HE JEWISH NEWS
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
THIS ISSUE 60(P
Israelis Predicting
Mass Immigration
DAVID LANDAU and
HUGH ORGEL
ti
I
sraeli officials are revis-
ing upwards their
estimates of how many
Soviet Jews are expected to
come to Israel in the next
few years, now that the
Soviet authorities are about
to remove virtually all re-
strictions on emigration.
The assessments vary from
reasonable projections to
wishful thinking, but there
is a consensus that all the
resources of the state and
the Jewish Agency for Israel
must be mobilized for the
huge absorption task ahead.
Simcha Dinitz, chairman
of the World Zionist
Organization- Jewish Agen-
cy Executive, addressed the
subject at a meeting of the
WZO Executive this week.
He said between 200,000
and 300,000 Soviet Jews will
choose to settle in Israel in
the next three years.
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir told the Knesset's
Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee on Monday that
in the last month alone,
45,000 Soviet Jews initiated
contact with the Israel
government for the invita-
tions they need to apply for
exit visas.
Dinitz told reporters in
New York last week that
Israel has received more
than a million requests from
Jews in the USSR for invita-
tions to immigrate.
He said the numbers have
increased since the change
last month in U.S. policy
that no longer grants refu-
gee status to holders of
Israeli visas.
Shamir reportedly said a
half-million Soviet Jews
were likely to seek to
emigrate in the next two to
three years. But he was not
clear, in his presentation to
the Knesset panel, how
Israel has received
a million requests
from Soviet Jews
seeking
immigration
invitations.
many he expected would
come to Israel.
On Tuesday, however,
Shamir was certain that up
to a million .Jews would
leave the USSR and many
would come to Israel.
He offered that estimate at
Continued on Page 22
DECEMBER 1, 1989 / 3 KISLEV 5750
B'nai Moshe Lobbying
For Reconsideration
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
B
'nai Moshe leaders
hope a letter writing
campaign will put
enough pressure on West
Bloomfield Township
trustees to make them
change their minds.
The synagogue planned to
build a new facility on Drake
Road south of Maple Road,
but board trustees Sharon
Law, Denise Hammond and
Dennis Vatsis voted against
it Nov. 20.
Since the defeat,
synagogue representatives
have worked to get one of the
three trustees to reconsider
their vote.
Former congregation pres-
ident Robert Roth is setting
up individual meetings with
the three trustees and West
Bloomfield Township Super-
visor Sandra Draur, who
abstained because she did
know enough about the pro-
posal.
Roth expects to know by
next week whether a recon-
sideration will be granted.
"Only if the reconsidera-
tion process is unsuccessful"
will the synagogue consider
"legal remedies," Roth said.
Late Tuesday afternoon,
Druar received a hand-
Lubavitch
Town
Jewish Community
Campus
MAPLE RD.
Ford Health
Center
Maple Ridge
Condominiums
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;'B'nai Moshe Kf.:
Iafrate
Maplegrove
Center
delivered letter from
Suzanne Glagola. She and
her husband, Michael, own
10 acres of the 15-acre parcel
that B'nai Moshe intends to
purchase.
Law voted against the
B'nai Moshe proposal for a
variety of reasons, including
traffic and parking concerns.
The synagogue will bring
more people "to an area
where traffic is already hor-
rendous on a Saturday," she
said.
She also did not think the
proposed synagogue parking
was adequate and would
force B'nai Moshe members
Continued on Page 20
The real-life faces behind the masks of
comic books' greatest superheroes.
PAGE 30