DETROIT
'Times' Writer Sees President,
Saddam As Threats To Israel
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
W
illiam Safire had a
warning for Israel
on Monday evening.
The New York Times colum-
nist sees a diminished com-
mitment from the Bush ad-
ministration to the Jewish
state.
Speaking at a major gifts
meeting of the Allied Jewish
Campaign at the home of
Paul and Marlene Borman,
Mr.. Safire said, "I don't
know if it's Bush's Texas oil
background or CIA
background or what, but
whatever the reason the
feeling (between Israel and
the Bush administration)
just isn't there." He said
Israel-U.S. relations are at
their lowest point in Israel's
history.
Mr. Safire sees a change in
Mr. Bush's position on Israel
since his campaign for the
Presidency in 1980. "He has
moved the line from what is
the West Bank to what is
Jerusalem," Mr. Safire said.
"The real message of the
Temple Mount should be: "If
you throw rocks at aged
Jews praying at the Wailing
Wall, or the Western Wall if
you will, then you run the
risk of getting shot.' And the
U.S. joined the U.N. twice in
condemning Israel."
Mr. Safire backed Israel's
position of mistrust of the
United Nations because the
U.N. has never condemned
Syria or Iraq for large-scale
atrocities, but condemns
Israel when its police try to
keep peace. The State
Department excuse, he said,
is the United States must
keep the Arabs together
against Saddam Hussein of
Iraq.
He was critical of the ad-
ministration's stance on
Iraq, saying Americans will
not go to war over oil prices,
Educators Seek Ways
To Life Student Interest
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
etting children, in-
cluding those with
special needs, inter-
ested in Jewish education
will be the focus of the up-
coming Mini-CAJE/Op-
penheim Family Teachers
Institute.
About 400. Jewish
educators and lay leaders
from Michigan, Ohio and Il-
linois will gather for a full-
day conference Nov. 18 at
the Days Hotel in Southfield
to discuss the latest tech-
niques teachers can use to
keep their classrooms inter-
esting.
"It's an opportunity to
provide a teacher in-service
program of high quality that
none of us could do on our
own," said Dottie Dressler,
educational director at Tem-
pi e Emanu-El and co-
planner of the conference.
"It's a conference designed
to provide a feeling of esprit
de corps, if you will, with
programing similar to what
CAJE (an annual Jewish
educators conference) pro-
vides."
For the past few years,
Detroit Jewish educators
have wanted to put together
a regional one-day con-
ference for teachers and lay
leaders, but until recently
did not have the financial
means to do so, Ms. Dressler
said.
Then conference co-
planner Bayla Landsman
contacted Pat Levin, who
along with her father, Royal,
G
16
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1990
oversees the Oppenheim
Family Teachers Institute.
For the past five years, the
Institute has sponsored pro-
grams about educating chil-
dren with special needs,
which includes students
with severe learning
disabilities to gifted chil-
dren.
Those children are usually
the first to be turned off by
traditional methodologies in
Jewish education, Ms. Levin
"We need to have
all the tools we can
to provide a
learning
environment."
Dottie Dressler
said. In many cases those
students with learning
disabilities are highly intel-
ligent, but they tune out
"because teachers don't
have alternative methodolo-
gies to use. We are trying to
give teachers additional ap-
proaches so they can reach
out to the youngsters.
When Ms. Levin agreed to
provide the funding, the In-
stitute and mini-CAJE were
combined, Ms. Dressler said.
The result is a mixture of 12
workshops and nine
speakers dealing with chil-
dren with special needs and
teaching educators new
classroom techniques for
ages ranging from pre-school
to college. The mini-CAJE
will also feature 15 exhibits
of educational material.
While Mini-CAJE/Op-
penheim Family Teachers In-
stitute only lasts a day,
it does give Jewish edu-
cators the incentive and
techniques they need to in-
terest children in Jewish ed-
ucation, Ms. Dressler said.
Reaching students with tra-
ditional teaching methods
isn't working, particularly
in the supplementary educa-
tional system, she added.
"I think (this conference is
important because we have
in Jewish religious schools
in the past used old
methodology and turned
kids off," Ms. Levin said.
"Royal Oppenheim, my
father, decided no one seem-
ed to support in-service
training of Jewish teachers.
If we want to have good Jew-
ish teachers we need to im-
prove methodologies in our
religious schools."
That's where this con-
ference comes in.
"We need to have all the
tools we can have to provide
a learning environment,"
Ms. Dressler said. "It can't
be all fun and games. Learn-
ing is work. Teaching is
work. But we do need as
many tools as possible at our
disposal. That is why we
have CAJE to begin with, to
help teachers revitalize and
find out what other teachers
do that works so they can
expand their repertoire."
"If a teacher walks away
with one more methodology,
then we will have ac-
complished something," Ms.
Levin added.
❑
William Safire, center, meets with Campaign chairmen Larry Jackier and
Joseph Orley.
to save sheiks or collective
security. "What will sway
the American people is the
world threat of poison gas
and atomic weapons that
will be posed by Iraq in 18 to
24 months," Mr. Safire said.
"That's why you see the
world moving toward con-
ventional war."
The danger to Israel, he
said, "is if Saddam gets
smart and pulls out of
Kuwait and says Israel must
pull out of the. West Bank."
If Iraq attacks Israel after
Israel rejects his suggestion,
would the world stand idly
by? Mr. Safire believes it
would.
"The best scenario is to hit
Iraq quickly, remove
Saddam and his poison gas
and his atomic weapons."
Otherwise, Mr. Safire be-
lieves Israel is likely to be
attacked by Iraq "if Saddam
sees this as the way to cor-
don off the Arab world."
Mr. Safire predicted that
Governor Mario Cuomo of
New York would team with
Senator Sam Nunn to run
against a Bush-Quayle
ticket in 1992. Mr. Safire
defended Mr. Quayle, saying
he was the only member of
the National Security Coun-
cil who speaks up for Israel.
He said Mr. Quayle could
be replaced on the ticket by
Housing and Urban Devel-
opment Secretary Jack
Kemp, Secretary of State
JamesBaker, or Joint Chiefs
of Staff Gen. Colin Powell
who is a black, conservative
Republican.
Allied Jewish Campaign
contributors at the meeting
brought the pledge total for
1991 to $12.6 million, 'a 4.5
percent increase from the
same contributors last year.
The Campaign has a 1991
goal of $28.5 million.
Peter Alter told the au-
dience their pledges send a
message to the Detroit Jew-
ish community and to Israel.
Jewish Welfare Federation
President Mark Schlussel
asked the audience to join
the Federation board of gov-
ernors study mission to
Israel in January. "This is a
pivotal time for Israel, and it
should not feel abandoned,"
he said. ❑
Caryn Nessel Named
Federation Lobbyist
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
C
aryn Nessel, assis-
tant to the American
Jewish Congress'
Washington representative,
has been named the first
government affairs consul-
tant for the Michigan Jewish
community.
Ms. Nessel, 23, will work
for the recently formed
Michigan Jewish Con-
ference, a statewide net-
working group aimed at
engaging in advocacy for
communal needs and social
concerns. The group hopes to
build coalitions with other
human needs and social
justice organizations at the
state level.
"We hope to bring together
all of the Jewish com-
munities," Ms. Nessel said.
"And we will be a Jewish
voice in Lansing."
A project of the Jewish
Welfare Federation, the
Conference includes several
communities throughout the
state. Among them are
Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor,
Lansing, Grand Rapids,
South Haven, Muskegon,
Jackson and the tri-city area
— Bay City, Midland and
Saginaw.