6 Friday, May 20, 1983

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

YOtith Arrested in

By ALAN HITSKY

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Farmington Hills police
have obtained confessions
from three juveniles, under
the age of 17, for the defac-
ing of Adat Shalom Syna-
gogue last Saturday night.
A police spokesman told
The Jewish News yesterday
that the three youths, one
from Farmington Hills and
two from Northville, were
interviewed after the police
received an anonymous tip.
The three will be charged
with malicious destruction

A6i Shemin 'Vandaiism

of property over $100, a
felony offense. They have
been released to the custody
of their parents.

Officer Tim Swanson,
who interviewed the
three, said that as
juveniles they could be
sentenced to a term at the
Oakland County Chil-
dren's Village. However,

he said the three are first
offenders, and would
probably receive a lesser
sentence which could in-
volve paying restitution

and/or probation.

The three used cans of
spary paint to disfigure the
synagogue walls,
sidewalks, parking lot signs
and pavement with swas-
tikas, the Ku Klux Klan ini-
tials, racial epithets and
obscenities.
Swanson said the three
were very cooperative in
their interviews with police
and said they were part of
no organization or group.
They said they "happened to
be in the area."
Asked why they
sprayed swastikas and
"KKK," the three told
Swanson, "That's .what
you write on a syna-
gogue." They claimed
they have no animosity
towards Jews or the syn-
agogue.

Rabbi Efry Spectre of
Adat Shalom said that the
graffiti was very traumatic
for members of his congre-
gation. "A number of
women coming to a meeting
Sunday morning were cry-
ing. For some, it brought
back memories of their
childhood (in Europe)."
Chuck Robertson, owner
of Paddock Pools Corp., vol-
unteered to remove the
paint. He worked with
crews on Monday and Tues-
day with high-pressure
water hoses. Rabbi Spectre
said that 95 percent of the
paint had been removed or
noticeably lightened by
Tuesday evening, when
services began for Shavuot.
Adat Shalom was the
target of a similar incident
in June 1979.

Soviet Emigre Drive
Dwarfs Noshrim Issue

By DONALD FELDSTEIN

(Copyright 1983, JTA, Inc.)

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(Editor's note: Donald
Feldstein is executive
vice president of the
American Jewish Com-
mittee.)
Almost the last thing that
world Jewry needs right
now is a bitter and divisive
fight over an issue of no
practical consequence. On
the face of it, the "noshrim"
question would qualify as
such an issue.
Jews- are not being per-
mitted to leave the Soviet
Union in any significant
numbers and no dramatic
upturn seems to be in the
offing. And there is a need to
raise the question of
whether there is any con-
nection between the grow-
ing percentage of Russian
Jews who opt to go to the
West and the Soviet deci-
sion to lower the rate of
Jewish emigration.
One theory is that the
drop-out problem caused
the decline in Jewish emig-
ration, -that . the Russians
are permitting fewer Jews
to leave because more of
them went to the United
States or elsewhere rather
than to Israel. A recent syn-
dicated column by Carl Alp-
ert in the Anglo-Jewish
press stated this as a matter
of fact, rather than as an
opinion; so did a recent
editorial in the Jerusalem
Post. And Leon Dulzin,
chairman of the Jewish
Agency Executive, closed
the recent World Congress
on Soviet Jewry provoca-
tively by calling on Russia
to permit Jews to come to
Israel "and no place else," as
though the entire debate
had been resolved.
Therefore, it is neces-
sary to remind the public
that the larger debate, on
Soviet emigration, is still
a live one, no matter how
much we all hope that
Russian Jews will settle
in Israel and that what
connection there is, if
any, between the drop-
out rate and the , decline
in emigration is very
speculative and un-
proven.

For years Mr. Dulzin and
others have been warning
that the Russians were
about to restrict emigration
because more and more of
the exiting Jews were opt-
ing to come to the West.
These people have warned
that the Russians cannot
accept emigration except to
a national homeland be-
cause only this excuse could
allow the Russians to keep
other ethnic minorities
from demanding emigra-
tion as well.
The more substantial
facts support the argument
that noshrim are not an
issue to the Russians at all.
For several years after the
so-called danger to emigra-
tion in the noshrim issue
was raised, emigration of
Jews increased steadily,
even as a higher and higher
percentage of Jews came to
the West. It was only after
Afghanistan, the grain em-
bargo, the canceling of the
United States Olympic par-
ticipation, and the chilling
of Soviet-U.S. relations that
emigration fell.
Some students of
Russian-Jewish emigration
have tried to find a pattern
in the cities from which
Jews are permitted to leave
to indicate that the Rus-
sians were particularly
punitive in cases when more
Jews left for the West. How-
ever, in many cases and in
many cities this has simply
not happened, and some of
the places from which the
greatest percentage of Jews
went to Israel are precisely
where the greatest cuts in
emigration were made.
Together, Israel and Dis-
apora Jewry must concen-
trate on freeing every possi-
ble Jew from the Soviet
Union. The only difference
of opinion should be over
how to do this most effec-
tively — other considera-
tions are a diversion at the
expense of our brethren.

.

Turkey controlled Pales-
tine until the conclusion of
World War I. Great Britain
then accepted the League of
'Nations Mandate and con-
trol of Palestine.