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Friday, March 15, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
THE JEWISH NEWS
Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish Community
with distinction for four decades.
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Donald Cheshure
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1985 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520)
Second Class postage paid at Southfield, Michigan and additional mailing offices.
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 6:19 P.M.
VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 3
A Hateful Noise
The battle over abortion has been brewing for several decades. But in
recent months violence and fallacy have intensified the already corrosive
atmosphere of hate.
It is one thing for a so-called "pro-lifer" to picket an abortion center with a
placard claiming that the Bible denounces abortion. It is entirely another
matter when anti-abortion forces blow up abortion centers, as they have in
several areas around the country.
It is one thing for anti-abortion forces to cite medical studies that
purportedly support their side. It is entirely another matter to counterfeit
data.
A few weeks ago, for example, President Reagan seemed to endorse an
anti-abortion film, "The Silent Scream," that claimed to depict the abortion of
a 12-week-old fetus. The film's narration said, "We can see the child moving
rather serenely in the uterus . . . The child senses aggression in its sanctuary
. . . We see the child's mouth wide open in a silent scream . . ."
The film has been roundly debunked as nonsense by medical specialists
around the country. A professor at Yale University School of Medicine said
that the fetus lacks "the capability to struggle against whatever (the
narrator) said it was struggling against."
A physician from the Medical College of Virginia said, Any of us could
show you the same image in a fetus that is not being aborted."
The debate over abortion should continue. It is not an easy issue for
anyone, not even for those who perform those operations. Butbombings and
medical distortions on celluloid can only inflame this already emotion-laid
issue. If there is to be a debate over abortion, let it be reasoned and informed
and intelligent. No issue can be resolved in an atmosphere of fear and lies.
`Waning Edge'
OP-ED
Democrats Won't Hold
*,
Jewish Vote Totals
BY HENRY SIEGMAN
Special to The Jewish News
In the 1984 elections, over 60 per-
cent — perhaps as much as 70 percent
— of American Jews voted for the
Democratic Presidential candidate,
almqst exactly the reverse of the na-
tional trend. Political observers have
expressed their astonishment at this
lopsided Jewish voting pattern, re-
sembling only that of Blacks, the un-
employed and persons in households
earning under $10,000 a year. Clearly,
Jews do not resemble these groups or
share their economic interests.
The Jewish vote is all the more
astounding when one considers the
shameful failure of the Democratic
Party's leadership to repudiate the
Reverend Jesse Jackson because of his
anti-Semitic remarks. At the time,
there existed a fairly widespread con-
sensus among Jews that the Demo-
cratic Party did not deserve Jewish
support.
In fact, had the alternative to
Walter Mondale been a Republican
candidate who did not embrace Rever-
end Jerry Falwell's vision of a "Chris-
tian America," there is little doubt
that the Jewish vote would have di-
vided far more evenly between the top
parties. Indeed, it is quite possible that
the Jesse Jackson phenomenon would
have given the Republican Party the
unprecedented support of a majority of
Jewish voters — and the Democratic
Party would have deserved fully the
Jewish rejection.
Jews understood that of the two
dangers, Falwell represented the
greater one — despite his professions
of love for Jews and the State of Israel.
For however cowardly the behavior of
Walter Mondale and of other Demo-
cratic leaders in the face of the unholy
alliance between Jackson and the
Reverend Louis Farrakhan, no one
seriously believed that the Democratic
leadership shared their anti-
Henry Siegman is executive director of the
American Jewish Congress.
Semitism. On the other hand,
President Reagan and the Republican
Party publicly embraced the Moral
Majority and its promise of prayer and
Bible readings in our public schools,
an end to women's free choice, and a
holy war against "secular humanism."
Jews understood that the Moral
Majority's program is destructive of
the climate of religious and cultural
pluralism that is so essential for the
well-being of religious and ethnic
minorities in America. Indeed, they
understood that for many in the Reli-
gious Right, the term "secular
humanism" is broad enough to ac-
If Reagan had not
embraced Falwell's vision
of 'Christian America,' the
Jewish vote would have
divided far more evenly.
commodate Jews, all of the Fun-
damentalist Right's superficial talk
about the Judeo-Christian heritage
notwithstanding.
But if Democrats derive comfort
from Jewish voting patterns in 1984
and extrapolate from that support to
their prospects in 1988, they are in for
a rude awakening. Unless the Repub-
lican Party is foolish enough to repeat
its embrace of the Religious Right,
Jews are likely to leave the Demo-
cratic Party in droves if it does not act
with some modicum of integrity in
dealing with the phenomenon of anti-
Semitism on the part of people like
Jesse Jackson, who are not on the
margins but at the center of black
leadership.
Let it be stated clearly that the
issue is not the new importance of
blacks in the Democratic Party, which
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Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit .. .
Zechariah 4:6
Continuing warnings are coming to Israel from many quarters, now that
Syria is in a dominating position and Israel's withdraival from Lebanon is
culminating. The warning, especially from some Arab capitals, is that
Israel's military power is waning.
In the experience of the history of the Middle East of the past four
decades, this could spell tragedy. Therefore, the mere warning is already
admonishing Israel that the demanding needs to assure security for the
Jewish state are unending. Israel must adhere to a protective attitude never
to be reduced. Its military strength is a necessity never to be diminished. Yet,
if the accumulating confidences in political circles are to be taken seriously,
perhaps the newly-developing situation will alert against Arafatism and a
considerable measure of conceding viewpoints toward a realistic approach to
peace may yet provide comfort that a lessening of militarigm will soon prove
the blessing aspired for that entire area.
While there is a continuing military race of arms purchasing, perhaps
the quest for peace, in which Israel leads in the Middle East, will spell a hope
for peace that will make elimination of military edging a glorious
introduction to peacefulness.
Then there will be a realization of the Prophecy of Zechariah (4:6): "Not
by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord . . ."
(