Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 24, 1993 Page: 21 of 24
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IN OUR 47TH YEARI-FORT WORTH, THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1993, TEXAS JEWISH POST
21
Wash Watch
continued from p. 4
ceed towards an eventual
peace treaty, although sign-
ing of that document has been
held up pending some sign
of progress on the Palestin-
ian-Israeli front.
Israeli representatives
have sent clear signals to
Washington that they are not
interested in doing anything
that might jeopardize that
progress.
“There may have been
some intention of embarrass-
ing Hussein in the way the
report was released," said one
congressional source. “But
both the administration and
the pro-Israel groups want to
downplay it, because there’s
no percentage in hitting on
Hussein right now.”
More Church-State
Confusion:
Church-state separation is
becoming more of a moving
target, thanks to another con-
fusing Supreme Court deci-
sion.
Last week’s 5-4 ruling in
Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills
School District involved the
right of a deaf child at a reli-
gious school to receive fed-
eral assistance for a sign-lan-
guage interpreter.
A lower court ruled that
providing an interpreter
would violate the Establish-
ment Clause of the Constitu-
tion; the Anti-Defamation
League, which almost invari-
ably insists on a stout church-
state barrier, joined in a brief
supporting that decision.
In what is becoming a fa-
miliar pattern in church-state
cases, other Jewish groups
disagreed; the American
Jewish Congress insisted that
the state was doing nothing
more than providing an es-
sential service for a deaf
child.
The court agreed with that
assessment in a narrow deci-
sion that left many unan-
swered questions.
“We’ve been in a difficult
time in church-state law for a
few years, and that is likely
to continue,” said Richard
Fbltin, legislative director for
the American Jewish Com-
mittee. “The court is split,
and tl
about
here.”
The court seems conyi
that the traditional bench-
mark for evaluating church-
state cases, the socalled
“Lemon test," is unwieldy—
but they are not yet ready to
discard it, be suggested.
The result, according to
Foltin, could be a period of
confusing church-state rul-
ings as the court seeks some
middle ground.
%
Another Jewish group had
a more positive spin on the
decision.
“It’s an important victory,”
said Abba Cohen, Washing-
ton representative for Agu-
dath Israel of America. “We
have services for the handi-
capped in yeshiva day
schools in which the chil-
dren have not been served
properly because of these
church-state concerns; this
decision will go far in clear-
ing up that kind of confu-
sion.”
The decision, he said, will
also boost “school choice"
programs that critics see as
the foot in the door for public
funding of parochial institu-
tions.
That is a can of worms that
will almost certainly esca-
late the church-state war
within the Jewish commu-
nity.
Fighting Jewish Poverty:
Legislators and activists
who are trying to confront
the intractable problem of
poverty in this country are
always surprised to learn that
there are poor Jews.
And when it comes to fed-
eral programs and grants, that
surprise can translate into
problems for hard-pressed
Jewish organizations serving
the Jewish poor.
A delegation from the
Metropolitan New York Co-
ordinating Council on Jew-
ish Poverty were on Capitol
Hill last week, trying to edu-
cate decision-makers about
a problem that is invisible
even to many Jews.
“We want both Congress
and the administration to
understand that poverty is a
very real part of our commu-
nity—and that these people,
like the non-Jewish poor,
have needs that the govern-
ment can address.” said Wil-
liam Rapfogel, the group’s
executive director.
The delegation distributed
a draft report on Jewish pov-
erty in New York, which in-
cluded some alarming statis-
tics that reflect nationwide
trends.
“For years, the feeling was
that poor Jews are largely the
elderly, and that their needs
involve primarily things like
home health care and nutri-
tional assistance," Rapfogel
said. “What we found in this
study is that the population
of poor Jews is changing;
jobs and the lack of economic
opportunity are becoming a
much more important factor
than age."
That trend has been accel-
erated because of the reces-
sion and the influx of Rus-
sian Jews, he said.
“We are definitely seeing
a shift towards younger Jews
living in poverty or near-pov-
erty," he said. “There are
more families, many more
children. That’s part of what
we wanted to explain to
people in Washington.”
Rapfogel hopes the New
York study will become a
model for other communi-
ties.
‘The problem—in our own
Just Say You Saw It in
The Texas Jewish Post
114
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aty and elsewhere—is that
nobody really has a handle
oo how bad Jewish poverty
is," he said. “There is very
little data available; we hope
this will be the first step in
filling that void.”
New INS Commissioner
Wins Praise:
For the fust time in a long
time, the Immigration and
Naturalization Service will
have a commissioner who
actually knows something
about immigration and natu-
ralization.
Doris M. Meissner, whose
parents immigrated from
Germany, is winning strong
praise from immigration ac-
tivists who are more accus-
tomed to highly political ap-
pointees . Meissner is a 13-
year Justice Department vet-
eran who has specialized in
immigration law and
women’s rights.
“She’s much more experi-
enced than anybody we’ve
had at INS,” said Rick
Swartz, an expert on immi-
gration and refugee policy
who has consulted for Jew-
ish groups. “She has a good
reputation as being some-
body who genuinely believes
that immigrants and refugees
strengthen America; at the
same time, she is tough on
enforcement issues.”
In the past two years, there
has been little conflict be-
tween the organized Jewish
community and INS, in part
because the urgency of re-
moving Jews from the former
Soviet Union has lessened.
But before that, INS fre-
quently seemed to be erect-
ing new obstacles to Jewish
refugees; Jewish activists
here believe INS could take
oo greater importance to the
Jewish community if the re-
cent improvement in condi-
tions in that part of the world
is reversed.
Immigration and refugee
activists are also expecting
an appointment to the criti-
cal job of chief of the office
of Refugee Resettlement, a
division of the Department
of Health and Human Ser-
vices that works with volun-
tary groups to help refugees
adjust to life in this country.
According to sources here,
at least one Federation ex-
ecutive is on the administra-
tion’s short list for the post.
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 24, 1993, newspaper, June 24, 1993; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth754104/m1/21/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .