ISRAEL DIGEST

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Firms Play Swiss Role

Waiting for unemployment checks in Royal Oak.

JVS, Rabbis Launch
Jobs Awareness Campaign

KIMBERLY LIFTON STAFF WRITER

he jobless rate is
climbing in Michigan,
and Jewish . Vocational
Service is prepared to
help people find employ-
ment.
But West Bloomfield
attorney David Lieberman
believes JVS
alone can not
employ all of
those out of
—
work
including the
new Soviet
Americans.
His solution
is a massive
jobs aware-
ness public
service cam-
paign that
will be spear-
headed by
area rabbis,
JVS and pro-
fessional Jew- Rabbi Efry Spectre
ish business
associations.
The campaign kicks off
this week, just in time for
the new year.
"There are many imme-
diate opportunities here in
Detroit for us to implement
the urgings of Isaiah which
we read on Yom Kippur,"
said Rabbi Efry Spectre,
who chairs the Rabbinical
Council. "'Clothe the naked
when you see him; do not
turn away from people in
need.'"
In the coming months,
the Jewish community can
expect to be inundated with
information about people
searching for work. Rabbis
are expected to make
announcements during
High Holy Day and Shabbat
services. An anonymous list
from JVS of more than 400
job seekers — complete with
numbers of years of experi-
ence, education levels and
positions sought — will be
circulated throughout the

7.8 percent, but that rate
still is well below the sum-
mer of 1992's 9.5 percent
jobless rate.
The number of people out
of work in Oakland, Wayne,
Macomb, Monroe, Lapeer.
St. Clair and Livingston
counties also
rose, moving
from 7.7 per-
cent in June
to the cur-
rent 8.3 per-
cent. The fig-
ure also is
well below
the 10.4 per-
cent county-
wide jobless
rate for July
1992.
Leonard
Nagel, an
agent of the
Internal Rev-
enue Service,
Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg
has not wit-
nessed the un-
employment trends first-
know congregants who are
hand. Yet he knows the
currently unemployed. We
problem exists, and he is
have neighbors who have
anxious to help with the
lost their jobs. New
campaign.
Americans, many of them
As president of the B'nai
possessing great talent and
B'rith Accounting Guild, he
ability, are finding it diffi-
will invite new Americans
cult to feed their families."
and unemployed members
In a letter sent last week
of the accounting field to
Guild meetings.
"Exposure leads to
employment," Mr. Nagel
said. "At least we will be
able to give these people
some exposure."
Elimelech
Rabbi
Silberberg of Bais Chabad
of West Bloomfield is trying
to get the JVS list out in the
to local clergy, Rabbi
Orthodox community. He
Spectre asked his colleagues
said the rabbis can encour-
to utilize their positions to
age congregants to hire peo-
make "shidduchs between
ple from the JVS list.
the unemployed and the one
"The greatest mitzvah of
in need of certain capabili-
kindness
is not giving a
ties."
handout, but it is giving a
Michigan unemployment
job," Rabbi Silberberg said. Gl
figures this month rose
from 7.4 percent in July to

community.
"We want to try to match
those who need jobs with
those in the community who
have leads," said Rabbi
Spectre, of Adat Shalom
Synagogue. "The '90s are
very much with us. We all

Unemployment
figures this
month rose to
7.8 percent.

Israel has the potential to
become an entry point for
international business to
the whole region, accord-
ing to the managing part-
ner of a major European
corporate finance network,
"Israel can play the role
of Switzerland — serving
as a base for companies
and being a catalyst for
economic growth," said
Daniel Quirici, managing
partner of Deloitte Touche
Tohmatsu International.

"The'United States and
other countries will look to
Israel as an entry point
into the Middle East."
Speaking at a forum
held this week on
"Overseas Acquisitions and
Strategic Partnerships and
Involvement in World
Markets," Mr. Quirici
observed there already are
clear signs of Israel's
development as a global
focus point.

Companies Doubt Report

Isramco Oil and Gas
and the Jerusalem Oil
Exploration Company have
warned that optimistic
statements in an American
research report on Isramco
Inc. should be viewed with
caution.
the
and
Isramco
Jerusalem Oil Exploration
Company work together
through various limited
partnerships.
The two companies
made their statement on
the August M.H. Myerson
Research Report after a
court ordered the compa-
nies to give the Israel
Security Authority and the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
further information
instead of publishing cor-
rections to their prospec-
tuses.
The two regulatory bod-
ies raised questions con-
cerning the source of the
information because the
report said that in two
instances it came from
Isramco Inc.
Both parties asked why
the information was not
included in the firms'
prospectuses. In addition,
they argued that if it did
come from the companies,
investors could be misled
by the new information.

Autonomy Boosts Business

Israel's national communi-
cations company, Bezek,
expects its direct-dialing
phone service to Arab
countries to boom when
the Palestinian autonomy
agreement is implemented.
The service, which was
launched 18 months ago,
links Israel with Morocco,
Algeria, Yemen, Tunisia,
Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon,
Jordan and Kuwait.
initial
the
After
announcement, some Arab
countries threatened to
take legal and other action
to block the connections,

but the threats were not
carried out.
According to Bezek,
about 80,000 minutes of
conversation were logged
on the lines to these Arab
countries in January of
this year. By May, it had
risen to 137,000 minutes.
At this rate, the figure for
1993 will reach one million
minutes.
Until Bezek introduced
the service, Arabs in Israel
and the territories who
wanted to call Arab coun-
tries aside from Egypt had
to use a private service
that charges more.

Iacocca Looks To Haifa

Lee Iacocca, Chrysler's
outgoing chairman, has
expressed interest in
ControLaser, an Israeli
invention to help drivers
avoid collisions.
The instrument was
developed by the Haifa-
based Silicon Heights, a
high-tech company led by
Avner Shur. The compa-
ny's staff of scientists
spent three years develop-
ing it.

ControLaser is installed
in the car near the wind-
shield and gives the driver
accurate information that
until now was only esti-
mated by the human eye,
the company said.
ControLaser measures,
with a laser beam, the dis-
tance and speed of the car
ahead to tell the driver
how much time he has to
brake if the car suddenly
stops.

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