EDITORIAL
Repairing Shards
Rep. Tom Lantos of California issued a challenge to his fellow
Jews on Sunday. In effect, he said it was up to the Jewish people
to insure that the post-Holocaust slogan "Never Again" is more than
rhetoric.
Lantos stirred the large crowd attending the Holocaust Memorial
Center dinner downtown, admonishing Jews to take an active role
in human rights efforts on behalf of all people throughout the world.
In this way, he explained, Jews can prevent a future Holocaust.
Holocaust survivor Lantos may have seen the reports out of
Chicago last week. The smashing of windows at Chicago synagogues
and Jewish stores on the anniversary of Kristallnacht in Nazi Ger-
many served, if nothing else, to bring the era of hate close to home
again. The fact that one of those arrested in Chicago has ties to
Detroit's own neo-Nazis — the SS Action Group — should make
Detroiters a bit more wary.
Educational efforts at all levels are important to combat hatred.
The efforts of the HMC, the new Holocaust curriculum of the Center
for the Study of the Child, the year-long World of Difference effort
of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith help to increase
understanding and reduce prejudice. But we must continue to be
vigilant to ensure that Kristallnacht 1987 was an aberration, and
not the norm of Kristallnacht 1938.
Do the results add up to a growing, if belated and grudging, ac-
ceptance by the Arabs of the Jewish state in their neighborhood?
Or could this new-found unity, with Egypt as the engine, propel the
Arabs into another military confrontation with Israel? Hopefully
Egypt will act as a conduit for peace, rather than war.
Positive Pressure
In a recent speech before a Jewish charitable organization, former
President Gerald Ford urged the U.S. Jewish community to be wary
of exerting too much pressure on the Soviets during Mikhail Gor-
bachev's upcoming visit to the United States.
There is little doubt that the Soviets respond to public pressure.
Gorbachev seems very much aware of the positive results of projec-
ting a good image.
It therefore seems incumbent upon us to rise up and descend upon
Washington en masse two weeks from now, in as forceful and
deliberate a show of unified support for Soviet Jewry as we can
possibly muster. Gorbachev can hardly overlook the event.
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Summit Summary
What is one to make of the Arab League Summit which concluded
this week in Amman, Jordan? The "moderate" camp, led by Jordan's
King Hussein managed to control the meeting's agenda and its
outcome.
For the first time, Israel was not named as the greatest "threat"
to the Arabs; that honor went to Iran. Also, Israel's arch-enemy, the
Palestine Liberation Organization, was pushed to the sidelines.
And while not officially welcoming Egypt — banished from the
Arab League for making peace with Israel — back into the fold, the
summit opened the way for member states to honorably renew rela-
tions with their most powerful sister. Practically all of them did this
week, indicating that making peace with Israel no longer
automatically makes an Arab a leper.
LETTERS
Why Side
With Leftists?
... While it was generally
known, that Arza and Mercaz
came into being primarily to
espouse the concept of
religious pluralism in Israel,
one wonders whether their
Reform and Conservative con-
stituency — representing a
centrist, political orientation
— had envisaged their elected
representatives making a
deal with Mapam, the most
leftist of Israel's political par-
ties, in order to make a
political statement . ."
By joining a leftist, anti-
Likud coalition, Arza and
Mercaz are apt to alienate a
major segment of the Israeli
electorate supportive of
religious freedom, but equal-
ly supportive of the Likud's
political line .. .
6
FRIDAY, NOV. 20, 1987
Clearly, this is not the way
to advance religious freedom.
Why Arza and Mercaz did not
seek ways to coalesce with
more compatible Zionist
organizations that share their
commitment to religious
freedom and are more in tune
with the views and concerns
of their respective constituen-
cies, is not clear.
Surely, those who were per-
suaded to vote for their slates
to the World Zionist Congress
deserve an explanation.
Ezekiel Leikin
Southfield
No Clash
At Seminar
From her opening remarks
in "Traditional, Modern
Views Clash Over Reproduc-
tion" (Nov. 6), I wondered if
Lisa Jacknow Ellias attended
the same discussion that I
did. That there were going to
be differences of opinion was
a given in the very planning
of the panel.
Ms. Ellias missed the point
entirely by not recognizing
that our diverse community
was able to come together to
express those differences in
an open forum, and without
chastizing each other in the
process. In fact, several times
I noted speakers drawing on
common points, and when
backgrounds or beliefs differ-
red they politely stated so.
Hardly the "clash" inferred.
I would like to clarify a
point made by Rabbi
Silberberg who stated, that in
". . the wasting of the
seminal seed . . . homosex-
uality is a capital offense."
True, certain homosexual
acts, as well as certain
heterosexual acts, are con-
demned in scripture, but not
the condition of being
homosexual .. .
Peter A. Cooper
Southfield
Pay Cuts Hurt
Education
Regarding "Shaarey Zedek
Cuts Teacher Pay" (Oct 30),
prior to our recent pay cut of
ten percent, and prior to the
recent salary increases of four
percent given to the teachers
of United Hebrew Schools,
Shaarey Zedek Hebrew
teachers earned 16-22 percent
less than our United Hebrew
School counterparts .. .
We teachers at Shaarey
Zedek are all professionals
and very dedicated to retain-
ing the high quality of educa-
tion at our school, but such
lowering of salaries can only
weaken the professionalism
in Jewish education. This
reduction to salary levels of a
decade ago has had a
devastating effect on the
morale of our religious school
staff. If indeed the president
of Cong. Shaarey Zedek can
state that he is "proud of his
teachers," why then are we
treated in such a fashion . . .?
Hebrew Teachers Association
of Cong. Shaarey Zedek
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