This Week Different Priorities Peace talks don't rank high on agenda of young Jewish activists. Happy 75th Wedding Anniversary Herta & Eugene Orbach HOWARD LOVY . Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington • sraeli and Palestinian negotiators are resuming peace talks in Washington this week and President Clinton has set a meet- ing with Syria's president, but don't tell the details to Julianne Berkon, a cam- paign associate with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. She'll get too angry . It's not that she doesn't care about Israel and the Middle East peace process. It's that she cares too much, so much that she would just rather tune the whole thing out, or just skim the headlines. Berkon hates the idea of Israel giving up land for peace, doesn't believe it should cede one inch of the Golan Heights to Syria; but she also just as , firmly believes that unless you live in Israel, you have no right to tell Israelis what they should or should not give up: So because of her role as a federation professional — in which she cannot be perceived as taking sides — and as an American Jew, she'll keep silent and leave the future of Israel up to the Israelis. As 3,000 Jews between the ages of 25 and 45 gathered in Washington this week for the United Jewish Communities' Young Leadership Conference, the handshakes between Israelis and Palestinians set to occur in this same town seemed not to be No. 1 on the list of things to think about. To be sure, many have strong opin- ions about the emotional issues of the Golan and the status of Jerusalem. But some say there is too much for them to do As Jews in their own .com- munities to get too worked up over a land to which they may have spiritual, emotional and historic ties, but is still a foreign nation. I Granddaughter Lila Lazarus with grandparents Herta & Eugene Orbach. Elan Village's monthly rate includes: • 24 hour Personal Care Assistance • Three Kosher Meals Daily - • Housekeeping and Personal Laundry Services • Social, Cultural and Educational Programs Daily • On-Site Licensed Nurse and Medical Services • Medication Management Deluxe Suite Now Available Call today to schedule a tour JANET ANTIN (248) 386-0303 26051 Lahser Road • Southfield, Michigan 48034 Elan Village provides Care that Changes with You Preferred Provider of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit Finding A Connection As the Holocaust, Israel's independence and even the 1967 and 1973 wars in Israel fade further into memory, the shift of priorities was perhaps inevitable for this generation — among the most affluent of Jewish generations in history. How can Israel reclaim these Jews? By speaking their language, says Sara Selber, 43, co-chair of the YLC conference. And that language has to involve hands-on, "tactile" experiences. Hands-on work is what made this generation successful in the business world, and it can be true in its con- nection to Israel, Selber says. With the connection to Israel not automatic among younger Jews, she says, Israel has to earn their support. The work of the activists at this conference in helping to resettle dis- tressed Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia is a way for them to see that Israel is more than simply another Mideast nation. As Selber's co- chair, Louis Price, put it, they can see that Israel is a "light unto the nations.' But for New York lawyer Stacy Schneider, 33, there's too much to do in this country to worry about what Israel represents. She came to the Young Lea . dership Conference because she is frightened by the religious right in America, especial- . ly .their resurfacing in the presidential campaign, and wants to learn what she can do to keep the line between church and state in America well defined. -More real to her than an Arab enemy are those who would impose their reli- gious will on her in the United States. It's a fear that.was reinforced when she . encountered religious ignorance and antisemitisin among her peers in a Savannah, Ga., newsroom, where she once worked as a- TV news reporter. . As for Israel, she feels a connection mostly when there is a tragedy — when Jews die in a terrorist attack. . During times of peace, she says, she feels removed. Schneider says what little connection she feels to Israel is media-driven. She says "Bibi" Netanyahu -- she calls him by his nickname because she says she feels she knows him — offered her a human link to Israel when he was prime minister because he was so telegenic. . - True Believers Despite the abundance of people like Schneider, there are also a passionate core who do think and breathe Israeli politics and get emotional over the peace process. They were evident in well-attended conference sessions on Israeli life, the religious-secular debate in Israel and, in one packed conference room, a