COMMUNITY
Local Visitors To Israel
Are Ready To Go Back
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
D
etroiters who were in
Israel at the end of
October can't under-
stand what all the fuss is
about.
While trips to Israel have
been canceled in the wake of
the riots at the Temple
Mount Oct. 9, State Depart-
ment travel advisories and
threats against Israel from
Iraq's Saddam Hussein, par-
ticipants on the Morasha
(Heritage) mission Oct. 21-31
are ready to go back again.
"Everybody we saw there
thanked us for coming. They
went out of their way to
show us a positive experi-
ence," said Dr. Owen
Perlman of Ann Arbor, co-
chairman of the national
mission for the United Jew-
Dr. Owen Perlman, left, greets Soviet immigrants arriving at Ben-Gurion
Airport.
Crisis In The Gulf
Is Topic Of Panel
"The Gulf Crisis and
Israel" will be the subject of
a panel discussion 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 18 at the Green
Auditorium of the Hillel
Foundation, 1429 Hill Street,
Ann Arbor. The panelists will
be U-M Professor Raymond
Tanter; Yoram Eytan-
Ettinger, minister of congres-
sional affairs of the Embassy
of Israel, Washington, D.C.;
and Charles Perkins, senior
military affairs analyst of the
American Israel Public Af-
fairs Committee (AIPAC).
The panel discussion is
sponsored by the AIPAC
Caucus of Washtenaw Coun-
ty and IMPAC, a U-M student
organization. The panelists
will answer questions from
the audience and a reception
will follow. There is no charge.
Dr. Tanter, professor of
political science at the U-M,
has taught courses on the
Arab-Israeli Conflict and
American Foreign Policy. He
previously served as Senior
Staff Member of the National
Security Council and Per-
sonal Representative of the
Secretary of Defense at
balanced force reduction and
disarmament conferences.
Mr. Eytan-Ettinger, who
was born in Tel Aviv, served
as first lieutenant of artillery
in the Israel Defense Forces.
His prior Israel Government
posts include Director of the
Government Press Office in
Jerusalem and Consul
General in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Perkins monitors arms
sales in the Middle East and
the U.S.-Israel strategic rela-
tionship for AIPAC. He is
recognized as an authority on
regional conflicts and defense
technology, and has written
about the Arab military
buildup.
The Washtenaw County
Caucus of the American-
Israel Public Affairs Commit-
tee, one of the organizations
sponsoring the discussion was
recently established to
achieve a balanced view of
Israel in the general com-
munity as well as in the
Jewish community; it is not
directly affiliated with
AIPAC.
For information, call Ben
Dorsky, 662-3698.
ish Appeal Young Leader-
ship Cabinet. Some 250
American Jews participated
in the trip to Poland and
Israel, including 15
Detroiters.
First-time visitor Lynn
Sachse of Birmingham was
enthusiastic about her expe-
rience in Israel. "We landed,
and it was like we had come
home." Ms. Sachse said the
group went everywhere —
Jerusalem, the West Bank,
the Golan Heights, the Jor-
dan River — and never felt
any danger.
She said Israelis feel
isolated by recent events.
"I would go back
tomorrow," she said. "I
would take little kids with
me. The media here is slan-
ting (incidents) and blowing
it out of proportion." She
said it is a shame that
American Christian groups
are continuing to go to Israel
but American Jews are
holding back. "Now is the
time when Israelis need our
support," she said.
Israeli tourism officials,
already reeling from
cancellations of Jewish fed-
eration-sponsored missions
to Israel, were upset by the
cancellation of the Women's
American ORT national
board conference in Israel.
With a potential of 800
visitors, ORT officials said
registration had reached
500, and then dropped to 300
in one week after the Temple
Mount incident.
Mel Galun, Women
American ORT's director of
communications, said the
decision to cancel this
week's meeting in Israel was
one of the most heart-
wrenching the organization
had ever made. The con-
ference has been re-
scheduled to Dec. 2-4 in
Washington, D.C.
He said the 300 repre-
sented only 140 board mem-
bers, far less than a quorum
needed to conduct business
at the conference.
Rumors in Israel that
Detroit had also canceled a
mission were vigorously de-
nied by Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration officials. An Opera-
tion Exodus mission,
scheduled for September,
never drew much response
but Federation is organizing
a board of governors mission
in January that has drawn
40 reservations in just two
weeks. Officals would like to
see 100 reservations from
the Federation board mem-
bers. ❑
Photo by Glenn Triest
B'nai B'rith members raised $18,000 Sunday for Hillel foundations in
the state and the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization. Celebrating their
achievement are John Rofel, Linda Berke, Ralph Woronoff and Jerry
Olson.
Technion Society
Hosts Dr. Keyes
The Detroit Chapter of the
American Technion Society
will host Dr. Alan Keyes as
the speaker at its 42nd an-
nual dinner 6:15 p.m. Nov. 15
at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek.
Dr. Keyes is a resident
scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute for
Public Policy Research in
Washington, D.C. He was for-
mally assistant secretary for
International Affairs during
the Reagan administration.
He has also served as a con-
sultant to the National
Security Council. He is cur-
rently writing two books deal-
ing with public policy process.
Dr. Keyes received his doc-
torate from Harvard Univer-
sity. After joining the U.S.
Foreign Service in 1978, he
served as vice consul in India,
a desk officer in the Office of
Southern African Affairs and
a member of the State De-
Alan Keyes
partment's Policy Planning
Staff.
For ticket information, call
Technion, 559-5190.
Technion Names
New Director
Isaac Lakritz of Jackson-
ville, Fla., has been appointed
director of the East Central
Region of the American Socie-
ty for Technion, based in
Southfield.
Mr. Lakritz comes to ATS
from the Jacksonville Jewish
Federation where he was ex-
ecutive vice president. He
developed and built the
Young Leadership program,
created a public rela-
tions/media plan which won a
first place Council of Jewish
Federations award, and im-
plemented the largest Rus-
sian resettlement program in
the U.S. proportionate to com-
munity size.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
57