Crackdown

Israel battles organized crime wave.

GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Lis

Bloom

place, we can get down to furthering
our operational business — which
includes organizational restructuring
for personnel and volunteers.
"It was difficult to fully operate
this building and provide services to
members during the renovations,"
Sorkin said. "But now we can focus
on these operational improvements."
One of the major assets of the
JCC in West Bloomfield, is its gen-
erous size, about 400,000 square
feet. But its spaciousness is also the
biggest concern because of opera-
tional costs, Sorkin said.
To defray some of those costs and
enhance business for both JCC
buildings, the JCC's plan included
hiring Kevin Brand to fill a new
position as events director. His job is
to sell space at the JCC buildings to
individuals and organizations for
corporate and lifecycle events.
The idea is to "make the JCC the
preferred destination for family

Sorkin

events, birthdays and simchahs, and
corporate and community func-
tions," Lis said.
The other important initiative,
Sorkin added, is to improve mem-
bership among unaffiliated Jews.
"We will go after 'never mem-
bers,"' Lis said.
For example, he cites a possible
cultural membership category. In the
same vein, the JCC will host holiday
celebrations for the major Jewish
holidays, such as a community
Passover seder, a Purim carnival or a
Chanukah family celebration for the
unaffiliated.
The challenge for those attending
the meeting, Lis said, is to involve
the rest of the Jewish community
with the JCC. "If there is one signif-
icant challenge for us this next year,"
Lis said, "it's all about doing our
utmost to help the rest of our corn-
munity to fall back in love with our
JCC."

❑

Betty Kahn Remembered

The annual
meeting opened
with chair
Barbara Bloom
of Birmingham
calling for a
moment of
silence for the
Kahn
late Betty Kahn,
one of the JCC's most generous
supporters. The JCC facility in
West Bloomfield is named the

D. Dan and Betty Kahn
Building.
Brian Siegel of West
Bloomfield and Malke Torgow of
Oak Park, received the Susan
Alterman JCC Leadership
Awards, which were presented by
Irwin Alterman in honor of his
late wife, a JCC and communal
leader.
The JCC also honored 31
long-term service employees.

organized crime.
The offensive grew out of the sense
that police were failing to cope with ris-
ing crime due to the preoccupation with
Palestinian terrorism, severe budget cuts
and reductions in police manpower.
"Since Dec. 12 of last year, thousands
have been detained as part of the police
fight against organized crime," Tzachi
Hanegbi, Israel's minister of internal
security, recently told the Knesset
Interior Committee. "The entire system
is recruited for this battle, which it per-
ceives as an essential battle for the soul
of democracy in Israel."
But despite occasional police success
stories, crime is prospering in Israel.
Israeli mafia bosses control illegal casinos
throughout Israel and in places like
Romania and Bulgaria, where they oper-
ate almost freely. Trafficking in drugs,

Jerusalem
would not speak of organized
crime, but rather of crime organi-
zations," said Moshe Levin, former
commander of the Israel Police
International Crime Unit.
Over the past 3'/2 years, while the
Israeli police havew focused on terror-
ists, old-fashioned criminals have been
having their way in the Jewish state.
Last year, police filed 464,854 crimi-
nal cases, an increase of 4.5 percent
from 2002. And police say it's the type
of crimes, not necessarily the quantity,
that is most alarming.
Crime in Israel is controlled by a
number of organized criminal gangs,
according to police, with several families
at the center. Recently,
police said, the two most
prominent families, the
Rosensteins and Abarjils,
engaged in a bloody duel
of mutual killing, proba-
bly related to control of
casinos. That invited a
police crackdown, but
not before 20 people
were killed in the gang
war, at least nine of them
innocent bystanders.
Inspector General
Shlomo Aharonishky tar-
geted organized crime
and juvenile delinquency
as the police's prime chal-
A Russian-speaking Israeli plainclothes police officer
lenges this year. Earlier
takes notes as women working . in an illegal brothel near
this month, police
announced that they had Tel Aviv hide their faces.
arrested nine alleged sen-
ior gangsters, all members of the
weapons and prostitutes also brings in
Ohanina family. Among the detainees
big money.
were Rafi and Moshe Ohanina, who
In the last few months, Israeli police
are suspected of committing at least two
have shut down 1,700 illegal casinos
murders and making several more
and 1,400 brothels and confiscated large
attempts.
amounts of arms. But the outlook isn't
An older brother, Hanania, 42, served
rosy 'All attempts to eradicate illegal
12 years in jail for importing heroine to
gambling in Israel have failed," Levin
hrael from Holland. He was gunned
said. "All closed institutions are like a
down by criminals last year.
drop in an ocean of illegal gambling."
"It is the first time that heads of the
The trade in women is just as perplex-
organization are behind bars, and we
ing. Women, mostly from the former
have solid evidence against them," said
Soviet Union, are smuggled into Israel
Menashe Arbiv, a high-level police com-
through Egypt's Sinai Desert. Many are
mander. Police said the arrests marked a
lured under the pretext of work oppor-
high point in the offensive against
tunities in Israel. ❑

6/25

2004

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