UP FRONT
You Don't Have To
Love Levy To Respect Him
Several weeks ago, David Levy was being
buried by political pundits. Today, he is a
double winner.
ZE'EV CHAFETS
E
Special to The Jewish News
Leven years ago, while
in the process of put-
ting together his se-
cond government,
Menachem Begin promised
two jobs to David Levy. Mr.
Levy had served in Mr.
Begin's first administration
as a youngish junior min-
ister, and in the 1981 elec-
tion, which focused on ethnic
rivalries, he had done good
work in bringing out his
fellow North African voters.
In gratitude, Mr. Begin pro-
posed to make him deputy
prime minister as well as
minister of housing.
Shortly before the
government was scheduled
to be sworn in, Mr. Begin
ran into internal opposition
to the deal. He summoned
Mr. Levy and informed him
that, with regret, he would
be unable to appoint him
deputy prime minister.
"Fine," Mr. Levy responded.
"In that case, I don't want to
be housing minister either.
Form your government
without me."
This was an almost un-
precedented act of political
chutzpah; Likud junior min-
isters simply didn't say no to
Menachem Begin. But Mr.
Levy was different and he
knew it. Unlike his col-
leagues, he owned the politi-
cian's single most important
David Levy
calculated
correctly that he
has become
irreplaceable.
commodity — a large bloc of
deliverable votes. Mr. Begin
knew it, too.
For a few tense hours the
two men went eyeball to
eyeball, and in the end, Mr.
Begin blinked and David
Levy was sworn in as deputy
prime minister.
More than a decade has
passed, but David Levy's
tactics haven't changed.
This time, furious at the
Shamir-Arens-Sharon coali-
tion that ganged up on him
and defeated his supporters
in the recent race for
Knesset seats, Mr. Levy an-
nounced his resignation as
foreign minister, and
challenged the party to get
along without him.
For a week, Mr. Shamir
and Mr. Levy faced each
other. Backing the prime
minister were Moshe Arens
and Ariel Sharon and the
"Nightline" regulars — Bibi
Netanyahu, Ehud Olmert,
Ronni Milo, Dan Meridor —
and the other slick-talking
young party princes.
Mr. Levy was supported
mainly by a scruffy cast of
Moroccan-born mayors from
dusty development towns.
David Levy can applaud his own moves.
The princes had Ted Koppel
but the mayors had the
grass-roots voters, and Mr.
Levy had the mayors. In the
end, Mr. Shamir, like Mr.
Begin before him, caved in.
Mr. Levy rallied his troops
by painting himself as the
victim of ethnic discrimina-
tion by the party bosses.
ROUND UP
\
> EEOC Investigates
Postal Service
Prompted by an inquiry
from the American Jewish
Congress, the Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission has expressed
"deep concern" over indica-
tions that the U.S. Postal
Service may be discrimina-
ting in employment on the
basis of religion.
The EEOC has asked the
assistant postmaster general
to launch an inquiry into the
Postal Service's policies
regarding accommodation of
religious practices.
Late last year Marc Stern,
co-director of the
AJCongress' Commission on
Law and Social Action,
brought to the attention of
the EEOC two letters
written by the Post Office's
government relations
department to a postal
employee. The letter stated
that the "Postal Service
cannot accommodate every-
one's religion. We are not go-
ing to be a public service
when we accommodate
everyone's religion who
works for us. Our business is
to move the mail and this is
what we do!"
The employee also was
told, "We in the postal ser-
vice have no time for some-
one's religious beliefs or
someone's Sabbath. You
have to come to work when
we need you."
The letters were written to
an employee seeking
reinstatement after having
been discharged because he
refused to work on the
Sabbath.
Computing Up
Tefillin Errors
They add. They design.
They word-process. And
now, computers are making
certain that Jewish ritual
objects are in tiptop shape.
The Center for Interna-
tional Activities to Preserve
and Promote the Halachic
Integrity of Scribal Arts has
developed software which
uses a high-tech scanner to
locate missing and extra
words, cracked letters or
omitted tagim (crowns) in
Sefer Torah scrolls, mezuzot
and tefillin.
Jewish ritual objects often
include such errors, render-
ing them invalid. Some 90
percent of Torah scrolls,
written in recent years, have
been found to contain
mistakes.
For information, contact
the National Council of
Young Israel, (212) 929-
1525.
Children's Group
Expands Efforts
Following last month's
nuclear accident in St.
Petersburg, Chabad's Chil-
dren of Chernobyl has
expanded its efforts to
evacuate children exposed to
radiation.
A Chabad team is set to
arrive soon in St. Petersburg
to evaluate the situation
and, if necessary, include
children in the area in its
medical relief program.
The St. Petersburg acci-
dent occurred days after the
arrival in Israel of 100 Jew-
ish children from Kiev who
had been exposed to radia-
tion during the 1986 Cher-
nobyl nuclear accident. It
was the sixth such flight of
Chernobyl children since the
A recent arrival from Kiev.
program began in 1990.
Children of Chernobyl is
now negotiating with
Byelorussian officials to br-
ing a plane load of more than
100 children from that area.
Jews No Longer
Conversion Target
The new Archbishop of
Canterbury, in his first year
in office, has created a stir
with his promise that the
Church of England would
not focus on converting
Jews.
George Carey refused to
become patron of the Chur-
ch's Mission Among the
Jews, according to a recent
report in the British daily
The Observer. "He says his
own mission, to build up
trust and keep the peace in a
multi-faith society, is more
important than poaching on
other established faiths."
The Observer calls the ar-
chbishop's move "a break
with a 150-year tradition"
and a relief for Jews, "who
feel harassed" by the chur-
ch's conversion attempts.
Britain's dwindling Jew-
ish community also is the
target of "a more aggressive,
richer, American-backed
group of converted Jews
called Jews for Jesus," the
paper states.
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
11