The OJC the Ohio Jewish chronicle. (Columbus, Ohio), 1991-06-06

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THE
Ohio Hist.Society Libr
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The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbia and Central Ohio
Jewish Community for Over 60 Years
VOLUME 69
NUMBER 23
JUNE 6,1991
24S1VAN5751
DEVOTED   TO   AMERICAN   AND   JEWISH   IDEALS
r
Breakthrough reported
in Gaucher's treatment
page?
Murray Ebner to be
Honored at BJ dinner
'_  page 3
Israeli diplomat says
need for funds urgent
a- ■ t .   '•   :-A  page,3
Ethiopian Jews
arrive in Israel
., ' page*4
Changes sweeping
Latin America
pg.
;e4
JFS holds Annual
Meeting
Gouricil receives award
Scholar/Athlete
nominees announced
t^JCC
•-w-
-,.\:--r,'pagfi:l4:
In The; Chronicle
ox
'■ At The JCC  ........ i........., 14,15
Community ,_.!...'A.:_,..'...,'.'.....'.-.,.,..-'- 5-7 ■
FjrontPage',.' V:...'..".,y.t......i.,.',,. 2,3
Lifecycle .,...,..,..%.... ';..'• ,. 8,9 •
Marketplace .,,..'..-... > .\,,. v ,,-..,.• 11
flew Generation \ .,..,..;.... 12,13
Synagogues ....1........... '•*•-',; .'.Vi'..... 1Q
':$&$* a a *»:.v ■ '"?:.v'^: :v '■' ,;>;'' •^
DIRECT ABSORPTION ABANDONED
Israeli Government decides to create
jobs for Soviet Immigrants
By Gil Sedan
JERUSALEM (JTA) - Israel's ministerial committee
on economy has approved a
plan in which the government
would assume most of the burden of providing employment
for new immigrants.
This represents a sharp departure from the policy established last year to leave immigrant absorption to the free
market and is an admission,
in effect, that the policy failed.
According to preliminary
estimates by the Treasury*
the plan will cost.over $2.16
billion. But it will not solve Israel's overall problem of unemployment, which was rising even before most of the
new immigrants entered the
labor market.
There are presently an estimated 100,000 jobless in Israel, and the number increases
as immigrants pouring into
the country begin looking for
work.
Butthe plan, which Finance
Minister Yitzhak Moda'i will
submit shortly to the full Cabinet, provides job opportunities
for no more than 50,000 immigrants.
Some would be employed in
large-scale, government-sponsored economic development
projects, while others would
be given jobs at some 30 to 40
large industrial plants, where
the state would pay their
wages.
At the same time, the government plans to enroll 20,000
to 36,000 new immigrants iii
vocational courses over the
next six months to train them
in the skills necessary to participate in the development
projects.
"Despite the additional jpb
solutions, we shall still face a
high rate of unemployment in
the next few years," David
Brodett, director of the Treasury's budget office, told the
Knesset Economic Committee
recently.
The new economic measures coincide with Moda'i's
recent announcement that the
government would abandon
the laissez-faire policy of "direct absorption" in favor of direct government intervention
in the immigrant absorption -
process.
The changes are an ac- •
knowledgement that the initial
assumptions by Moda'i and
Bank of Israel Governor Michael Bruno were flawed.
They had assumed that massive aliyah would itself get the
wheels of economic recovery
turning with minimum government interference.
Now the worsening plight of
new immigrants who are
without jobs or adequate
shelter has convinced the economic policy-makers that the
state must act or the boon of
aliyah could become a catastrophe.
Moda'i explained thei
changes in a recent interview'
in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz.
"One must understand what
direct absorption means today," he said. "The immigrants leave the airport, take
a taxi to a place of ■ their
choice, wake up the local
mayor in the middle of the
night, and he provides them
: with temporary shelter at a
local school.
"I am saying that whoever
can manage on his own should
continue with the direct absorption, but I assume we
shaft" have to switch to
planned absorption," the finance minister said
"For example, if we set up
, an industrial zone in Nevatim
(in the Negev), we shall offer
it to the immigrants, if they
want to come they will come;
if not, not," Moda'i said.
_ So far, seven public works
projects employing immigrants have been approved.*
The largest project, expected
to cost $281.5 million, will employ 2,600 persons to modernize and expand the national
electric power system.
Other approved! projects
and their costs include $32.5
million for paving new roads,
mainly in Galilee and the
►Negev, which will provide 600
jobs; $73.5 million to improve
the railway system, providing
700 jobs; $195 million to improve the telephone system,
providing 2,300 jobs.
Also $26 million to develop
water and sewage systems,
$60.5 million to build 1,000 new
classrooms, and $10.8 million
to build and expand 12 industrial parks.
In addition, $21.5 million has
been earmarked to employ
,10,000 people in the building
and construction industry.
ENDLESS TASK
JDC official feels Israel
should leave converts
By Gil Sedan
JERUSALEM (JTA) - Israel should abandon effoj-ts to
get thousands of Jews who
converted to Christianity out
of Ethiopia, says one of the
key officials involved in Operation Solomon airlift.
Kobi Friedman, senior representative of the American
Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee in Addis Ababa,
said he personally feels bringing the converts to Israel
would be ah endless task and
that the converts are not worthy of such an effort.
But he stressed that if the
Israeli government makes a
decision to bring the converts
to Israel, JDC will assist in
whatever way it can.
Friedman, 39, has been in
charge of JDC operations in
the Ethiopian capital for the
past year. His responsibilities
included overseeing food distribution, medical assistance
and financial aid for Ethiopian
Jews preparing to immigrate
to Israel.
But he was also the man
who organized the network
that enabled the sudden, massive evacuation of the Jewish
community.
His last clandestine operation in the capital was securing the fleet of buses that
transported thousands of Jews
from the Israeli Embassy
compound to the airport.
Back in Jerusalem last
week, exhausted after the
longest week in his life, Friedman was asking himself how'
much longer the euphoria
over Operation Solomon
would last and when the problems would begin.    -
He was concerned that the
desire to bring converts remaining in Ethiopia to Israel
might create insurmountable
problems.
According to figures published here, the number of
converts who reached Addis
Ababa with the hope of joining
friends and family in Israel is
3,000. Another 10,000 converts
are believed to have remained
see CONVERTS pg. 13