I NEWS
Licensed Mohalim
Are In Short Supply
Ninth Annual
EASTER SUNDAY
SALE
Saturday 10-5:30, Sunday 11-4
25%075% Off
EVERYTHING
*Does not include Cocktail dresses, previous soles, layaways or special orders
6692 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield
VISA'
In The West Bloomfield Plaza
851-4410
Mon.-Sot. 10-5:30
Sunday 11-4
VIlicistoreAr
EASTER SALE
2 DAYS ONLY
SATURDAY 10-6
SUNDAY 11.4
15 % OFF
ENTIRE STOCK OF
SPRING AND SUMMER SHOES
*prior sales, layaways and evening shoes excluded
SHOE GALLERY
15 Mile and Orchard Lake Road West Bloomfield Plaza
851-5470
22
FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1990
Tel Aviv (JTA) — The in-
flux of immigrants from the
Soviet Union has unex-
pectedly exacerbated a
longstanding problem: the
shortage of mohalim in
Israel licensed to circumcise
older children, teen-agers
and adult men.
According to Rabbi Yosef
Weisberg, national super-
visor of circumcisions, there
are only a half-dozen such
mohalim in the entire coun-
try. They find it hard to keep
pace with the scores and
sometimes hundreds of un-
circumcised males arriving
each day.
Israeli law requires that
the circumcision of boys 1 to
12 years old be done at a
hospital under a general
anesthetic. Teen-agers and
adults are given a local
anesthetic.
Patients who normally
spend a night in the hospital
are now sent home the same
day because of the increased
demand.
Few ritual circumcisions
are performed in the Soviet
Union, where the operation
is frowned upon by the au-
thorities. The handful of
mohalim employed there by
religious families get little
experience and lack equip-
ment.
Most of them have visited
Israel as tourists in recent
months to take "refresher"
courses. The Chief Rab-
binate supplied them with
medications, including
blood-clotting agents.
Unemployment Low
In Territories
Tel Aviv (JTA) —
Unemployment in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip is only
half what it is in Israel prop-
er, representatives of a U.N.
agency investigating the
alleged exploitation of Pa-
lestinian workers have been
informed.
David Mana, director gen-
eral of the government
Employment Service, told a
delegation from the Interna-
tional Labor Organization in
Geneva that the jobless rate
in the territories stands at
4.5 percent, compared to 9
percent in Israel.
Unemployment in the ter-
ritories is down from the 15
percent rate that prevailed
when Israel captured them
in 1967, Mana said.
Israel has established 28
employment bureaus there
since 1967.
About 35 percent of job-
holders in the territories
work in Israel and represent
6.5 percent of the Israeli
labor force, Mana said.
Construction jobs are held
by 53 percent of the workers
from the territories and 14
percent are employed in in-
dustry.
Agriculture accounts for
12 percent, and the remain-
ing 21 percent are scattered
in various other sectors.
The ILO has complained
frequently that Palestinian
workers are subject to abuse
and poor working conditions.
Fertility Advances May
Help Ashkenazi Women
New York (JTA) — A
genetic fertility disorder
that affects some 33 percent
of Ashkenazi women may
now be reversed, thanks to
the success of a local doctor
in studying the effects of a
low- dosage steroid pill on
barren women.
Dr. Michele Zerah, 33, an
assistant professor of
pediatrics at the Cornell
University Medical Center
at New York Hospital, said a
pilot study showed high
percentages of previously
barren women were able to
conceive after taking the
steroid pill at bedtime.
.
The disorder, a non-
classical adrenal deficiency,
affects one of 30 women of
Ashkenazi, or Eastern Eu-
ropean Jewish descent.
Zerah collaborated with
two medical colleagues in
the study, which was funded
by a $20,000 grant from the
United Jewish Appeal-
Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies of New York.
The group screened 25
Ashkenazi women and found
four had the disorder. Three
of them were treated, and
two became pregnant within
18 months, Zerah said.