OPINION

The Next Time,
I'll Take My Walkman

PHIL JACOBS

Managing Editor

E

ver been in a situation
where you overhear
something outrageous,
but you can't really do
anything about it?
That happened to me last
week at a vegetarian restau-
rant I occasionally go to. It
had been a difficult week
with the entire focus of life
seemingly spent on the war.
I sat down for some fruit
salad, a cup of tea and a
quiet hour to read The New
York Times. There were no
phones ringing, no requests
for anything, no complaints,
just a lot of typical restau-
rant chatter.
But that all ended when a
well-dressed middle-aged
man and a younger woman
sat down at a table within
five feet of where I was sit-
ting. Other than watching
them come and sit down,
there would have been
nothing else to notice about
the pair. But the conversa-
tion that the man started
was a difficult one to sit
through. Their small talk
about the menu and what
they should order wasn't
even noticed. But when the
man started talking about
Jesus Christ, he did so at
such a volume that I believe
he wanted other people to
hear what he had to say.
You see, it seemed that JC
saved his life, and the
younger woman nodded in
approval, probably not yet
comfortable with what she
was hearing or the way it
was being delivered. She
was trying to figure out if
her life had been saved yet
or when it would be.
After she nodded her head
in approval and said a few
uh-huhs, the man, who look-
ed like comedian Jonathan
Winters in an Indian print
sweater vest, started talking
about his greatest mission
. . . proselytizing to the Jews.
This is where it became
difficult to concentrate on
sliced pears and a Thomas
Friedman article from the
Middle East. This was like a
Scud missile penetrating my
war-focused consciousness to
remind me that war or no
war, life was going on.
The dilemma was real.
This wasn't my conversa-
tion. I didn't know these
people; yet they spent an in-
ordinate amount of time
discussing strategy on how
they reach out to Jews.
"Most Jews don't have the

slightest notion about their
own heritage," the man said.
"Most are open to new ideas
as long as you can feed it to
them in Jewish terms."
By now the fruit was turn-
ing brown on my plate and
my tea was cold. But there
was nothing I could really do
with this guy. Does one cut
in and be told to mind his
own business? And the
longer he spoke, the louder,
it seemed, his voice became.
The sad part here is that
he was right. Many Jews are
vulnerable to missionaries
because they don't take time
to check out where they are
coming from, preferring to
take an easier way out. The
real problem is that Jews for
Jesus and Messianic
Judaism have attracted tens
of thousands of American
Jews. And these are not fr-
inge element people either.
Many are well-educated
human beings who for one
reason or another were
turned off by a lack of spiri-
tuality in mainline Judaism.
I have a friend named
Larry Levy in Baltimore.
Larry at one time was a
leading force in Messianic
Judaism. And before he
became a federal govern-
ment attorney he had become
the director of Jews for

Judaism in Baltimore, a
counter-missionary organiza-
tion. Larry would always say
from his experience in Mess-
ianic Judaism that the one
thing that mainline Judaism
needs to learn from the Mes-
sianic Jews is the high level
of spirituality, the singing
and the dancing and the
fellowship at the Messianic
Jewish services. Many tradi-
tional Jews, he said, think
that the sum total of their
• religiosity is responsive
readings.

.

Batya Schreiber of the
Detroit Jews for Judaism
chapter, part of the country's
only counter-missionary
organization, said that in
some circumstances it is
perfect etiquette to break
into the conversation, saying
that you overheard this or
that and would like some
more information. That way,
she said, you can find out the
name of the person trying to
do the converting. She added
that any literature you can
get or a place and time of a

meeting is also helpful to her
organization.
I always thought that res-
taurant etiquette meant
never placing one's elbows
on the table or closing one's
menu when ready to order.
But I guess it now includes
discussing Jesus and mis-
sionaries to the Jews.

Next time I go for one of
these quiet lunches away
from the office, I'll take my
Times, but I'll also bring my
Walkman.

❑

Israel Must Put Its House
In Order For The Immigrants

ROBERT ROCKAWAY

M

y letter to the editor
to The Jewish News
(Dec. 7), reflecting on
the way the Israeli govern-
ment is handling, or not
handling, the absorption of
Soviet Jewish immigrants,
elicited a great deal of com-
ment. Consequently, I feel
duty-bound to respond.
I stand by everything I
wrote. It is no secret that the
Israeli government's efforts to
absorb the Russian olim has
been a disaster. In the best of
times, the task of absorbing
this massive wave of
thousands of immigrants
would need an all-out
mobilization of the nation's
resources. Unfortunately,
these are not the best, or even
good, times. We are faced with

Dr. Rockaway is on the
faculty of Tel Aviv University.
A former Detroiter, he has
been living in Israel for 20

years.

an ongoing civil insurrection,
as well as economic disloca-
tion and widespread
unemployment.
Nevertheless, our political
leadership could be doing far
more than they have to pro-
vide housing and jobs for the
newcomers. Instead, we have
a failure of leadership at the
highest levels, political in-
fighting, bureaucratic snafus
and delays, and a waste of the
scarce resources needed for
immigrant absorption.
For instance, we still do not
have a well-thought-out plan
to house the olim. All kinds
of solutions have been propos-
ed, including prefabricated
homes, mobile homes, mobile
homes (or as they are called
here, "caravans") placed on
the roofs of existing buildings,
each Israeli family to take a
Russian family into their
homes, and the setting up of
tent cities.
According to Housing
Minister Sharon, construc-
tion of dwellings is 18 months
behind the projected demand.

And of the 45,000 units the
government approved for con-
struction, only 16,000 have
been built. The un-
preparedness of the construc-
tion industry is due in large
measure to the incompetence
of our previous housing
minister, who is presently our

Housing and jobs
are the key
ingredients, and
U.S. Jewry could
play a major role.

foreign minister, David Levy.
Despite Housing Minister
Sharon's vaunted ability to
get things done, little real
progress was made over the
past year.
In addition, the minister of
absorption, Rabbi Yitzhak
Peretz, is simply not up to
the task. He has absolutely
no background nor qualifica-
tions for the job, and was
given the ministry out of
political and coalition con-

siderations. This is the same
minister who went to Russia
and publicly claimed that 30
percent of Russian im-
migrants are not Jewish.
Rabbi Peretz delayed sub-
mitting his absorption plan
for months (amid charges he
had no plan), and because he
was angry with Housing
Minister Sharon, he boycot-
ted immigration cabinet
meetings. While all of this
bickering was going on, the
immigrants kept coming.
Unhappily for the nation,
the man who should be giving
direction to the absorption ef-
fort, Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir, has remained in the
background, persistently
refusing to become involved.
He allowed squabbling bet-
ween ministers Peretz and
Sharon to continue unabated;
he caved in to the religious
parties' blackmail and allow-
ed scarce resources to be
diverted to religious institu-
tions; and he continually
allows narrow party and
Continued on Page 10

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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