1PURELY COMMENTARY

Communal Tests: Detroit Ann Arbor, EL Al.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

p

hilanthropy has never been
a problem for our commun-
ities. We have never been
tested by it. It is part of our life and
we treat it with great respect.
In the writing of American
Jewish history there is the frequent
reference to the earliest Jewish set-
tlements and to the time when
Jews told Peter Stuyvesant that we
are never a burden, that "we take
care of our own." It hushed the pre-
judiced Peter into conceding to the
Jewish right to be in New York
with equality with their neighbors.
Therefore, when we hear the
reports of a "Super Sunday" for the
Allied Jewish Campaign, the chief
beneficiary of which is the United
Jewish Appeal, as another triumph
for 1989 generosity, we judge it as
a normalcy. Why shouldn't the hun-
dreds of volunteers, reaching out to
the thousands who respond with
contributions, be successful? It is
"our way of life," isn't it?

But this year it became a cause
for comment. The repeated
triumph, with its increased
generosity for the current year,
needed attention. The agonies suf-
fered from unfortunate develop-
ments in Israel caused some small
groups to give vent to voices with

The Media Lends
Holiness To Arafat

B

enefiting
sensa-
tionalism, from
the
media,
bolstered by the diplomacy that
would escape blame for the terror that
has engulfed much of the world, is mak-
ing a big deal of the claims by Arafat
and his PLO associates to join in the
search for those who caused that horri-
ble plane disaster over Scotland. Every
day there is a new acclaim for Arafat
and his scheme to get more notoriety in
his desire to create a new state in de-
fiance of Israel.
The very origin of the PLO claims
for a role in ferreting out the guilty ter-
rorists must be taken into account. A

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Vol. XCIV No. 22
January 27, 1989

2

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1989

antagonism to the objectives of the
major fund that provides means for
important services in Israel, in-
cluding reception of newcommers,
educational and health provisions,
and other ways of giving comfort to
those who have come on aliyah.
Communal functions on the
highest level attain their goals in
a unity of spirit. Uniformity is
never tolerated. Differing views are
on the agenda. People who ex-
change views, even with opposing
opinions, can tolerably keep their
peoplehood intact. But the occa-
sional emergence of disruption does
create a saddening interruption in
unity. Fortunately, it is infrequent.
The infrequency has just occurred
in the neighboring glorious city of
Ann Arbor, and the manner in
which the diffidence has arisen is
deplorable. The way in which it has
developed, with an invitation for a
boycott of the UJA, is a destructive
approach that needs discourage-
ment. Hopefully, the positive forces
will succeed.
Ann Arbor has been a
neighborly suburb for us from the
years when as students we traveled
by Interurban Bus to get to Detroit.
It was like a village with a small
Jewish population for us and has
since grown into an important
Jewish center — always retaining
the aspect of a neighborhood for us
because there was the never-ending

brief editorial in the Wall Street Jour-
nal remains a challenge to the in-
itiators and their unending terror as
promulgators of the muderous ter-
rorism that has soared worldwide.
The date of the editorial and all its
details are a necessity for an exposure
of the credibility given Arafat. The
editorial in the Wall Street Journal of
Jan. 4 admonished:
Yassir Arafat began in-
vestigating the bombing of Pan
Am Flight 103 several days
before Washington told the
Palestine Liberation Organiza-
tion it would welcome informa-
tion. Reuters quoted a PLO of-
ficial as saying yesterday. The
official said the PLO chairman
was keen to bring those respon-
sible to justice and last week
sent a circular to his offices
world-wide asking for any infor-
mation on the disaster.
Meanwhile, the mayor of
Bethlehem, Elias Freij, said he
was withdrawing a proposal for
a one-year U.N.-supervised truce
in the fighting on the West Bank,
saying the PLO regarded the
proposal as untimely. Untimely
indeed. The mayor withdrew his
proposal after Radio Monte
Carlo broadcast a statement by
Mr. Arafat on Monday saying
"any Palestinian leader who
proposes an end to the intifada

