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WUJS Program Opens
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DAVID HOLZEL
Staff Writer
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ORCHARD MALL • W. BLOOMFIELD
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851-5566
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ORCHARD LAKE ROAD NORTH OF MAPLE ROAD
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FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1988
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•
M
any people have
never heard of
Arad, Israel. Both
roads out of this small town
lead into the desert. lb the
southwest is Beersheva, the
largest city in the mostly
empty Negev. The road to the
east winds down from Arad's
mountain plateau, finally
reaching Masada and the
Dead Sea — the lowest spot on
earth.
But Arad is anything but a
dusty outpost fighting back
an encroaching desert. It is
an attractive town of
boulevards but little traffic,
and apartment buildings
built around parks and along
pedestrian walkways. A cen-
tral shopping plaza — the
"merkaz" — is Arad's com-
mon meeting place.
Israelis view Arad as one of
the country's most successful
development towns. To many
other Jews from around the
world, including olim (im-
migrants), Arad is the home
of the WUJS Institute. Hous-
ed in one of the town's two ab-
sorption centers, WUJS
serves young Jews as an en-
try point into Israeli life.
"After your first six months
at WUJS, you basically know
what to do," said Stuart
Singal of Oak Park, who at-
tended the institute in 1983.
WUJS is a one-year, post-
graduate program. Par-
ticipants spend six months
studying Hebrew and sitting
in on an eclectic mix of
classes on Judaism, Middle
East politics and Israeli
history.
After easing into day-to-day
Israeli life in Arad's relative-
ly benign environment,
students try to break into the
Israeli job market. This is the
second half of the program.
Participants fan out to points
all over the map of Israel. The
lucky ones find salaried posi-
tions; others go on to
volunteer work and receive a
stipend provided by the
Jewish Agency.
The pressure of adjusting to
Israel is an intense ex-
perience. Strangers soon
become intimate friends as
each new group of students
struggles for emotional
balance in the unfamiliar en-
vironment. "People walked in
knowing nobody and left
knowing everyone," said
Singal.
David Holzel is a 1983 WUJS
graduate.
Those friendships often last
beyond the year of the pro-
gram. Tom Wexelberg-
Clouser met his wife, Sheyna,
when they both attended the
institute in 1974. "Our
WUJS friends are like an ex-
tended family," he said.
A minority of graduates
eventually make aliyah. Like
Wexelberg-Clouser, a senior
fund-raiser at the Jewish
Welfare Federation, those
who leave Israel return to the
Diaspora with a heightened
Jewish identity and dedica-
tion to the Jewish
community.
Adele Lewin, assistant
director of the local B'nai
B'rith Youth Organization,
attended WUJS in 1983. Her
most vivid memory of the ex-
perience is the Negev in
bloom. Rainfall was excep-
tionally plentiful that winter
and the Negev looked more
like a verdant prairie than a
thirsty desert.
"I took a walk every Satur-
day and I could see the
changes. You walk for 20
minutes in any direction and
you're in the desert," she said.
Ellen Shochet remembers
the help she received from
Arad residents when Israel
was still foreign terrain to
her. Shochet is now program
director of the Jewish Welfare
Federation's women's divi-
sion. Back in April 1980, she
was searching Arad's super-
markets in vain for eggs.
"One of the women took me
by the hand and we went to
every little market until we
found a place that had eggs."
It was a small gesture, but
such gestures open Israel to
interested Jews who want the
chance to make the country
their home.
Jewish Agency
Holds Assembly
New York (JTA) — With a
sense of anticipation and a
desire to understand and in-
fluence the decision-making
process in the Jewish Agency
for Israel, more than 350
United Israel Appeal
delegates from some 40 com-
munities throughout the
United States are preparing
to attend the annual Jewish
Agency Assembly, to be held
June 26 to 30 in Jerusalem.
"This is the largest UIA
delegation to the assembly
ever," said Henry 'Daub, UIA
chairman.
Irving Kessler, UIA ex-
ecutive vice chairman,
pointed out that the number