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Friday, October 12, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 6:38 P.M.
VOL. LXXXVI, NO. 7
The emptied U.N.
"Let us talk to each other," Israel Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir
pleaded in the U.N. General Assembly Hall. There were few to hear him.
When he arose, the delegates' hall emptied. There was even a prejudiced
suggestion that he be ruled out of the U.N. membership.
It was not a new occurrence. It was a repetitive demonstration of the type
of venom that denigrates everything that had been incorporated in the U.N.
Charter.
The demonstration remains useless. Truth and justice will hopefully
survive. The call for rational people to talk to one another in the interest of
peace remains on the human calendar — thanks to the adamance of a vital
American press that reports events as they occur.
This does not reduce the tragedy that lowers the civilized spirit and drags
it into the gutter. The sincerity of peace-striving remains on the agenda.
Here is another tragedy to be recorded. It is credited to the Western
Powers who would feel horrified if they were labeled uncivilized, but they
have given comfort to the poison spreaders. They have lacked the courage of
sincerity, of adherence to the peaceful aims of the U.N. Charter, of the
decency inherent in nations' respect one for another.
The U.N. is a necessity in a hatemongering and war-torn world. The
goals won't be attained until respect is restored. This can be attained in great
measure when U.N. delegates retain their seats to demonstrate not hatred
but common decency.
Normalization???
In mid-1983 sparks of hope were brightening the Middle East horizon
with hopes that another nation in that area was ready for peace with Israel,
that Lebanon would link hands with Egypt for the creation of a peaceful
status where there had been only suspicion and war threats for decades.
That approach to good relations was labeled normalization. But the
enemies ofpeace, those who have been encouraging suspicions, commenced a
campaign of disruption. Now, addressing his parliament in Amman, King
Hussein of Jordan is quoted calling that approach to peace an Israeli
deception.
Is it possible that world public opinion will be deceived by such
destructive methods of yielding only to hatred at a time when the Jordanian
king could have been a force for good and for an end to warfare in the Middle
East?
Perhaps it is vital again to indicate the truth of a fortunate experience
which prevented active warfare. Israel and Lebanon had not been at peace.
But they were not at war. They were the only two countries in their area who
were not crossing swords. Their borders were peaceful — until the PLO
stepped in to create havoc, to threaten Israeli cities on the Lebanese border ,
and to fan hatreds between Christians and Moslems who still are massacring
each other.
There was hope for normalization. King Hussein now tragically seeks to
disrupt it. There was an approach to peace. Now he and his associates, Arafat
et al, stand in the way of even the minimal amity. This is part of the tragedy of
the Middle East.
Traditions of Succot linked
with nuclear disarmament
BY SHANA MARGOLIN
Special to The Jewish News
Succot — the harvest festival, the
festival of redemption — was
envisioned by the prophet Zacahariah
as the time when all nations of the
world would come together to build
Succot in Jerusalem. In our own day,
when the world is threatened by nu-
clear weapons, we can only accom-
plish that vision of harmony by work-
ing against the nuclear threat.
The festival of Succot, with its
beautiful imagery of leafy booths
decorated with lovely things both
natural and artistic, will be given
new meaning this year through Suc-
cat Shalom, a nationwide project that
will focus on the need to prevent nu-
clear holocaust.
Succat Shalom will focus on two
things. One will be a nationwide ef-
fort to raise for discussion the issue of
the nuclear danger, and the practical
actions individuals can take to avert
that danger. The Shalom Center, a
resource center in Philadelphia for
Jewish perspectives on the nuclear
arms race, will coordinate the compi-
lation and distribution of materials
that can be used in religious school
classrooms, congregations, dis-
cussions, and sermons from the pul-
pit. There are extraordinary oppor-
tunities here for education of our
children, deeper involvement of our
adults, and outreach to many Jews
who are not not involved in Jewish
life.
There are also great oppor-
tunities for real action to make the
world safer. This year, Succot comes
in the midst of a national election
campaign. The Succat Shalom effort
will avoid support of any specific
party or candidate, but will clearly
say that the prevention of a nuclear
holocaust should be high on the list of
Shana Margolin is a student at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and
is on the staff of the Shalom Center in
Philadelphia.
questions that Jewish voters put to
candidates and to themselves.
The other focus is on the
structure of the Succah itself. In
many places Jews have actually built
public Succot Shalom, physical sym-
bols of our vulnerability in the world
as it is now, and of our visioit for the
world we would like to see — a world
so safe that we could live in open-
roofed Succot always, without fear.
A Succat Shalom has been
erected in Washington's Lafayette
Park as focus for addressing both the
White House and the Soviet Embassy
with the urgency of halting the nu-
The prevention of a nuclear
holocaust should be high
on the list of questions that
Jewish voters put to
candidates and to
themselves.
clear arms race and pfeventing nu-
clear holocaust.
An interfaith multi-cultural
Shabbat service will be held in the
park tonight and on Sunday there
will be a vigil and rally for a nuclear
freeze.
Like the open Succah, the Jewish
community is traditionally open to 'K
the world — in its beauty and its pain
— at this season. We invite ushpizin
— the holy guests and the poor — to
share the Succah with us. This prac-
tice could be revitalized as a way of
affirming that a world which turned _)
away from nuclear holocaust could
feed its hungry and house its home-
less.
This is the holiday when we pray
for the "70 nations" — for peace and
prosperity among all peoples in the
world. It is also the time when we
celebrate the fruitful earth.