CLOSE-UP JEFF LEIB Tough Law Enforcement Professional Administration Fighting for Crime Victims Jewish Agency Continued from preceding page `Just The Beginning' endel Kaplan is well aware that the hottest out-of-session topic of conversation among delegates at last week's Jewish Agency Assembly was not Youth Aliyah and Project Renewal, but Mendel Kaplan and Sim- cha Dinitz. It was, he said, only natural that the delegates' expectations of a genuine reconstruction of the Jewish Agency and WZO meant an intense interest in the men they had elected to do the job. "Yes, Simcha and I are very different personalities," he told me last week. "And that is why our relationship works so well. We complement one another. "We have also been friends for maybe 12 years. And we went into this partner- ship knowing each other's weaknesses and appreciating each other's strengths. "We have also spent many days together in scheduled meetings — as well as on planes — discussing every detail of our program. And there is not one issue that we haven't reached agree- ment on. "The secret of our working relation- ship is that we understand each other's constituencies. Simcha understands the United States probably better than most Diaspora delegates. And I have a M Private Practice Attorney, 18 years Trustee, West Bloomfield Township, 5 years Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor, 2 years Planning Commissioner, West Bloomfield Township, 12 years (2 terms as Chairman) • Crime Prevention Committee Chairman, Michigan State Bar Association Program for Alternatives to Drugs (PAD.), • Vice-President and Co-Founder • Headlee Tax Limitation Amendment, Co-Chairman • Oakland County Bar Association, Board of Directors and Secretary • Southfield Bar Association, Past President • Optimist Club of West Bloomfield, Charter President • West Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce, Past President • Homeowner's Association Past President • University of Detroit School of Law, J.D. Degree • Michigan State University, B.A. Degree • Married (Bryna Linden), with three children • Temple Israel, former Board of Trustees Member • Jewish Welfare Federation, Jr. Division, former Board Member Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit, • former Executive Committee Member • Hebrew Free Loan Association, Board of Directors • Yeshivah Beth Yehudah, Former Teacher • • • • REPUBLICAN FOR PROSECUTOR JEFF * * * * * * * * LEIB * * * * * * * * • Paid for by Citizens to Elect Leib Prosecutor 6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 320, Birmingham, MI 48010 28 FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1988 where they fit in, what their role is. "The fact that this year's delegates were better informed and more impressive than ever before undoubtedly created some problems for the leadership." Kaplan, in particular, has yet to fully comprehend the necessity of drawing larger numbers of people into the decision- making process; to get things done quick- ly while giving others a genuine sense of input and involvement. "He has to find that balance, and I think he will," said the source. "It's just a mat- ter of fine tuning. "I think even the critics of the new leadership will admit that both Kaplan and Dinitz can take criticism and use it con- structively. They don't shout anyone down and they don't bear grudges." One example of this was Kaplan's reac- tion to harsh criticism of the Jewish Agency by Natan Sharansky, head of the newly-formed Soviet Zionist Federation. Kaplan promptly invited the federation to submit recommendations to the Jewish Agency and one — a job placement service — has been approved and funded to the tune of $70,000. By the end of the Assembly, the over- whelming feeling among delegates was one of cautious enthusiasm. There was a sense that things were moving rapidly — general- ly in the right direction — and there was good understanding of Israel:* Kaplan points with pride to their achievements — new approaches to Project Renewal, immigration and ab- sorption, regional development and Jewish education; highly-qualified, rigorously-selected new personnel in key positions throughout both the Jewish Agency and the WZO, and a determined drive to cut waste and duplication and re-direct financial resources ($400 million annual budget for the Jewish Agency, $65 million for the WZO). "I know there are people who say that the locomotive is going too fast," he says. "But if we don't go fast, we won't go at all. "Those who are concerned that our pace is too rapid for absolute control don't understand that here in Israel the process between decision and implemen- tation is long and slow. "We have to get the decisions made before we lose the impetus for change and the willingness of the bureaucracy to change. "We hope to finish all the reconstruc- tive decision-making by February. But we won't rest there. That will just be the beginning of the story." -- Helen Davis a willingness to give credit to the new ad- ministration. "People see that Kaplan and Dinitz have very different styles," a WZO source told me. "Dinitz is a diplomat, a politician, a consensus-seeker, while Kaplan has a strong personality — he is an operator, a mover." Given the vast differences in style, background and experience, it would be wrong to believe that there is never a cross word. At the same time. though, the mar- riage shows every sign of working — and for the same reasons that make more con- ventional marriages work. "There is sometimes tension between them," said a source who is close to both men, "but the important thing is that they like and respect each other and are pulling in the same direction." The initial results are already clearly evi- dent in the new slimmed-down, spruced-up organization. "It's an amazing phenomenon for an organization of this size and complexity," said Jewish Agency Director-General Howard Weisband. "According to the textbooks, it takes be- tween seven and ten years to bring radical change from within such an organization," he told me. "We have seen it begin to hap- pen in six months. And five years down the road we won't recognize the place." [11_