4 Friday, February 21, 1986 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 48076-4138 Telephone (313) 354 6060 - PUBLISHER: Charles A. Buerger EDITOR EMERITUS: Philip Slomovitz EDITOR: Gary Rosenblatt CONSULTANT: Carmi M. Slomovitz ART DIRECTOR: Kim Muller-Thym NEWS EDITOR: Alan Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore Allan Craig Rick Nessel Danny Raskin OFFICE STAFF: Lynn Fields Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme ©1988 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 5:54 P.M. VOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 26 Same Old Soviet Song When Anatoly Shcharansky was asked by reporters last week whether he wished to thank Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for approving his release from a Russian labor camp, he replied, in his characteristically up-front manner, "Frankly, no." Shcharansky's release was carefully calculated by the Soviets. The USSR rid itself of what was becoming an international embarrassment. Shcharansky's release has created a certain reservoir of good will, maybe even of debt, toward the Russians. It has mitigated some Westerners' suspicions toward the Soviets and fostered an atmosphere, tentative at best, - of hope. But even amid the more relaxed amosphere of the last week or two, it is clear that Shcharansky's release does not signal a profound change in Soviet policy. About 400,000 Jews in the Soviet Union still await their exit visas. Several thousand Soviet human rights activists — Jews and gentiles — are in prison or labor camps. Among these are a kosher slaughterer arrested for "hooliganism" and a Hebrew teacher serving three years in a labor camp on a trumped up drugs charge. Other Jews have been arrested for "defaming the state," for "draft evasion," and for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." And of the 100 original members of a committee that Shcharansky helped form to monitor Soviet compliance with the Helsinki human rights accords, about 50 are in prison, labor camp, psychiatric hospitals or internal exile. About 20, including Shcharansky, have emigrated. Clearly, Soviet authorities have not changed their attitude toward dissidents. And also, they have apparently not changed their attitude toward defusing the Mideast powderkeg. Senior U.S. officials said earlier this week that the Soviet Union had persuaded PLO leader Yasir Arafat to frustrate American efforts to organize Middle East peace talks between Israel and a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation. The sum of all these Soviet machinations is perplexing and confounding. The Soviet Union still seems set on being the world's spoiler. It appears wary of accommodation and compromise. It seems almost fearful of bestowing dignity upon its people and a certain calming predictability upon the world. As joyful as we may be that Shcharansky is with us in the West, we should not be deluded that his release marks a new path for the Soviet Union. For now, at least, it is the same old path — terror and intrigue and repression. Our Playgrounds? Today's Jewish News Close Up story on teenage behavior paints a black eye. We urge our readers to take the story for what it is — an alert to the community that an unhealthy situation exists involving a minority of our teenagers, and that we all share the blame for the situation. Teens "hanging out" is an age-old situation, part of the ritual of coming-of-age. The situation that has developed for the last few generations, however, moves into a new realm of adult responsibility for anti-social teen behavior. Our Close Up story does not pretend to have the answers. Interviews with teens, school officials, shop owners, police and social workers help illuminate the problems but offer no easy, blanket solutions. If the article generates discussion of teenage behavior and individual soul-searching, then we hope we will have contributed to the solution. OP-ED An Activist Argues Against Star Wars, Nuclear Arms BY DR. STEVE DANIELS Special to The Jewish News As a consequence of being a former member of the Detroit Jewish community, I happened to see The Jewish News of Dec. 27, 1985. Dr. Richard Rosenbluth's editorial critical of the Nobel Prize-winning Interna- tional Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) seemed to me so misguided and counter-productive that I cannot resist a response. Dr. Rosenbluth's editorial is re- plete with ad hominem arguments (slanders might be a more accurate word; e.g., "Helen Caldicott and her friends in the media running amok ."). He accuses IPPNW of being self-congratulatory, myopic, and "out- rageous," and of "pretending" a posi- tion. Such slurs only besmirch Dr. Rosenbluth's own credibility and weaken his own arguments, which, al- though I reject them, deserve to be considered seriously. Underneath all the invective, Dr. Rosenbluth makes three important assertions. First, he claims that American members of IPPNW are naive or venal in collaborating with Soviet counterparts who must be pup- pets, partners, or apologists for the Soviet government. Having been a member of the U.S. affiliate of IPPNW for six years, and having visited the USSR in 1984 as part of a peace dele- gation, I must disagree with Dr. Rosenbluth. are sincere in wanting peace with the United States and in fearing nuclear weapons whether controlled by their country on ours. Their position is cer- tainly also their country's "official line" — and I happen to believe that the Soviet government is also sincere Former Detroiter Dr. Steve Daniels is .-hoirman of the Santa Barbara, Calif. chapter of physicians for Social Responsibility, the U.S. affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. in wishing peace and fearing nuclear weapons. (To anticipate the objection "How can we believe them?": It is the USSR, not the United States, whict has declared a "no first use" policy or nuclear weapons, which has proposec and since autumn 1985 has institutec a comprehensive nuclear test ban anc In a very real sense nuclear arms themselves are the enemy, whether they belong to the U.S. or the USSR. has invited the United States to join it it, and which according to the U.S State Department and the Arms Con trol and Disarmament Agency ha: been very good in complying wits bilateral U.S.-USSR arms control treaties.) Contrary to the claim that Soviet IPPNW members simply parrot a gov. enment "line" is the fact of the matter Soviet IPPNW members have been in. fluential in convincing their govern• ment of the insairity of nuclear war IPPNW cooperation with Soviet mem• bers in no way condones the deplora• ble, repressive human rights policies of the USSR. However, if there is nc human life there will be no human rights, there, here, or anywhere; tc many of us, the prevention of nuclear war is of paramount importance. (Paramount, not exclusive. Many American IPPNW members are Jewish, and many are active in press• ing for civil liberties and religious freedom in the USSR.) Dr. Rosenbluth's second major as- sertion is that the United States must depend on "tough resolve" and "an ef- fective strategic defense" (presumably . . Continued on Page 6