I UP FRONT

Gale To Guide Council
During Search For Director

STAFF REPORT

Scholar-in-residence Dr. Yosef Olmert: "I'm definitely in favor of putting down the riots at all
costs, but we also have to take political measures."

Mideast Expert Questions
Jewish Critics Of Israel

ty of U.S. Jews, he said, has been less

DAVID - HOLZEL

Staff Writer

D

r. Yosef Olmert is spending
most of his two-week visit to
Detroit talking about the two
months of Palestinian riots in Israel's
administered territories, putting the
unprecedented wave of violence into
context.
But Dr. Olmert, the Detroit
Zionist Federation's scholar-in-
residence, also wants to bring the
relations between Israel and
American Jews back into perspective.
For Dr. Olmert, 37, a Middle East
affairs expert at Tel Aviv University,
the crux of Israel-Diaspora ties is a
question of solidarity. "Solidarity is
very nice when there are no problems.
Then it's very easy. Solidarity is im-
portant when you have difficulties."
There is no question that Israel is
experiencing serious internal and in-
ternational difficulties. The solidari-

than unwavering.
"We appreciate American-Jewish
concern," he said in an interview with
The Jewish News. "What irritates
some Israelis is that the quickness of
American Jewish reaction sometimes
is not so much an outcome of their
feelings about the merits of the case
as much as it is a reflection of their
concerns about non-Jewish reactions."
Dr. Olmert, whose brother, Ehud,
is a Likud member of Knesset, agreed
that Israel's image has suffered dur-
ing the riots. Nightly news reports
showing crying women and Israeli
soldiers beating civilians convey the
impression that the Jewish state has
become an out-of-control golem. Now,
says Dr. Olmert, the context in which
the riots occurred has caught up to
the emotional message of the news
footage.
"We lose when people take a

Continued on Page 14

The Jewish Community Council
has named a search committee to find
a successor to retiring executive direc-
tor Alvin Kushner. It has also named
Allan Gale as acting executive direc-
tor, effective March 1.
The search committee is being
chaired by Paul D. Borman, the
Jewish Community Council's
treasurer. The committee includes
Council officers, past presidents and
executive commitee members: Rabbi
Richard C. Hertz, Jeannie Weiner,
David Lebenbom, Judge John
Shepherd, Robert Goren and Zina
Kramer.
Gale will take over on the effec-
tive date of Kushner's retirement. He
has been on the Council's staff since
1978, havingpreviously worked as a
community relations associate with
the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith in Minneapolis. Gale is a
graduate of the University of
Minnesota.
The Council is hosting a reception
honoring Kushner on March 7.
Borman told The Jewish News
that the executive director's position
is being advertised locally and
through national Jewish organiza-

Allan Gale

tions, such as the Council of Jewish
Federations and the National Jewish
Community Relations Advisory
Council. "We are not going to rush
the process," he said. "We are going
to do a thorough, complete job." ,
Borman expects the application
process to run 30-40 days before the
search committee begins screening
the applicants.

Freedom Seder Planned

A symbolic Freedom Seder for
Soviet Jewry is being planned for the
the Maple-Drake Jewish Community
Center in March, one week before the
beginning of Passover.
The 90-minute, Sunday evening
program March 27 is being coor-
dinated by the Soviet Jewry Commit-
tee of the Jewish Community
Council.
"We have had a spring concert in
the past to highlight the plight of
Soviet Jews," said committee chair-
man Jeannie Weiner. "A community-

wide 'Seder' has been held in other
communities and we've had many re-
quests for this type of event:'
The words of the traditional
Passover Haggadah will be adapted to
the situation of Soviet Jewry. "In-
stead of the Children of Israel leaving
Egypt, we ask that they be allowed to
leave Russia," Weiner said. The Seder
will feature the traditional Passover
foods for all participants, but will not
be a dinner. A dessert reception will
follow the program.

Continued on Page 14

ROUND UP

SZ Teachers
Vote Wednesday

Cong. Shaarey Zedek's
Hebrew school teachers will
vote next Wednesday on a
tentative contract settlement
proposed by the synagogue's
negotiating team. The
teachers have been working
without a contract since
September.
'leachers in the synagogue's
Beth Hayeled nursery school
are continuing to work

through a representative of
the Michigan Federation of
Teachers in an effort to reach
a settlement.

Terrorist Gets
30 Years

Rome (JTA) — An Italian
court imposed a 30-year
prison sentence Feb. 12 on
Ibrahim Mohammed Khaled,
sole survivor of a Palestinian
terrorist gang that killed 16

people and wounded 80 in a
machine gun and grenade at-
tack on Leonardo da Vinci
Airport near Rome on Dec.
17, 1985.
At the same time, the court
pronounced life sentences in
absentia on the terrorist
leader known as Abu Nidal
and his associate, Rashid al-
Hamieda, who masterminded
the Rome airport massacre
and the almost simultaneous
terrorist attack at Vienna air-
port, where four people where
killed and 47 wounded.

Bomb At Israel's
Manila Embassy

Tel Aviv (JTA) — A grenade
and a home-made bomb ex-
ploded Tuesday outside the
Israel Embassy in Manila,
causing no casualties and
only slight damage, according
to reports from the Philippine
capital.
No group or individual
claimed responsibility.
Sources in Manila said the
bombing was probably the

work of the outlawed Com-
munist Party.
The incident occurred as
Israel began beefing up
security at its installations
abroad in anticipation of ter-
rorist reprisal attacks for the
sabotage of a Cypriot car
ferry that was to have carried
several hundred Palestinian
deportees and their sym-
pathizers on a demonstrative
propaganda voyage to Israel.
The PLO warned Tuesday
that it would retaliate
against Israel.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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