cooperation. That's how we envi-
sion Ann Arbor today — as a
cooperative and friendly communi-
ty of fellow Jews. As such we urge
them to remain and continue pro-
ductively active, assisting in
upholding our moral and ethical
standards, never permitting
obstruction to stand in the way of
building up the peoplehood of
Israel.
Troublesome disputes in Israel
caused discord which may have led
the minority of dissidents to under-
take a boycott damaging to the
UJA. It's time for them to
acknowledge that the establish-
ment of the Shamir-Peres govern-
ment has ended the fear of threats
from Orthodox extremists domina-
ting the country. Besides, there has
to be recognition that there are ra-
tional and responsible Orthodox
elements in Israel who do not go
along with those who would deny
a place in Judaism for Conser-
vatives and Reform elements.

Also: any effort to undermine
Israel's functioning capacities en-
couraged by UJA or any other
Zionist supporting element would
only destroy means of negotiating
agreements towards peaceful solu-
tions. The dissidents who believe
they are helpful are only interfer-
ing with whatever plans may be in
the offing to end the intifada. They

exposes himself to the bullets of
his own people."
The media and the world's great
diplomats are enshrining Arafat in the
mantle of holiness. A new saint is in
their admiration.

Tbiuth About
The Gazans:
Israel Maligned

I

srael's serious duties are much
more than defense. They include
the need to emphasize realities and
the true conditions in administered
areas.
With sensations dominating, distor-
tion of facts are almost commonplace in
the manner in which life of Arabs under
Israel's administration is depicted by
the media. The people in Gaza are con-
stantly described as sufferers from
want, from lack of electricity, from op-
pressive treatments.
Refutation of many such distortions
appeared in the column by Rabbi
Samuel Silver containing translations
from the Yiddish journals appearing as
a weekly column in the National
Jewish Post and Opinion. The relevant
piece on this subject in a most recent
Rabbi Silver column revealed the
following:
So the Arabs in the ter-
ritories suffer from terrible con-
ditions? Is that so? Well, here are

MP' '

3

are encouraging the type or
obstructions that give courage ifr.;
Arafat, who spurs Arab youths tr
keep hurling rocks at the young:,
Israeli soldiers who are defending
selves, their nation, their state.
There is nothing in the obstruc-
tionism that is helpful.
Therefore, the appeal not to per-
mit the injection of obstruction in
our ranks, whether against philan-
thropies like UJA or the social-
economic-political difficulties con-
fronting Israel.
The thousands with affection
for the Ann Arbor alma mater will
always remember that our college
city was called "the Athens of the
Middle West." It is because of the
educational and cultural benefits
that had come for us from that cam-
pus, that we recall, in this respect,
as a Jewish aspect, the title that
was given to another famous city,
Vilna, the capital of Lithuania.
Vilna was known as "Yerushalayim
d'Lita." In a sense Ann Arbor, to
the thousands who studied there,
who have a Jewish affinity, is both
the "Athens and Yerushalayim of
our alma matter." A loyalty to
Jewish cooperative obligations also
developed there in a sense of com-
mitment to our Jewish peoplehood.
The hope is that such commitments
will not be underlined by boycotts
of causes that keep Israel strong
and Jewry dignified.

some statistics that K. Shor, of
the Yiddisher Kemfer, relays: in
Gaza, 82 percent of the residents
have inside kitchens; 97 percent
have indoor toilets; 75 percent,
refrigerators; 34 percent, elec-
tric dishwashers; 81 percent, TV;
64 percent, solar heating; and 70
percent, running water.
These amenities have been
obtained since the Israelis took
over from Egypt. Hardly any
Arab country can match those
statistics among their masses.
These facts supplments the oft-
repeated reminder that some of
the stone-throwers are alive to-
day only because, since Israel

The Arab countries
cannot match the
standard of living in the
administered territories.

took over, their mothers were
the beneficiaries of Israeli
medical care which brought in-
fant mortality statistics way
down, compared to what they
were when Egypt and Jordan
controlled the areas.
Such facts must not be ignored.
They are quoted from the Yiddisher

Continued on Page 38

