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OP-ED

The Holy Place, Holy Time,
Holy Words Were Profaned

RABBI IRWIN GRONER

PUBLISHER: Charles A. Buerger
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Arthur M. Horwitz
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 7:17 P.M.

VOL. XC, NO. 4

Drug Story

The "drug train" is gathering up steam in Washington, and it seems as if
every politician is climbing on board to condemn this self-inflicted plague.
Congress has ordered the military to halt drug traffic into the U.S. in six
weeks. Candidates are demanding, and undergoing, urinalysis and calling ,
for the death penalty for drug dealers. The President and First Lady have
taken to the airwaves to warn against the dangers of drugs.
Perhaps all of these efforts are worthwhile, for it is certainly clear that
our society is facing a serious crisis. But there is something unseemly and
even dangerous about the notion that throwing money at the problem will
solve it The government now spends about $1.5 billion on drug enforcement
and border protection; House Democrats would double that figure for
enforcement, treatment and education, while Senate Democrats would add
another $100 million.
The problem is that while Federal spending against narcotics has
doubled in the last four years, so has the problem.
There may be quick fixes when it comes to taking drugs but not to ridding
us of them. Still, we must do all we can to end the glamorization of drugs in
our society, where cocaine is associated with life in the fast track. More
priority should be given to drug treatment; the House bill offers only $100
million for helping addicts kick their habit. And perhaps most importantly,
more emphasis should be placed on eradicating drug production at the source.
South American countries are becoming more sympathetic to
Washington's demands for cooperation because drugs are becoming a greater
threat to their own societies. Our millions of dollars would be better spent
buying up coca and helping the farmers to plant coffee and rice.
The key here is not whether to spend great sums but how best to spend
them.

The Navy's Kfirs

The Free Press reported Sunday that Israel's "free" loan of 12 Kfir jets to
the U.S. Navy is costing the United States millions of dollars in exorbitant
maintenance fees. The report suggests that the maintenance contract with
Israel is costing the U.S. up to six times more to operate the Kfirs than it does
to operate home-built U.S. Navy aircraft.
The article suggests there was political pressure to accept the Kfirs —
used by the Navy to simulate MiG-21s in combat exercises. But it does not
compute the purchase price of U.S. planes in the operating costs, nor does it
ask why the Navy accepted a one-sided maintenance agreement with the
Israeli government.
There appears to be more to this story than front-page inferences of
Israeli manipulation.

e have come to mourn the
tragedy that took place on
the Sabbath in the Neve
Shalom Synagogue of Istanbul. We
weep for those who were killed, we
grieve for their families, and we
_ offer our deepest sympathy to the
Jewish community of Turkey.
The enemy chose the place, the
time, and the victims with great
care. The place was the synagogue,
the center of Jewish faith, the heart
of the corporate body of .the Jewish
people. During the crusades in the
Middle Ages when the mobs would
rage through Jewish towns and vil-
lages in Europe, they would often
gather Jewish men, women and
children into the synagogue, and
there they would commence their
slaughter and complete their vile
deed by setting the House of God af-
lame. When the Nazis began to im-
plement their program for the an-
nihilation of the Jewish people, it
began with Kristallnacht and the
synagogues again were attacked,
smashed, looted, vandalized and

W

burned.
Why the synagogue? Because
the synagogue represents and em-
bodies the spirit of the Jewish
people, because the enemy knows
that an attack upon the synagogue
is an attack upon the values and
ideals • preserved for the Jewish heri-
tage — justice and mercy, love of
God and love of man.
The time: The Holy Day, sign of
the covenant between God and Is-
rael. This was the Sabbath of the
Torah reading of Shoftim; Book of

Rabbi Groner delivered these remarks
Sept. 10 at the Detroit memorial service
for the victims of the terrorist attack on
Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul.

Deuteronomy. Justice, justice shall
thou pursue that thou mayest live
and inherit the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee. The holy place,
the holy time and the holy words
were all profaned.
In his perversity, the enemy
with diabolical cunning committed
the ultimate sacrilege. Even greater
than the sanctity of place and time
and text is the holiness of the
human being. The doors of the - syna-
gogue were locked by the enemy.
Without pity, without warning,
without the slightest expression of
mercy, the enemy destroyed the lives
of all who were in sight including

The enemy chose the
synagogue, the center of
Jewish faith, the heart of
the corporate body of the
Jewish people.

the rabbi, the old, the devout and
the faithful, then poured gasoline
over the bodies. Not satisfied with
their death, they obliterated their
physical beings.
Do we as Jews have to be re-
minded of that period in the history
of European Jewry when our
enemies were not content with the
murder of Jews, but reduced them to
ashes. What was the crime of those
who were slaughtered? Their crime,
their unforgivable sin was that they

were Jews.

People say, "What can we do to

respond to this tragedy, this atroc-
ity?" One answer is to go to our syn-
agogue. We must return to our syn-

agogues.

It is not enough that the ter-
rorists themselves were killed in the

perpetration of this unspeakable
crime. No, the issue is far deeper
than that, for there are murderers

Contiued on Page 28

