4 Friday, June 13, 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 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Arthur M. Horwitz 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 Randy Marcuson Judi Monblatt Rick Nessel Danny Raskin OFFICE STAFF: Lynn Fields Percy Kaplan Pauline Max Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Mary Lou Weiss Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Joy Gardin Ralph Orme © 1986 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 - S23 — Foreign - S35 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 Continued on Page 30 (