Oregonians go to Israel
By Deborah Moon Seldner
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JERUSALEM—Thanks to a booming economy and progress against terror, Israel is poised at last to grapple with nagging social issues that it previously could do little more about than sweep under the rug.
That's what a group of Jews from Oregon heard from numerous speakers during a Jewish Federation of Greater Portland mission to Israel May 14-24.
Col. Miri Eisen, recently retired from the Israel Defense Force, summarized the situation in Israel now on the terror front (see story on page 11).
Eisen was just one of a series of speakers who told Oregonians how separation from the Palestinians is allowing Israel to focus more attention on its economy and social issues.
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"Defense is not Israel's major issue. The major issues facing Israel are the nature of the Jewish state and the Jewish identity of Israelis," agreed Zvi Levran, the Jewish educator and guide leading the Portland tour.
Indicative of this new emphasis on social issues, was the recent election of seven members of the new Gil, or Pensioners, party to the Knesset. The new party was formed specifically to address the needs of Israel's needy seniors and to ensure that a safety net exists for the country's at-risk populations. One of those new ministers, Elhanan Glazer, addressed Oregonians when they visited the Knesset May 23.
Glazer declined to answer questions on security and separation issues, noting he had only been a member of the Knesset a few weeks and he was elected solely on a platform addressing issues of retirees and the availability of medications.
As Oregonians arrived at the Knesset, the lawn outside the fence was lined with protesters calling for greater access to affordable medicines, something Glazer said the Knesset will take up in earnest in the next few weeks.
Amicam Bezalel, who now works in the office of the Knesset speaker and started working in the parliament in 1963, told the group, "This is the first election where social issues were on the table. Problems of Israeli society got priority."
In past elections, issues of security and defense have been the campaign issues, Bezalel said.
The day the Oregon mission arrived in Israel, many Israeli papers were touting 6.6 percent economic growth in the first quarter—the highest economic growth of any Western nation, said Eisen.
"We are a booming Western economy," said Eisen pointing to Israel's successful high-tech, agricultural-tech and bio-tech industries, as well as the fact that the cell phone was invented in Israel.
Eisen was just one of several speakers who discussed how separation from the Palestinians is allowing Israel to focus more attention on its economy and social issues.
Issues that are beginning to receive more attention, said Levran, include electoral reform, separation of state and religion, Jewish content in non-Orthodox schools, continued absorption of immigrants, and how to relate to needs in society such as closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Other speakers who discussed the economic boom included Tel Aviv University and Hebrew Union College Professor Paul Liptz and Ya'acov Fried, president of Da'at Travel Services.
"We are the fastest changing country in just about every realm," said Liptz. "Israel is an exciting, effervescent country."
Liptz said he believes Israel will be even better in five years than it is now. He said he believes conditions in Israel will continue to improve because more Arab countries are recognizing that Israel is not going to disappear and also because Israel is slowly developing relations with countries in Europe.
According to Fried, "The country is boiling economy wise. ? Academically, research and high-tech wise, we are boiling." He pointed to the four Nobel prizes Israelis have won in the past four years and U.S. investor Warren Buffet's recent purchase of an 80-percent share of Israeli metalwork conglomerate Iscar.
Liptz said the challenge for Israel is to maintain a strong middle class. Currently 60 to 65 percent of Israelis are middle class, he said.
He also noted that Israel ranks 15th in the world for quality of life, which he called "remarkable living in a war zone."
"For 65 percent of Israelis, things are great," he said, noting that life is more difficult for the remaining 35 percent made up primarily of Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, Israeli Arabs, third-generation Israelis and the fervently Orthodox.
Fried said that with the fervently Orthodox becoming the poorest people in the country, he believes they will be forced to enter the workforce, which will be a major shift in their lives.
Liptz said Israel is a very complex society living in a complex part of the world with a complex economy.
Asked what Israelis expect from the recently elected Knesset, Liptz said, that Israelis want politicians to get Israel out of a large part of the territories, move the nation forward economically and solve the problems of religious diversity.
On the bus the next day, Levran concurred that issues of identity and infighting among Jews are receiving more focus as the issues that the state needs to address in the long term.
"The need to strengthen the identity of secular Jews as Jews, the monopoly of the Orthodox on issues of Jewish identity, the need to empower non-Orthodox Israelis to make Judaism their own and not leave it the monopoly of the Orthodox ? there is such friction between groups around these issues," said Levran. "At the moment they are still on the back burner, but they are moving to the fore."
"A sense of we as the first person plural needs to be maintained," said Levran. "There is a struggle to maintain the unique Jewish society."
"If we just become a little America, why are we here?" he asked.