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South of 14 mile Next to Target 585-2444 Southfield Southfield Plaza Southfield Rd. between 12 & 13 559-7900 THE MIDWEST'S LARGEST DISCOUNT PARTY PLACE :111111111111LBIIIIIIIIB 197°- ORIENTAL RUG SALE 6AVE 30-50% ORIENTAL RUG CO. The Nigosian Family invites you to visit their spectacular birmingham showroom and select from their enormous collection of beautiful hand woven imports. Every Oriental rug in every design, size, shape and color is on sale 808 &lath Woodward Birmingham. Ml 48009 Phone (313) 644-7750 48 FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1992 tween the Jewish Agency's initial lump sum grants and year-long subsistence pay- ments, and the National In- surance Institute's (Israel's Social Security) child allow- ances, Ethiopian families have enough to live mod- estly. At Magalim, most have new TVs, and many also have new VCRs and washing machines. After the Agency's aid runs out, those without jobs will get wel- fare, and live poorly. The government is offer- ing them new apartments for an average of $100 a month. The American Asso- ciation for Ethiopian Jewry will provide the down pay- ments, with 98 percent mort- gages, most of which becomes a grant. Mr. Mograbi urged the Ethiopians to buy now. "Use this opportunity be- fore the elections (June 23). I don't know what's going to happen afterward, whether the terms will change or the mortgages will be canceled." Mr. Mograbi told the im- migrants the mortgage payments could be taken out of their National Insurance Institute aid, the amount of which depends on the num- ber of their children. Pri- vately he said, "Those who have a large number of chil- dren will buy, those with few children will be stuck here." About one-third of the Operation Solomon im- migrants would love to be stuck in the caravan parks; they are currently stuck in cheap-to-middling hotels, also paid for by the Jewish Agency, and are waiting to move into the Magalims of Israel. Moshe Batar, Negev coor- dinator for the United Ethi- opian Jewish Organization, said, "If the Ethiopians re- main in the caravan parks for long, it will turn into a tragedy for generations." Avi Bitow, the organiza- tion's national coordinator, has been even more blunt, saying that if the Ethiopians are left to waste away on welfare in these parks, they will turn into the "Sowetos of Israel." There are another 1,000 or so known Jews of Ethiopia still in that country, most of them waiting in Addis Ababa to be flown to Israel. They should be here within about two months, said Yossi Shturm, spokesman for the Jewish Agency's Immigration and Absorp- tion Department. But the Jews of Operation Solomon have another 100-500 im- mediate family members in Ethiopia who are converts to Christianity, and the gov- ernment has not decided whether to bring them here or not. The absence of these fami- ly members, Jewish and Christian, weighs heavily on some of the people of Magalim. Berijun Owagene has his wife and seven chil- dren with him, and 17 brothers and sisters throughout Israel. His fa- ther, though, is left in Addis Ababa. He says it's because his father converted. "I can't study, I can't work, I can't think about anything but him," Owagene said. The men speak of their disappointment. "Our ex- pectations were very high," said Almayo Kalu, 40, a fa- ther of three. "We didn't "I was a mathematics teacher for 12 years. I was promised a job and salary here, and an apartment, and now I've got nothing. I can barely feed my family." Almayo Kalu - - think we'd get caught with so many problems — the language, which is very hard to learn, and work, which is hard to find. We have to thank the government, and the Jewish Agency for their help, but there are a lot of problems. I was a mathe- matics teacher for 12 years, and I taught at the Israeli compound in Addis. I was promised a job and salary here, and an apartment, and now I've got nothing. I can barely feed my family." They say they want to work, and want to make a go of it as Israelis, but ac- knowledge their nearly ab- ject dependence. Out of per- haps a dozen Ethiopians I talked to, only Sisae Mar- cus, 37, a father of two and a former truck driver, could express himself in Hebrew. His eloquence was startling. "We came to Israel a year ago, and now we can speak a little, we can write a little. But we have a lot more to learn. Like parents have to take care of their children, all Jews have to take care of our problems. It's hard for us to make it without help. We don't know the language well enough. There's hardly any work. I don't think I'll be able to find a job. We're like infants here." 0 (7?