8 Friday, January 28, 1983 FIRESTONE . JEWELRY Wholesale Diamonds & Jewelry Remounting Jewelry & Watch Repair SUITE 318 ADVANCE BLDG. • 2q.077 Greenfield at 9 Mile (313) 557-1860 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Blind Rabbi Credits Jewish Braille Institute (Continued from Page 1) In an interview with the Jewish Week of New York, Rabbi Levy credited the Jewish Braille Institute with providing the tools for his achievements. "It's not a question of my having more courage than the next person," he said. "The institute helped with attitude and then with the tools. When we came across the problem of study- ing Talmud with all kinds of asterisks and footnotes, we worked it out on the basis of alternatives. The institute told me of transcribers, and we hammered it out." The young rabbi also spoke with respect of the role of his family in his life. "I remember my father sitting down with me when I was seven or eight, going over the prayers to make sure I was able to keep up. I didn't really want to do it. Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur was always around the time of the World Series. That's a terrible conflict for a kid. My father took the posi- tion that I had to do it just like any other Jewish person my age." The ,Jewish Braille Insti- tute's executive vice president, Gerald M. Kass, point out that about 20,000 American Jews are legally blind. Another 50,000 are on the borderline between legal blindness and extreme visual impairment. • "Our feeling is that there are two basic needs," Kass said. "The first is to provide _ alternate techniques to ac- complish certain tasks, to - The Young Women of Jewish National Fund EREV CHAPTER Cordially Invite You To Attend A TU B'SHVAT PARTY When Israelis and Jews Worldwide Plant Trees Saturday / January 29, 1983 / 8:00 PM Congregation , BETH ACHIM 21100W. 12 Mile Southfield • Entertainment by the SHEKINAH SINGERS Shekinah Singers of Milwaukee and GALAI HARUACH Detroit's Israeli Dance Troop Wine and Special Holiday Treats ' FOR RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION PHONE 557-6644 JEWISH NATIONAL FUND 27308 SOUTHFIELD SOUTHFIELD, MI 48076 Galai Haruach - JOIN US AND PLANT A TREE normalize one's life. The second is to help blind per- sons re-evaluate them- selves and their sense of self-esteem." The institute has some 60,000 volumes in Braille on Jewish topics. In addi- tion, there are more than 100,000 tapes and cassettes, and a groWing library of English and Hebrew books in large type. "Our counseling is in- formational, not psychological," Kass said,' seconding -Rabbi Levy's emphasis on "tools" for indepen- dence. "A female college student will call us, won- dering whether she can go to law school. First we tell her, 'Yes, other blind students have gone.' We give her the telephone numbers of five who have graduated, who can tell her about admission pro- cedures and their experi- ences. "We try to reorient blind people's thinking about themselves. Society says blind people have limited alternatives. We introduce them to maximum alterna- tives. "It really came out of the need," Kass continued, "for normalcy in Jewish life — not segregation, not to be apart, not to have their own congregation. Churchill said: 'Give us the tools and we'll do the job.' Give me a Braille prayerbook and I'm a member of the congrega- tion." Kass stressed that the goal of the institute was to foster the overall indepen-. dence and autonomy of the blind. "An agency, hope- fully, will not become a W - ay of life," he said. "Call us when you want something, and we will send it to you. For the child in religious school, let us know the books that are needed, and we'll send them in Braille. If the teacher has any ques- tions, we'll talk with the teacher. "But as in the case of Rabbi Levy's upbringing, the child's primary reli- gious affiliation should be with the synagogue. We enable that to hap- pen; that's what we call 'normalization.' We would defeat our objec- tives if we became a way of life. We're a resource. Come to the well, take the water, and go." Rabbi Levy added, "There is a mental emancipation that has to take place in all of us. If you judge a blind person and a sighted person only on the basis of visual acuity, the blind person seems to come out as less able. But nobody's that one-dimensional. It could be that the blind person is bet- ter educated, wealthier, in- volved in better emotional relationships, and that when you add up the col- umns, there's nothing there that makes for pity." Summing up the Jewish An advantage over kinsmen is the worst kind of disadvantage. Braille Institute's philos- ophy, Kass stated: "I look upon the institute as a unique experience in Jewish history. This is the only time a position has been taken in 5,000 to 6,000 years of our history _that says blind. people shall par- ticipate. Without us here, there would be the 11th lost tribe. It's hot that this is a special act of charity on our part. It's just basic fair- ness." Caricatures for your party By SAM FIELD call 399-1320 THE PALESTINIANS Towards the middle of the last 1 century, the Jewish homeland, then called Palestine, was a largely uninha- bited wilderness of swamps and des- erts. Jerusalem, the largest town — then nothing more than a community of miserable hovels — had a population of Jews that far outnumbered Christians and Muslims.-,The land had a greatQr number of Jews as settled and perma- nent residents than Arabs who were largely nomadic Bedouins . . . Most of the Arabs who settled in 2 Palestine were attracted from nearby countries as the Jewish pioneers re- claimed their Biblical heritage and made the land bloom once again with their loving labor. Before Israel's rebirth, 'for every three Jews that settled in Pales- tine, there were two Arabs that came to benefit from Jewish development — some to benefit unlawfully. The record of Arab attacks of Jewish settlements: the plunger, rape, arson and murder fills the pages of history . . . Before Israel's st a tehood, 'those 3 who sang "Palestine, My Palestine" were Jews. The "Palestinians" who fought in World War II alongside the British and Americans were Jews. Be- fore Israel was reborn in :1948, Jews were known as the "Palestinians." Arabs have assumed the "Palestinian" identity as a subterfuge to justify a war against the Jewish nation: THE CLAIM OF A "PALESTINIAN PEOPLE" — SEPARATE AND DISTINCT FROM AN ARAB PEOPLE — IS A FRAUD STARTED SOME 20 YEARS AGO ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA --- METROPOLITAN DETROIT DISTRICT — 18451 W. 10 Mile Rd. / Southfield, MI 48075 Your tax deductible contribution for the cost of this advertise- ' ment will be welcome.