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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday. February 11, 1993-Pagc 7
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Carmit Rabina (second from left) ii^ a recipient of a scholarship awarded by the Canadian Pulver Fund. She is a textile design student at the Shenkar College of Textile Technology and Fashion in Israel. With her, from left, are college president Prof. David Samuel, department head Ayala Raz, and Dr. Amnon Shinar, director-general of the Israel Office, UIA of Canada.
JERUSALEM -
'"I've learned to be creative and . original — to search for a solution that's different from the routine." \says Garmit Rabina. a textile design student at Shenkar College of Textile Technology and Fashion in Ramat Gan,.Israel. Now in her fourth year, Carmit is working on her final project, creating a knitwear collection. Already working as a freelancer, she is bound to. land a professional job in Israel's important fashion industry.
Carmit is one of 20 students at. Shenkar College who this yearwere ■ awarded a scholarship by the Morris M. Pulver Scholarship Fund. Since it began operations eight years ago, this Canadian Fund has helped some: 5,000 students to pursue their higher education in Israel.. To date, it has. disbursed approximately 55 million . (U.S.). It is a meaningful example of the positive impact which Canadian Jewry has in this country.
Morris M. Pulver was a Jewish businessman in Toronto who died in 1982. During his lifetime he had virtually no connection with the organized Jewish community. In his will, however, he bequeathed a substantial sum for the establishment of a fund with the express purpose of helping students at Israeli institutions. ()f higher learning!
The fund js managed in Toronto by a board of trustees, with Ronald Appleby a.s chairman and Samuel Helfenbaum as administrator. Hel-. tenbaum is endowment director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto.
In Israel, Dr. Yehezkel Cohen, a former Canadian living in Jerusalem who was associated with the Hebrew University for many years, is the coordinator. The Israeli partof the administrative work is carried out at the Jerusalem office of the Unitedisrael Appeal of Canada. "We have two main criteria in awarding the scholarships," Cohen .said in a recent interview. "One js financial need, the other scholastic achievement; No doubt the Pulver Fund made it possible for a great many students from' disadvantaged areiis throughout Israel to get .a university education. They wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise. The letters of thanks which we receive reflect this."
In addition, several hundred'stu-dents from Canada who qualified under the term of the scholarship award have also participated in the program . over the years. In many instances, this experience was the genesis of their making Aliyah and pursuing a career in Israel,
The fund's guiding principle is to follow the national priorities set by Israel's Council of Higher Education, whose members are appointed by the government. Thus, there is emphasis today on helping regional colleges which have evolved in recent years in so-called peripheral areas, such ais the Tel Hai Regional College near Kiryat Shmona in the Upper Galilee.
Another principle is to adopt the recommendations submitted by the universities in selecting scholarship recipients. The universities have the
proper apparatiis and procedures to review applications, Cohen points out. "Once w'e refer our main criteria to them, there is no point in duplicating their work.-We do review a .student information sheet which is submitted with every recommendation."
In Israel, undergraduate students (for the B.A. degree) receive 51,000 (U.S.), which covers about half the tuition cost. Graduate students receive SI,500, and doctoral students receive S3;000. In the specialized colleges (for example, Rubin Music Academy) and the.regional college, ■ the scholarship is S500."We decided to spread it out," .says Cohen, "to give less and reach a greater number."
Pulver recipients attend a variety of institutions — from the major univer.siiies siich as Jerusalem, Tef Aviv, the Haifa Technion, Ben Guri-on etc., to. the academies (such as Bezalel). to Teachers' Colleges, and to the various regional colleges.
In addition, Pulver funds help students who come from Israel Project Renewal neighborhoods linked with the Jewish community of Toronto. In the past year, 21 students from Beit Dagan received scholarships, eight from Kfar Qvirol and 11 from ehl Eliat-Eilot region.
In the 1991-92 academic year, 631 Pulver scholarships in the overall sum of 5468,000 (U.S.) were granted to students in 38 Israeli institutions. In addition, the Pulver committee in Toronto awarded 60 scholarships to. Canadians coming to study in Israel.
By DAVID LAZARUS
MONTREAL -
Instead of mending fences, a meeting between ethno-cultural leaders and Parti-Quebecois (PQ) leader Jacques Parizeau over his comments about minority group support for sovereignity seemed only to harden each side's position.
