Something Learned From
A Teachers' Picket Line

The teachers outside Hillel Day School
carry picket signs asking for negotiations
and changes in pay and benefit structure.
But the truth is, figurative picket signs
have been out there for years. Instead of
pay raises and smaller class sizes, the
community has been asking itself what of
the future of day school education?
Sadly, after two extensive task force
reports on Jewish education in Detroit,
questions still remain.
If a school such as Hillel continues to
grow at an encouraging pace, is it not the
responsibility of the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign allocation process to recognize that
growth? Are we not in the business of en-
couraging day school growth, not just at
present, but also for the long term? After
all, if our parents are choosing day schools,
need they come in with the extra worry
that schools aren't going to open due to job
actions?
Hillel is not exclusive in its needs.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah is still facing major
financial challenges, with constant rumor
and innuendo swirling about teacher ac-
tions similar to those at Hillel.
Teachers choose Jewish schools over
public schools for a variety of reasons.
Some feel more at home in these schools;
some feel safer, and many feel they are
able to reach their professional and even
spiritual goals at these schools. But with
their career choice in the past years has
come an unsaid understanding that with
their dedication comes less money. And the

-

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question remains, why? If we are after pro-
A LAJCIt -
fessionalism on the highest level, and if
WALKZ,TALIC
Jewish education is the priority of our
4 QVACIV
families, shouldn't the teachers expect
more?
The answer is yes. But the day schools
should also expect more support and more
carefully calculated study from Federation.
Again, we urge the Federation to re-
examine its allocations process. Again, we
ask that more money stay in this commun-
ity.
The chain we are looking at is a negative
one. Teachers strike; tuitions could be in-
fluenced, and families are asked to come up
with more and more money. Some families
don't have that money, and they could be
out of the chain if a penny more is needed.
That's not the equation we need here.
Our teachers are dedicated, and they
want to teach. Our families want a high
level of Jewish education for our children.
This situation should be used as an oppor-
tunity to show our community that the
GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
commitment is to the future. This is not a
question of cliches written on a picket-line
Leaders
sign.
of
several national
But the greatest cliche of them all, "an
Jewish organiza-
investment in our future," is what these
tions are worried
picket lines are all about. If it's not made
about a powerful
now, then 20 years from now when we ask
figure who they
a current seventh-grader to donate money
fear could make
to the community, the answer might be
life miserable for
them.
more negative. That would be a learned re-
It's not George Bush, who
sponse, something that was learned on a
picket line.
dumped on Israel for almost

ADM!

Rip Van Rabin

Holy Inappropriate

Is God a Republican?
•
That's what the leaders of the party
would have us believe. Some suggest that if
Bill Clinton is elected president, our nation
is morally doomed.
Patrick Buchanan proclaimed a
"religious war" at the Republican conven-
tion, describing the presidential election as
"a struggle for the soul of America" and
portraying Democrats as ultra-liberals
verging on sexual deviants. The Rev. Pat
Robertson is urging Iowans to defeat an
equal rights amendment he says repre-
sents "a socialist, anti-family political
movement that encourages women to leave
their husbands, kill their children, practice

Dry Bones

BECAUSE

EVES SINCE

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ISRAEL.

6

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1992

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witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become
lesbians."
President Bush has joined the fray,
criticizing the Democrats' platform for
omitting "three simple letters: G, 0, D."
We agree with those religious leaders of
all faiths who have complained about br-
inging God into politics, asserting that us-
ing God's name for political purposes is
blasphemy. "No campaign should claim to
have God on its side supporting its can-
didates, platform or policy agenda," one
such statement said. Another noted:
"Faith in God should unite us, not divide
us."
Amen.

four years and is trying to
make up for it in four mon-
ths. It's not Bill Clinton, who

cf.

C-1

flaming U.S.-Israel relations L,

in its confrontational ap-
J
proach to the loan guar-
antees. (AIPAC had coor-
dinated the effort to gain $10
billion in loan guarantees by
seeking support from Con-
gress when the Bush ad-
ministration was opposed.)
Sources quoted Mr. Rabin
as telling the AIPAC
leaders: "You have failed at
everything" and "you caus-
ed damage to Israel."
This was a low blow.
Whether or not one agrees
with the tactics the Ameri-
can Jewish groups
employed, they worked long
and hard for the loan guar-
antees because they felt they
were in Israel's best interest.
Moreover, many of these
leaders disagreed with
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir's stubborn refusal to
be more conciliatory in deal-
ing with the Bush ad-
ministration.
But they did Israel's bid-
ding and fought such a good )
fight that the president was
forced to take to the air-
waves last September 12
and, in a press conference,
describe himself as "one
lonely guy" taking on
thousands of pro-Israel
lobbyists.
Mr. Bush prevailed, the )
loan guarantees — and c--,1
Israel's relationship with --
Washington — became an I
issue in the Israeli elections
in June, and Mr. Rabin was
the winner.
Some in Washington credit
the administration with the ( --1
Rabin victory. That may be z-)
overstating the case. But the
fact is that President Bush

may not know the difference
between Beersheva and
blintzes. And it's not
Saddam Hussein, who some
say will rally the Arab world
around him by lofting a few
more Scuds in Israel's direc-
tion.
No, it's Yitzhak Rabin, the
new prime minister of Israel
who is not only popular at
home and in the American
media, but is the new darl-
ing of the Bush administra-
tion.
And that's the problem.
Relations between
Jerusalem and Washington
have improved so dramati-
cally in the last couple of
months that several nation-
al Jewish organizations,
whose leaders had been
functioning as unofficial dip-
lomats between the distant
Bush and Shamir govern-
ments, have been told by Mr.
Rabin that he doesn't need
them anymore.
When the prime minister
was in the U.S. last month,
he reportedly criticized the
leaders of the American-
Israel Public Affairs Com-
mittee, blaming them for in-
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