40
Friday, September 14, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
City of Hope
GLAMORAMA
Is Coming Oct. 31st
BACK PAGE
Tracing the hatemongers
Continued from Page 96
Call Sylvia at 557-3519
A NEW WAVE IN
HIGH TECHNOLOGY
CUMPLITERJZED
JEWELRY
FIFTFiNSFILS
ANALYZED
CALCULATED
PROCESSED & PRINTED
WHILE YOU WAIT
CALL FOR APPOINTMENT
$15.00 FIRST ITEM
$10.00 EACH ADDITIONAL
357-5578
*EXCLUSIVELY AT*
Tapper's t
rageous and promote bigotry
and get an audience. They are
the most irresponsible and
outrageous of the opportunis-
tic.
The responsible journalist
struggles to define the limits
of the gray area between
promoting and alerting," con-
tinues Lobenthal. "Farrakhan
is a case in point. The media's
treatment of Farrakhan re-
presented making him a crea-
ture of the media. But the
media had no choice. In order
to behave responsibly and'ex-
pose him and alert the public
and still deal with him
realistically as a fact of life in
the American body politic,
they had to make him bigger
than he was.
"In reality, he represents
ten thousand blacks out of a
population of thirty million.
That's infinitesimal. But he
also represented an exploiter
of (Jesse) Jackson's coattails
who was more than irrelevant
in the body politic. So what do
THANK-YOU
To all our dear family & friends for their kind, generous expres-
sion of comfort and support during both our recent illnesses.
THELMA .& MEL SIMAN
JEFFREY S. GOLDEN BERG, D.D.S.
ZALMAN KONIKOW, D.D.S.
NORTH OFFICE 6177 Orchard Lake Road
West Bloomfield, Michigan
855.6613
SOUTH OFFICE 26635 Woodward Avenue
Huntington Woods, Michigan
546.0200
.
.
ivirertor
ou-ronne tve.
Creative, exciting and
reflective designs
for residential and
commercial interiors
*Purchasing
*Consultation fee basis
*Complete designs and
furnishings
Please call for consultation
or appointment
W. Bloomfield based design studio
626-6915
Helena Glick, Associate Member ASID
you do with a Farrakhan?
Your options are to make him
bigger than life or smaller
than life, but you really don't
have options in that sense.
And that becomes one of the
dilemmas. Look what the De-
troit media did with (Nazi
bookstore owner) Bill Russell.
In an effort to expose him, they "
fell into the trap of using his
side of the story to promote
him. But the way the media
has handled Carlson (the Nazi
supporter who is a Republican
candidate for Congress from a
downriver district) is a step in
the right direction. They
didn't make a big thing about
it. Just 'Bigot Wins Nomina-
tion' — and this is who he is.
They didn't promote him,
didn't sensationalize him, and
didn't ignore him. The respon-
sible media always struggles
to find out how to deal with the
crazy phenomena of ex-
tremists. But there isn't an
easy formula. There isn't a
simple line to follow."
Do some in the Jewish corn-
munity believe that the ADL
has abdicated its historic re-
sponsibility to respond
strongly to any threats to
Jewish well-being? Indeed,
there are some who say that
role is now being played by the
JDL (Jewish Defense League)
rather than the ADL.
Lobenthal admits that the
ADL's "responsible reaction
sometimes doesn't always
satisfy people so they turn to
extremists-. People don't look
to express their personal sense
of moral indignation, they
look for a professional re-
sponse. They want someone to
go out here and bash heads.
But I've only seen the JDL
go up against Jewish targets.
They're more likely to demon-
strate at an Israeli indepen-
dence celebration where
they'll be denouncing the
Jewish Welfare Federation.
They never take on the Ameri-
can Labor Party or anybody
else in that spectrum. One
might very well call the JDL
anti-Semitic because they
meet the definition of what
constitutes anti-Jewish.
groups: they attack Jewish
targets and seek to restrict
Jews from having options to
their behavior. They define
the way Jews should live and
behave and to them nothing
else is acceptable.
