I UP FRONT I

Arab-Jewish

Continued from Page 5

the "best" in Italian
French and German
sportswear and clothing.

6879 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield, MI

851-8171

issues because no one will
listen to us!' and focus on im-
proving the quality of life in
America for Arabs and Jews.
"We are relegating our
energies to peaceful coex-
istence here," he explains.
"Overseas, we feel a great
deal. If not the Palestinians,
then in Lebanon. It's
perpetual and unending.
Maybe a future objective (of
the group) could be to impact
what is happening overseas.
"I feel deeply about the
turn of events, but if I let my
emotions run away, there
would not be a program. We
need to leave each to his own
feelings and sentiments in
the Middle East. Immediate-
ly, we need to give our
children a better quality of
life as Americans. We've met
for many years and now that
goals are finalized, we need to
do good deeds."
The group, which was
established in 1981, has
mediated disputes locally bet-
ween groups of high school
students involving Arab-
Americans and with proceeds
from its dinner, will fund ten
scholarships of $500 each for
five high school seniors from
the Arab and Jewish
communities.
The group presented its
first fellowship awards to
Leon S. Cohan, current presi-
dent of the Jewish Communi-
ty Council, and James
Karoub, a highly regarded
businessman and lobbyist.
Larry Horwitz, a Jewish of-
ficer of the group, believes
Sunday's turnout — almost
evenly split between Arab
and Jewish participants — is
an affirmation of commit-
ment between the two
communities.
"The tensions (among
group members) are obvious-
ly tremendous over what is
going on in Israel over the
past few weeks. Jews - in our
group have relatives and
family in the army and
various Arab participants
have family who have been
detained and encountered by
the army and police. It is a dif-
ficult time to have a
fellowship dinner.
"But we are attempting to
be a forum for fellowship and
understanding in the Detroit
metropolitan area, despite
the conflict!" Horwitz adds.
U.S. Senator Carl Levin, D-
Mich., the dinner's keynote
speaker, did not address the
situation in the Middle East,
America's ongoing support for
Israel, the absence of peace
initiatives from the Reagan
Administration, United Na-
tions resolutions, the closing
of Palestine Liberation
Organization offices or the

Sen. Carl Levin:
Avoiding discord.

status of the investigation in-
to the death of Alex Odeh.
Rather, Levin briefed the
audience on the medium-
range missile treaty between
America and the Soviet
Union, the confirmation hear-
ings for Supreme Court
nominee William Kennedy
and the likely battle over con-
tinued aid for the contras in
Nicarauga.
But Levin did remind the
audience that Arab and Jew
had worked together recently
to have the Supreme Court
broadly interpret wording in
the 1866 Civil Rights Act, ex-
tending equal protection of
the law to all who are
discriminated against, white
and non-white. The original
wording, coming after the
Civil War, applied only to
non-whites.
And from this alliance, and
gatherings of Arabs and Jews,
Levin said peacemakers will
emerge from "every people
willing to sit at a table, break
bread and negotiate problems
that seem to have no solution
because there is no alter-
native."

B'nai David

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President Barbara Goodman
said there have been no of-
ficial meetings on the issue.
Michael Traison, a B'nai
David member who lives in
West Bloomfield, said that
contrary to the synagogue
abandoning Southfield, it is
the members in the northwest
suburbs who feel abandoned.
"We want Orthodox services
out there too!"
Will B'nai David opt for
West Bloomfield? No one can
say for sure. "If they had the
vote next week," said Traison,
"I couldn't predict what the
answer would be!"