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JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
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s the Bush admin-
istration fills out its
team, one big winner
appears to be the National
Jewish Coalition, the conser-
vative Jewish group that
sprang from the first Reagan
campaign.
In recent weeks, no less
than five of the group's
leading figures have received
ambassadorial appointments,
including Chic Hecht, the
defeated conservative senator
on a kibbutz
at a hospital
at an army base
in a development town
UAHC Seminars
Wain Rabbis
In Social Action
Total Cost:
$636 from New York plus a $45 registration fee.
A two-week option is available for an additional $100.
A second trip, July 9•August 1 is available for
$893 from New York, plus a $45 registration fee.
Children age 13-16, related to a participant, can spend
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— Subsidies available —
Deadline for registration, April 28th.
liA7 4.UNTEERS
FOR
ISRAEL
INFORMATIONAL MEETING
Sunday, April 16
5:00 p.m.
Jewish Community Center
Maple/Drake Bldg.
R.S.V.P.
6614440
ISRAEL PROGRAM CENTER
661.5440
6600 W. Maple, W. Bloomfield, MI 48322
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FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 1989
House that the Coalition, and
the Jewish community, are to
be invited to briefings on the
entire range of issues," said
the group's new director, Ben
Waldman. "We've had a lot of
high-level members of the ad-
ministration call and solicit
our involvement. It's a very
exciting time for us."
Still another measure of the
group's recent success is the
fact that Jewish Democrats,
who are now planning a
similar organization on their
side of the partisan divide,
have requested information
from the Coalition about its
origins and organization.
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PATISSERIE
(313) 357-4540
Chic Hecht:
Off to the Bahamas.
from Nevada. During his
Senate career, Hecht angered
many Jewish activists
because of his opposition to
the "yarmulke" bill. In his
unsuccessful bid for re-
election, Hecht also faced a
rebellion by pro-Israel
political action committees.
Hecht will serve as the
Bush administration's am-
bassador to the Bahamas.
Joe Gildenhorn, a key
player in Coalition activities
for many years, received the
nod for the ambassadorial
post in Switzerland. Other
NJC activists to win
diplomatic posts are Mel
Sembler, Eric Javits and Joy
Silverman.
Several other appointments
are pending, including a job
at the State Department for
Chris Gersten, the group's
outgoing executive director.
According to Coalition
sources, the administration
has formalized the policy of
using the group as a conduit
to the Jewish community.
"Unlike during the Reagan
years, there is an institu-
tional directive at the White
When the Union of
American Hebrew Congrega-
tions brings its "Consultation
on Conscience" meetings to
town next week, attention
will be focused on the ex-
pected drama of some of the
sessions — including a panel
discussion on the situation in
Israel, with speakers like
liberal activist Leonard Fein
and Tom Dine, director of the
American Israel 'Public Af-
fairs Committee (AIPAC).
But officials of UAHC's
Religious Action Center are
just as enthusiastic about a
little-known aspect of their
periodic Washington gather-
ings — the Rabbinic Students
Seminar.
"The purpose is to train
rabbinical students in social
action techniques, so they can
be leaders in these areas in
the future," according to Rab-
bi Lynne Landsberg,
associate director of UAHC's
Religious Action Center and
the prime organizer of the
seminars.
According to Landsberg, the
seminar is unique because it
combines a strong emphasis
on social action with
representation from all the
major branches of Judaism —
groups that are often at odds
over the content of that
activism.
Do the seminars actually
produce new crops of activist
rabbis? According to Center
records, a long list of promi-
nent Jewish activists are
graduates of the program —
including Rabbi David
Saperstein, the Center's
director and the leading
figure in progressive Jewish
circles in Washington. Sapers-
tein attended the Rabbinic
Seminars 20 years ago.
Frantic Planning
Preceded Visit
Of Shamir
When Prime Minister Yit-
zhak Shamir touched down in
Washington this week, ar-
mies of reporters quickly
zeroed in on the drama of the
long-awaited meetings and
the prospects for a new peace
plan from the Israeli leader.
But to the Israeli embassy,
the visit is only the culmina-
tion of months of frantic plan-
ning and coordination.
"It's been a tremendous ef-
fort," said Yossi Gal,
spokesman for the embassy.
"We're talking about hun-
dreds of hours of preparation.
In my domain alone, it's the
process of trying to make
some sense out of all the re-
quests for radio and television
interviews, all the ap-
pearances."
The planning process began
with meetings between em-
bassy staffers and the State
Department's protocol office.
At the same time, staffers
under the direction of Israeli
ambassador Moshe Arad
began making arrangements
for housing Shamir and his
entourage, and for shuttling
Yitzhak Shamir:
Travels light.
them between meetings and
public events in a flotilla of
stretch limos.
From the outset, plans were
coordinated with Israeli and
U.S. security officials. Every
step of Shamir's itinerary was
mapped and evaluated for
potential security risks.
The logistical details are
endless. "You go almost on a
daily basis through meetings
coordinating the thousands of
details involved," Gal said,
"starting with who sits next