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Friday, June 13, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
THE JEWISH NEWS
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© 1986 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520)
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:50 P.M.
VOL. LXXXIX, NO. 16
Liberty's Promise
For 100 years now, the Statue of Liberty has been gracing New York
harbor. This largest of statues is many things to many people. She is an
engineering marvel, a mammoth feat of art that has not yet been equalled.
She is a landmark, a signal to incoming immigrants that they are, at long
last, in the New World.
But most importantly, the Statue is perhaps the ultimate symbol of
America, especially for those who live elsewhere. For them and for us, she
holds high her light — the light of freedom. For them and for us, she is a
constant reminder of the promise that America still holds in an age of
cynicism, disillusion, cockeyed global politics and wearying domestic
tribulations.
Because of the nation's 100-year-old love affair with Lady Liberty, we
have devoted a special section of this week's issue to her — her history, her
poetry, her meaning. Also included are several articles about Ellis Island,
the Statue's neighbor in New York harbor that is inextricably linked with
her as the Gateway to America.
With the unveiling of the restored Statue this July Fourth, the nation
will experience its greatest binge of flag-waving since the Bicentennial of
ten years ago. Most of this will be centered, logically enough, in New York,
the home of Miss Liberty. But the celebration is local in neither character
nor sentiment. It is a national celebration of our verve and our spirit. It is a
celebration of The Lady and of us all, for it is we who keep alive all that The
Lady suggests and we who assure that her light will never be extinguished.
Legislative Lip Service
State Senator Gilbert DiNello stood before the black iron doors of the
Holocaust Memorial Center last Friday and said what was expected of an
elected leader who had made a public faux pas. The senator had taken his
lumps for three days because of remarks on the Senate floor that he had
never met a poor Jew, and the wealthy Jewish community did not need state
assistance in funding "a museum for Jews."
While DiNello's apology is laudable, a whole group of state legislators
still may be harboring negative attitudes toward funding of organizations
with Jewish connections. State Rep. Maxine Berman of Southfield refused to
attend DiNello's apology session and questions the motives of six or seven
other state senators.
Senate attacks on appropriations for the Holocaust Memorial Center
and the Jewish War Veterans — appropriations routinely granted to similar
groups throughout the state — lend credence to her interpretation of events.
If Berman is right, six or seven members of the 38-member Senate
make up a healthy percentage and influential bloc. In the cases of the
Holocaust Memorial Center, and the $30,000 appropriation for the Jewish
War Veterans, the influence of some of that bloc was not only detrimental
but tinged with discrimination.
Sen. DiNello and some Senate colleagues question the appropriateness
of state funds for private institutions like the Holocaust Memorial Center. It
is a valid argument for public debate. But when only the HMC
appropriation is questioned, anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head in our
legislative backyard.
OP-ED
A Survivor's Open Letter
To The People Of Austria
BY ABRAHAM H. FOXMAN
Special to The Jewish News
Dear Austrians,
Regardless of what the world
thinks and regardless of what the
world says, on June 8 you elected —
as Kurt Waldheim's campaign poster
stated — the person you wanted as
your president.
But be assured that by the same
power of logic, the world will think
and judge your action the way it
wants. Albeit a small country, Au-
stria is at the crossroad of East and
West. Therefore yours is an important
country and the man who presides
over it is an important figure.
Does the world really care
whether the man you elected has an
ugly past? Yes, it does! It does because
Kurt Waldheim is a product of a na-
tion whose recent history prohibits
being forgetful or aloof.
Adolf Hitler, an Austrian, was
quoted as saying, "I came to Vienna
as a 17-year-old man and I left as an
absolute anti-Semite."
Your country produced 500,000
card-carrying members of the Nazi
Party. That means ten percent of Au-
strians were Nazis (compared to seven
percent in Germany). Forty percent of
the members of the Vienna Philhar-
monic thought they could not fiddle
unless they belonged to the Nazi
Party.
How can one forget that 500,000
Austrians gave an hysterical welcome
to Hitler at the "Heroes Square" in
Vienna — never in history had so
many Austrians assembled in one
place. If the welcome was an innocent
manifestation of joy and affection for
a native son's homecoming, there was
nothing joyful about subsequent
events.
There were 220,000 Austrian
Foxman, a Holocaust survivor, is
associate national director of the
Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
Jews, burghers of Vienna, before Au-
stria's enthusiasm for Hitler. There
were 200 Austrian Jews by the time
the war ended! One in a thousand was
left! Compare this to the 400,000 Jews
who survived under Hitler's nose in
Kurt Waldheim: Austria's new president.
Berlin because they were helped by
non-Jewish Germans.
There were Austrians who
enjoyed watching Jews scrub the
sidewalks of Vienna with tooth-
brushes. Vienna's performance dur-
ing Kristallnacht made the event in
Berlin look like a pleasant Christmas
celebration.
According to Simon Wiesenthal,
Austria bears guilt for some three
million of the six million Jews killed
by Hitler. That is 50 percent, yet your
country 'constituted only one-tenth of
the population of Hitler's Third Reich.
One does not have to go far back
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