THE JEWISH NEWS THIS ISSUE 75( SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY JUNE 8, 1990 / 15 SIVAN 5750 Exodus Fund Passes i st Goal ALAN HITSKY Associate Editor T he Detroit Jewish community has pledged $17.2 million over the last two months for Operation Exodus, the international campaign ex- pected to raise $420 million to help Israel resettle Soviet Jewish immigrants. The Israelis have projected a budget of $2 billion to resettle Soviet Jews over the next five years. The Detroit total, an- nounced Monday at a meeting of major con- tributors at Knollwood Country Club, exceeds the Jewish Welfare Federation's initial goal of $16.5 million. "Whatever we raise will be inadequate," said local Ex- odus chairman David Mon- dry. "The initial goal was based on the expectation that 100,000 Soviet Jews will go to Israel this year. Now they are talking of 200,000 to 250,000 leaving for Israel." The campaign will con- tinue with phonathons June 14, 19 and 21 from United Hebrew Schools, a Young Adult Division fund-raiser on June 13, programs for children at Tamarack Camps this summer, and scheduled missions to Poland, Hungary and the Soviet Union that will all meet in Israel in September. "Our quota is not dollars; it's Jewish souls," said former Federation President Dr. Conrad Giles after the meeting. Federation Presi- dent Mark Schlussel added, "For every Soviet Jew who immigrates to Israel, we are telling the world and the Arabs that we will not be pushed into the sea." Author Leon Uris, the guest speaker on Monday, delivered the same theme during his half-hour remarks. His novel Exodus, about the creation of Israel, was an underground favorite 12-Month Total: 793 Soviet Jews SUSAN GRANT Staff Writer uring the past year, 793 Soviet Jews arrived in Detroit, leaving Jewish community leaders scrambling to find homes, jobs, loans and Eng- lish training for the immi- grants. Of those resettling in Detroit, the Jewish Voca- tional Service is assisting 431 Soviet Jews seeking employment. The remainder are either elderly, children or teens. JVS statistics show that to date, one-third of the 431 have secured jobs; one-third are enrolled in the JVS retraining program and one- third are still searching for jobs. The community is projec- ting another 700 arrivals through June, 1991, and of- ficials from the Jewish Wel- fare Federation are asking communal agencies to put a hold on spending. D "We are saving our money for local resettlement," Fed- eration Executive Vice Pres- ident Robert Aronson said. "It's costing us a lot of money we haven't got. We will do it because we have to do it." The community is spen- ding $1 million a year for local resettlement of Soviet Jews, with much of it going toward acculturation efforts. Although Detroiters col- lected $17.2 million for Operation Exodus, which in- cludes $1.5 million over the next three years for local resettlement use, more money is needed, Aronson said. As far as providing Soviet Jews with the basic needs such as shelter and jobs, Detroit is doing well, Aron- son said. Ruth Canada, supervisor of refugee employment ser- vices for JVS, expects some Soviet Jews who have jobs to return to JVS within the Continued on Page 20 Leon Uris addresses Monday's meeting. In the front row are Operation Exodus leaders Penny Blumenstein, Lawrence Jasckier, David Mondry, Peter Alter, Federation executive Robert Aronson and his wife Laura. of Soviet Jews, with trans- lated, often handwritten copies passed from person to person. Uris visited the Soviet Union last fall, "but it became clear that I was allowed to enter just to serve the purposes of the Soviet Union." Scheduled meetings were cancelled or transferred at the last moment to distant meeting halls in the suburbs. Journalists and Jewish refuseniks trying to meet with him were inter- rogated at KGB head- quarters. "The Soviet Union is a house about to collapse," Uris said Monday. "It is a depressed land that cannot feed, house or clothe its citizens." He described the Soviet people as dull-eyed and somber, "wearing their weariness as though it were a national emblem." Uris believes the Soviet Union will not survive the imminent collapse of com- munism "without bloodshed and upheaval." Stalinists and nationalists will use the traditional Russian scapegoat — the Jews — to deflect blame for the Soviet Union's problems. "There was no pogrom on May 5, but there is nothing in Russian history to suggest that it won't happen next week or next month. The old anti-Semitism is bubbling to the surface. Who else is there to blame?" A Pamyat rally that Uris happened upon last fall "smelled of the Nazi thugs of 1922." Despite Mikhail Gor- bachev's threat last Sunday to reduce Soviet emigration because of Arab pressure, Uris called Grobachev the Soviet Union's only chance at a peaceful transition. "But he can't reverse nine centuries of Jew-baiting and the Russian psyche of anti- Semitism," Uris said. Uris fears a reunited Ger- many and sees the Holocaust as a major loss for Poland. Sixty post-war Nobel laureates living in the United States are of eastern European descent, he said. "As a people, we have enriched every land where we have set down. We are the oldest players in the game of survival because of our morality and our ideas. "We must support Jewish life in eastern Europe," Uris said, "but I believe Jews will be welcome there when you can grow onions in your hand . It is the same old story. Every generation of Jews since the fall of the Se- cond Temple have been blessed and burdened with saving our people." Mondry called the Holo- caust, the creation of Israel and Operation Exodus "the three major events of our lifetime." Mondry said the Jewish community failed to rescue the Jews during the Holo- caust for a variety of reasons. But this time, he said, Jews would not fail to save their brethren in the Soviet Union. "Operation Exodus is the essence of Judaism. It is cathartic; it is what distinguishes us from others." Southfield houses more Jewish families than any other suburb in metropolitan Detroit. For how long?