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