A sometimes indignant but otherwise relaxed Parizeau refu.sed to retreat from his corinments that Quebecers do not need the support of anglophones and allo-phones in order to achieve independence. Surrounded by high-ranking PQ officials like Bernard Landry, Michel Bourdon, and Louise Harel, Parizeau emerged from the 90^minute meeting looking none the worse for wear after deftly; fending off the ethnic coalition.
Parizeau, in fact, seemed to catch the group a bit off guard when he said they themselves had "ethnicized" the debate by having called on their own constituents to vote en masse in favorof the Charlotte-town Accord.
The PQ leader refered to a post-referendum analysis of the Quebec ethnic vote co-auihored by Jack Jedwab. comniunity relations director for the Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region (CJC—Q) and published in Di-
Cll<)i>ll('.
"Is Mr. Jedwab .'ethnicisirig the vote," is he categorizing Quebecers according to their ethnicity, according to their vote? Absolutely not, no riiore than j am," Parizeau said.
Why, the PQ leader.asked, is it a "virtue" when ethnic leaders can urge their constitutents to vote a certain way and a "vice" when he did the same thing?
Parizeau also said he we 1 corned Quebecers of all backgrounds as full and equal citizens, and he repeated his defence that his comments merely stated an obvious reality. ;
For their part, ethnic group representatives like Max Bernard of the CJC— Q's community relations committee insisted that Parizeau's comments about "old stock" Quebecers achieving sovereignity on their own has divided Quebecers along ethnic lines.
"Any attempts to marginalize the members of our communities, or to polarize Quebecers. or to deny us our fuM participation jn Quebec society, i.s extremely troubling to us," said Bernard.
"Whatever the cold nialhematical analysis of the referendum vote might reveal," he said, "that is no justification for Splitting the Quebec.population on the basis of some people's perception of political correctness. When sovereignty-as.sociation was rejected in the previous referendum in 1980; that was not seen as a valid reason for politically marginalizing all those who voted against
. .it--: ■ •:'
"That would not have been acceptable
to the Parti-Quebecois as it existed at that
time, and there is no reason to do it now,"
said Bernard.
One" high-ranking Jewish community officiail said privately that the ethnic groups were placed in a no-wjn situation the moment Parizeau demanded the meeting be held before the television cameras.
An open meeting, ethtiic leaders feared.-risked turning the forum into a "media circus," but the coalition of. 10 organizations felt they had to agree to it lest _ Parizeau accuse them of refusing to take part in a meeting they themselves had demainded.
The ethnic coalition did seem to be at a slight disadvantage according to Tlw Gazette columnist Don Macpherson. "The contest was held under Parizeau's rules...Since he and his PQ teammates were far more experienced at public political gamesmanship, it's not surprising that they scored a few more points."
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Film conflict is resolved
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LOS ANGELES (JTA) -
A potential conflict over the filming of Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg has been resolved amicably.
Spokespersons for Spielberg and for the World Jewish Congress, which had objected to the project, agreed that Spielberg would not employ nunierous extras nor erect a replica gas chamber at the former death camp, which is now a memorial site.
It was the concern that such reported production plans w'ould mar the dignity of the site that led WJC Vice President Kalman Sultanik to issue a protest two weeks ago.
Another point of contention was the charge that the International Au.sch-witz Museum Council, of which Siil-
tanik is vice chairman, had earlier rejected Spielberg's request to film at the site.
Spielberg, known best for films such as E.Ti and yrtM-.?, then reportedly appiealed directly to the Polish government and received permission to go ahead with his project.
In a series of phone conversations last week between Spielberg on the one hand and WJC President Edgar Bronfman and SuUanik on the other, the film director gave assura:nces that satisfied the WJC leaders.
Schiiuller's List, based on the best seller by Thomas Keneally, tells the story of the. wily and heroic German businessman, Oskar Schindler. who saved thousands of Jews from certain death by .sheltering them in his factories in wartime Poland.
Under the Government of Canada's simimer employment program for students, organizations of all kinds are eligible to apply for funding assistance that supports tlie creation of summer jobs.
Apply now through your local . Canada Ernployment Centre - listed
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G.ovemmenI of Canada      ' Gouvemementdu Canada; Minister of State for. Youth     Ministre d'Etat k la Jeunesse
Canada