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Staff Notebook

Promoti ng Day Schools

:a

ow do you sell the idea of Jewish day
school education to assimilated American
Jews? How do you make that education
academically top-notch, religiously compelling —
and affordable?
Feb. 2-4 in Los Angeles, community leaders
involved in the day school movement will ponder
these and other questions at back-
to-back meetings sponsored by the
Partnership for Excellence in Jewish
Education (PEJE).
First, major donors to day schools
throughout North America will con-
vene at the organization's annual
Donor Assembly. With the guidance
of PEJE professionals, they'll con-
Robert Aronson sider such topics as "Working with
the Communal Structure" and
"Making the Case for Day Schools."
Among the steering committee members for this
part of the three-day event is Robert Schostak of
Franklin.
Immediately following the donor assembly, PEJE
will run its first leadership assembly, considering
such issues as developing resources and enrollment,
choosing and inspiring teachers and keeping the
cost of a day school education with-
in the grasp of middle-income
Jewish families.
Robert Aronson, CEO of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, is a member of the leader-
ship assembly steering committee.
"I cannot overstate how important
these [day] schools are to the
Arthur Horwitz American Jewish community,"
Aronson said. "Jewish day schools of
every denomination are graduating well-educated,
well-rounded, Jewishly connected young people —
many of whom will ultimately become leaders on
college campuses and in the community at large."
Also on the steering committee for this meeting
are Dr. Lynda Giles, former co-president of the
Alliance for Jewish Education and a national
leader in the day school movement, and Arthur

Horwitz, president of the Agency for Jewish
Education and publisher of the Jewish News.
PEJE, a Boston-based collaboration of benefac-
tors and philanthropic foundations, has been a
major partner in the formation of the Detroit-
area's multi-stream Jewish day high school, the
Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, which
will graduate its first class of students this spring.

— Diana Lieberman

Book Sale Revived

A

fter reading the Jewish News article on the
closing of the annual Brandeis University
Used Book Sale last year, Roz Blanck of
West Bloomfield was determined not to let the
popular community event die.
With a little help from community friends, she
garnered support for a new collaborative effort
that includes volunteers from Hillel Day School,
the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit, the Jewish Academy of Metropolitan
Detroit, the Jewish News and Sch6stak Brothers
and Company.
The result will be T.H.E. Friends of Literacy
Used Book Sale (T.H.E. is an acronym for
Tzedakah for Hillel and Education) that will take
place May 18-21 at Laurel Park Place in Livonia.
Proceeds will benefit Hillel Day School, the
JCCouncil, JAMD — and Brandeis University
National Women's Committee Detroit Chapter,
whose members are mentoring the new group.
Volunteers now are ready to receive all gently
used books, books on tapes, records and CDs.
Three drop-off sites have been selected:
• The Jewish Community Council, Max M.
Fisher Building, 6735 Telegraph Road,
Bloomfield Township, 8:45 a.m.-4:45 p.m.
Monday-Friday.
• Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Mondays and 6-7:30
p.m. Thursdays.
• JCC in Oak Park, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Mondays
and 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays.
For further information. or to volunteer, call
(248) 291-1235.
•

— Sharon Zuckerman

Corruption Scandal Links Palestinians, Israelis

Jerusalem/JTA — Middle East cooperation is alive
and kicking: Israelis and Palestinians joined ranks to
make big money, until one of them woke up with a
bad conscience.
The joint venture began in February 1997, when
Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat transferred
P.A. funds from the Arab Bank in Ramallah to pri-
vate accounts in Swiss banks. The money was
Palestinian, mostly customs and levies on products
imported into the Palestinian Authority via Israel.
But the intermediaries were Israelis, who in return
received generous commissions — millions of dol-
lars, according to reports. The key person was Yossi
Ginossar, a former senior official in the Shin Bet
security service, and his partner Ezrad Lev.

12/27
2002

12

Ginossar and Lev succeeded in opening the doors
of Switzerland's Lombard Odier Bank to the
Palestinian .money. The cooperation continued until
the summer of 2001, well into the intifada
(Palestinian uprising).
Like some other former senior Israeli officers,
Ginossar had been involved in business transactions
between Israeli and Palestinian companies since the
early days of Palestinian Authority rule under the
Oslo peace accords. The Palestinians dubbed him
"Mr. 5 Percent," a reference to the commissions he
earned on business deals.
The hidden Swiss accounts eventually grew to
more than $300 million. The Israeli partners man-
aged the accounts, though they were not authorized

Anti-Semitism Soars

T

he resurgence of global anti-Semitism
topped the list of issues most affecting the
Jewish community in 2002, according to
the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) annual list.
"Anti-Semitism has moved into an alarming
new global phase crossing boundaries of every
type — geographical, national, political, religious
and cultural," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL
national director.
"Not since the Holocaust has the Jewish communi-
ty faced such a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, anti-
Jewish feeling and age-old canards as it did in 2002."
Also included in the list were continued Palestin-
ian terrorism, anti-Israel action on campuses includ-
ing pro-divestment rallies at the University of
Michigan and the University of California-Berkeley
and widespread acceptance in Islamic countries of
the "big lie" that claims Jews and Israel were respon-
sible for the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
The list, released on Dec. 20, can be viewed in its
entirety at vvvvw.adl.org

— Harry Kirsbaum

Little Response

T

he PBS documentary Muhammad: Legacy
of a Prophet aired 9 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22,
on WTVS-Channel 56 in Detroit to low
ratings and a low response.
The program, which combined the biography of
Muhammad with profiles of Muslims living in
America today, drew some criticism from Jews
because it did not address the more radical ele-
ments and the terrorism issue enough.
John O'Donnell, publicity director of WTVS, said
the station received 33 e-mails and phone calls dur-
ing the prior week and the day after the broadcast.
Only three comments were negative, he said.
The program drew a 2.7 rating and a 4 share in
Detroit. One rating point represents 18,000
households and a share represents the percentage
of televisions in use.
There are no plans to re-broadcast the program
at this time, O'Donnell said.

— Harry Kirsbaum

to make withdrawals.
In August 2001, something unexpected happened:
Mohammed Rashid, Arafat's closest financial adviser,
suddenly withdrew $65 million, which then couldn't
be traced. Lev suspected the money was going to
finance terrorist activities. He decided that enough
was enough, that there was no real control over the
money and that it was politically unacceptable that
Ginossar — whose extensive business ties had led
Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak to
use him as an unofficial emissary to the Palestinian
Authority — should also be involved in controversial
financial transactions with the Palestinians.
Lev, 42, went to the Ma'ariv newspaper and dis-
closed the secret deals Ginossar was involved in. He
even charged that Ginossar had paid millions of dol-
lars to Rashid to ensure his continued involvement
in the accounts.

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