THE JEWISH NEWS
7 5 0
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
$250,000 Detroit Gift
Pays For Soviet Flight
KIMBERLY LIFTON
C>
Staff Writer
D
etroit became the se-
cond U.S. city to
sponsor a United
Jewish Appeal Freedom
Flight last week, bringing
190 Soviet Jews to Israel
through a $250,000 gift to
Operation Exodus from the
estate of the late Ben Teitel.
To date, Philadelphia is
the only other Jewish com-
munity to subsidize a flight,
but officials from UJA in
New York said more than a
dozen communities have re-
quested flight sponsorships.
This is the first time an in-
dividual gift paid for an en-
tire flight.
Freedom Flight originated
through UJA eight months
ago after the inception of
Operation Exodus, the
international campaign ex-
pected to raise $420 million
in the United States to help
Israel absorb and resettle
Soviet Jewish immigrants.
Freedom Flight is a concept
whereby an individual or a
group of people can charter
an airplane to directly bring
Cheryl Cook greets two Soviet Jewish youngsters at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Wolpe Ties Israel
Arms To Ethiopia
LARRY COHLER
Special to The Jewish News
srael has supplied Ethi-
opia's tottering dictator,
Mengistu Haile Mariam,
with cluster bombs, Israeli
military trainers, strategic
advisers and war material,
in part to secure the emigra-
tion of Ethiopian Jews, ac-
cording to a congressional
staff report that cites Pen-
tagon sources for much of its
information.
The confidential staff
memo was given to U.S. Rep.
Howard Wolpe (D-Mich.),
chairman of the House sub-
committee on Africa. A copy
of the memo, obtained by the
Washington Jewish Week,
states that in late 1989,
Mengistu was pressing
Israel for an even larger
arms package than it had
received. But stiff opposition
from the United States ap-
peared to deter the Israelis
then, according to the report.
However, speculation
about the military ties bet-
ween Israel and Ethiopia
has increased recently with
reports that Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir
met secretly with Mengistu
last week in Tel Aviv.
Shamir spokesman Avi
Continued on Page 20
out Soviet immigrants.
Morris Sherman, UJA's
vice president for Campaign,
said transporting Soviet
Jews to Israel is a primary
concern of Operation Ex-
odus.
"One of the most impor-
tant goals that the Jewish
Agency has asked UJA and
its partners to pick up is the
responsibility of the
transportation cost," Sher-
man said. "The thing we
ought to focus on is moving
them before there is a
change in the Soviet Union.
Purchasing the flight is very
important. We need to get
them out while the doors are
still open."
Detroit Jewish Welfare
Federation officials said
they will consider asking
local temples and syn-
agogues to sponsor Freedom
Flights. Recently, Young
Israel of Southfield launched
a fund-raising appeal to its
members for chartering a
plane.
Gerald Cook, ad-
ministrator for the trust of
his late uncle, Ben Teitel,
said the idea of sponsoring a
flight stemmed from a
meeting with Jewish Wel-
fare Federation Executive
Vice President Robert Aron-
son. Half of Mr. Teitel's
charitable trust is earmark-
ed for Israel, and the balance
is for local Jewish causes.
"He (Mr. Teitel) knew he
was a Jew and had an
obligation to help other
Jews," Cook said.
Cooks' daughters, Beth
and Cheryl, Aronson, Rabbi
Efry Spectre of Adat Shalom
Synagogue and Women's
Division Operation Exodus
Chair Jane Sherman greeted
the plane in Israel.
During Teitel's lifetime
and since his death five
years ago, Teitel funds have
been used for a day care
center in Detroit's Project
Renewal city of Yavne,
Israel, the Harriett and Ben
Teitel Jewish Federation
Apartments in Oak Park,
the Jewish Vocational Ser-
vice's Herman Teitel Senior
Adult Workshop in
Southfield, and programs at
Hillel Day School, the Jew-
ish Home for Aged and the
Holocaust Memorial
Center.
JULY 13, 1990 / 20 TAMMUZ 5750
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