4 Friday, June 29, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS THE JEWISH NEWS Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish Community with distinction for four decades. Editorial and Sales offices at 17515 West Nine Mile Road, Suite 865, Southfield, Michigan 48075-4491 TELEPHONE 424-8833 PUBLISHER: Charles A. Buerger EDITOR EMERITUS: Philip Slomovitz EDITOR: Gary Rosenblatt BUSINESS MANAGER: Carmi M. Slomovitz ART DIRECTOR: Kim Muller-Thym NEWS EDITOR: Alan Nasky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tedd Schneider LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Drew Lieberwitz Rick Nessel Danny Raskin Seymour Schwartz OFFICE STAFF: Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme A Soviet Jew remembers her Orwellian motherland BY LYDIA KUNIAVSKY Special to The Jewish News Ten years ago at this time we finished an overnight reading of Or- well's 1984. The typed sheets of the book were spread on the floor of one of two rooms in our Moscow apartment. The early spring morning, cool and pale, was adding familiar sounds to its newborn light: a loud and elabo- rate exchange of obscenities between the janitor and the yard sweeper; a baby crying; Vassily, our neighbor from the upper floor, slamming the door, kicking it with his foot and leaving for work. The night before he had a © 1984 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520) Second Class postage paid at Southfield, Michigan and addltional mailing offices. Subscription $18 a yew. CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:53 P.M. VOL. LXXXV, No. 18 Our brothers' keeper The pattern is tragically familiar. The victims are persecuted for no other reason than their religious beliefs, but the world looks away, refusing to speak out against the genocide taking place. In Iran today, some 300,000 members of a religion other than Islam live in fear, often accused of being Zionist spies. They are arrested, their property is confiscated and sometimes, when they refuse to recant their religion, they are tortured and even executed: The victims in this case are not Jews, but Bahais, members of a faith advocating world unity and peace (whose world center is in Haifa, where its founder died in exile). The parallels between their suffering and the pattern of Jewish history is too strong to ignore. Recent reports from Bahais who have escaped to the West from Iran indicate that those who refuse to adopt Islam are summarily arrested. A Bahai spokesman in Washington, Paul Glist, told The Jewish News this week that by conservative estimates at. least 175 Bahais, mostly leaders of the religion, have been executed in Iran since the Khomeini revolution. He indicated that there has been support from the Jewish community for the plight of the Bahais in the form of solidarity Sabbaths, resolutions passed by Jewish organizations and sermons by various rabbis. But a spokesman for a national Jewish organization noted apologetically that since the Bahais are often accused of being Zionist agents, it might be harmful for Jewish leaders to speak out more forcefully in sympathy with the Bahais. "There are those who interpret our reticence as not caring, but we're doing all we can, often in quiet ways," the spokesman said. "We're caught in a Catch-22 situation." Still, it is important for the Jewish community to be made aware of the persecution of the Bahais. A woman who escaped an Iranian jail said she still carries with her a photograph of one of the victims who, before being executed, told her friend, "Go and tell everyone what they're doing to us." That haunting plea echoes in every Jewish soul after the Holocaust. The first step in preventing genocide is to cry out at the first symptom of recurrence. Handicapped courage Already tested, and proven workable, a program of guidance for the handicapped to become their home masters as homemakers raises high the standards of services performed by the Jewish Association for Retarded Citizens. While group homes predominate, the ability of persons with minimal handicaps to care for themselves has inspired the procedures which are already proving workable. In the name of the Aaron and Helen L. DeRoy Independent Apartment Program, a remarkably progressive project has been made possible with funds provided by the DeRoy Foundation, with the encouragement of the Jewish Welfare Federation. The training program for independent skilled living and independence for those fitting into the projected undertaking is to the credit of the movement which has become a widely accepted ideal in behalf of the retarded, the handicapped who need the support for human approaches with fellow citizens. Much is yet to be accomplished in this field of human endeavor. JARC qualifies for the task. Support for it must be given on a high scale. "Hey you, dark eyes, long nose, do you hear me? What's your name? Abram? Israel?" habitual drunken fight with his wife which split other neighbors of his communal apartment into two hos- tile armies. Today he had an awful hangover, and the only remedy for it would be more alcohol. He'll immediately start recruit- ing two other members of a drinking "troika." If he succeeds, they'll rush to the store across the street to be the first to buy vodka when the store opens. They always try to split a bottle for three: it's chaper, so you can buy another bottle and enjoy it once again with your newly-acquired friends. Then they'll squeeze into a bus and grabbing a metal rail or a loop hanging above their heads they will prepare themselves for a 45-minute standing ride to their plants, shops and factories. They would eye those lucky individuals who got into the bus at its first stop and now occupy the seats, and hating them im- Lydia Kuniausky is a caseworker at the Jewish Resettlement Service in Southfield. i'masaINA 41fil AND i CARL ■ alio iCT6 1111V • mensely, will find a victim, usually someone with dark eyes and curly hair, and start a friendly and inno- cent conversation between them- selves but loud enough for everybody: "How come that Jews always get what the Russians can't, eh? How comethat they are the first in lines to get food, or shoes, or sweaters, and they are always sitting when other people are standing. Ah?" They wouldlook around inviting others to share their justified curios- ity. "Hey you, dark eyes, long nose, do you hear me? What's your name? Ab- ram? Israel?" The friends burst out laughing. They are in a very good • mood now. They don't want to leave the bus. It's been such a good morn- ing, after all. It's almost eight o'clock and we are in a hurry. We have to put the sheets of 1984 in order and return the book before 9 a.m. to our friend who gave it to us for one night. It was translated, typed and left unbound so it would be easier to read for several people at the same time. As copying machines are not available in Russia (how could they be? Who knows what kind of dangerous material can be copied?) , the underground literature must be typed and retyped. You are lucky if you get a legible version. My husband will mix up the manuscript with the pages of his theses, and put- ting it in his briefcase, will carry it casually but cautiously through the morning rush of Moscow public transportation. We were kneeling on the floor, looking for pages of the book, and still not able to get rid of the tragic spell it had spread on us. It was about us, quiet, obedient creatures who screamed silently, revolted invisibly and who were desperately trying to find an escape. It was us who were watched, stuffed with hatred and in- doctrinated by narrow-minded, dog- matic idiology in order to produce one-track minds. It was the "news- Continued on Page 22 a Wski Om GUYa keTTER MP MC eaa 1■1 1 OOP (c YEP, 11112. 18 VoR 011 1 PA1 GOIM Do IT... CilUE To HOLD ME ea! Swim REALLY„, Hag?