UP FRONT I 4 Israel's Poor Continued from preceding page TRADITION. Isn't there one more worth carrying on? Friday night. The end of the week. The beginning of Shabbat. A time to relax, reflect and renew. And as much a part of this tradition as the candles and the challah was knowing the weekly Jewish News had also arrived. It brought news about the community, the nation and the world. Today, that tradition hasn't changed. In fact, it's gotten better. Each week award-winning journalists combine the warmth of community with world issues using candor and compassion to strengthen Jewish identity and...tradition. Keep the tradition alive. Give a Jewish News subscription to a friend, a relative, as a special gift. If you don't subscribe, (and you find yourself always reading someone else's copy) maybe it's time to start your own tradition. The Jewish News. It's a tradition worth keeping. THE JEWISH NEWS — No Other Publication Has More Faith r 1 ❑ Save 40% over the newsstand price. Receive 52 award winning weekly issues plus five separate Style magazine supplements for only $31.00 (out-of-state $41.00). Yes! I want to be a faithful reader of the Jewish ❑ Why should I be the only one to enjoy? I'd like to News, I'd like to order my own subscription. send a gift subscription. Send my thoughtful gift to: My Name Name My Address Address City State Zip City State Gift card to read Please send all payments along with this coupon to: Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034 Or call (313) 354-6060 and charge your order to Mastercard or Visa. L 12 FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1992 money than the poorest ten- th. These sorts of figures pro- duced front-page headlines, and quite a degree of shock. Israel, after all, is supposed to be a relatively egalitarian country, and one that looks out for its weaker citizens. At least, it was believed, no one, or almost no one, is allowed to go hungry here. Then the national teacher's union held a day- long phone-in on the effects of poverty on students and dozens upon dozens of teachers, principals and parents called to tell stories of children who go to school hungry; children who are ashamed to go to class be- cause their parents can't af- ford to give them a sand- wich; children who have to work after school to help their parents pay their tui- tion, books and bus fares; and children, as young as nine years old, whose parents pull them out of school to go to work and help feed the rest of the family. Four of the small, left-wing opposition parties put for- ward no-confidence motions against the government and failed in the Knesset against indifference to the poor. Dr. Israel Katz, a former min- ister of labor and welfare, described the session as Israel's "semi-annual half- day 'festival of poverty' after which we go back to business as usual." The Knesset was virtually empty during the discussion with the legislators return- ing only to vote down the no- confidence motions, thus keeping the government in power. During this brief period when poverty was on the public's mind, I met with Eli Ben-Menachem on his home turf, the south Tel . Aviv schunot a euphemism that literally means "neighborhoods," but is understood to mean "slums." In his first term as a Labor Party Knesset member, the 4 3-year-old Mr. Ben- Menachem has emerged as the most respected fighter for the people of the schunot. He is . also the only Knesset member who lives in one — in a graffiti-scrawled apart- ment building in south Tel Aviv's Kfar Shalem, the neighborhood where he grew up. A couple of dozen residents were waiting for him in the medieval slum known as "Argazim" ("packing crates"), named for the crates that poor Sephardi immigrants used to build the Zip neighborhood's first "homes" in the early 1950s. Today the crate houses have been replaced by hovels of raw, crumbling, concrete blocks, but the streets and sidewalks dividing them are still nothing but dirt. Most of the residents saw their windows smashed, their doors blown out and their roofs and walls cracked or caved in by a Gulf War Scud that landed not too far away. They now wanted to show Mr. Ben-Menachem how their homes, patched up since the war, had been left drenched and muddied, their children shivering and sick, by the recent un- precedentedly powerful rainstorms. "Even the Arabs in Gaza live better than this," said one jobless father of eight, pulling aside his unhinged bathroom door to show how the mud and water had been knee-deep inside. Another man pointed to the exposed electrical wires hanging all over his house. Everyone was pulling at Mr. Ben-Menachem. "Look at my two children, how their blankets are soaked . . ." "Come see how my hot water heater was blown off the roof. . . " "First the war fell on our heads, then the storm fell on our heads — everything falls on our heads . . . " This is the sort of scene that led Mr. Ben-Menachem to throw the poor people's money at members of the Knesset. "The poverty is worse than it's ever been, much worse than it was when I was growing up with nine kids in the family," he says. "I could recite statistics all day long, but you have to do some- thing unusual to get anybody's attention because nobody wants to hear about it." ❑ I NEWS Levy Visits Beijing, China Jerusalem (JTA) — For- eign Minister David Levy seemed likely to achieve two of Israel's major political ob- jectives as he took off for Bei- jing. He expects to be able to announce by the end of the week the establishment of diplomatic relations bet- ween Israel and China. He also hopes that India will soon upgrade its rela- tions with the Jewish state to full diplomatic status. Discreet contacts are on- going with New Delhi. -4 4 4 1 4 4 al