I EDITORIAL
because they are concerned that Jackson will receive a major post
in a Dukakis administration. No one knows for sure the details of
the Jackson-Dukakis private meeting, or whether Jackson made
demands more specific than respect, legitimacy and homage from
the party.
Despite the show of unity in Atlanta, the concerns Jackson's cam-
paign created have not faded away. The fact is that his views on Israel
and Jews are deeply disturbing. (New York Times columnist A.M.
Rosenthal wrote last week that many American Jews feared Jackson
and believed his positions on the PLO and the Mideast to be
dangerous to Israel; Jackson responded by calling Rosenthal to say
that he has sought to reach out to Jews and that he is misunderstood
and treated unfairly.)
Now Jackson's "Jewish problem" is also the Democratic party's
problem. Dukakis is being forced to walk a political tightrope, seek-
ing to prove that he is his own man without alienating the millions
of Jackson supporters who could stay away from the polls in
November.
Michael Dukakis is faced with the challenge of keeping Jesse
Jackson in the fold without offering him a major foreign policy role
in the next administration. It will require political skill and ethical
commitment. We will have four months to see how Dukakis handles
the situation, and his success or failure will help determine how
many American Jews will cast their votes in November.
Book Ban
The Midrasha Library at United Hebrew Schools has been push-
ed into the middle of a political battle that no one is trying hard
to win. And the losers will be Detroit's Jewish scholars who cannot
duplicate the library's resources.
Officials of UHS and the Jewish Welfare Federation agree that
it would be a shame to close the library or reduce its hours to six
per week. But neither organization is ready to do anything about
the library's plight.
U115 board members were given very little choice in June when
they were told by their officers to cut back the library and close the
UHS school at B'nai Moshe or cut United Hebrew's special educa-
tion programs.
There was little chance to consider alternatives. UHS officials
blamed Superintendent Dr. Jerry Teller for not changing the 1987-88
budget to reflect $100,000 in increased costs attributed to
skyrocketing insurance and a new teachers contract. Blaming Dr.
Teller, who left Detroit a year ago to head the Chicago Board of
Jewish Education, does not explain why the UHS board did not deal
with the problem last year, why the problem was dealt with so
precipitously this year, and why UHS expected the Jewish Welfare
Federation to bail-out a nearly year-old deficit.
Federation is sitting back, and in essence is saying UHS must
deal with its own problems. UHS, by its action, says Federation did
not give it enough money. Lost in the shuffle is a valuable community
resource.
Reducing the Midrasha Library to six hours per week and
eliminating new acquisitions is, in effect, a death sentence. The
Jewish Library Association of Detroit believes that the valuable col-
lections will quickly deteriorate under these conditions. So will our
faith in our community leaders, who are using the Midrasha Library
as a political football.
CNE FoREAN F UcX i FfiriviARLY
Mite BeAM To le
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Democrats And Jackson
Throughout the primary campaign, the questionasked most often
about Rev. Jesse Jackson was: What does he really want? Now that
he has lost his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and
had his hour of glory at the Democratic National Convention, the
question may be asked again. And added to that question is another:
What did Dukakis promise him?
A number of Jews who say that they would normally vote
Democrat are seriously considering voting Republican this year
.
LETTERS
Dem Platform
Turned Off Voter
I have just finished wat-
ching, almost gavel to gavel,
the coverage of the
Democratic National
Convention.
My political persuasion has
usually been independent
and candidate oriented.
However, after watching this
week's performance I cannot
(with apologies to the Levin
brothers) believe that any
thinking, Israel-supporting,
American-supporting Jew
can vote for any candidate of
the party I saw on the DNC
platform.
Let the Arafat, Farrakan,
Jackson, budget busters et.
al., go their own way. George
,
Bush, wimpy as he may come
across, looks better and better
to this Israel-supporting
American Jew.
Richard Williams
Birmingham
Another Voter
Fears Jesse Jackson
Many years ago, there was
a beer hall putsch which was
part of the scenario of Hitler's
climb to power.
At the recent Democratic
convention, Jesse Jackson
mentioned that his ancestors
came to America as slaves.
But, at that very moment of
Jackson's speech . . . 3,000
Blacks were killed by
Jackson's Moselm friends in
the Sudan, and an equal
number last year. Yet Jackson
sees fit to ignore this, and
tried to put the Palestinian
problem into the Democratic
Party platform.
A few years back, Arab
governthents donated to
PUSH, the organization that
pays Jackson his salary.
Conspicuously silent were
Jackson's friends, Farrakhan
and his storm trooper
"guard!" In short, Jackson's
• pro-Arab inclination and
historical anti-Semitism are
obvious.
I fear that if Dukakis wins,
Jackson's power will increase
quickly. While Dukakis isn't
exactly Hindenburg, the
elements of history are there.
Am I over-reacting, or is
this deja-vu of the 1930s?
Name-Withheld
If Looks Could
Kill An Editorial
Your July 15 editorial,
"Mythical Masquerade,"
misses the point, which is not
that Jews lack ethnic pride
when they elect to alter their
noses through surgery, but
rather that most people in our
society cannot, without con-
siderable artifice, live up to
the definition of "American
beauty."
In fact, almost no one (in-
cluding models and actors)
feels confident in his or her
looks, not from a lack of
ethnic or even personal pride,
but because our society's
obsession with achieving and
celebrating what it regards as
perfection automatically ex-
cludes most human beings
from being considered attrac-
tive in their natural state.
Still, even granting that our
current standards of beauty
are much too rigid and
unrealistic, would God have
given us the capacity to ap-
preciate beauty if He did not-
mean us to strive for it? I
think your writer would have
better served the public by, in-
stead of contemptuously
dismissing elective cosmetic
surgery, encouraging a larger
appreciation of a wider, more
diverse range of beauty
standards.
Imagine how much more ef-
fective an editorial would be
which lauded the aggressive
royalty of an ethnically
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