"I worry about extending
the already-moving force
towards extremist behavior.
Whether the talk is about the
increasing terrorism and vio-
lence in our society or the
JDL-type responses, it is the
lack of outrage, the feeling
better or worse for the Jews,
Lobenthal — and the ADL —
may find their interests be-
coming more universal or
more particular.
Right now, Lobenthal is
concerned about Sister Mary
Ignatius Explains It All. "I've
read that play," he says, "and
it's anti-Catholic. There's a
fine line in satire, if you want
to satirize Catholics or indi-
vidual Catholics, or if you
want to satirize the Church
because it has its foibles, or
C even parochial education, like
in Do Black Patent Leather
Shoes Really Shine Up. But
this play mocks Catholicism,
co Catholic theology and
Lobenthal: Protecting all minority
Catholic religious beliefs. In
groups.
my judgment, it is anti-
that there is no sense of public
Catholic. Ironically, the entire
indignation, that there is
controversy occurs at the time
nothing which is going too far
when out of the blue Tony
that seriously bothers me."
Alamo, who makes his living
Lobenthal believes that be-
spewing hatred against
cause of the ADL, there is
Catholics, is now back in the
now a growing awareness of news. These things don't die.
the fact that anti-Semitism as
They go into remission and thy
an active individual harass- resurrect themselves.
ment is alive and well." How-
Whether it's against Jews,
ever, he says that "clearly
Catholics, Blacks, Asians, just
we're not going to focus all of like the Protocols, it still
our energies to fight fires, but
shows up somewhere."
there needs to be some of this
Lobenthal is also particu-
because the fires are still larly incensed over the nega-
burning."
tive stereotyping of ethnic
To prove his point, Lobent- groups which shows up in
hal tells of "six or seven inci- broadcast commercials. He
dents in the affluent Jewish says, "One such case concerns
suburbs where you wake up in the Italian-Americans, with
the morning and your house whom we work closely in com-
has suddenly been covered bating anti-Italian
floor to ceiling with swastikas stereotypes like the Mafiosa.
and the front door has a big Some furniture store has a
CF___ Jews' written on it. commercial with a dialect like
These dramatic incidents in
If you don't buy here, we're
our affluent neighborhoods gonna' kill you.' Really crude
serve to remind people that stuff. In 1984, you really have
there's this sort of underworld, to wonder where do these
not just wearing a swastika, people come from? Who was it
but behaving outrageously, af- sitting in a recording studio
fecting somebody's life. It is a that thought this would be
reflection of the commonality funny? And where were their
of Jewish experience even on heads at?" To Lobenthal, this
the crudest levels."
is all part of the ADL's man-
Lobenthal no longer per- date to combat negative atti-
sonally investigates such re- tudes as well as promote posit-
ports of vandalism. Instead, he ive ones.
relies upon a staff of over 200
Only a few weeks ago, Lo-
professionally-trained volun- benthal was selected by the
teers. He devotes a major part national board of the ADL to
of his time to contacts with the head an important pilot pro-
media. "They come to us for gram. Together with a Hillel
information on the latest hate rabbi from New York, Lobent-.
movement," he explains.
hal took ten campus ministers
In addition, the ADL and from around the country on a
Lobenthal fight discrimina- three-week mission to Israel.
tion against other minority He is also a part-time member
groups, even Arabs and Arab of the faculty at Wayne State
Americans. Lobenthal's phi- University. In addition, Lo-
losophy is that "a society that benthal believes he is the only
would permit discrimination ADL director that is a civil
against a minority group to rights specialist — he is a na-
flourish is going to be a society tional adviser to the ADL
that is deleterious to the inter- board on Black-Jewish rela-
est of any single minority tions. That is a field in which
group." However, as things go his credentials are impressive: