CONTENTS I'
OPINION
26
CLOSE-UP
Road To Recovery
KIMBERLY LIFTON
An Israeli automobile
is bringing new hope
to "depressed"
Benton Harbor.
31
HOLIDAY
Purim Greetings
The Great Purim Project
greeted new Detroiters
with a holiday treat.
LIFE IN ISRAEL
Fort Apache, Jerusalem
Ethiopian children wait for tennis instruction with native-born Israelis. The economic situation for those still
in Ethiopia continues to worsen.
Must Ethiopian Jews Starve
Before U.S. Jews Notice?
MITCHELL BARD
T
he plight of the tenacious commu-
nity of Ethiopian Jews went largely
unnoticed until four years ago,
when the networks began to televise pic-
tures of starving African refugees.
American Jews, recognizing that there
were Jews among those suffering masses,
undertook a large-scale fund-raising cam-
paign for rescue and resettlement in Israel
of thousands of Ethiopian Jews.
But as a new famine takes its toll, as
many as 15,000 Jews remain stranded in
Ethiopia awaiting deliverance.
Israel was roundly applauded for its
heroic effort to rescue Ethiopian Jews
through Operation Moses, but when lives
are at stake we must ask: What have you
done lately? The truth is that Israel has
done very little, primarily because of the
continuing refusal of the Ethiopian govern-
ment to release the Jews.
The traditional Ethiopian rationale has
been that allowing the Jews to leave the
country would be a recognition of their
ethnic and cultural distinctiveness, which
would require similar acknowledgement
for other minorities. The Eritreans have
been making such demands for years and
are conducting a civil war over it.
But Ethiopia's rights argument is less
persuasive today than ever. It is already
common knowledge that the Ethiopian
Jews were taken to Israel and that efforts
continue to help those who remain;
therefore, releasing the Jews would not
represent a new "signal" to other groups.
The Jews who remain trapped in
Mitchell Bard is a foreign policy analyst living in
Washington, D.C.
Ethiopia are primarily women, the elder-
ly and the young — people unable to con-
tribute anything of great value to the
government and whose departure would
represent no threat. ,
Ethiopian Jews contended with
persecution from their neighbors all their
lives, but those who remain face the addi-
tional hostility of Ethiopians who resent
their desire to leave the country and who
punish them for those who left.
Moreover, the economic fortunes of the
Jews continue to deteriorate. They were
always on the bottom rung of the im-
poverished Ethiopian society, but now the
women and elderly Jews left behind have
difficulty eking out even the marginal ex-
istence they could earn prior to Operation
Moses.
Their plight is exacerbated by the na-
tion's anemic economy. In some Jewish
villages, prices are reported to have tripl-
ed while others are threatened by the
spreading famine.
The smooth transition the Ethiopian
Jews have made from their relatively
underdevelped world to Israel's high-tech
society has been nothing short of
remarkable. It is impossible, however, to
find an Ethiopian Jew whose integration
in Israel has not been hindered by the
psychological trauma associated with hav-
ing left relatives behind. Rescuing those
family members is the most important ac-
tion that Israel can take to speed the ab-
sorption process.
It is a tragedy, if not an obscenity, that
the American Jewish community by and
large remains silent while Ethiopian Jews
suffer. I attended the national Soviet Jewry
rally last Dec. 6 with more than 200,000
Continued on Page 10
40
HELEN DAVIS
Palestinian unrest has changed
the psyche of Israel's capital.
55
ENTERTAINMENT
Maestro!
JOANNE ZUROFF
The violin
has become
Joseph Silverstein's
travel agent.
73
ANN ARBOR
Not So Funny
SUSAN LUDMER-GLIEBE
The 'Jewish American Princess'
theme takes bad twists on campus.
87
SINGLE LIFE
Double Entendre
MIKE PARNOS
You need a new dictionary
to read the personals.
90
SATIRE
PURIM SPOOF
A lighted-hearted look
at the holiday headlines.
DEPARTMENTS
14
32
34
36
40
44
Frontlines
Inside Washington
Media Monitor
Synagogues
Life In Israel
Sports
CANDLELIGHTING
March 4, 1988
6:08 p.m.
52
66
72
76
84
112
Travel
For Women
Seniors
Engagements
Births
Obituaries