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January 04, 1985 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1985-01-04

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

4

4.

Friday, January 4, 1985

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

OP-ED

THE JEWISH NEWS

Catholics' letter on business
puts our system under scrutiny

Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish Community
with distinction for four decades.

Editorial and Sales offices at 20300 Civic Center Dr.,
Suite 240, Southfield, Michigan 48076
Telephone (313) 354-6060

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

BY ROBERT E. SEGAL

Special to The Jewish News

OFFICE STAFF:
Marlene Miller
Dharlene Norris
Phyllis Tyner
Pauline Weiss
Ellen Wolfe

PRODUCTION:
Donald Cheshure
Cathy Ciccone
Curtis Deloye
Ralph Orme

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES:
Lauri Biafore
Rick Nessel
Danny Raskin
Seymour Schwartz

© 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 4:56 P.M.

VOL. LXXXVI, NO. 19

Mideast resolution

One of the nice aspects of a New Year is the sense of making a fresh start
and resolving to right the wrongs of the past. It is appropriate, then, that at
year's end the United Nations ended another debate on "The Question of
Palestine." The fact that there is no longer a "question of Palestine," that
indeed Palestine in its modern sense ceased to exist in 1922 (when Britain
took 76 percent of Mandatory Palestine and cr'eated Transjordan) is to miss
the point. What counts is image and perception. That's why the United
Nations debates Palestine when, as the Near East Report noted, "there is a
question of Palestine only in the minds of those for whom there is a question of
Israel." And that's why the U.N. forum and its false propaganda is so
insidious and dangerous.
Consider: British Airways decided to eliminate, by hand, in more than
250,000, copies of the airline's inflight magazine, references to Israel in a
Jerusalem Sheraton Hotel ad. The words "Come to Israel" were taped over
because, the airline said, there is a view that Jerusalem is not in Israel and
British Airway's policy is to remain neutral. Of course, as officials of the
Anti-Defamation League noted in protesting the act, the effort brought about
the opposite result, placing British Airways in the political arena by taking
sides and possibly bowing to anti-Israel pressure.
Israel still faces an uphill struggle for the recognition of her right to exist,
a struggle that goes on in the halls of the United Nations and in the world of
business. All of us have a responsibility to keep pointing out these misdeeds,
to keep protesting, and to not allow ourselves to be lulled into accepting these
actions as simply the way of the world. Let us resolve to make 1985 the year
that the world takes a step forward in recognizing the reality of Israel.

When you try to rebut the attacks
by some solid, bright American cap-
tains of industry on the new Pastoral
Letter On Catholic Social Teachings
and The Economy, some of your re-
search may lead to three Americans
recently in the news.
First, though, you will need to
note that the Wall Street Journal
branded the Catholic document in part
as a recommendation of "unilateral
disinvestment" in private business.
Also, you must recall that a prominent
Catholic layman, former Treasury
Secretary William E. Simon, rounded
up like-minded Catholics to inform the
well-intentioned bishops that the best
hope for the poor among us is pretty
much confined to unadulterated
capitalism.
The three equipped to help with
the rebuttal are the late Republican
Senator George D. Aiken of Vermont;
the Socialist Party's six-time
Presidential candidate Norman
Thomas, whose 100th birth anniver-
sary • was marked not long ago; and
Democratic Senator Paul Tsongas of
Massachusetts who decided not to seek
re-election because of a diagnosis of
cancer and because he wanted to give
more time to his family.
Sen. Aiken, who died at 92 on Nov.
20, was the father of the Food Stamp
Program. He championed rural elec-
trification, supported dairy copera-
tives and other daring liberal legisla-
tion, much to the dismay of worship-
pers of the status quo.
As a Presidential candidate,
Norman Thomas advocated unem-
ployment and health insurance, low-
cost housing, slum clearance, pensions
for the aged, the minimum wage law
and abolition of child labor. These
"radical" ideas are accepted without so

Robert Segal writes for the Worldwide
News Service of the 'Seven Arts Features
Syndicate.

Continuing generosity

much as a frown today by many
enlightened businessmen.
Sen. Tsongas beheld the New Deal
coalition falling apart and had the
foresight to offer a platform commonly
labeled neo-liberalism. He spelled out
his ideas in a book, The Road From
Here — Liberalism and Realities in the
1980s. Sen. Tsongas put his philos-
ophy into practice by championing
legislation that eventually helped to

The Catholic thesis does
not declare war on private
property and capitalism. It
takes a searching look at ,
Biblical precepts anchored
in social justice.

bail out the Chrysler Corporation. His
pragmatic program is most valuable.
It is designed to win support of a vital
and diverse sector of Americans —
businessmen, labor, educators and
Republican and Democratic lawmak-
ers truly determined to halt the blight
of poverty.
We have a crying need for folks
like Messrs. Aiken, Thomas and Tson-
gas, whose daring and advanced ideas
catch fire and spell eventual progress
for this great democracy.
Ideas of a similar stripe have been
developed by the Catholic Bishops.
That brilliant churchman, Archbishop
Rembert G._ Weakland of Milwaukee,
who chaired the committee drafting
the current Pastoral Letter, knows the
human heart. His father died when
Weakland was only 5, and he was "on
welfare" when his widowed mother
was striving to hold her brood of six
young ones together.
The new, controversial Catholic



Continued on Page 13

Whatever has already been in progress in the solicitations for the 1985
llied Jewish Campaign, the actual formality of perennial fund raising opens
*th the traditional commencement Jan. 23.
While perhaps half of the more than $20,000,000 anticipated as income
om the current solicitations will be allocated for Israel and related causes,
he donors must remember that world movements aiding the less fortunate,
with emphasis to a major degree on the Joint Distribution Committee, will
also be funded. At the same time there are the national social service
movements and the civic protective agencies which share to some lesser
degree from the Detroit gifts.
Whoever has even the minutest knowledge about this community is
aware of the two score local causes that benefit from the Campaign. They
include the educational and health agencies and the vast program for local
services as well as aid to emigres from Russia performed by the Jewish
Family Service and the Resettlement Service.
In relation to the causes involving the Israel identifications, there is one
special aspect that needs emphasis. On a total basis, aid for Israel is minimal
from the Jewish philanthropic agencies in contrast to the aid provided by the
United States. There nevertheless are the specific areas which depend on
Jewish assistance. Support for the elderly is one of them. Major is the plight of
the Israeli universities. The support coming from Allied Jewish Campaign
income helps relieve the situation.
The appeal for continuing generosity to the Allied Jewish Campaign is
overwhelming. The response should match it in immensity.

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