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. 1 , 4.■ e t if 401•i4i., • k• S •• art•wV0•••• •# # 4 4, .1 ' # 0'# #########44 1, r ://gfirrrireliP•4 , ,r.r•diti.106.*I*Ir**•7 —, 04,41.1•Atwlitl#W •k *