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CHRYSLER Corner of Pontiac Trail & S. Commerce Rds. Plymouth WALLED LAKE • 669-2010 Lease based on approved credit. 12,000 miles per year maximum with no penalty. 15C per mile over 12,000 miles. Lessee responsible for excess wear and tear. Total d payments, lake monthly payment, multipty by number d payments. Plus 6% use tax and plates. No opt ion to purchase at termination. $250 disposition lee. Vehicles shown May have additional optional equipment. Plus tax, tine, plates, destination. includes rebate. Requires S2,030 down payment.Security deposit equals payment Lessee has ncoblig- ation to purchase vehicle al lease end **Plus Lax, title and destination, includes rebate. Some extra equipment shown in photo may ailed cos ol vehicles. Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. Call 354.6060 New York (JTA) — Although Abraham fathered two nations, he could not bring them togeth- er. Now an American organiza- tion whose goal is Jewish-Arab coexistence in Israel is trying to mend this 3,000-year-old broth- erly rift. Since its inception five years ago, the Abraham Fund — found- ed by New York businessman and philanthropist Alan Slifka and Eugene Weiner, an Ameri- can born professor of sociology at the University of Haifa — has supported 67 projects in Israel that bring Jews and Arabs to- gether through culture and ed- ucation. "I went to Israel, and two peo- ple told me that there was no mainstream effort being made in the field of Jewish-Arab coexis- tence," Mr. Slifka said recently. He added that one of these peo- ple was the former mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek. "The Jewish community had not had this as a priority item. Their interests were survival, aliyah and security," he said. "Someone told me that if one looked at Israel for the next 50 years, we would have to make this a priority issue." This unso- licited advice became a reality in 1989, when Mr. Slifka and Mr. Weiner teamed up and embarked on an exhaustive resource direc- tory — the "bible" of the fund — which lists nearly 300 coexistence programs and projects in Israel. The emphasis of the fund's American founders has always been financial, which leaves the actual implementation of its pro- grams to the Israel-based orga- nizations it sponsors. "Because I am a financial per- son, if there is no money, then nothing is being done," said Mr. Slifka, who noted that the fund receives donations ranging from $5 to $100,000 that are allocated to different projects and overseen by committees made up of both American Arabs and Jews. Since its inception, the fund has raised almost $1.6 million for Jewish-Arab coexistence pro- grams from both individuals and private foundations. In 1994, the fund offered a to- tal of $933,504 in grants to orga- nizations in Israel, a 61 percent increase from the previous year. Headquartered in Manhattan, the fund has representatives in Canada and Israel. It also hires full-time advisors such as Elie Rekhess, an expert on Jewish- Arab relations, and the former president of Israel, Yitzhak Navon, who chairs the advisory program in Israel. After 46 years of turbulent co- existence between Jews and Arabs in the state of Israel, and in the wake of years of peace ef- forts, the fund's officials believe that the need for internal peace within Israel has become an im- perative. There are 4.2 million Jews and 850,000 Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, currently residing in Israel. While Arabs make up a minority of Israel's total popu- lation, they are also an integral and established part of the state. "Not only is coexistence pos- sible, but there is no other alter- native — it is inevitable," said Mr. Rekhess, a professor at Tel-Aviv University who was visiting New York recently. The Abraham Fund currently allocates its funds to 67 projects in Israel that run the gamut from theater education for Jewish and Arab youths to drug-prevention and welfare services for the un- derprivileged. All of the grants fall under four categories that promote multi- The fund also supports both Arab and Jewish women's shelters. cultural awareness, leadership, cooperation and equal distribu- tions of social services. As a result of some of the fund's programs, Bedouin chil- dren can take karate lessons, and Jewish and Arab children can play together at cross-cultural summer camps. The fund also supports both Arab and Jewish women's shel- ters, provides help to underde- veloped communities and supports educational programs aimed at increasing tolerance. There are also 'bridging" pro- grams, where Arab and Jewish youths visit each other's schools. Language plays an important role in the process of coexistence. While both Hebrew and Arabic are spoken in Israel, Hebrew is the dominant language, with more Arabs speaking Hebrew than Jews speaking Arabic. Still, not all Arabs are fluent in Hebrew and even fewer Jews are fluent in Arabic. The fund sponsors a variety of programs that offer Hebrew and Arabic lan- guage classes and an organiza- tion that translates teaching material into Arabic.