4 Friday, January 25, 1985 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS OP-ED THE JEWISH NEWS 38 Soviet Refuseniks Challenge The Diaspora 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 Schneidv LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore Joseph Mason Rick Nessel Danny Raskin Editor's note: Thirty-eight Jewish activists from four Russian cities currently under intense KGB pressure have issued what the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry terms "a fiery challenge" to Jews living in freedom to act on their behalf: OFFICE STAFF: Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner_ Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme 1985 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 5:20 P.M. VOL. LXXXVI, NO. 22 . Peres In Charge Only a few months ago, Shimon Peres was one of the least trusted public figures in Israel. Twice unsuccessful in his bid to become prime minister, Peres was viewed by many prior to the summer elections as a politician in the worst sense of the word, a man who would cut almost any deal to further his own ambitions. But all of that has changed. In the few hectic months he has been in power, Peres has proved himself to be a strong, effective leader, all the more remarkable because the coalition he heads is an ever-fragile patchwork of parties more prone to in-fighting than unity. In the last week alone Peres has persuaded the majority of the Cabinet to agree to withdraw the army from Lebanon; helped bring the inflation rate to 3.7 percent for December, due to the price freeze; and lobbied successfully for the Knesset to defeat a Likud-supported motion to redefine "who is a Jew" in a way that would have alienated the great majority of the world Jewish population. Events shift quickly in the Mideast and crucial decisions are constantly called into question. But for the moment, at least, Shimon Peres deserves a word of gratitude and congratulations for the forceful yet dignified way he has led the Jerusalem government from crisis to crisis. Medieval Doorstep It was not so long ago, before civil rights were respected for all citizens, regardless of the color of their skin, that blacks were denied seats on buses alongside whites, or were ordered into separate toilet rooms so as not to pollute the "superior race," or were forced to walk and suffer lest they all got on a vehicle glorified by the claims to superiority in humanity. To the credit of the blacks and their decent white friends, that period of degradation has ended. Now it is being applied to those who are listed as retarded. They are human beings. Provisions are being made to train them to share in human rights and civilized society. But the bigots are back on the scene. Retarded who are being trained for an honorable existence, alongside the more fortunate in life's processes, are told by the owners of a structure where vocational services are conducted for the retarded, that they must use a rear elevator, that they must not intermingle with those who have been blessed more skillfully and with more wealth. A medal of honor to Susan Watson for her column "Mentally Retarded Get Taken for a Ride" on Page 3 of Wednesday's Detroit Free Press. She exposes both the inhumanities against the retarded as well as the blacks. Perhaps the Jewish Vocational Service was silent on the subject in order not to suffer from restrictions on the lease with the owners of the building. Miss Watson renders a great service to the community, to the human spirit by calling attention to an outrage practiced in this community. She has surely contributed to reducing the introduced outrage against those who should be treated with compassion, with kindness. Surely what Miss Watson has written will contribute toward ending the discrimination in a community that must soon again take pride in honorable treatment of all citizens. Jews of the West! We address to you words of accusation and trust. We are those who have demanded, in an atmosphere of denunciations, our right to live in our own home, Israel. We are those who want to see joy in the eyes of our dear ones and not the bit- terness of separation. We are those who are not considered model citizens in the land of victorious socialism only because each of us has declared, "I have a dream!" We call on you who spend your efforts on the paperwork of endless conferences, runs and picnics in de- fense of Soviet Jewry, you who are still full of illusions and see solidarity in philanthropy expressed in gifts of jeans, to show your solidarity by your deeds. We say: Enough, brothers and sisters, of chewing over our despair while lunching at Lindy's. Enough of flaming cocktail party declarations and touching bar mitzvah "shows." The time has come to sound the alarm. There have been enough ex- pressions of concern. The hour has come for practical action. Has not past experience been suf- ficient? Remember: ". . in Rome, Spain, France, Poland and Russia they gave you fleshpots as gifts." Re- member also: ". . . half of my childhood is soaked in blood . ." Remember al- ways: The accusations, prophecies and appeals of the pre-War period never found a receptive ear until the Holocaust swept everything away. Beware of demagogy: One-third of our nation was murdered while the speeches, marches, strikes, carnivals and performances went on and on. Do you need facts? But how can we show you Anatoly Shcharansky's bloody larynx after his hunger strike in prison? Is it possible to let you touch Zachar Zunshein's ribs brdken in the Siberian Gulag, or the blindness of Joseph Berenstein, whose eye was gouged out in prison? Who can go through the walls of psychiatric clinics, courtrooms, and prison cells and the barbed wire of labor camps to show you the pain and anguish of Nadezhda Fradkova, Joseph Begun, There have been enough expressions of concern. The hour has come for practical action. Yakov Mesh, Yuli Tarnopolsky, Ale- xander Kholmyansky, Yakov Levin, Mark Nepomnischy or Yuli Edelstein? How can we convey to you that squeamish politeness thrown in our faces at the KGB and OVIR (emigra- tion) offices? You, who discuss "ter- rorism" at a leisurely pace, in what kind of framework would you place us? < You are patient when a (token Jewish) general keeps saying (at press conferences of the "Anti-Zionist Com- mittee of the Soviet Public") that "the process of reunification of families has ended" (meaning emigration is over). And somewhere there is the suffering of hundreds of thousands of separated families. Turn on your television sets. Open your papers. Ask yourselves where and how much space you have devoted to our plight in your programs and publications. Would it be too much to scrape together some dollars, pounds, shekels or francs and publish on the front pages of leading newspapers and Continued on Page 13