I EDITORIAL

Heroes Today?

America's heroes are often very temporary, and can range from
the A Team's George Peppard to the National Security Council's
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. Jewish belief uses higher criteria for
qualifying someone as a hero — honestly speaking out for one's beliefs
in the face of opposition.
Rabbi Harold Schulweis notes on Page 50 that Natan Sharansky,
who defied the Kremlin as a Prisoner of Zion for almost a decade,
would certainly qualify. He adds that as a free man living in Israel
and continuing his struggle for his brethren in the USSR, Sharan-
sky refuses to be intimidated, either by Jewish officials who are upset
at his independence or those who would pressure him to become more
observant.
Another Soviet cited by Schulweis is Andrei Sakharov, the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate who is not Jewish but who has always spoken
out on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
Elie Wiesel, the 1986 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is another
hero on Schulweis's list because "his concerns extend beyond the
Jewish community." Wiesel has spoken out on behalf of the oppressed,
from the blacks of South Africa to the boat people of Vietnam.
Two religious leaders were mentioned by Schulweis, though
neither is alive, Pope John XXIII and Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel.

It confronts the genuine efforts undertaken, and callous indifference
shown, by the Catholic Church. It questions why the Allies — in-
cluding the U.S. — didn't act humanely to save Jews when it was
clear a "Final Solution" was in progress. It critically evaluates why
there wasn't more Jewish armed resistance against the Nazis and
their sympathizers.
The curriculum uses techniques that totally involve the high school
student and his teacher.
The curriculum does sidestep two issues. It does not adequately
address the lingering anti-Semitism directed against Jewish sur-
vivors after World War II by Eastern Europeans. Questions relating
to why Jews felt compelled to flee into Germany for their lives need
to be raised. And another issue not addressed is the emigration of
survivors to Palestine, the eventual creation of the State of Israel
and whether, in light of the Holocaust, a Jewish homeland was
justified.
But the overall value of the curriculum is enormous. Approx-
imately 60 Oakland County high school teachers will be trained to
use Life Unworthy Of Life at a special session next week. When the
last Holocaust survivor is gone, and the "revisionists" continue their
dirty work, it will be widespread distribution of Life Unworthy Of
Life, and other quality courses of study, that help assure the truth
is told and its implications for mankind are explored and understood.

Worthy Of Support

With alarming regularity, those seeking to distort the truth about
the Six Million who perished in the Holocaust publish their pitiful
poison as doctoral dissertations, books and even plays. Barely 40 years
after man's most heinous crime against fellow man, the tide of "revi-
sionism" continues, with outrageous assertions that the destruction
of European Jewry was a fabrication, that the Holocaust was a
Zionist-Nazi conspiracy and that Jews were treated no differently
than all other civilian populations.
The survivors in our midst — the eyewitnesses — are aging. Soon,
the responsibility to tell the truth will fall on the shoulders of others.
How well equipped are we to accept this task?
The Center For The Study Of The Child, an arm of Sidney Lutz
and Associates of Farmington Hills, has spent over a year develop-
ing a Holocaust curriculum to educate future generations of
American high school students. The resulting 18-lesson curriculum
entitled Life Unworthy Of Life is thorough, thoughtful and useful
. . . and worthy of community support.
Life Unworthy of Life doesn't dodge many of the hard questions.

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LETTERS

Founders Of
Jewish Heritage

We would like to make a
correction to the article
"Rebels, Not Slaves" (Sept.
25).
The Jewish Heritage
organization was founded and
financially supported
throughout its existence by
Mr. and Mrs. Hy Shenkman
of Southfield. They were the
creators and spiritual leaders
of the Jewish Heritage for
more than a year. We were
some of the very first
members of the organization
(which totaled 23 par-
ticipants) and regularly met
at Shenkman's house.

6

FRIDAY, OCT. 16, 1987

Probably Mr. David Holzel
— the author of the article —
misunderstood Mr. Samuel
Valk, who first appeared at
the meeting three months
after the foundation of the
Jewish Heritage.

Irfria Fiksman and
Roman Lundin
Oak Park

A Spy Works
For The Enemy

The recent Iran-Contra af-
fair glaringly reveals that the
agencies and individuals in
government callously
disregard the wishes of Con-
gress. We also know that in-
dividuals in government

helped to hide Klaus Barbie,
the butcher of Lyons, and we
recently learned that other
individuals in our govern-
ment lied to the Canadian
government by covering up
the Nazi background of
another criminal.
In our democracy, it is the
Congress that represents the
wishes of the people. The Ex-
ecutive branch and its agen-
cies are supposed to carry out
congressional wishes. They
often do otherwise.
What is a caring person to
do when he sees the govern-
ment agency for which he
works disregard congres-
sional wishes?
As I see it, this is the posi-

tion Jonathan Pollard found
himself in when he discovered
that his agency was
misleading the government of
Israel by withholding certain
informatin. He should have
reported this to his con-
gessman, but instead he took
it upon himself to supply
Israel with the information
that should have been sup-
plied by his agency.
The definition of a spy is so-
meone who works for an
enemy nation. Israel is not an
enemy nation.
The leaking of information
in Washington is not uncom-
mon. Jonathan Pollard plead-
ed guilty to passing on infor-
mation. But I fail to see how

that classified him as a spy
who must spend the rest of
his life in prison.

Dr. Sidney Leitson
West Bloomfield

Life In Israel
Not A Ball

The article by Helen Davis
("The Good Life," Sept. 18) in
which she castigates Israelis
for purchasing modern conve-
niences and luxuries, forces
me to write.
There are indeed a limited
number of self-employed
Israelis who are wealthy and
spend their money according-
ly. Other Israelis have family

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