ISRAEL
ca I • ac
De Viii
More Powerful.
A 200r
-he
c ower, feo
orsepo
lecrttroab
electronically
nicalle.
M
V8 powertrain.
ore
Six-way power front seats, rear-seat climate control vents.
More Secure.
Anti-lock brakes, driver's-side airbag, enhanced Cadillac Roadside Service.
Poverty Takes Its Toll
Unmistakable styling further refined by aluminum alloy wheels and more.
More than one-sixth of Israel's population
is classified as poor.
More Distinctive.
457
$ 1 500 direct
Bonus from Cadillac when you buy.
Or buy any new 1992 Cadillac De Ville and you'll receive a $1,500
bonus from Cadillac. You must purchase and take retail delivery
between January 1, 1992 and March 31, 1992.
INA FRIEDMAN
Special to The Jewish News
A MONTHI36 MONTHS
NO DOWN PAYMENT
----- 36,000 MILES
"GMAC LUXURY SMART LEASE 36 Months. First pymt. plus $475 ref sec. dep. and plate or transfer due on delivery. 4% state tax additional, 36,000 mile limita-
tion. 15' per mile excess charge over limitation. Lessee has option to purchase at lease end for $17,263. To get total pymts. multiply pymt. by 36 months.
R
OGER RINKE CDILLAC
I - 696 AT VAN -DYKE
7 5 8 - 1 8 0 0
Give someone another birthday .. .
If
"
4
N‘
11
NW.
l"="
ette ral
B Family
otors
(91;
"
MASTER
DEALER
orpluviriym
aautiNia
WE'RE FIGHTING FOR
YOUR LIFE
American Heart
Association
WE TAKE EXCEPTION
TO WHAT YOUR
MOTHER TAUGHT
YOU.
Give another chance. Give blood, please.
+ American Red Cross
Blood Services
Southeastern Michigan Region
42
FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1992
YOU SHOULDN'T EAT
EVERYTHING PUT IN
FRONT OF YOU.
You should avoid foods high in
cholesterol. It's a fact, a high
blood cholesterol level sub-
stantially increases your
chances of developing heart
disease. By cutting down on
fatty, rich foods, you can do
yourself a big favor. You could
lower your blood cholesterol
level and reduce your risk of
heart disease.
For more information about a
planned and balanced diet,
contact your American Heart
Association. We'll give you
some free advice on'how to
plan a diet good for life.
T
el Aviv's Hatikvah
Quarter and
Jerusalem's Ir Ganim
section have very different
looks to them but share one
salient feature: both are in-
appropriately named.
Hatikvah (meaning "The
Hope") is an older area, its
streets built as rows of low,
cement-block buildings that
are often in a state of
disrepair. Ir Ganim
("Garden City") boasts a col-
lection of eight-story apart-
ment blocks, great gray
hulks whose littered
stairwells bespeak aliena-
tion and despair.
The two neighborhoods
share other qualities as well.
Both are inhabited mostly
by Jews of Middle Eastern
origin, and both suffer from
high rates of unemployment
and drug abuse. But perhaps
their best-known feature is
that both are code words for
a shameful but open nation-
al secret in Israel: the exis-
tence of chronic, grinding,
and often inherited poverty.
Twenty-five-year-old
Tami, an attractive, soft-
spoken mother of two, grew
up in the Hatikvah Quarter
and wants something better
for her children but can't see
her way out. Her husband,
who works in "the fashion
industry," earns $565 a
month, which officially
places their family below the
poverty line. They pay $174
a month on their mortgage,
about $45 just on disposable
diapers, and the rest on food.
Tami speaks of her plight
with discomfort and resigna-
tion, but her attitude is not
the dominant one on the
street that day. Her
neighbors in the Hatikvah
Quarter are not embarrass-
ed about their condition;
they're piping mad.
"Everything here is s---,"
26-year-old Sinaiya pro-
nounces from down the road.
"The streets in Gaza look
better than they do here,"
says in Nira, a middle-aged
divorcee who supports her
two grown children (both
drug users, she volunteers).
And some streets, with their
crumbling buildings and
lack of greenery, really are
reminiscent of the refugee
camps.
Many buildings have been
spruced up by the decade-old
Project Renewal while
others have been repaired
after sustaining missile
damage. Yet here, too, the
upshot of the effort has been
anger.
"They look fine on the out-
side, but the repairs have
been only cosmetic," Nira
complains, describing the
rain that comes pouring
through cracks. "They treat
us like animals," adds her
friend Miriam about the
difficulties of getting satis-
faction from the city-paid
contractors. "The
municipality got millions to
fix the damage and it's lin-
ing people's pockets, not
these walls."
No missiles fell on Ir
Ganim, "but maybe we
would be better off if they
had," ventures 30-year-old
The degree to
which social issues
will play a role in
the upcoming
elections remains
to be seen.
Avi as he frowns in the
direction of his apartment
block. A father of three who
works in a plastic-packaging
plant, Avi brings home a
salary ($720 a month) that
classifies his family as living
in poverty. He's paying off a
mortgage on an overcrowded
apartment in an building
where he fears his kids will
be soon be exposed to crime.
"We didn't consider
ourselves poor when we got
married," he recalls. "We
thought we'd start off
modestly and work our way
into better housing, like
everybody did. Now we're
deep in debt; and I don't
know how we're going to
climb out of it."
That plight is shared by
more Israelis than ever
before. In 1990, 537,700 peo-
ple (just under half of them
children) were living below
the poverty line in Israel.
Worse yet, that figure repre-
sents a rise of close to
100,000 people over the
previous year and does not
cover the families of the self-
employed, Israel's Arab
population, or most of the
immigrants who began ar-
riving from the Soviet Union
that year.
With over a sixth of its
population classified as poor,
Israel placed second in this
ranking among the
"developed nations" (first