8 — THE BULLET5N — Thursday, January 5,1995
By Orit Katzov Israel Emissary, Jewish Federation, Combined Jewish Appeal
Poverty on upswing
Despite economic growth, poverty in Israel increased last year, the National Insurance Institute has reported.
According to figures released by the NTi, 648,000 Israelis — 12 percent of the country's population — had incomes below the poverty level in 1993, an increase of 5.1 percent over the previous year.
Among families with four or more children, 36 percent were poor, the report said. About 29,600 large families were poor last year, an incr'jase of 13 percent over the year before. The number of poor elderly rose 16 per-
cent. Ui all eldeny households, 20.8 percent — a total of 51,400 households —
were poor, according to the report.
Among new immigrants, however, there was an improvement. Some 28,700 immigrant families lived below the poverty level in 1993, down from 33,400 the year before — a decline of 14 percent.
4,500 Soviet teens studying in Israel
About 350 young people from Moscow landed in Israel to participate in the Jewish Agency Youth Aliyah Department's Aliyah 16 program.
The youths, aged 15-17,
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were the first of a total 2,500 teenagers who will be arriving to join the 2,000 already in the program.
They will be coming from 110 cities, all over the former Soviet Union, on 14 direct El-Al flights, and will stay at 70 Youth Aliyah Villages, as well as kibbutzim and yeshivas.
The youths will participate in one of three courses of study: a one-year program to prepare them for continued study in Israeli colleges or universities; a two-year program of Hebrew language, Jewish studies and other subjects; and a three-year program combining high school studies with absorption in Israel.
Jewish Agency reports that about half the newcomers have declared that they intend to remain in Israel after completing the program.
to operate in Ukraine It took seven months of negotiations, but Ukraine is finally allowing 500 Jewish teenagers to come to Israel for the Aliyah 16 program.
The Ukrainian government and Jewish Agency reached an agreement formally allowing JA to operate in Ukraine in fields such as aliyiah, Jewish education, Hebrew language study, teacher training, and youth activities.
Arava master plan unveiled Declaring that "by the end of this decade, the Arava will no longer be a confrontation line, but the front line of progress and economic development in Israel", acting Jewish Agency Chair-
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man Yehiel Leket unveiled a five-year master plan to help the area, along Israel's border with Jordan, take advantage of the newly-born peace with that country.
The plan, dubbed The Arava in Peace, will be implemented jointly by J A's department for rural and urban development and the Israeli Government. It is based on encouraging private investment in development of tourism, technological research, and agricultural development.
During the past decade, JA has invested over US$110 million in the Ara-va*s 20 towns, villages and kibbutzim, and it will continue this assistance, Leket said.
School fees
The Israeli government will help immigrant families pay their children's school fees during their first three years in Israel.
The action will immediately benefit some 2,000 immigrant pupils whose families reportedly have been unable to pay the fees.
While state education is free in Israel, students must purchase their own books and supplies, and are often asked to pay for additional activities, such as school trips.
More Chernoliifl
KFAR CHABAD, Israel — The 12th Chabad Children of Chernobyl flight, carrying 28 young Jewish victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, arrived recently at Ben Gurion airport.
Their arrival brought to 1,066 the total number of children evacuated by Chabad. While children are evacuated immediately to safeguard their health, their parents are scheduled to make aliyah within the next two years.
In the past three years over 600 families have reunited in Israel through Chabad's Chernobyl Project.
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From Page 6
being dedicated to Divine service to a priest.
Eventually the priestly class also grew corrupt. When the Hellenists threatened to destroy the Jewish character of the nation, the Hasmoneans fought off the Greeks, preserving the integrity of the Torah.
But not long afterwards the Hasmoneans themselves — who although of the priestly class nevertheless arrogated to Kingship for themselves as well — became corrupt and strife-ridden. After their failure and the resultant civil wars, leadership passed over to the Sages, the institution which survives today as the most complete and democratic expression of Judaism.
One became a rabbinic leader through study and devotion and not as a result of genealogy and ancestry.
Rabbi Akiva, the classic sage, was a boorish, uneducated shepherd from a boorish, uneducated family — until at the age of 40 he began to dedicate himself to Torah.
The world of the Sanhedrin was based on solid intellectual and ethical achievement. The ultimate expression of this change of attitude is to be found in a Mishna: "A bastard who is a sage is greater than an ignoramus high priest." (Mishna Horayot 13).
The slaying of the Egyptian first-born was a dramatic confirmation of the Divine desire for meritocracy.
Keeping in mind the concept of the gradual dissolution of the institution of the first-born, we are struck by a strange verse in the early verses of Exodus. There we read how G-d instructs Moses to address Pharaoh: "Thus says the L-rd, Israel is my son, my first born. "fEx. 4:22]
Doesn't this expression of Israel as *first-born' contradict everything we've been saying until now.
Let's consider three possibilities.
First, these words can be seen as a warning to the Egyptians. You Egyptians, who see yourselves as the first-born of the world, the greatest civilization to which all mankind gives homage, must understand that if there is a first-born in this world, then G-d, the father of all nations, will choose whom He wants — and it's not you, it's Israel!
Second, these words can be seen as a warning to the Israelites. I have established a relationship with you first, but unless you prove yourself to be worthy, you too can be replaced. The Almighty may well be saying.
Third, these words may be a combination of both the above. There's a fascinating difference of opinion between Rabbi Yehuda Halevy and Maimonides regarding the essential character of the Jewish people. According to Rabbi Halevy, the Jewish people are inherently holy. A Jew possesses a unique, mystical quality called " segulah^' v/hich makes him contain a "higher" soul. Maimonides, on the other hand, argues that there is nothing special about a Jew, if a Jew keeps the Torah, he is worthy of his name and if not, he becomes like the rest of the nations. Torah is what makes a Jew special, unique, holy — a life grounded in ethics and morals. Judaism is a meritocracy.
Rav Avraham Isaac HaKohen Kook, in his Letters, (Num. 64) addresses this issue. He discusses a Talmudic passage which cites the following Biblical verse: "You shall therefore keep My statutes, and Mine ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live by them . . ."(Lev. 18:5] R. Meir interprets that the Torah's choice of the word 'man' (adam) means that even a non-Jew who busies himself with Torah and mitzvot is as great as the High Priest. (B.T. Sanhedrin 59a).
On the surface this may sound perplexing. Rav Kook affirms that a gentile who is ethical and moral is greater than an unethical and immoral Jew. If neither a first-born nor a priest can claim special superiority, why should a Jew be able to rely on lineage going back to Abraham? Everything depends upon the actions of the individual, not withstanding his race or religion.
However, in terms of the evolution of history, G-d has also determined that the Jewish nation quo nation will consistently and eternally be remembered by G-d.
When G-d instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh that he must free His people Israel, "my son, first-born . . ."these words don't contradict the dissolution of the first-born institution. As a nation, Israel is G-d's first-born, and its task can never be undermined.
But each Jew is also an individual; he cannot rely on the first-born status of the Jewish people. If he doesn't keep Torah and mitzvot, R. Meir and Rav Kook are saying, any committed gentile can be greater than he is. But the firstborn status of the nation is inviolate because its destiny and coventai duty is to bring the message of G-d and morality to the world. Shabbat Shalom.
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® Dec. 25,1994 — A suicide bomber sets off an explosion near a bus full of Israeli soldiers near the Jer-uslem central bus station. Thirteen people are wounded in the attack. The bomber was a Palestinian police officer who was a known Hamas supporter.
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