O f
2 Friday, February 6, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Shocking Example of the Campaign to Eliminate Israel
Echoed Here . . . Detroit Must Not Become Another Avenue
for Hate-Spreading Against Israel and Jewish People
By Philip
Slomovitz
Detroit Is Not a Suburb of Damascus or Beirut
Jews and Arabs, Christians as well as Moslems among the latter, have lived together
in harmony here, as neighbors and fellow citizens during even the most turbulent, years
of Arab-Israel controversies. There were some who demonstrated against Israel, with
Arab spokesmen resorting to Palestinianisms. At no time, however, were differences of
views on the Middle East situation transformed into,diStortions. This is happening now,
with a demand that a pamphlet banned in the schools for its untruths and apparent
anti-Israel propagandistic nature should be given an officially recognized status.
It is encouraging to know that the Detroit Public Schools are planning to torrent the
offending material.
Especially in the American school systems, upon which the logical demand is made
for studies based on knowledge of the ethnic elements who make up American society, it
is vital that the truth should predominate. In the instance of a pamphlet dealing with the
Arabs which seeks to eliminate Israel from the map of the Middle East, serious considera-
tion must be given to the source of such shockingly prejudicial spread of untruth.
This has been one of the methods of harming Israel: by emphasizing non-existence of
the Jewish state as far as the Arabs are concerned. And the propaganda is aimed at
influencing others with an elimination of Israel from portrayed maps.
This type of bigotry was imposed on several airlines servicing the Arab countries,
and the prejudicial acts were corrected by some.
By introducing the prejudicial in public schools, anti-Israel elements would repeat
the practices that were in evidence in Arab schools in areas now administered by Israel.
After the Six-Day War of June 1967, the type of map Arabs would introduce in Detroit
schools, were found in Gaza. Accompanying them were textbooks preaching utter de-
struction of Israel and anti-Semitic slogans. The arithmetic books contained such exam-
`More Guns Than Butter'?
The Growing National Menace
Gun control is a challenge to the nation. Will it be
effected soon?
How can it be when "More guns, less butter" is an
attribution to present-day government officials?
The saddest news came from Maryland last week. Fed-
eral authorities estimate that Maryland's population num-
bers are equated by the number of guns in their possession.
The state's police superintendent Thomas Smith said: "The
state is on its way to becoming an armed camp." He said
gun registrations increased 13.4 percent in the past year.
Stating that they need protection, 3,000 who never
before touched a gun purchased them during the past year,
many of them the elderly and shop owners.
The conditions which have encouraged gun sales are
unfortunately lending support to the National Rifle Asso-
ciation, the chief opponent of legislation to create a strong
gun control.
The Commission on Social Action of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations has resumed its efforts to
encourage gun control. A statement issued this week by the
commission's chairman, Alex Ross, calls attention to the
fact that in 1975 the Union of American Hebrew Congrega-
tions, acting in behalf of its 750 enrolled synagogues, voted
to support strict handgun control legislation. It called for
action "to eliminate, manufacture, importation, transpor-
tation, advertising and sale, transfer and possession of
handguns, except for limited instances such as the mili-
tary, police, security guards and licensed and regulated
pistol clubs."
It would be tragic if such proposals were ignored. The
wide range of permissive gun users ought to be restricted
without debate, thus reducing the crime wave.
It has been established that many of the crimes com-
mitted by gun owners are in the family squabbles, and
many holdups are by youngsters who have come into pos-
session of guns. The Union of American Hebrew Congrega-
tions acts realistically in pursuing a policy of supporting
gun control.
Yet the chief lobbyist of the Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms is quoted: "Things are going
to be more hopeful from the point of view of gun owners. I
would say that (President Ronald) Reagan is the most pro-
gun President since Theodore Roosevelt."
