24 Friday, May 16, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS AL'S SAVES YOU MONEY! CUSTOM WALL MIRROR SPECIALISTS TUB ENCLOSURES SHOWER DOORS BEVELED MIRROR BIFOLD DOORS TUB ENCLOSURE • Chrome or gold frames • Clear, bronze or textured glass • custom units Reg. $1155 "9988 SAVE $75.62 FRAMED MIRRORS ON DISPLAY #458 EXPIRES 5-31-86 EXPERT INSTALLATION AVAILABLE VISIT OUR SHOWROOM aft • • ESTABLISHED 1920 GLASS & AUTO TRIM so I. CUSTOM WALL MIRRORS TIRES & ACCESSORIES 641 YEARS SERVING METRO DETROIT SOUTHFIELD: 24777 Telegraph 353-2500 Other locations: Wayne and Lincoln Park NOW TABLE TOPS • 1/4 3/8, 1/2, 2 3/4 thick • Clear, gray or bronze glass • Beveled glass • patterns 1 1111•1111111 TEMPLE BETH EL BIRMINGHAM, MICHIGAN 32nd ANNUAL HEBREW MUSIC FESTIVAL OUR MUSICAL HERITAGE Through the Years Guest Choir-The Madrigal Chorale of Southfield-Carolyn Eynon, Director Three Temple Beth El Choirs, Mrs. Jason Tickton, Conductor Dr. Morris Hochberg Shalom Kalib Carolyn Eynon Violin Soloist Composer Conductor Traditional and Modern Responses from the Hebrew Liturgy Special Anthems * * Adon Olam by Soloman Rossi (1600) * * Psalm 23 by Shalom Kalib (1985) * * Psalm 150 by Shalom Kalib (1977) Psalm 23 by Leonard Bernstein (1965) accompanied by a Chamber Orchestra * * FIRST PERFORMANCE AT TEMPLE BETH EL Rabbis Donne' I. Schwartz and Norman T. Roman, Narrators Professor Jason Tickton, Music Director and Organist Sponsored by SANDRA T. BLOOM MEMORIAL MUSIC FUND Barbara and Douglas Bloom NO ADMISSION CHARGE - EVERYONE IS WELCOME NEWS Shining Face Of Hope Carried A Shy Smile BY SHELDON ENGELMAYER Special to The Jewish News For 15 years, people came every May to New York's Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across from the UN Building, to show their support of Anatoly Shch- aransky and protest the treat- ment of Jews by the Soviet Union. And year after year, the number dwindled until only the faithful remained. But this year was different. The crowd was so huge in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza — some said 300,000, others went even higher — that people couldn't move. This year, there was no thought of the futility of it all, only the knowledge that dreams can come true. There was no feeling of sadness, but of unremitting joy. The hundreds of thousands massed in the small area between 1st and 2nd avenues had come to see hope personified and to hear its voice, the hero of the hour: Shcharan- sky himself. The program began almost on time, at about 1:15 p.m. Speaker after speaker spoke to polite ap- plause from people who were on- ly half listening. In the past, these people would begin to leave the plaza by 2 p.m. and soon the empty spaces would appear even emptier. In other years, once a politician spoke, he or she found an excuse to leave. This year, no one budged. At 2:24 p.p., Rep. Steven Solarz (D. B'klyn) was addres- sing the crowd. Suddenly, on the podium, all eyes turned from the back of Solarz's head to the back stairs. Politicians and VIPs began to rise from their seats and walk towards what they had seen. Shortly, Israel's ambassador to the United Na- tions, Benjamin Netanyahu, emerged from the crowd that had gathered around him on the podium, and with him was a jacketless, tieless man, 5-foot-2 in height. The sound of tears could be heard in the now- overcrowded plaza. Then came the cheers and, drifting as a wave from one cor- ner of the plaza to all four cor- ners and even beyond, a spon- taneous song — "Haiveinu Shalom Aleichem" — took hold of the crowd. Natan Shcharansky stood before them. The man who, as Anatoly, had been the symbol of Soviet Jewry's anguish, was now the symbol of its hope. And on the face of hope was a shy, embar- rassed smile. A little pedestal surrounded by black material and covered on top with red was placed behind the rostrum. On it Natan now stood, clearly overwhelmed by the love streaming forth. He raised his hands to silence the din. It was now 2:35 p.m. For the first time since the rally began, not a sound could be heard through the crowd except for Anatoly Shcharansky the sniffles tears bring. For the first time in 15 years, in fact, no one spoke. All ears were tuned to one man. "Together we have won once," Shcharansky told them. "Together, we will succeed again." He recalled the efforts of Soviet officials "to convince me I am alone — but I knew what they only sensed — that I was not alone, that my wife, my peo- ple, you all were with me. "They were trying their best to find me a place where I would be isolated..., but all the re- sources of a superpower are not enough to isolate a man who hears the voice of freedom, to isolate a Jew who hears the voice of solidarity with his peo- ple." For 12 minutes, Shcharansky spoke as his "brothers and sisters" listened to his every word. At one point, he reached into his shirt pocket with his right hand and pulled out a lit- tle beaten black book. "They tried to take away my psalm book from me," he said, waving it in the air, "but each time they were compelled to return it to me." The Soviet leaders, he con- tinued, "delude themselves into thinking they can keep as prisoners 400,000 of our bro- thers, [but they] must under- stand that they will never be able to destroy our solidarity." "They were saying [to] me that this day of my freedom would never come if I wouldn't change my beliefs," Natan Shcharansky said, "but today I am here speaking to you after I joined my wife, Avital, in the Land of Israel. And all of this has become possible because of you." Finally, when he was through, all on the podium moved toward Natan Shcharansky. Linked arm in arm and swaying from side to side, they sang. "The im- portant thing is not to fear," went the first song. "How good and how pleasant it is to see brothers sitting together," went the other. The author is managing editor of The New York Jewish Week.