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42

FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1988

(855-3338)

Ex-Detroiter Kupinsky Walks
In Footsteps Of The Patriarchs

DAVID HOLZEL

Staff Writer

W

hen Bracha Kupin-
sky steps into her
back yard, she im-
agines the patriarch
Abraham conversing with his
nephew Lot in the very same
spot.
It's not that Kupinsky has
an overly vivid imagination.
The former Detroiter now
makes her home in Kiryat
Arba, the Jewish town out-
side Hebron, 15 miles south of
Jerusalem. So much biblical
history took place in the
vicinity that it would be dif-
ficult not to think of her yard
as a patriarchal stomping
ground.
"It's a special privilege to
live where we're living," she
said during a recent visit to
Detroit.
Kupinsky, her husband,
Stanley, and their five
children made Kiryat Arba
their initial stop when they
made aliyah in 1982. The
family stayed on when they
discovered the town had the
same pioneering atmosphere
of "warmth and closeness"
that had attracted them to
Israel when they first visited
in the late 1960s.
does
Stanley
Now,
demographic research for the
Hebrew University and
Bracha heads the English
department of the Kiryat Ar-
ba Ulpana, a boarding school
for girls through the 12th
grade.
The school's curriculum
combines academic and voca-
tional training, normally two
separate tracks of education
in Israel's school system. "In
eighth grade you have to
decide what you're going to
do for the rest of your life" by
choosing either an academic
or vocational high school,
Kupinsky explained.
Under the ulpana's system,
the school's 240 students
don't have to make such a ma-
jor decision so early. In addi-
tion, there is a stigma attach-
ed to vocational high school,
she said. "There is no stigma
by us." .
Kupinsky said Israel's
Ministry of Education is con-
sidering using the ulpana's
curriculum as a model for
other schools.
Because the school is
located in the administered
teritories, funding is tricky.
Ordinarily, students who
could not afford to board at
the school would receive a sti-
pend from the Jewish Agency-

Bracha Kupinsky:
Living in Abraham's back yard.

funded Youth Aliyah. But
Agency dollars end at the
Green Line, Israel's pre-1967
boundries. So the school's ad-
ministrators have also
become fund-raisers in an at-
tempt to close a $120,000 an-
nual budget gap.
Interestingly, the ulpana
received Youth Aliyah fun-
ding until 1984, according to
Kupinsky. "They found a
loophole!'
She said the ongoing
Palestinian uprising in the
territories has not disrupted
her school or the lives of her
neighbors. A majority of the
ulpana's students are not
Kiryat Arba residents and
enrollment is up for next year,
an indication that parents are
not worried for their
children's safety, Kupinsky
said.
The parents of the
teenagers hiking near the
Arab village of Beita were
also unconcerned for the safe-
ty of their children. In the
confrontation there in April
between Jews and Arabs, two
Palestinians and a 15 year-
old-Israeli were killed by the
teens' Israeli guard.
Kupinsky believes the
Israeli's were within their
rights to hike in the area and
took the necessary security
precautions. "(The Israelis)
were within their area. Part
of the education in Israel is,
when you are studying the Bi-
ble, you go to the place!'
More than one Detroiter
has remarked that Bracha
Kupinsky doesn't seem the
Kiryat Arba type — the kind
of hard-line Gush Emunim
settler who set up the town
and brought a Jewish
presence back to all Arab
Hebron; the sort of Jew who
would fight the army and top-
ple Israel rather than com-

promise on Jewish claims to
Judea and Samaria.
"I'm part of the pacifist
generation, Kennedy, the
Viet Nam War" she admitted.
"The compromise we had to
make is that our sons will
have to serve in the army.
"But I have a very strong
feeling about my heritage.
Kiryat Arba has tremendous
appeal to me!"
The Palestinian riots have
left her community unaf-
fected. "Most people in Kiryat
Arba go about living regular
lives and want to continue to
do so. The girls in our ulpana
continue to walk to the Cave
of Machpelah," the patriar-
chal burial place in Hebron.
"As the army has made its
presence felt, things have
been quiet. A show of
strength, unfortunately, is a
language understood by the
Arabs!'
The Kupinskys live in the
"suburbs" of Kiryat Arba, a
small neighborhood 25
minutes walking time from

4

4

-4

-4

"I'm i part of the
pacifist
generation,
Kennedy, the Viet
Nam War."

the town, called Ramat
Mamre. Like Kiryat Arba,
Mature is another biblical
name for Hebron.
Kupinsky said she and her
neighbors don't feel isolated
on their hilltop but, amused,
she describes the community
as a wagon round-up with the
Jewish homes arranged in a
circle and surrounded by
Arab homes.
Themes like settlers circl-
ing the wagons crop up often
when discussing Judea and
Samaria. Escalating violence
and the confrontational na-
tionalism of Jews like settle-
ment leader Rabbi Moshe
Levinger have given Kupin-
sky's part of the land of Israel
the image of the Wild West
Bank, where extremist Jews
play cowboys and Indians
with Palestinians and almost
anything goes.
Kupinsky speaks of coex-
istence with the Palestinians,
but admitted, "I don't know if
we can always operate with
them on the basis of our
democratic values. It hurts
me. I would like to act on my
principles. -
"There's too many strong
feelings there. I don't know if
it can be solved by politi-
cians?'

-4

