INSIGHT I Planting The Seeds Continued from preceding page terrorism, about questions like who should represent the Palestinians. The question about what happened in 1948—why were there so many refugees—comes up at just about every workshop." Lame deftly skips around the question of whether enrollment tends to be self- selecting in a way that favors those who are already somewhat disposed to more open communication. Although he men- tions a workshop attended by members of the Jewish Defense League, he does not suggest that the workshops draw very well in strongholds of the Gush Emunim, or from the ranks of hard-core PLO supporters. According to Lame, participants have come from more than 20 countries and represent a broad range of backgrounds, professions and political philosophies. "We've had people who were very knowl- "People look at a group like ours and ask, 'What are they a front for?' It is difficult for people to accept that we are nonpartisan, that we don't take sides in the political disputes." edgeable about the Middle East, and peo- ple who knew virtually nothing about it," he says. Most Middle East nationalities have been represented at Foundation workshops. lb date, he says, most recruitment has been through word of mouth. "Maybe peo- ple send out notices to their personal mail- ing lists, or they just tell friends and relatives. It hasn't been as systematic as I would like; we just don't have the money to do advertising or mass-mailings on any kind of large scale. I'm certainly not satisfied yet with our approach in letting the people know what we're doing." Even if they had the money for extensive advertising, Lame says, his group would face initial resistance from potential par- ticipants. "People look at a group like ours and ask, 'What are they a front for?' It is difficult for people to accept that we are nonpartisan, that we don't take sides in the political disputes." Lame is only now beginning to work on developing ties with the existing Jewish organizations in America. "Maybe because I am Jewish, I leaned over backwards try- ing to develop contacts in the Arab com- munity. So frankly, I haven't done enough homework with the Jewish organizations. I'm working on that now." The reaction of the organized Jewish community, he says, has been low key. "Generally, I see a lot of skepticism, some interest, some concern about how what we're doing might compromise Jewish sup- port for Israel in this country. And people wonder: Is this a bunch of PLO fellow travelers? Is this another Jewish leftie' organization? It really isn't; we have peo- ple who have very strong feelings about Greater Israel, things like that. We have a broad spectrum." 48 FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1987 This broadness, he says, is one of the group's strengths. "We don't screen par- ticipants," he says. "You don't have to believe in Israel's basic right to exist to get into a workshop, or believe that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, or believe in self- determination for Palestinians. My goal is to give people more of an understanding of who the other side really is. We're not negotiating a peace settlement. That's not my job." Lame, an intense, articulate man in his late thirties who seems to be fighting an eternal battle to keep from getting carried away by his subject, goes to tremendous lengths to demonstrate his own nonpar- tisan position. He rarely says anything critical about Israel without throwing in an equally negative comment about an Arab country. He does the same with praise. A lawyer by trade, he has more than the usual lawyer's ability to keep clear of verbal entrapment. He mentions several times his recent marriage to an Egyptian Jewish woman, a fact which he says gives him an added insight into the disparate cultures. He is careful to point out the conse- quences of his own background. "I don't claim to have transcended the conflict," he says. "I am a Jew. I am constantly learn- ing to come to terms with my own biases. But the truth is, I don't have a peace plan. I don't know what the ideal solution for the Middle East would be." In fact, when he describes his own posi- tion, Lame seems to be setting out his vi- sion of the perfect workshop participant: not bound by any political ideology, will- ing to confront his own prejudices, and receptive to the feelings of those on the other side of the fence. In this sense, he may be describing a very limited subset of the population he seeks to convert; pas- sions in the Middle East seem to run deeper with each new generation. Lame appears both constrained and liberated by his background in the world of popular self-help regimens. He accepts the kinds of limited political goals that make him at least somewhat palatable to mainline Jewish and Arab organizations, and yet he seems to believe with unrestrained fervor in the idea that the small number of people going through the Foundation's workshops can be the begin- ning of a series of major political transfor- mations in the Middle East. The argument about communications, of course, is as old as the one about which came first, the chicken or the egg. Poor communications, with the resulting prob- lems of intolerance and an inability to corn- promise, are both a cause and a symptom of international conflict. When that con- flict has strong religious overtones, the complex web of variables becomes even more difficult to sort out. On the other hand, it is difficult to ob- ject to a group that seeks to enhance com- munication in the middle of a bitter, dead- ly conflict. "I don't think I'm naive in thinking that if we just sit down and talk, all the problems will resolve themselves," Lame says. "It's a beginning." ❑ 3 25 81 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills, MI 48018 (313) 737-7122 MARGUERITE'S "PRIMA DONNA" Fashions For The Fuller Figure Woman "PRIMA DONNA" 29555 Northwestern Hwy. Southfield, MI 355-0139 THE BRIGHT IDEA THE JEWISH NEWS send as a gift 354 - 6060 CHIROPRACTIC HEALTH HINTS Health News .. Habitual Pain Calls for Prompt Action BY DR. STANLEY B. LEVINE Doctor of Chiropractic We hear a lot about pain control these days, or "learning to live with pain," but why do people fail to think in terms of eliminating the pain? For an answer to that question, we asked Dr. Levine D.C. of Levine Chiropractic Clinic. "People are constantly being conditioned to expect quick, 'tem- porary' relief, explains the good Doctor. "It is not at all unusual -- for a new Chiropractic patient to say, "I've had these pains in my arms and shoulders for several months. Our family physician took X-rays, but he says there's no arthritis or bursitis. He thinks it's neuritis. I've had shots and used every linament I can find. I can't do my work properly and can only sleep after taking sedatives.' Why do so many neuritis victims delay seek- ing Chiropratic treatment? "It may be because they can't understand the relationship between the spinal column and the pain in their arms and shoulders," DR. STANLEY continues Dr. Levine. B. LEVINE "If so, I can restate the fact that nerves which extend into the shoulders and arms have their origin in the spinal column. The same anatomical facts apply to other places where neuritis is prevalent, such as the nerves that extend between ribs, up over the back of the scalp or even into the legs." Is this delay in treatment because people do not remember hav- ing injured the spinal column? "It cannot be emphasized too much that spinal distortions may not come from a single injury such as a fall, a lifting strain, or a collision," warns Dr. Levine. "Often, when a Doctor of Chiroprac- tic shows a patient an X-ray and points out the spinal deviations revealed, the patient will wonder how it happened." Many reasons for such spinal strain can be summed up in the word "HABIT" For the person who does considerable driving each day it might be the habit of resting the arm on the car door. For the factory worker it might be the position in which he works at his machine day after day. "In short," Dr. Levine concludes, "We may not even relate the actual cause of the spinal misalignment or nerve interference to the resulting pain. But we should think of neuritis in terms of possi- ble damage to the spinal column. And we should think of the pain in terms of eliminating its cause, not just masking its symptoms with pain killing drugs and linaments." LEVINY Eou CHIROPRACTIC Ckla RnOg e 31390 Northwestern Hwy. Farmington Hills 48018 Dr. Steven M. Tepper 855-2666 Dr. Robert W. Levine