THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
11r.,
NEWS
Friday, April 20, 1984
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Continued from Page 1
nominee of the Democratic
Party will have within that
party strong extremes, the
very hawks on the right, the
very doves on the left and all
of those in between. It is
that sense of delicate bal-
ance that I am concerned
about."
Farrakhan, who heads
the Nation of Islam group,
offered his assessment of
the Fuhrer in a March 11
nationwide radio broadcast.
It was largely overlooked
then because in the same
broadcast he urged blacks to
ostracize a black reporter,
Milton Coleman, who dis-
closed in the Washington
Post that Jackson had re-
ferred to Jews as "Hymies"
and to New York City as
"Hymietown."
In his March 11 broad-
cast, the Chicago Tribune
quoted Farrakhan as say-
ing: "Here, the Jews don't
like Farrakhan, so they call
him Hitler. Well, that's a
good name. Hitler was a
very great man. He wasn't
great for me as a black per-
son, but he was a- great
German, and he rose Ger-'
many up from the ashes of
her defeat by the united
force of Europe and America
after the First World War.
"Now, I'm not proud of
Hitler's evils against the
Jewish people. But that's a
matter of record. He rose
Germany up from nothing.
Well, in a sense you could
say there's a similarity in
that we're rising our people
up from nothing. But don't
compare me with your
wicked killers."
Two Jewish leaders de-
nounced the Black Muslim
leader for extolling Hitler
and urged Jackson again to
repudiate Farrakhan.
Rabbi Alexander Schindler,
president of the Union of
American Hebrew Congre-
gations, said, "Mr. Far-
rakhan has placed a storm
cloud over Jesse Jackson's
rainbow coalition, and the
result is a dark and deeply
disturbing shadow over the
American political scene."
Schindler added, "I pray
that Rev. Jackson will use
this latest wild and irres-
ponsible statement by his
supporter, Louis Far-
rakhan, to at last publicly
dissociate himself from Mr.
Farrakhan and the danger-
ous demagogy he repre-
sents.'
Julius Berman, chairman
of the Conference of
Presidents of Major Ameri-
can Jewish Organizations,
said: ` 4 If Mr. Farrakhan
plans to do for the black
people what Hitler did for
the German people, he is an
even greater menace to our
country, to American blacks
and to the cause of racial
justice and racial amity
than he has already shown
himself to be.
I ONE HOUR PHOTO
"Calling Hitler a 'great
man' — even 'wickedly
great' — is simply obscene.
The sooner black leaders
and especially Jesse
Jackson repudiate Mr. Far-
rakhan and his kind of
thinking, the better off all
Americans will be." Far-
rakhan, at a press confer-
ence, accused the media of
distorting his remarks but
insisted that Hitler could be
called "great" in the context
of history.
"I don't think you would
be talking about Adolf Hit-
ler 40 years after the fact if
he was some miniscule
crackpot that jumped up on
the European continent. He
was, indeed, a great man,
but also wicked. Wickedly
great," Farrakhan said.
Xathan Perlmutter, na-
tional director of the Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith, has rejected an offer
by Farrakhan that they
hold a meeting because his
continued threats and pub-
r M1115 -ir 1
lic utterances "have created
an atmosphere far more
conducive to fear and divi-
siveness than to rational
discourse."
In a letter to Farrakhan,
the ADL leader said his ini-
tial reaction to a meeting
had been "affirmative be-
cause I too felt that conver-
sation among reasonable
people, no matter their dif-
ferences, is constructive."
Farrakhan made his re-
quest for, a meeting two
weeks ago while Perlmutter
was out of the country.
Perlmutter went on to
say, however, that upon re-
turning and reading Far-
rakhan's new threats di-
rected against Washington
Post reporter Milton Cole-
man and his wife, he had
been convinced that there
was "no value" in it.
Perlmutter termed the
Farrakhan praise of Adolf
Hitler as an "incredible and
deplorable ignorance of his-
tory."
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Passover, Easter share
some holiday rituals
357-5333
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NOP/ tio. 'At
--mar 'No.- —ow
Nino-
BY MARC TANENBAUM
Passover and Easter coin-
cide again this year, as they
do so often. But historical
evidence shows that their
similarities of ritual prac-
tices are more than coinci-
dent.
The late Prof. Julian
Morgenstern, a great
Jewish Biblical scholar,
wrote an important but
little-known book called
Some Antecedents of Chris-
tianity. In that study, he
discloses that the entire
Holy Week observances
simply cannot be under-
stood — as Jesus and his
early followers understood
them — apart from their
rootedness in Judaism.
The pilgrimage to
Jerusalem with the carry-
ing and waving of palm
branches — the lulav — was
an early Israelite religious
practice of the country.
Jews of Palestine inaugu-
rated the Passover festival
in those days by such rites of
purification before
Passover. Jesus and his dis-
ciples, who were mainly
Galilean farmers, consti-
tuted a distinct Jewish sect
who conformed to that
time-honored Jewish folk-
ritual.
Also, in the early Jewish
agricultural calendar, Sun-
day was a sacred day and
was measured from sunrise
to sunrise. Sunrise services
on Easter Sunday, therefore
was based on the Israelite
practice of religious services
at sunrise, and the Jewish
belief that the day was the
beginning of a new year and
new life.
Prof. Morgenstern also
notes that the theme of
death and resurrection also
traces back to the Jewish
tradition that King David
went to the Mount of Olives
before Passover where he
struggled with and defeated
the Angel of Death, and
then resurrected, he re-
turned to Jerusalem in a
joyous procession.
While Judaism and
Christianity are today two
distinctive and independent
religions, these historic
facts suggest that Jews and
Christians bear a unique
family relationship more
significant than both have
been willing to acknowl-
edge.
A Seven Arts Feature
School Bible
clubs challenged
Grand Rapids — The
American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) will chal-
lenge the legality of Bible
classes held during school
hours in two western
Michigan school districts,
according to the West
Michigan ACLU President
Charles Bearden.
Bearden said last week
that he would file a com-
plaint with the Michigan
Department of Education
charging that the Bible
clubs, which have been
meeting during lunch hours
at elementary schools in
Sand Lake and Howard
City, violate the Constitu-
tional guarantees of separa-
tion of church and state.
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