The National Rifle Association bases its advocacy of
free usage of guns on the Second Amendment. The Union of
American Hebrew Congregations statement points to Su-
preme Court decisions which negate the NRA position. The
UAHC statement states:
The major emotional appeal made by the NRA
is claiming that handgun control would violate
our constitutional right to have a gun. However,
the entire Second Amendment reads:
"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to
the security of a free state, the right of the people
to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
In five decisions of the Supreme Court, and
other decisions of the Court of. Appeals, it has
been established that the "bearing of arms for a
lawful purpose ... is not a right granted by the
Constitution ..." (U.S. v. Cruickshank, 1875). The
Amendment rather ensures the "organizing, arm-
ing and disciplining of the militia ... (U.S. V. Mil-
ler, 1939). If the NRA seriously believed in the
constitutional right for an individual to bear
arms, they could successfully sue to strike down
existing gun laws and laws that restrict owner-
ship of other arms such as tanks, bazookas, auto-
matic weapons and atomic bombs.
The Reform Jewish commission's position must be
ples as this one: "When you are faced by 10 Jews and suceed in killing seven, how many
are left as your enemies?"
The correction of the Arab guide containing the doctored map is mandatory. Had the
author and the spreaders of such a prejudicial text offered to correct the intentional error
there would have been reason to restore the book for use in the schools. Until that is
accomplished and other corrections are made, it would. be criminal to permit usage of
such a book.
This is not making a mountain out of a molehill. It strikes at the root of the
Arab-Israel issue, at the PLO aim at the total elimination of Israel from the family of
nations. It negates the fanciful innuendos that PLO is now ready to recognize Israel, all
evidence pointing to the adherence of aims to destroy Israel.
Making an issue of what some may consider an unimportant incident is the respon-
sibility of preventing Detroit being turned into a suburb of Beirut and Damascus. There
are more than twice as many Arabs than Jews in this area. All live cooperatively and that
must be assured. This can be destroyed by permitting spread of untruth in the sch
and from there through the entire area.
The media are quick to condemn Israel whenever there is a controversy that involves
settlements and other disputes. How speedily will the editors of local newspapers reject
the latest attempt to inject hatred and prejudice in the hearts of children?
The organized Jewish community always battles against vigilanteism and any form
of extremism which underlines brotherhood and honorable neighborliness among citi-
zens. Who dares sanction the type of hatred and prejudice evidenced in untruth proposed
in a school guidebook?
given fullest support by other Jewish elements in the popu-
lation. It is a necessity in assuring strong gun control as
means of curtailing the crime wave that is frightening so
many in nearly all sections of the country.
Samo-Oborona as a Symbol
of Self-Defense Under Czarism
Samo-Oborona symbolized the duty to protect life
under duress. It is the Russian for self-defense and it was
the term under which Jewish groups operated in the era of
Czarism and the threat of pogroms.
Children of the defense forces who operated under that
symbol will recall that their parents and grandparents
served in organized night squads who were on guard
against molesting drunken crowds who threatened Jewish
homes and lives. They carried daggers and iron bars as
weapons used to repulse whoever may be engaged in pog-
romizing Jews.
, This is a recollection of the pogrom-ehiks who operated
with the encouragement of the Czarist regime whose
policies were to condone massacres of Jews, to make the
ritual murder charge the means of inciting plundering and
murders and to condone the blood libel as in the case of
Mendel Beilis.
In our Russian home in Lida, on top of a very tall
chiffarobe, there was a dagger encased in leather. Three or
four times a week, towards midnight, my father took it with
him on guard duty with other neighbors. There were no
firearms. Neither would have helped against a drunken
mob. The guard duty was an expression of self-respect, of a
resistance that expressed the self-respect of people
threatened by pogromists. They were determined if possi T
ble at least to be on hand to protect the women and the
children.
That's the generation that came here to establish the
American Jewish community whose members, with all fel-
low Americans, glory in the benefits of a law-abiding
society. This generation, and their children and
grandchildren, in many instances the great-grandchildren,
avows faith in the protectiveness of the law. This is the
Americanism that is horrified when it hears about racists,
whether under the cloaks of Ku Klux Klan or any other
group of bigots, We are horrified when young or old or both
are provided with guns and are taught to kill.
