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Water resistant, quartz, Swiss-crafted. 357-5578 fine jewelry and gifts SAVINGS, SELECTION AND PERSONAL SERVICE 26400 W. 12 Mile Rd. (N.E. corner of Northwestern) in the Franklin Savings Center. Mon.-Sat. 10 till 5:45. Thurs. till 8:45. 38 FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1988 American Jews Unsure Of Response To Riots New York — As violence in the Gaza Strip and West Bank continues to pit Israeli soldiers against Palestinian youths, American Jews are examining their relationship to Israel to an extent perhaps not seen since the Lebanon War. Quietly and with some discomfort, American Jews are heard asking: Is it a duty to defend Israel's actions when it is "set upon" by the news media? Is it fair for Diaspora Jews to criticize Israel? Must all criticism of Israel be kept "in the family" and not shared with the non- Jewish majority? And will im- ages of unrest erode support for Israel, or even lead to anti-Semitism? "The concern is comparable to what it was during the Lebanon war and the Pollard (spy) affair," remarked Martin Raffel, director of the Israel Task Force of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. He said he based his evaluation on the dozens of calls he has receiv- ed from local community rela- tions councils. He said "the primary com- plaint — beyond the events themselves, the loss of life — is with media coverage, which many feel has been excessive- ly harsh." "I also think there's some real frustration at speaking out," he said. Because the situations in Gaza and the West Bank "are ugly, and the Israelis themselves have said that not all situations have been handled with utmost restraint," how to interpret the unrest publicly is "dif- ficult and complex." A case in point is Los Angeles, where, according to Steven Windmueller, there are "certain frustrations' among some Jewish leaders with Israeli policy in the ad- ministered territories. But because so much of the local coverage of the unrest is negative — Windmueller calls the Los Angeles Times' coverage "very harsh" — most leaders have agreed not to air those frustrations. Windmueller, executive director of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation Council in Los Angeles, said that among the city's Jewish leaders, "the theme is that Israel is in a dif- ficult situation and that (negative) public and private comments are not helpful." Steven Cohen, professor of sociology at Queens College in New York, said that when Israel is involved in an un- popular conflict and seems to be under attack by the press, the short-term reaction by American Jews is to close ranks behind Israel. The long-term reaction, however, is "the sharing of the doubts towards Israeli policy as they have been ex- pressed by others," he said. Those doubts, said Cohen, will center on the viability of Israel's presence in the ad- ministered territories. "I think for the first time, American Jews are able to peer inside the occupation and see how dangerous it is for Israel," he said. Neither Cohen nor Raffel sees the unrest leading to an anti-Semitic or strongly anti- Israel backlash in the United States. Nevertheless, communal leaders feel statements by U.S. officials have been un- duly critical, which when combined with television im- ages of Israel as occupying power could erode the emo- tional and financial support American Jews provide to Israel. Since the war in Lebanon in 1982, American Jews have had to learn to live with the real, imperfect Israel, as op- posed to the mythic one of Meir and Dayan, according to Leonard Fein, visiting scholar at Reform Judaism's Relig- ious Action Center in Washington, D.C. Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEWS Universities Link Computers Toronto (JTA) — A new com- puter link between the University of Toronto and Israel's Bar-Ilan University is streamlining the study of classical Jewish texts. The University of Toronto recently became the first educational institution out- side Israel to obtain on-line access to the Global Jewish Database at the Israeli university. It is available through the local university's Centre for Computing in the Humanities. The database — one of the largest in the world — con- tains the Bible, the Babylo- nian Talmud, 250 volumes of rabbinic responsa, the Code of Maimonides, midrashic literature and the major medieval biblical commentaries.