4 Friday, May 17, 1985 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS THE 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 NEWS EDITOR: Alan Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tedd Schneider LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin OFFICE STAFF: Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore Cathy Ciccone Joseph Mason Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme Rick Nessel Danny Raskin .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 8:28 P.M. VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 12 Time To Apologize Though the controversy over Bitburg has receded and the mood seems to suggest a willingness to move forward, Elie Wiesel and the 65 members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council are insistent on seeking a public apology from President Reagan for his statement equating German soldiers and six million Jews as victims of Hitler. Wiesel said in an interview, with The Jewish News that his intention was not to embarrass the President but to set the record straight. "The over-riding issue here is morality," he said. "I am not a politician. I am concerned with memories, with history and with justice." He said that "the Jewish community feels that our very soul has been soiled" and it is incumbent upon the President to admit his error and clarify his statement. Politicians may argue that it is time to take the pressure off Mr. Reagan but Wiesel is right. The issue transcends politics. If the President's statement equating the victims and the victimizers remains the statement, history will suffer. An End To Disunity An unusually impressive step toward spiritual unity in American Jewry was takeT, recently when Rabbi Alexander M. Shapiro, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America (Conservative), addressed the Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox) at its annual convention in the Homawack Resort in the Catskills. Rabbi Shapiro, pleading for unity among the Jewish religious elements in this country, declared that "in the long run, in order for Judaism to survive in America, there must be an outreach to all of the disaffected factions and the alienated, to all those who thirst for the word of God, even if we interpret that word in a different way." Itwas a call for action to prevent disunity, to create a coordinated spirit of amity among Jews in an effort to strengthen solidarity for Jewish involvements. While some dissenters walked out on the Conversative representative, there is reason to hope that the Orthodox leadership will give serious consideration and the hand of friendship in the realistic task of preventing internal conflicts at a time when respectful consideration of differing views is so vital to Jewish unity. Indeed; there are differing views regarding Jewish observances and approaches to spiritual interpretations. But they must be approached with a realization that Jewish unity is vital — vital to Jewish existence. Armenian Agonies There is more than one agonized anniversary on the calendar of human emotions. Christians as well as Jews are taking into account the lessons of the Holocaust. Not to be ignored under any circumstance is the Armenian tragedy dating back to World War I. There is more than sympathy with the Armenian protests over the mass murder of more than a million Armenians during the Turkish fiascos. It was in itself another Holocaust which demands sympathy with the suffering people, coupled with pledges that humanity neither forget nor allow repetition of horrors that call for speedy adoption by the United States Senate of the Genocide Convention. OP-ED Lyndon LaRouche And The ADL: Strike Four BY J.Q. PURCELL AND ELLEN WEISBURD The U.S. District Court jury in Alexandria listened to charges and in- sinuations from the man's lawyers for more than a week, heard the evidence, and then decided that political cult leader Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. hadn't been defamed after all. Not by the Anti-Defamation League, not by NBC television. In fact, the jury seemed to have decided that the plaintiff was himself the culprit in this, the least publicized of the season's three megabuck media libel cases. LaRouche, the onetime Marxist who has been a perennial right-wing Presidential candidate, is the leader of a bizarre worldwide network of organ- izations which blames most of human- ity's ills on plots by imagined secret societies, the "dope lobby," the Queen of, England, ADL and other Jewish organizations, etc., etc. They believe that they, the LaRouches, alone hold the cures. Two NBC telecasts, the Nightly News and the now-defunct First Cam- era, had reported that LaRouche's organizations indulged in smear cam- paigns, sabotaged 1984 campaign ap- pearances of candidate Walter Mon- dale, intimidated reporters and used lawsuits as weapons against exposure. Included in the telecasts was the Anti-Defamation League's charge that the writings of the cult leader himself have included crass anti- Semitism. LaRouche instituted a $150 mil- lion libel suit agains NBC, ADL, ADL Fact Finding director Irwin Suall, ADL Midwest area director A. Abbot Rosen, NBC producer Pat Lynch and two of the network's reporters, claim- ing that the televised statements about him were false and defamatory and that the defendants had conspired Purcell is special assistant to the director of the Anti-Defamation League Civil Rights Division. Ms. Weisburd is an assistant director of the Legal Affairs Department. to destroy his political aspirations and influence. In response, NBC countersued, claiming that LaRouche had inter- fered with the network's newsgather- ing in its preparation of the broad- casts. LaRouche, who had stayed away from the courtroom in fear of "assassi- nation," finally appeared to testify on the eighth day. Escorted by two body- guards, he explained that "people are trying to kill me" and referred to the He said that NBC's charges had damaged his life's prime function" and then, interestingly, that only the in-sane would believe such charges. NBC broadcasts as "a media assassi- nation in progress." Ironically, the sole hint of violence to surface during the trial was a telephone death threat against NBC's Pat Lynch. An FBI in- vestigation was ordered and Lynch took the witness stand for four full days. Lyndon LaRouche's appearance marked the first time he has been sub- jected to intensive questioning under oath, and it provided revealing in- sights into the man. He described him- self as "a philosopher sitting on a stone" and compared his writings to the works of Plato and St. Augustine. He said that NBC's charges had dam- aged his life's "prime function" and then, interestingly, that only the "in- sane" would believe such charges. He denied that he headed any organiza- tions, insisting he belonged only to a loose worldwide association of some sort that included the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He has Continued on Page 23