A similar sense of repulsion is felt by the generations
when they are told that training camps are being organized
to provide youth with guns and to train them to fight the
enemy. The shocking announcements that such camps are
planned in New York, Michigan and California arouse
disgust over the lack of faith in the American, the human,
the civilized way of life.
It would be a sad day for America if there were a total
lack of faith in the American system operated under the
rules of law and order.
Even in Israel, where the dangers are so immense, the
children are not provided with firearms. They are taught to
detect bombs. PLO and their criminal cohorts go to ex-
tremes. They have been discovered planting bombs the size
of coat buttons in Jewish settlements, and Jewish children
are taught to detect them That's being honorable and
lawabiding.
This is the answer to the PLO: that their ways are not
being emulated. Arab terrorists have boasted, with photo-
graphic evidence, that they are training children of 6 and 7
to operate deadly weapons, to handle guns to be used
against Israelis and Jews. This is not Israel's way, it is not
the Jewish way anywhere. Therefore the insensible idea of
camps to train vigilantes is rejected in Jewish tradition and
practice.
Schindler Repeats Charges Against Falwell
By RABBI ALEXANDER M.
SCHINDLER
President, Union of
American Hebrew
Congregations
(Editor's note: In this
article, Rabbi Schindler,
who has been attacked
for criticizing the Moral
Majority, answers his cri-
tics.)
Is Jerry Falwell good for
the- Jews? Is the Moral
Majority a political force
with which Israel and her
American supporters
should make alliance?
At first blush the answer
to these questions is a clear
yes. After all, Falwell ranks
among Israel's staunchest
supporters. Israel has too
few friends as it is.
Moreover, the Moral Major-
ity is an emerging political
force of some consequence.
Why not cooperate with
them?
A more careful considera-
tion of the ends and means
of America's new right
prompts an entirely differ-
ent response. Alliances
should not be made with
only short-term gain in
This new political force — is a favorite weapon for such
mind; the long-range conse- which gained, considerable assassinations; terms like
quences must also be seen. strength in the campaign "pervert," and_"communist"
And once these are weighed, just past — seeks nothing are liberally applied; in
the Moral Majority and less than to Christianize Idaho the word "Zionist"
those other religious and America, to make it a re- was used in such a manner,
political organizations with public ruled by Christ. Fal- possibly because a good deal
which they are in coalition, well has called for the adop- of Arab money was com-
reveal themselves to be a tion of a "Christian Bill of mingled with the funds used
threat to American democ- Rights" and his coalition by the radical right to de-
racy, to America's Jews, and associate Potter spells out stroy Senator Frank
therefore also to Israel.
precisely what this means: Church.
It is for these reasons
Let me say at once that "When the Christian major-
I do not speak of all ity takes over this country, that I labelled the Chris-
evangelical fundamen- there will be no more tian right a threat to
talists. They do not con- satanic churches . . . Jews. I never called the
stitute a monistic group. Pluralism will be seen as Rev. Mr. Falwell
They may be bound by a immoral and evil, and the anti-Semite. What I
common theology, but state will not permit any- say — and repeat — is
that in his exciusivist
they are not of one mind body to practice that evil."
The means of the Chris- emphasis on a Christian
politically. Indeed, many
fundamentalists have tian right, even more than America and the tools
serious reservations their goals, are troubling. he chooses to build it, he
about the policies and They disdain the demo- and his associates are
programs of Falwell and cratic process. Tests of creating a climate of
his followers. It is only of politico-religious purity opinion which is hostile
the latter that I speak, have been established. to religious tolerance.
those fundamentalists Non-conformers are label-
Such a climate, in my
who join forces with led "sinners," "followers of judgment, is bad for civil
liberties, human rights, so-
America's radical right to Satan."
Hit-lists of candidates cial justice, interfaith
form what has become
known as the Christian targeted for political obliv- understanding, and mutual
ion are drafted, and slander respect among Americans.
right.