CJF/GA The Other Issues ARTHUR J. MAGIDA Special to The Jewish News lthough " Who Is A Jew" was the pre- eminent issue at the General Assembly, other issues were not totally ig- nored, certainly not with vir- tually round-the-clock seminars on everything from "Endowments for Cana- dians" to "What's So Funny About Jewish Humor?" Among those issues that at- tracted wide interest were: • Custom Mirror Walls • Bi-fold Mirror Doors • Sliding Mirror Doors • Heavy Plate Glass Table Tops • Glass Pedestals with Brass or Chrome Connectors Any Size 32671 Northwestern Hwy. Farmington Hills Two locations to serve you 547-1214 • Berkley Store Soviet Jewry Shifts in U.S.-Soviet rela- tions and in the Kremlin's at- titude toward Soviet Jews will force the Soviet Jewry move- ment in America to be "more subtle and much less adver- sarial," said Morris Abram. Abram, past chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, warned that Americans "should not be deceived by the relaxation" of anti-Jewish measures in the USSR: "The Soviet Union is a totalitarian state. What is given can be taken away. Jews are not safe as Jews in the Soviet Union." Sating that the Soviet Jewry movement "is about nothing less than the redemp- tion of one-fifth" of world Jewry, Abram advised that "the best way" to redeem Soviet Jews is to encourage them to emigrate to Israel, "where they wil learn the [Hebrew] language and observe the [Jewish] holdiays." Heinz Eppler, president of the Jewish Distriution Com- mittee (JDC), revealed that the committee's 1989 budget will include $1 million for cultural and religious needs of Soviet Jews. The funds and/or their purchases will be distributed to Jews still in the Soviet Union. The Bush Administration Learn how to take better care of your heart, call Red Cross. American Red Cross cane 46 A Public Service of This Newspaper P The Advertising Council FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1988 833-4440 We'll Help. Will You? Steven Roberts, a New York Times Washington correspon- dent, said President-elect George Bush was insensitive to the Jewish community when he appointed John Sununu as his White House chief of staff. Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, is of Lebanese descent. He was the only governor who refused to endorse a resolution before the National Governors Con- ference decrying the United Nations' "Zionism is racism" resolution. "Like the [Dan] Quayle nomination," said Roberts, "what does this tell us about George Bush? Was there a lack of judgement?" response" to current in- itiatives from Palestinians. The Middle East Blacks and Jews Supporters of Israel must proceed with extreme caution given the new Palestinian state, the incoming American administration and the state of the U.S. economy, caution- ed Yosef Olmert of Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center for Middle East Studies. From a public relations perspective, the declaration of a Palestinian state by the Palestine National Council last week in Algiers leaves Israel with an uphill battle, said Prof. Nehemia Levtzion of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Olmert added that with the PLO "talking in a language that the Canadian and American Public did not hear before, the old-line arguments used so well before [by par- tisans of Israel] will not play well." Unilateral moves by Israel toward peace was firmly re- jected by Levtzion. Since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada last Dec. 9, the Palestine Liberation Organization has "been changing in the face of very harsh Israeli policy," said Levtzion. "If Israel did something unilaterally, there would be no chance the PLO would change." Israel, he said, lacks the "charismatic leadership" to produce a "systematic Despite the black-Jewish civil rights alliance of the 1960s, said Michael Kotzin, director of the Community Relations Council of Chicago's Jewish United Fund, many blacks now see Jews as part of the anti-black world that threatens black economics and empowerment. And, said Kotzin, the Jewish community "hears the anti-Semitism coming from certain segments of the black community and notices the silence coming from other parts of the black communi- ty." Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.) said black-Jewish tensions can only be resolved by "ad- dressing the bigotry on both sides. Have you questioned yourself about the paranoia in the Jewish community?" Jews, advised Leland, can- not just talk to black leaders. They must create issues or programs on which blacks and Jews can cooperate, especially in light of the black middle-class still being "a struggling middle-class." Jews must also reconcile themselves to blacks' love for Jesse Jackson. And Leland advised that if American Jews want continued support for the Congressional Black Caucus, they must persuade Israel to cease all arms sales to South Africa. Who Is A Jew? Continued from Page 44 News that in 1987 she had discussed with a represen- tative of Rabbi Schneerson her perceptions of the dangers of altering the Law of Return. The meeting, she said, lasted several hours and was very amicable. "At the end, we realized we had two very dif- ferent perspectives," she said. Mendel Kaplan, chairman of the Jewish Agency's board of governors, said he will in- sist that the Israeli govern- ment consult the Agency if it intends to formally propose to the Knesset that the Law of Return be changed. Under a 1979 Israeli law, the Agency must be consulted on all issues that affect its functioning. The definition of a Jew, said Kaplan, is "not a political football, a bagaining tool for a coalition. This is an issue that involves every Jew. It does not involve Israeli security!' "This challenge to the very legitimacy" of Israel, said Kaplan, addresses whether Israel should "be democratic; or theocratic, tolerant or in- tolerant, homogeneous or heterogeneous!' Alluding to the potential of the "Who Is A Jew"issue to divide Jews, Simcha Dinitz, chairman of the Jewish Agen- cy Executive and former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, said, "Just as the Arabs did not succeed in separating the Jews in 1973, jsut as the State Department did not succeed in separating the Jews in 1976, Jews will not separate the Jews in 1988." Nor, he said, should the issue cause American Jews to desert Israel. American Jews, he said, "are our soldiers of peace. You are our soldiers to build a strong Israeli society, a quality Israeli society, a de- cent Israeli society. And soldiers, my dear friends, do not walk off the battlefield when it is smoking." Alan Hitsky contributed to this story.