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Helping Israel Grow

possibly raise the $30 million it annually does

for the JNF.
But other donors are the backbone of the
non-political agency and its $239-million-a-
year operating budget. The JNF is secure in its
support among older adults. So its thrust
unmistakably must be in growing its alliance
with young people. Its resourceful National
Future Leadership program is a great start.
And let's remember the kids who buy $10
certificates to plant saplings in Israel in memo-
ry of relatives or in honor of friends. What
better measure is there than the millions of
kids who have struck up an indelible bond
with Israel and, in so doing, have discovered a
living return on loving the land?
Jolted four years ago when mishandled
funds forced a national leadership change, the
JNF is busy regaining public trust and support
under the inspired presidency of business-
man/philanthropist Ronald Lauder.
As we welcome Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish
New Year of Trees, at sundown Sunday, Jan.
31, Jews everywhere, but young American Jews
especially, should take stock of the JNF and its
resolve to improve the Israeli way of life.
For its part, the JNF must strive to solidify
its future by convincing young American Jews
to become a stakeholder in our ancient home-
land, not just in Wall Street. 1 1

How U.S. Jews Can Help

A

merican Jews have an enormous
stake in the Israeli national elec-
tion May 17. The election pro-
vides an important opportunity to
build a national consensus on the vital issue
of how Judaism and democracy will coexist.
Without that national clarity, critical ques-
tions, such as who is to be recognized as a
Jew, will be addressed piecemeal, depending
on which party is in power, and never truly
resolved.
As the largest part of the Diaspora, we
American Jews have a responsibility to help
define what the Jewish state is to be next.
Granted, Israel is not our physical home, we
do not have to experience the fears and uncer-
tainties that shape life in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv
or the settlements of the West Bank, and we
have no right to vote in Israeli elections. But
we have been unwavering supporters for the
last half-century. We lobby Washington to rec-
ognize the vital interests of Israel, we send
community dollars there at the rate of $350
million a year — on top of the $4 billion in
governmental economic and military aid —
and we encourage our children to experience
the country firsthand so that they will stay
connected to our joint faith.

From our vantage point, reading and talk-
ing about the election, we see the parties splin-
tering and a narrow, nasty jousting for partisan
advantage that can easily undermine Israel's
centrality for Diaspora Jews, We have had
more than enough experience in this country
with destructive party-line bickering, and it is
worrisome to see Israeli leaders hiring Ameri-
can political advisers who market candidates
by focus group rather than principle.
We don't have to funnel money into one
party or another or threaten to withhold it, as
Reform leaders have done. What we do have
to provide is clear statements from every
stream of American Judaism about how we
hope Israel will grow as a nation. We shouldn't
be afraid to let Likud, Labor and the newly
forming centrist parry know that we don't
want to see Israel drift into a narrow funda-
mentalism that would invite comparison with
the Muslim-led states. We would particularly
like to see American Orthodoxy support in
Israel the kind of de facto pluralism that gives
it such vitality in this country.
If Israel is to be the cultural, spiritual home-
land that everyone envisioned earlier this cen-
tury, then we must keep adding our voices to
her debate.

Pho to by Bill Hansen

F

or 98 years, the Jewish National
Fund has been a beacon of hope for
the Land of Israel. The shared and
perpetual trust of the Jewish people
works to make the arid countryside habitable
as well as promote the role environmentalism
plays within Jewish teachings.
Now, like many well-intentioned Jewish ser-
vice agencies, the JNF must anchor itself for
the next century. To do that, it has to cement
its developing appeal among younger Jews.
The JNF provides an immense opportunity
for young people to get involved.
With the Israel Lands Authority, the JNF
co-administers 92 percent of the state's public
land as well as natural resources like reservoirs,
parks and fish ponds and infrastructure like
roads, sewers and desalination plants. Alone,
it's Israel's largest employer of new immigrants.
Since its founding in 1901, the JNF has
planted 205 million trees, developed 300,000
acres of woodlands, created 440 major parks
and picnic areas, and reclaimed 875,000 acres of
difficult terrain — from the rocky expanses of
the Galilee to the desert stretches of the Negev.
Major donors keep the JNF going — 20
percent of the donors give 80 percent of the
gifts. Without them, the United States couldn't

IN FOCUS

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Friendly Encounter

The American Arab and Jewish Friends hosted a party Sunday
at Whirly Ball in West Bloomfield for Duane Kell Essay Schol-
arship Contest partners. Among the partner teams taking part
were Ant Neda Ahmed, 17, right, of Dearborn Fordson High
School, and Abbie Lavin, 17, a Milford High School student
affiliated with Temple Israel. The essay contest theme is: "The
Ties That Bind." Winners will be announced this spring. The
Friends group is a program of the National Conference for
Community and Justice's Detroit chapter.

LETTERS

Institute Is
Unique

As someone new to the area, I
appreciated the article ("Inde-
pendent Courses" Jan. 22) on
the current state of affairs of
interfaith activity in the
Detroit area.
The article pointed out
that due to several reasons,
particularly a lack of coopera-
tion between groups working
in the area of interfaith and a
general lack of programming
designed for lay people, there
seems to be a general decrease
of interest in the interfaith
movement. The article then
stated "the most notable
exception being the South-
field-based Ecumenical Insti-
tute for Jewish-Christian
Studies."
Thank you for recognizing
that we are unique. We are
unique in that all institute
programs have always been

designed for, and attended by,
both Jewish and Christian lay
people. We are also unique in
that we choose to specialize in
Jewish-Christian relations, the
subject of a related article Jan
22. This is a conscious deci-
sion in response to statements
that have been, and continue
to be issued by Christian
churches that are involved in
interfaith relations.
The Roman Catholic
church and most mainline
Protestant church denomina-
tions have issued statements
calling for more and deeper
dialogue between Christians
and Jews. The same churches
also call for more and deeper
dialogue between Christians
and Muslims, but they issue
two separate statements call-
ing for two separate dialogues;
they do not confuse the
issues. The churches recognize
that there are distinct issues to
be addressed in each dialogue.
The Ecumenical Institute

1/29
1999

Detroit Jewish News

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