4 Friday, April 26, 1985 IGPrn THE 41E- TROIT - JEWISH -NEWS .- tilert iee v at-lr r 4 ME JEWISH NEWS 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 Si Vf` NEWS EDITOR: Alan Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tedd Schneider LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin Israel Independence Day Means Celebration, Work BY ALEX GRASS Special to The Jewish News OFFICE STAFF: • Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe •‘ • ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore Joseph Mason Rick Nessel Danny Raskin OP-ED PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme ,c) 1985 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520) Second Class postage paid at Southfield, Michigan and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: 1 year - $21 — 2 years - $39 — Out of State - $23 — Foreign - $35 CANDLELIGHTING AT 7:05 P.M. VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 9 The Need For Israel Thirty-seven years is not much- in the greater scheme of things. It is certainly not much when one is talking about the age of a nation. But today, Israel marks the 37th anniversary of its independence. Thirty-seven -years ago, speaking before a small crowd in the Tel Aviv Museum, David Ben-Gurion told the world that after incalculable and unimaginable persecutions and horrors, the Jewish people, at long last, had a homeland of their own. Despite its relative youth, Israel has played a role far disproportionate to its size and power. Especially potent has been the pride and the strength it has given those Jews who reside elsewhere, the Jews of the Diaspora. Along with their pride in the accomplishments of Israel has come a willingness, an eagerness, almost a compulsion to speak out. A people who were circumspect, who were almost politically shy, who were wary of exerting whatever political weight they may have had before the creation of the State of Israel, is shy no more. Much of this can_be attributed to the courage they absorbed from the Jewish state. The continuing series of blunders and gaffes emanating from President Reagan's plans to visit a German military cemetery in Bitburg graphically illustrates this point. The uproar in the Jewish community in the United States would never have occurred four decades ago. Such a public protest, for example, was shunned by U.S. Jewish leaders while the Nazis murdered six million Jews and the American government stood silent on the sidelines. Israel has given courage to American Jewry. It has stiffened its backbone and helped it _shed its reticence. The Bitburg incident is also a powerful reminder of why Israel was formed. In 1948, the world was still reeling from the Holocaust. The image of living skeletons in Dachau and the tales of smoke blackening the skies at Auschwitz were still fresh. And they seemed unforgettable. Much has happened in those 40 years. For some, the Holocaust has become expendable, a grisly, uncomfortable flaw in human history that should best be forgotten. But Israel was founded partly as a homeland for those who survived the Holocaust, partly as a reminder that never again can humanity stoop to such profane barbarity. The survivors of the Holocaust are now few and old. In a few years, most will be dead. But hopefully, as long as there is an Israel, the memories and the lessons of the Holocaust will never die. Am Yisrael Chai! It was a warm Friday afternoon, that 5th of Adar 5708 (May 14, 1948) when they crowded into the Tel Aviv Museum to hear David Ben-Gurion — his white hair puffed above his ears as he stood beneath a picture of Theodore Herzl and a Star of David — read the Declaration of Independence for the newly established State of Israel. "Eretz Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people," he began, as the crowd listened in hushed silence. He recalled the Jewish heritage and his- tory from ancient forced dispersion to the recent United Nations partition and read clearly, "We .. hereby de- clare the establishiiient of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel." He appealed for peace as bombs were being loaded onto Arab planes, but he also, still reading, spoke to us: "We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age- old dream — the redemption of Israel." We American Jews have tried to rally "in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding." Through our fund- raising efforts, for instance, we have helped Israel absorb 1.8 million im- migrants; aided pioneers who have made the desert bloom; pro\-rided for promising university students, trou- bled teenagers, needy senior citizens and small children; and have helped people in disadvantaged neighbor- hoods. Sincp 1948, the United Jewish Appeal/Federation campaigns (includ- ing Detroit's Allied Jewish Campaign) have raised over $10 billion, and have allocated over half of that to meet humanitarian needs in Israel. April 26 marks the 37th anniver- sary of Israel's birth and is an occasion Alex Grass is national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal. for Jews to rejoice around the world. It corresponds to the 5th of Adar and will be celebrated in Detroit on Sunday. Israel has survived. That has been no easy feat and her continued survi- val must never be taken for granted. We have access to the Western Wall for the first time in many years. We have been gratified by a daring peace treaty with Egypt, thrilled by David Ben-Gurion: The independence task continues. Entebbe, inspired by the "coming home" to Israel of so many Ethiopian Jews. But we have also seen our Israeli brothers and sisters suffer five terrible <, wars, a. cold peace and dashed hopes. 7 ) Still, Israel at 37 is remarkable n among nations: a democracy in a region of monarchs, sheiks and dic- tators. She remains America's cf 1 staunchest ally, a place of personal {__J freedom, committed to persevering L ) / - against all odds. We American Jews salute the people of Israel, who have fought the wars, taken the risks for peace, fashioned the freedoms and instilled pride in every Jew. The Maronites For three decades, especially during the period of Israeli functioning as a neighbor without a declared peace, Lebanon was a kind of oasis in the war zone. While there were threats to the normalities of life in the entire Arab world, the Lebanese-Israeli border was calm. It may have been due in the main to the influence of the Maronites, church officials and adherents. No one hears any more about the Maronite Christians. Now the emphasis is on the Shiite Moslems and the threat they pose to Israel. It is also a feared threat to the security of Lebanon herself. Maronites for many years also represented a force advocating peace through sources in the United States as well as in the Christian community of Lebanon. The changes are drastic, yet one would think Maronite voices could still be heard, with a possible peaceful effect on Lebanon and her border with Israel. The drastic change is appalling. 41 A