EDITORIAL
Alarm Bells In School
The community has just been handed a
skeletal blueprint for remodeling local Jew-
ish education. The announcement this week
of Jewish Welfare Federation plans will
reignite internal debates over costs and effec-
tive programs.
The major issues should be funding and
quality. Jewish education in the Detroit area
— and nationally — has been in a state of
disrepair for decades. Locally, protecting turf
and slow response to communal changes have
left Jewish education at status quo. The Fed-
eration announcement signals an end to that
attitude and a recognition that times have
changed.
It no longer makes sense to pump the bulk
of the community's education funds into
afternoon programs and ancillary services for
20 percent of the school population. It no
longer makes sense to spend $1.5 million for
Jewish education while ignoring family pro-
grams, informal education, the growing
needs of singles and adult Jews.
The renaming of United Hebrew Schools
iN
last year to the Agency for Jewish Education
reflects the changing role of the agency and
the broad work it has started in training
teachers and coordinating programs for local
Jewish institutions. While lauding those
efforts, the announcement this week serves
notice that Federation will not be bound by
traditional attitudes and institutions when
considering major changes in our educational
delivery system.
Jewish education is the essential ingre-
dient in the long-term viability and continui-
ty of the Detroit Jewish community. It is the
key to reversing the erosion of assimilation
and assuring the strength of Detroit Jewry.
Putting local Jewish education on a more
businesslike footing must assure quality of
programs for everyone in the community. To
achieve this goal, our leaders and educators
must reconsider financial priorities, avoid
turf battles, and emphasize programs that
cross community lines.
In that regard, this week's announcement
appears to be a good beginning.
Israel's New Government
"Has the new government in Israel fallen
yet?" a friend asked hopefully on Tuesday,
only hours after Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir's right-wing coalition was approved
by the Knesset.
Fragile as it is, with only a two-seat
majority in the 120-seat Knesset and knit
together from six parties with differing agen-
das, the new government is causing worry
and concern among many American Jews, as
well as the Bush administration.
As Israel's most right-wing coalition, it is
led by Yitzhak Shamir, who is outflanked on
the right by Ariel Sharon (housing minister),
David Levy (foreign minister) and Yitzhak
Modai (finance), Shamir's chief rivals within
his Likud party.
Relations between Washington and
Jerusalem have been at a low point. Now
along comes_ Sharon, who advocates an iron-
fist policy to put down the intifada and in-
creased settlement of the territories, and
Levy, who lacks diplomatic sophistication
and barely speaks English. It is understan-
dable why observers in Washington are
predicting increased tensions with Israel over
settlements and negotiations with the Arabs.
The positive side, though, is that at long
last the logjam represented by a national uni-
ty government has been broken. No longer
hindered by its Labor partners, the new coali-
tion is free to act. And according to its plat-
form, the current government advocates giv-
ing first priority to the wave of Soviet Jews
and to moving forward on the Shamir peace
plan.
Those are admirable goals. The question is
whether the new coalition can concentrate its
energies on these positive aspirations rather
than getting bogged down on issues of polit-
ical grandstanding, showing who can be the
fiercest advocate of an independent Israel.
The majority in the new cabinet want to in-
crease Israeli settlements in the territories
and no doubt would like to see Soviet Jews
settle there. But we trust the cabinet mem-
bers recognize that such moves could stop the
flow of emigration from the Soviet Union, a
price too high to pay.
The last time there was this much worry in
the United States about a new Israeli
government was when Menachem Begin
came to power in 1977. It was Begin, we
should note, who signed Israel's only peace
treaty with an Arab state.
American Jews may feel less connected to
this new government, and may be worried
about the repercussions in Washington if
things do not go smoothly, but then again the
new government does not represent Ameri-
can Jews. Whether it represents the majority
of Israelis remains, now, to be seen.
I LETTERS
Southfield Story
Was Unnecessary
I was extremely offended by
the article "Southfield:
Center Of It All," June 8.
After 13 years of religious
education, 14 years of regular
education and four years of
activity in the B'nai B'rith
Youth Organization, I realize
the Jewish people do not need
enemies. We are a minority
just as the black people men-
tioned in this article are a
6
FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1990
minority. We know what it
feels like to be patronized by
a group of people. Why do we
turn around and write an ar-
ticle where we insult and put
blame on another group of
people?
I am a Birmingham resi-
dent, and therefore I am not
saying that people should not
move out of Southfield if they
are not happy. The point I am
trying to emphasize is that
we don't need to write an ar-
ticle about it. This article has
not solved anything. It has
simply stated something that
does not need to be stated.
Over the years of my Jewish
education, I have attended in-
terracial seminars, and I've
learned one thing, we need to
work together!
Ellyn Craine
Birmingham
Southfield Offers
Much To Jews
I read with great interest
the article of June 8 concern-
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ing the city of Southfield and
the Jewish community.
It is correct that there are
real and perceived changes in
the city and in its schools, and
I regret that this aspect of
Southfield life received top
billing in the article. I say
regret because it is equally
true that the quality of life in
Southfield, the great quality
and affordability of its hous-
ing stock, and the continued
excellence of its school
system, while all mentioned
in the article, clearly took a
secondary role in it. In the
last two-and-a-half weeks
alone two Jewish families
have purchased homes on
Constitution and another
home was rented to a Jewish
family in Beacon Square; cer-
tainly this speaks well for the
continued viability (as op-
posed to the mere survival of
the Southfield Jewish
community.
When all is said and done,
if a Jewish family is seeking
a comfortable lifestyle with a
substantial Jewish ambiance,
close to major Jewish institu-
tions, with a fine public
school system, and excellent
affordable housing, that fami-
ly will make Southfield high
on its list of priorities.
Les Goldstein
Southfield
City's Problem
Is School Board
The question asked by
Kimberly Lifton in "Center
Of It All — Southfield Houses
More Jewish Families . . . For
How Long???" is not
answered in the comments of
the various persons quoted in
the article but in the hidden
agenda of the Southfield
school board!
Jews, like middle-class
blacks, will seek out a com-
munity with outstanding
schools. A community's pro-
perty values seem to follow
the same course. Most Jews
have depended upon the
public schools for generations
as the major vehicle for up-
ward social mobility. Middle-
class blacks are escaping
Detroit nowadays for the very
same reasons.
When the Southfield school
board embarked on an unof-
ficial policy of "affirmative ac-
tion," hiring only outside
blacks as the last five school
administrators to the mutual
exclusion of more qualified in-
district personnel, the same
process which wrecked the
once superb Detroit school
system was set in motion. A
school board must realize that
the maintenance of quality
education is the major attrac-
tion to a community for both
Jews and blacks.
Richard Leland
Southfield
Another Way
To Say 9fesh Gvul'
I agree wholeheartedly to
yesh gvul (there is a limit),
but not the way Hanoch
Livneh describes it ("Former
IDF Soldier Urges U.S. Jews
'Ib Demand Immediate Peace
Talks,' June 1).
He manipulates the entire
situation in Yehuda, Shomron
and Gaza (the territories) in
favor of the "Palestinians"
and put the total blame on
the shoulders of Israel. If
Livneh would open his eyes
and mind and look on the
Israeli side he could strike a
balance of the events that oc-
cur daily in the territories. He
should tell the Jews and gen-
tiles of America about the in-
nocent Jewish victims, such
as the murder by Arabs of the
family of Ofra Moses — her
unborn child and five-year-old
son — and Rachel Weiss, who
burned to death with her
three children in a bus at-
tacked by Arab terrorists.
Livneh tells the Israelis
yesh gvul to be in the ter-
ritories, while "Palestinians"
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