OPINION

Community

Continued from preceding page

The Advantages of SmartLease
Cadillac Style .

•

•.• ....•••:•:•: •

...,:aillegsgommeittmoir

::

•

•

No. 2551

.002.0909585. • ,..m....2.4559,650,,, • ..••••••,,,....,..,,..••••• •

Eldorado

so DOWN mt.

1992 Dealer Demo Sale

4 4.

No. 2249

Sedan DeVille
7,gto choose from

25,645

Roger Rinke Cadillac will install a Povver Astro Roof for only $2.00 per month when you GMAC
j
SrnartLease a new Cadillac. LIMITED TIME OFFER.

MOm OWN14100410MAmil0

maim

'GMAC LUXURY SMARTLEASE 30 Months. First pyrnt. plus $500 rel. sec. dep. and plate or transfer due on deliv-
ery. 4% sales tax additional. 30,000 mile limitation. 15t per mile excess charge over limitation. Lessee has option to
purchase at lease end. To get total pyrnts. multiply pymt. 30 months.

R

OGER RNKE CDILLAC

I - 696 AT VAN DYKE
7 5 8 - 1 8 0 0

R FRInAY Al 1ST 21 1942

irOM ii ■ im MOM maw ximm mmm

Roger Rinke
Cadillac

display cynicism and impa-
tience with American Jews.
American fund-raisers seek-
ing to de-politicize the Jew-
ish Agency and WZO
(through which American
charitable dollars are fun-
neled) are frustrated that
every aspect of Israeli life is
political, dependent on
whom you know and what
his political connections are.
In addition, Americans say
that Israelis are incapable of
long-term planning and deal
only with immediate crises.
These feelings did not
come out at first, but as the
long days and nights of
discussion wore on and the
participants related to each
other personally as well as
professionally, their com-
ments became increasingly
honest and forthright.
That was precisely the
point, according to Martin
Kraar, the executive vice
president of CJF, who helped
initiate the think-tank con-
cept last year and who plans
to use these deliberations to
refine the issues that make
it to the CJF agenda. Mr.
Kraar, who handpicked the
participants and facilitated
the discussions, said that
what made them work was
the parity achieved between
the Israeli and American
points of view.
The participants came up
with several ambitious plans
on the spectrum between
idealistic (scrap all the ex-
isting institutions and
create new ones based on
need and equality) and
micro-detailed (have Ameri-
can institution A circumvent
Israeli organization B).
One scenario the group
came up with —pragmatic
utopianism? — was to
highlight Israel-Diaspora
concerns by making them a
significant part of the CJF
agenda, and to create an
organization in Israel that
would involve the govern-
ment, Jewish Agency, etc.,
but be separate from them.
This Israeli body of profes-
sionals and lay leaders
would deal directly with CJF
and local federations in the
U.S. to enhance and em-
power the American Jewish
agenda.
Will any of this happen?
That remains to be seen.
.CJF officials will spend
several months transcribing
and studying the many
hours of tapes to determine
how to move the overall
issue — improving relations
between federations and
Israel — further along on its
agenda.
What is remarkable,
though, is that such a pro-
cess is under way, despite

the potential "turf' risks in
considering how to
streamline and improve the
workings of social service in-
stitutions in America and
Israel. (Indeed, a key official
in Jerusalem, threatened by
the prospect of top Israeli
and Americans, lay and pro- ,
fessional, sitting down to
discuss these issues, sought
to prevent last week's think-
tank from taking place.)
Refreshing — and disturb-
ing — was the candor ex-
pressed on both sides at the
meeting regarding the cur-
rent Israel-Diaspora rela-'

Americans need to
appreciate that
Israel is a
sovereign state,
and Israelis need
to understand
American Jewry.

tionship. "Up until now,
there's been a basic lack of-
honesty," one American pro-
fessional said to his Israeli
colleagues. "We say, of
course we can raise another
$100 million for immigrant
absorption, and you say, of
course we can settle another_ -
100,000 new immigrants."
Both sides acknowledged
that they deal with each
other through tired old
slogans. And as one Israeli c_l
noted, "too often, anger has
become a policy."
There are many reasons
why American Jews and
Israelis each feel
misunderstood in their rela-
tionship. To move beyond
those feelings, Americans
need to appreciate that
Israel is a sovereign state,-
and Israelis need to under-,„
stand that American Jewry
operates via a system of vol-
untary taxation.
The bad news is that the
gap is very wide and the
crisis in American Jewry ic.
severe. The good news is 1,
that some key people are
beginning to confront the
tough issues, unified by a
powerful awareness of,
mutual dependency. They
recognize that a weakened
American Jewry means a
weakened Israel.
The next step is for this
group to continue its work
and spread the word — of its
specific proposals and the
concept of open dialogue.,
The more American Jewish
and Israeli leaders sit down
to discuss their differences
honestly (without the usual
grandstanding and politick-
ing), the better the chances
of preserving Jewish life on
both sides of the ocean. ❑