Special Interview Peace and Israel’s Social Problems

Mayor Shlomo Lahat of Tel Aviv stressed that the Middle East peace which he believes will be realized soon will increase the urgency for Israel to solve its social problems. “The social problems will come up very quickly and we will have to deal with them, “he said in an interview yesterday with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Lahat is in New York to promote Project Renewal, the $1.2 billion program to improve the lives of some 45,000 Israeli families in slum neigh bar hoods throughout the country and will visit several other U.S. cities before returning to Israel April 6. The New York Jewish community, through the United. Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies Joint Campaign, has adopted Hatikvah, the slum inhabited by 20,000 persons in the southeastern part of Tel Aviv.

Hatikvah, which means “hope, ” is one of Israel’s worst slums, with poor housing conditions a high crime rate, many drug users and other problems, Lahat pointed out. He said the residents of the area, mostly immigrants and children of immigrants from Arab countries, are “bitter” especially against the establishment which they believe has neglected them. “These people must be integrated into Israeli society,” he said.

HATIKVAH AND SOUTH, BRONX COMPARED

The 51-year-old Tel Aviv Mayor, who is very enthusiastic about the prospects for Project Renewal, has also been studying American urban renewal problems while in New York City. After a breakfast Tuesday at Gracie Mansion with Mayor Edward Koch, Lahat toured the South Bronx and then Jewish institutions undergoing revival, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. His guide was Richard Ravitch, a prominent builder and president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

Lahat said he found the South Bronx a “devastated area,” more like the empty areas between Tel Aviv and Jaffa which were destroyed by the fighting in the Israeli. War of Independence, than Hatikvah. He said the South Bronx was a place with no people.

In Hatikvah, he said, the imperative aim was to improve the conditions of the people not just buildings. He said he did not want new buildings with the 20.000 people gone from the area. He hoped that when Project Renewal was completed in 10-12 years it would still have 15,000-17,000 of the original residents living no longer in isolation but integrated into Israeli society.

Lahat said he was most impressed in the South Bronx with the “sweat-equity” program where young people learn the various construction trades as they repair their own neighborhood buildings. He plans to send a representative from Tel Aviv to study this program for use in his city.

Lahat said he believes Israel has a lot to learn from U.S. urban renewal programs, accomplishments as well as mistakes. It also needs to learn improved construction methods. “We don’t build fast enough,” he said. “We don’t build good enough.” Ravitch heads a planning committee which, under the auspices of the Federation, is providing experts in social service and housing construction for Project Renewal in Hatikvah.

ROLE OF U.S. JEWS

The Tel Aviv Mayor expressed the fear that just as the realization of peace will put the spotlight on Israel’s social problems, American Jews will now feel it is no longer urgent to help Israel. But he said diaspora Jewry has a responsibility for Israel.

“Israel is not a State of Israelis, it is a State of Jews,” he declared. “We are a country of 31/2 million citizens and 14 million taxpayers.” He said Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere must take a share in solving Israel’s social problems. The Israeli government will provide half of the cost of Project Renewal and world Jewry the other 50 percent.

Lahat pointed out that Project Renewal is actually a return to the central theme of the Zionist movement the creation of a “better society.” He said what Israel can teach the U.S. on urban renewal is the “guilt” Israelis have that the conditions of a major segment of the society has not been improved and they have not been integrated fully into Israeli society.

A PLUG FOR TEL AVIV

Lahat, a retired Major General, has been Mayor of Tel Aviv since February 1974. Last year, when for the first time Israeli voters elected a Mayor directly, he was elected with a higher percent of the vote than the rest of his Likud ticket, a fact that impressed Koch who has announced he plans to seek two more terms as Mayor.

Born in Germany and brought to Israel at the age of six, Lahat, who earned a law degree during his years of army service, is considered an effective spokesman for Tel Aviv where he has lived since 1958. “Tel Aviv is the heart of the country,” he exclaimed. While tourists and some Israelis denigrate the city, as many Americans do New York City, Lahat stressed that Tel Aviv is the cultural and economic center of Israel. He noted that while Jerusalem is a product of many cultures, “Tel Aviv is a creation of the Zionist movement.”