0
.,414:541P.
Preparing For
A Difficult Test
THE PROMISED LA ND
SISTERHOOD
C HA LI VNGet).• •
...
The honorees will be cited at a ceremony at
the Jewish Federation Apartments in May. Nom-
inations need to be turned in to JFA by the end
of January.
There are so many of these heroes who have
made Detroit's Jewish community solid in 1996-
'97 with work they did decades ago.
We urge you to participate in this program by
submitting your hero(es) to the competition. It's
a recognition that shouldn't be ignored.
sir Arafat has a real history of telling the Is-
raelis, the United States and the rest of the
world what they want to hear, only to turn
around and tell his constituency what it wants
to hear.
The security of Hebron's Jewish community
and its holy sites must be held high in any ne-
gotiation. That security and freedom must be
held higher in subsequent Jewish life after a mil-
itary withdrawal.
-
C.
701.1 MUSE RAVE A INGO SIDGOI fO
AFFORD ALL THE 5 fAt' NEED TO
EFFECTIVELY kte60 TH15 cAsno4p.
0 1 996 BY JORDAN B. GORFINKEL AL L R IGH TS RESERVED.
The situation is real and it is critical in Jew-
ish communities all over the country. What this
does is put pressure on our social service and ed-
ucational delivery systems. Educationally, pro-
grams, both formal and informal, are in place
nationally to help Russian Jews and immigrants
of other ethnic origins learn English in a hur-
ry, well enough to pass the citizenship test.
Should the immigrant fail the test, then it un-
doubtedly will fall on federations, local munici-
pal social service agencies and groups such as
Yad Ezra and the Oakland County Food Bank
to provide basic staples.
It would be one thing to call for a change of
such a law. That might be too ambitious at this
time. Perhaps the realistic way to go is to in-
crease the awareness of our federations and
Jewish social service agencies such as Jewish
Family Service and Jewish Vocational Service
to provide increased concentrations of basic Eng-
lish.
It is important that those who are at risk of
failing the test get even more help. Should they
fail, we need to bring together ways and ideas of
paying for the services they need.
If anything, this is a test we all have to study
for. The price of failure is way too high.
Security Of Hebron's Jews
Lcf, Must Take Highest Priority
News that U.S. mediator Dennis Ross has ex-
tended his stay in the Middle East to hold the
hand of the Hebron negotiations is for once, good
news.
Still, while the world awaits Israel's turnover
of most of Hebron to the Palestinians, we
call on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
to proceed on Israel's terms. While we applaud
the spirit of compromise on both sides, we
have learned also that Palestinian leader Yas-
-
M E MB E RSHIP .. COMMI11e65...
Eight Over Eighty Needs
Your Help, Nominations
There are some real-life heroes in the Detroit
Jewish community, and none of them is car-
rying a football, driving a police car or doing
whatever it is we glamorize people with these
days.
Fact is, these heroes all are over age 80. This
spring, we'll be honoring eight of them, as we
have in years past, for the achievements they
have reached in maintaining a Jewish identity
while working to promote a belief or cause.
...HOMEBOUND...PRI/V.3. SIN61-$6...
PRoq55iONAL5... SINGLE PROft5510NALS..
PRO FESSIONAL-6IN6L $5...
Ow 1 NOES REALIZED MOW
MANY INCREDIBLE SERWCIS YOU
OFFER fi.16 apitism COMMUNITY!
1'0 1Z 50C/A1 SERWC15d/RfC/OX Al
COlovc0,' Y0112.1. Nab 10 FAMILIARIZ E
)YOURSELF W111-1 OUR MANY COlef/111
FINANCIALLY
by Jordan B. Gorfinkel
/R51 iime WORKING MA
diW/51/ ORGANIZATION, eh?
FO R THE JEWIS H NEWS GROUP.
Think for a moment that you are 80 years old
and have decided to move to Russia because there
is freedom of religion
and a great deal less anti-
.
Semitism.
While the system might be better, think of
what it would be like to learn Russian at age 80.
Think of what it would be like to learn the Russ-
ian language at the age you are now. Suppose
you had to pass a test in Russian, answering mul-
tiple questions about Russian government and
history.
Look around you: This is what the elderly
Russian immigrants of our Detroit Jewish com-
munity seemingly have to accomplish in our
country. But now, instead of it just being nice to
pick up some English in their new country, it's
gone from nice to necessary.
The federal government recently passed a law
barming legal immigrants from receiving feder-
al Supplemental Security Income (S.S.I.) and
food stamps. The Congressional Budget Office
estimates that nationwide over 500,000 legal im-
migrants could lose their supplemental benefits.
What this means is simple: If an immigrant
fails a U.S. citizenship test, he is not automati-
cally entitled to government money, averaging
$500 a month in benefits.
OT,
GLOSSARY: 1 COUDJCO = CONGRESS OF UNITED DISENFRANCHISED JEWISH CONFEDERATIONS
ORGANIZATION
2 KIRUV (PRONOUNCED KEE-roov) = HEBREW FOR OUTREACH
Letters
Right Road,
Wrong State
Regarding your article in the busi-
ness section on General Motors
("Detroit East" Dec. 6), you incor-
rectly indicate that Highway 128
is in California's Silicon Valley.
Highway 128 is the highway that
rings Boston and represents the
high-tech condor around this city
in Massachusetts. •
I realize that this is not Israeli
geography, but you still probably
need to be accurate about it.
Dr. A. Robert Spitzer
Southfield
Offer A Niche,
They Will Come
Laurence Imerman's cousin Dan,
whose opinions Mr. 'merman de-
scribed at length in 'The Many As-
pects Of Jewish Institutions" (Dec.
13, 1996), raised issues about the
agendas of these institutions but
did not take the issues far enough.
Our Jewish institutions are fol-
lowing two courses to increase par-
ticipation: "outreach to the
unaffiliated" and "enrichment to
the moderately involved." Neither,
in my view, has proven success-
ful.
To these has recently been
added "the niche synagogue," serv-
ing a specific demographic lifestyle
group of Jews. But focusing now
on Reform and Conservative syn-
agogues, their appeal is increas-
ingly to a department store of
programs (outreach and enrich-
ment) rather than to a specific
niche.
In this regard, and contrary to
Mr. Imerman's assertion, they
have (inappropriately, in my view)
adopted a market share game
from business institutions. The
reason is simple: declining popu-
lations because of assimilation, in-
termarriage, very low fertility
rates and a disinterest in affilia-
tion threaten their membership
base.
The remaining alternative for
these congregations is to become
a niche provider, so they try to ap-
peal to a single segment of the pop-
ulation. One niche I strongly favor
is a single-purposed, highly disci-
plined education of the young.
Reform and Conservative Jew-
ish education from cradle to col-
NICHE page 26