THE JEWET Igii NEWS
UP FRONT
This Week's Top Stories
moiler
Days
'Children :
at the Jewish
Community
Center Day
Camp enjoy the
lazy days of
summer.
DANIEL LIPPITT
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
PHOTO STORY ON PAGE 7
Getting above it all are
Ryan McGee, 8,
and Jay Kenig, 9.
Multimillion Settlement
Welfare Squeeze
A new law sends communal workers
scrambling for solutions to anticipated cutbacks.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
I
wo phrases come to Ju-
dah Isaacs' mind when he
thinks of the welfare re-
form bill President Bill
Clinton signed into law this
week.
The first is inscribed at the
base of the Statue of Liberty:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses, yearning
to breathe free," reads the quote
from Emma Lazarus' 'The New
Colossus."
The second is inscribed in his
own mind. "Catastrophic im-
pact," said the senior planning
associate for the Jewish Feder-
ation of Metropolitan Detroit.
"We take everything we say
at the base of the statue and we
throw it out the window," Mr.
Isaacs said "It goes against the
grain of America."
But he, like other Jewish
Three Jewish charities
settle with Irvin Abramson's relatives.
ALAN HITSKY ASSOCIATE EDITOR
communal workers, are not
standing around shaking their
fists at the lawmakers. There
is no time for that.
Instead, Jewish communal
workers have been meeting all
week to assess the impact of the
law on community resources.
Their estimates have the com-
munity reserve — including the
$1.2 million set aside this year
from the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign (AJC) — all but drained
within the year.
"Unfortunately, [the reserve]
is not going to make a differ-
ence, but it will help," Mr.
Isaacs said.
The reform bill, passed in the
House and Senate last week, ef-
fectively ends the current fed-
eral welfare system. It cuts cash
payments for poverty-stricken
families; gives states control
over welfare and work pro-
grams by handing them control
of federal funds to administer
those programs; establishes a
lifetime limit of five years' worth
of welfare payments; and re-
quires most adults to work
within two years of receiving
aid.
But other provisions are
more worrisome for the Jewish
community. Yad Ezra, for ex-
ample, will probably be hit by
the cuts in food-stamp spend-
ing that put a limit on the
amount for unemployed work-
ers not raising children. The
legislation cuts food stamps to
legal immigrants.
Jewish Federation Apart-
ments will feel the loss from the
slashing of assistance (includ-
ing Supplemental Security In-
WELFARE page 18
A
ttorneys representing both
sides of the Irvin Abramson
estate expressed satisfaction
this week over a settlement
reached in Oakland County Probate
Court on July 25. '
Details of the settlement were not
disclosed but could be made public
at the discretion of Probate Judge
Barry Grant in the next few weeks.
Mr. Abramson, a recluse who
lived in metro area hotels and kept
documents and belongings in his
1975 Cadillac, died April 3. His es-
tate, mostly stocks and securities,
was valued at $18.5 million.
Mr. Abramson left his estate to
two Jewish charities in New York,
with a smaller portion going to
Yeshivath Beth Yehuda schools in
Southfield and Oak Park Ten nieces
and nephews filed suit against the
estate.
Sources close to the case have re-
fused to put a dollar amount on the
settlement because of fluctuations
in the stock market. H. Joel New-
man of Hyman and Lippitt in Birm-
ingham, representing the relatives,
said he expects the settlement to be
ratified by the nieces and nephews
this week. He and pro-bono coun-
sel Gary H. Torgow, representing
the three Jewish charities, pre-
dicted it would take six to eight
months to conclude and distribute
the estate.
Mr. Torgow, who is president of
Yeshivath Beth Yehudah, said, "The
Yeshiva will Use the funds to retire
a portion of its long-term debt and
help with the cost of its current cap-
ital renovation of the girls facility in
Oak Park."
The Sally Allan Alexander Beth
Jacob School for Girls on Ten Mile
at Church is adding a high-school
wing and office space. 0