4 Friday, November 9, 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 Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tedd Schneider LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore 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 1984 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520) Second Class postage paid at Southfield, Michigan and additional mailing offices. Subscription $18 a year. CANDLELIGHTING AT 4:49 P.M. VOL. LXXXVI, NO. 11 November 9 November 9 is an infamous day in modern Jewish history, for it was on the night of November 9, 1938, that Nazi terror erupted. Known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, it marked the date that German soldiers ransacked, looted and burned Jewish homes, synagogues and stores. The pretext used to justify the violence, the most serious "action" against the Jews to that point, was the assassination of a German diplomat. But history has proven that Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, organized the "spontaneous demonstration" that resulted in the death and rape of a number of Jews, the arrest of 20,000 others, the destruction of hundreds of homes and synagogues and the looting of more than 7,500 Jewish shops. And that was just the beginning. The arrested Jews were sent to concentration camps and the German Jewish community was forced to pay one billion reichmarks as punishment for the destruction — a destruction that would not end until six million Jews had been exterminated. Forty-six years later we can still learn from Kristallnacht, remembering- the past and never deluding ourselves into thinking we are immune from the lessons of history. A new Soviet low A new low in humanitarian concerns was demonstrated last month by the Soviet Union. The number of Jews permitted to leave Russia in October was reduced to 29. It was a demonstration of total abandonment of responsibility to those seeking homes elsewhere, in their despair over the Russian anti-Jewish policies. During his recent visit in the United States to address the United Nations General Assembly and to confer with President Ronald Reagan, Andrei Gromyko saw fit to resort to an excuse for the Russian refusal to permit emigration of those desiring to seek other homelands. He asserted that as many Jews as desired had already left the USSR. This was a colossal misstatement. The fact remains that many tens of thousands continue to file applications for visas to leave the Soviet Union, that hundreds of thousands are craving for the right to emigrate. - Perhaps Gromyko and his associates realize that if tens of thousands of Jews are permitted to leave, as many and more non-Jews will exercise a similar desire. It may be to avoid this mass expression of protest against the Communist prejudice-inspiring regime that the Russian leaders have practiced and continue to enforce discrimination against Jews. This is just what it is: an anti-Jewish policy assuming great dimensions. Unforgotten Wallenberg On the third anniversary of the granting of honorary U.S. citizenship to Raoul Wallenberg, Congressman Tom Lantos calls for renewed action by all Americans to demand release of the martyred Christian war hero from Russian imprisonment. The California Congressman, himself a survivor from the Nazi onslaught, owes his freedom to Wallenberg's courageous actions in Hungary during Hitler rule in that country. He also calls attention to the 40th anniversary of Wallenberg's imprisonment by the Russians, Jan. 17, 1945. He will speak at the Beth Yehudah dinner Nov. 18. Congressman' Lantos urges appropriate events on a national scale "to keep alive the memory of this man and his service to humanity." OP-ED How Mr. Middle Class Israeli `beats' the inflation rat race BY GIL SEDAN Special to The Jewish News How does Mr. Middle Class Israeli stand financially? How does he, his family and friends cope with inflation racing at an annual rate of 400-1,000 percent? Mr. MCI has a $5,000 share of his country's $23 billion foreign debt; so does his wife, each of his children and grandchildren. The debt — and the in- dividual's share — is sure to increase in the foreseeable future and may fall on Mr. MCI's yet unborn great grandchildren. Is he worried? Perhaps, though it is difficult to conceptualize a debt of astronomical proportions relative to a country the size of Israel. Is he discon- tented? Not really. Though many eco- nomic experts say Israel is on the verge of bankruptcy, Mr. MCI seems quite satisfied with his condition. And why not? He bought a new car this year. He is planning to move into a four- bedroom flat. Recently, he refurnished his living room and completed his col- lections of the Hebrew Encyclopedia. Two of his three children spent the summer at an expensive sleep-away camp. Each owns a bicycle. Last year, Mr. MCI travelled abroad twice; once with his wife for two weeks on a Greek island. The sec- ond time was on a mission he arranged for himself to the United States, which paid his fare. On top of this, Mr. MCI fattened his bank account by $5,000 during the past year. Why dollars? Because no- body saves shekels anymore. Israel, as MCI well knows, is possibly the only country in the world where the more local currency you save the more money you lose. With galloping infla- tion, the shekel loses value at a rate of 1-2 percent a day. The smart thing to do is get rid of your shekels as fast as you can. Mr. MCI, therefore, puts his say- Gil Sedan is a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent in Israel. ings in dollar-linked accounts. There were frightening rumors before the elections last July that the govern- ment had no alternative but to seize those dollar accounts to stabilize the economy. So Mr. MCI took no chances. He began to purchase dollar bills on the black market. He paid only slightly more than the official ex- change rate. But he knows he pos- sesses the real green. He no longer calculates in shekels because he can never know what the price of any product will be from week to week. Suppose he stored the price of milk in his memory — 105 shekels (about 30 cents) a liter. He would have to remember a new price in two weeks or sooner. By the time he received his August salary, he found he could buy fewer dollars with the shekels he received. This worried him, for the first time. He hardly pays attention any- more to the government's frequent announcements that the controlled price of basic commodities and petrol is going up. He knows that the value of his present three-bedroom flat is about $70,000. To figure its worth in shekels would take a calculator. When he shopped for his new car recently — before the freeze — he was not surprised to find the sticker price in dollars. He went to a dime store last week to buy himself a pocket diary. It too was priced in dollars. The key to Mr. MCI's confidence is that wonderful device, the cost-of- living (C.O.L.) index which links his wages to general price hikes. To be sure, the linkage covers only 80 per- cent of the C.O.L. rise and is taxable. Continued on Page 34