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