN ISRAEL THE CLASS ACT ORCHESTRA featuring: STUART ROGOFF For Booking Info. 3697361 'Preview Tape shown by appt. Why Is It So Difficult For American Olim In Israel? DAVID HOLZEL Staff Writer H Give today Your donation to the Association for Retarded Citizens will help improve the life of a child or adult with mental retardation — and support research into treatment and prevention of the condition in others. Jewish Association for Retarded Citizens 17288 W. 12 Mile Rd., Southfield, MI 48076 (313) 557-7650 Help build thearc Association for Retarded Citizens DAL-TILE/KOHLER is the perfect matchmaker with their Kohler Color Coordinates, a new designer collection of glaze colors to match Kohler plumbing fixtures. It will be "love at first sight" when you view this exciting new tile series. FAIRWAY TILE & CARPET offers you complete Kitchen and Bath remodeling. We specialize in Carpet, Ceramic, Marble & Hardwood Floors; • Corian, Formica & Vinyl Tile. FREE ESTIMATES 32 YEARS SAME LOCATION Engineer On Staff Residential • Commercial • Installation 21 E. 14 Mile Rd., Clawson Gene Perlman 42 FRIDAY, NOV. 27, 1987 588.4429 Dennis Langwald armon Bayer is well aware how difficult it is to persuade American Jews to make aliyah. What most people do not realize, he says, is that it is even harder to get them to stay once they are in Israel. The 68-year-old retired engineering consultant is president of the local branch of PNAI, Parents of North American Israelis, a support group for the parents of olim. This particular subset of American Jewry is probably the most conversant on the problems of aliyah. Seventy percent of North American obm ultimately return to the U.S. and Canada, Bayer states. By con- trast, only 30 percent of olim from England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa return. Why? The "backbreakers" for the oleh are finding a place to live and a job in his profession, ac- quiring sufficient Hebrew language skills and finding a support system, he says. Bayer and his wife, Adele, are familiar with the monetary stresses placed on young people who move to Israel. Their son, Ed, made aliyah in 1970. Now a bio- physicist at the Weizmann In- stitute, he is married with five children. "They are no longer hanging on by their fingernails, but it took a long, long time," Bayer says. Ed bought his first apart- ment for $6,000, Bayer says. "That would be around $100,000 today. The trouble is, there's no such thing as a mortgage. I don't think many banks are going to take the chance that there isn't going to be rampant inflation. You have to come up with cash." The secret to finding work in Israel involves having a marketable skill or profes- sion. This often involves a good command of Hebrew. "We do an abysmal job of language training," Bayer complains. In other parts of the English-speaking world, most Jewish children go to Jewish day schools where they attain a much higher proficiency than American Jews who attend afternoon Hebrew school ever do. Another difficulty American olim face is self- inflicted, Bayer believes. "They don't take enough ad- vantage of a support system." Olim, he explains, come to Harmon Bayer of PNAI: Olim should recreate an "old boy" network. Israel to throw off their previous Diaspora life and shun things that smack of ghettoization. Bayer thinks this is a mistake. "Eddie first lived in areas that were not English speak- ing. He found it culturally op- pressive." For the last 15 years his son has lived in Raanana, a Tel Aviv suburb with a large English- speaking population. North American olim should recreate an "old-boy network" in Israel, he argues, to help them find work and feel at home. After all, Israel runs on protectzia, "pull" from people one knows. Bayer also recommends that olim take advantage of the profes- sional counseling and social services provided by the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a land- smanshaft for North Americans. As the State of Israel is sup- ported by U.S. dollars, the American Jewish community should expect to financially support olim for some time after their immigration, Bayer argues. "The Russians who come here — they're sup- ported by the community. What's so different? If you go to a yeshivah [in Israel] you're completely taken care of, by your money and my money filtered through the Jewish Agency." To provide a safety net for ohm, PNAI has begun a na- tional solicitation campaign to raise an emergency loan fund to provide no-interest loans for olim with short-term cash problems. Seven U.S. Jewish communities have raised funds ranging from Chicago's $10,000 to New York's $100,000. Detroit's PNAI has raised a small sum and Bayer says he plans to submit a proposal to the Jewish Welfare Federation to raise a local fund of at least $10,000. PNAI has discussed a more ambitious project — a mor- tgage fund — for many years, Bayer says. "It's been no easy task:' Both programs would help olim stay in Israel if a monetary • crunch were to come. PNAI can raise only so much money from its limited membership of 3,200 families across the U.S. and Canada. "The only people with enough money are the United Jewish Appeal and the Jewish Welfare Federation?' Detroit's Jewish Welfare Federation was the first such organization to publicly state its support for aliyah. Zionism came slowly to the federations and the local breakthrough statement of support "for helping Jews who have made aliyah" came only in 1986. How is Federa- tion prepared to follow up its resolution? "We haven't done anything specifically," says Jane Sher- man, chairman of Federa- tion's Israel and overseas rela- tionships committee. Specific plans are going "through the process," she says, refusing to elaborate. For now, Detroit ohm will have to be satisfied with Federation-sponsored going away parties and occasional mission visits in Israel, and PNAI will have to rely on its own funds to finance pro- grams for ohm. Like the best of Zionist organizations, Detroit's PNAI chapter is losing its leader- ship through success. Har- mon and Adele Bayer are planning to make aliyah in November 1988. "We want to be close to our grand- children," he says.