4 Friday, October 26, 1984

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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CANDLELIGHTING AT 6:17 P.M.

VOL. LXXXVI, NO. 9

Lunatics menacing all

When sickminded vandals destroy property, mutilate sacred structures,
attack people and resort to such slogans as "Down with Jews and Niggers,"
they are described as the lunatic fringe. Soon, it is learned that they are not
merely on the fringe but represent a totality of insanity, that they are a
menace not to Jews and blacks but to all peoples.
This has been and remains a human experience. First the lunatics assail
Jews, then they threaten blacks and on their march as the insaned it is not
long before they threaten Catholics and whoever and whatever they dislike,
whether it is the color of skin or the spoken language.
That is why they are viewed as fringe — because they are met with
contempt wherever they make an appearance. This is how such fringed
lunatics were judged in Livonia and in several areas throughout the land.

Soviet overtures!?!

Continuing Soviet "overtures," as the term is applied, keep emphasizing
the comfort provided to the anti-Israel attitudes prevailing in relation to the
Middle East.
With regard to the visit to the Kremlin last week by Syrian President
Hafez Assad, Western diplomats interpreted the exchange of views between
Syria and the USSR as an increase in Russian activities in the Middle East.
One visit after another, repeated welcomes to Arafat, welcoming signs to
Assad's brother all indicate the comradeship the Kremlin provides the
antagonists of Israel.
The "enemy" is both visible and audible, and there is little hope that the
animosities can be subdued. It is as difficult for Israel to overcome the
onslaught on Israel's desire to live in peace as it is for the United Stated to
defeat Russian propaganda that threatens destructive actions. If there is the
slightest hope for an end to the war-threatening situation in the Middle East
it lies only in Arab recognition that in the long run the Soviet influence is as
menacing for them as it is for Israel. The sooner the USSR involvement is
subdued the better for the peace of the world.

Litmus test

The hot election race in the Third Congressional District, which cuts
across the Lower Peninsula from Lansing to Kalamazoo, now has its own
version of Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt's summer letter to 45,000 clergymen
which urged a Christian vote for Reagan-Bush.
A similar storm brewed briefly last week in Michigan, seeded by a letter
signed by self-described born-again Christians Rep. Mark Siljander and State
Senators Allan and Harmon Crospey. They urged local ministers to help
defeat incumbent Democrat Howard Wolpe, who is Jewish, and send another
Christian to Congress."
The federal courts are now deciding the issue of a city-owned nativity
scene in Birmingham. The state courts are ruling on religious clubs in a
western Michigan school district. Now we have the send-a-Christian-
to-Congress letter. The issue of Separation of Church and State is no longer
"someone else's" issue, and our own attitudes will help determine if we have
advanced to the 1980s or regressed to the 1920s.

OP-ED

Rabbi Marvin Hier answers
his Wiesenthal Center critics

BY RABBI MARVIN HIER
Special to The Jewish News

I do appreciate the diligence with
which you approached your assign-
ment, and the many complimentary
things you presented concerning the
Wiesenthal Center and, most of all, for
identifying our steadfast commitment
to act anywhere the interests of Am
Yisrael are threatened.
It is unfortunate, however, that
your Oct. 12 article dwelt mainly on
myself and did not sufficiently present
the scope and the vibrancy of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center, particu-
larly its six active divisions, which are
the heart and soul of the institution:
its media department, which produces
a weekly radio program — recipient of
the prestigious PEN award — heard in
45 cities with a listening audience of
1,000,000; its national outreach pro-
gram to high schools and universities
which, since the institution's inception
in 1978, has reached nearly 800,000
students; its internationally renowned
social actions desk, which is devoted to
monitoring and taking action against
outbreaks of anti-Semitism through-
out the world; its research depart-
ment, which has now scheduled for
publication The Simon Wiesenthal
Center Monograph Series; its new
"Museum of Tolerance" which is under
development by Karl Katz, chief of
planning and design of the world-
famous Beit Hatefutzot Museuniof the
Diaspora, Tel Aviv University; and its
Jewish Studies Institute, which offers
quality continuing education for 1500
adults annually in the Los Angeles
area.
In addition, the center has an in-
ternational academic advisory board
consisting of 25 of the world's foremost
scholars in the field of Holocaust
studies.

Rabbi Hier is dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, subject of the Oct. 12
special report.

With reference to some of the facts
in the story, some clarification and
correction is in order. You mentioned,
for example, the Federation CRC man
who criticized us for giving a million
dollars worth of publicity for staging a
rally against anti-Semitism, but you
failed to mention that one week later,
the same person co-sponsored a simi-
lar rally protesting contemporary

With reference to some of
the facts in the story, some
clarification and correction
is in order," Rabbi Hier
writes.

anti-Semitism. Apparently his criti-
cism against the Wiesenthal Center
has a half-life of seven days.
Survivors form an integral part of
the Wiesenthal Center's program and
the Center thrives upon its relation-
ship with the survivor community.
Last year, members of the community
joined us in commemorating Yom
Hashoah.
With reference to the criticism
cited that the Wiesenthal Center
duplicates the efforts of other organ-
izations that have been combatting
anti-Semitism: Such a notion would be
like suggesting that all medical cen-.
ters in this country cease and desist
from working on cancer research and
allot all of their funds and resources to
the first medical center that was thus
engaged. Such an approach, while
thrifty, is obviously nearsighted. De-
fense of the Jewish people cannot come
from a single address, nor can its ap-
proach be monolithic.
I want to correct an unfortunate
impression about our relationship
with Yeshiva University in New York.

Continued on Page 30

