Riots Like Birth Of A Child For Israeli Lawyer Tsemel DAVID HOLZEL Staff Writer A Congregation Shaarey Zedek's Weisberg Concert last week drew nearly 3,000 persons to hear "Not So Wild A Dream" in celebration of Israel's 40th anniversary. Dr. Morton Gould directed Samuel Rosenbaum's oratorio for choirs and orchestra, which featured Cantor Chaim Najman as soloist and Rabbi Irwin Groner as narrator. Hebrew Free Loan Will Aid Detroit. Families Of Olim Iml• ■•■ •=w DAVID HOLZEL Staff Writer D etroit families of olim (immi- grants to Israel) may now apply to the Hebrew Free Loan Association for a sum to cover emergencies. According to Harmon Bayer, presi- dent of the Parents of North American Israelis' Detroit branch, interest-free loans of up to $2,000 may be used for such short-term emergen- cies as airfare in the case of illness or death of a relative, or to cover brief periods of unemployment. "This is a new application of the loans we've been making for 93 years," said Ruth Marcus, executive director of Hebrew Free Loan. The loans follow HFL guidelines: They must be borrowed by a Detroiter, must be cosigned by two Detroiters and must be paid back in one year. "These are not loans to olim. These are loans made to Detroiters who have family members living in Israel," Marcus said. Despite the restrictions, Bayer is happy with the "breakthrough." Emergency cash shortages and lack of funds to pay for home mortgages are two of the reasons North American olim leave Israel. Any funds to help them stay in . Israel are welcomed, he said. A PNAI-proposed $15,000 emergency loan fund is under con- sideration by the Jewish Welfare Federation. Several North American cities have extablished mortgage funds. Miami has the largest, with $1 million. joke about the Palestinian uprising is making the rounds these days in Israel. It goes like this: Israeli soldiers patrolling a Gaza refugee camp confront Achmad, an eight-year-old stone thrower. "Who told you to throw stones?" the Israelis demand. "Where is your com- mander?" The child complies with the Israelis and takes the soldiers to his commander, Machmud, who is six years old. The story illustrates the frustra- tion Israelis are feeling in encounter- ing children everywhere in the Palestinian uprising. "Youngsters are really controlling the life there. They have all the possible chutzpah that I don't think the Palestinians ever had." This is the assessment of Lea Tsemel, one of a handful of Jewish Israelis who have made a career out of defending West Bank and Gaza Palestinians jailed by the Israelis. Her appearance in Detroit this week, part of an eight-city United States tour, was sponsored by the Palestine Aid Society of America. She spoke Monday on the Wayne State University campus to an audience of 50, comprised mostly of Arab- Americans and members of Marxist organizations. She said the uprising, which began in early December, gave her a feeling of enormous hope. "We said, this is the baby we were waiting for." The Palestinians have shown "unbelievable national unity" in the face of Israeli attempts to put down the violence. Even if Israel were to succeed, "things will not ever be the same again." Lea Tsemel is a woman living on the edge of her society. "You could call me an anti-Zionist," she said. As she describes the spectrum of the Israeli body politic, it is clear where she stands and who the good and bad guys are. "Two thirds of the population is located on the right wing;' including, she suggests, most of the Labor Par- ty. Of the remaining one third, "two thirds could be described as left Zionists" who argue for the creation of a Palestinian state because they fear a Jewish Arabstate where the Jews might be in the minority. The last one third of the one third — a growing segment of Israeli socie- ty — are beginning to realize that "Zionism is the problem," she told her listeners. They say, "Why not a state for whoever is living there, Jews or Arabs?" She traced the evolution of the Israeli response to the uprising, which began with "throwing candies" at the Palestinians to end the violence. That policy of the carrot was unsuccessful, she said, so Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin introduced the policy of the stick: "The worst policy was when Rabin said, 'Just break the bones of the demonstrators: But when the public could not take the beatings anymore, they had to find another solution?' What followed was an increase in lethal shootings, an "enormous wave of arrests" and a greater reliance on deportations which "are seen by every Palestinian as worse than death." Since the beginning of the upris- ing, 225 Palestinians have died, she said, citing a figure that is higher Continued on Page 12 ROUND UP UHS Changes Fisher's Status The board of United Hebrew Schools voted this week to name Ofra Fisher ex- ecutive director of the agency. Fisher has been serving as ac- ting director of UHS since November. Dr. Barbara Goodman, UHS president, said the ac- tion was recommended by the UHS executive committee after consulting with the Education Task Force of the Jewish Welfare Federation. Last fall, Federation an- nounced that a search for a replacement for former superintendent Dr. Jerry Teller would be suspended pending a review of all Jewish education delivery and fun- ding in the Detroit area. The study is expected to take several years. Goodman said the agency had to move forward, and could do so with Mrs. Fisher as its head. The UHS board also approv- ed by-law changes which merge the UHS and Midrasha boards and establish four divisions for the agency: HUS elementary, Community Jewish High School, Midrasha College of Jewish Studies and communi- ty services. Detroiters Appear on TV Several Detroit residents will participate this weekend in television programs focus- ing on problems in the Middle East. At 8 a.m. Sunday, Rabbi David Nelson of Cong. Beth Shalom will be featured on "Sunday Today" on WDIV- TV, Channel 4. The segment, hosted by Garrick Utley, will profile an Arab and a Jewish family in the Detroit area. At 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Ronald Karp and Mark Schlussel will appear on "Se- cond Look" on WXYZ-TV, Channel 7. Schlussel, vice president of the Jewish Welfare Federation, and Karp, a member of the executive board of the Jewish Com- munity Council, will be discussing the "land for peace" option. Mitterrand Gets Jewish Backing Paris (JTA) — Jewish voters gave strong support to incum- bent Socialist Francois Mit- terand in the first round of the presidential elections Sunday and are expected to support him overwhelmingly against his center-right rival, Premier Jacques Chirac, in the run-off elections on May 8. This was indicated by exit polls conducted Sunday among 4,078 voters. The results, published Tuesday in the Catholic weekly La Vie, show that 44.5 percent of Jews voted for Mitterrand, 32.8 percent for Chirac and 11.6 percent for center-right candidate Raymond Barre, a former prime minister. Questioned about how they plan to vote in the run-off elections, 63.3 percent of Jewish respondents said they would support Mitterrand and 36.7 percent backed Chirac.