EDITORIAL
Changing The Guard
The Detroit Jewish community will have new faces among its
leadership in the coming months.
Marty Kraar, executive vice president of the Jewish Welfare
Federation, has been tapped by the Council of Jewish Federations.
Dr. Conrad Giles will soon step down after three years as Federa-
tion president. The Federation is also losing its director of plann-
ing, Allen Juris, who this summer will become the top official of the
Windsor, Ontario, Jewish community.
Change is also occurring outside the Butzel building downtown.
After nearly 35 years of service to the Detroit community, Rabbi
Milton Arm has announced his retirement as the spiritual leader
of Congregation Beth Achim. And Alan Goodman has stepped in to
lead the Jewish Family Service and the Resettlement Service follow-
ing Samuel Lerner's 26 years at the helm of the two agencies.
Change is inevitable, both in personnel, policies and priorities.
But it is the mark of a good community that change on the Detroit
Jewish scene is not perceived as catastrophic or threatening. The con-
tinuing philosophy throughout the years has been the close work-
ing relationship between lay and professional leaders.
As long as Detroiters remain committed and involved in their
organizational structures, communal thinking and policies are
shaped by the community with the guidance of excellent profes-
sionals. Power is shared and the loss of a leader is not indelible.
It is a system that has a proven track record in Detroit.
toward accommodation with Israel, not in place of the peace process
but as a catalyst for it; end the economic boycott; stop the challenge
to Israel's standing in international organizations; repudiate the
odious line that "Zionism is racism." He called on the Palestinians
to amend the Palestinian Liberation Organization charter, renounce
the concept of a phased takeover of Israel, practice constructive
diplomacy, and "translate the dialogue of violence" of the intifada
"into a dialogue of politics and diplomacy."
Israel was asked to reopen Palestinian schools in the occupied
territories, stop all Jewish settlement activity and move towards
negotiations "whose successful outcome will in all probability in-
volve territorial concessions." Most upsetting to the Jewish listeners
was Baker's plea for Israel to "lay aside, once and for all, the
unrealistic vision of a greater Israel." Greater Israel is the term us-
ed to describe the area including pre-1967 Israel, the West Bank and
Gaza.
The administration's blueprint for Middlee East peace may be
unrealistic, but it is not unreasonable. Rather than attacking the
secretary of state for being unfair or too evenhanded, we should be
thankful for his honesty. It would have been far easier for him to
address the Jewish lobby with platitudes. Instead, he has laid it on
the line, and we must begin to address the issues rather than his
rhetoric and his tact, or lack of it.
Baker's Bark
Secretary of State James Baker gave pro-Israel supporters at the
annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) con-
ference in Washington a dose of reality therapy this week. It was
not welcomed, but it was needed.
Baker's speech made headlines around the country for its blunt
approach to the Middle East, calling on Israel and the Arabs to make
concessions for peace. He really did not break new ground. It's just
that he chose the AIPAC conference as a forum, and its audience
was used to hearing Reagan administration spokesmen refer to Israel
as a beleaguered, strategic ally of the United States.
Instead, as our Washington Correspondent James Besser reports
this week (see page 1), Baker's speech was extremely balanced bet-
ween what it urged Israel to do and what it urged the Arabs and
the Palestinians to do.
The secretary called on the Arab states to take concrete steps
LETTERS
Some Bakeries
Were Ignored
I am responding to an arti-
cle written by Richard Pearl
on kosher bakeries in the
May 12 Jewish News. Mr.
Pearl stated that there are
only three Jewish-owned
bakeries in Bakers Local 78.
While this statement is true,
Mr. Pearl neglected the
Jewish-owned bakeries in the
Polish Bakers Local 77. Har-
nick Baking Co., Inc., and
Modern Bakery are definite-
ly Jewish owned.
My family has been bakers
since 1891 and we have been
in constant operation at the
same location since 1921. We
are currently building a
21,000-square-foot bakery in
Detroit which is bigger than
6
FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1989
all of the other Jewish
bakeries combined. In terms
of business we also do more
than all Jewish bakeries com-
bined. In supermarkets we
sell "Jewish" bread under the
Koepplinger label .. .
Barry Harnick
West Bloomfield
Israeli Leaders
Forget History
With Lag B'Omer this
week, I wonder if Jerusalem
became Rome.
The New York Times on
May 8 told of the closing of
Arab schools in the West
Bank by the Israeli
authorities. It is reminiscent
of the Roman Emperor
Hadrian's decree to prohibit
the Jews from studying the
Torah. As we know, this
precipitated the Bar Kochba
rebellion and martyred Rab-
bi Akiva.
What is disturbing to me is
that the people of the book
are prohibiting others from
study. The old men who lead
Israel today are ignoring
history and are bent on leav-
ing their children to deal with
Arabs trained in Jewish
prisons instead of schools.
Most of the Israeli leaders
who make policy will have
passed away of old age or
senility within the next five
years, but their ignorant
short-sighted policies will
haunt their children, un-
necessarily, into the 21st
century.
It's time that Israel learned
from its history and began a
shalom initiative that will
restore education and dignity
to the Arabs for the West
Bank so there will be people
with whom to negotiate for
peace.
Jerry Lapides
Southfield
Strange Silence
Of The Survivors
I feel there is a silence
among many of my fellow
Holocaust survivors and their
children and grandchildren
that must be addressed. It is
a silence regarding the
Passage to Freedom cam-
paign to help the Soviet Jews.
After the Second World
War, I waited four years in
Germany because I couldn't
go anywhere. Other countries
didn't want me, but finally
this country and this city,
through its Jewish social ser-
vices, took me in. If they did
not bring me here, I do not
know where or what I would
be today.
A lot of my fellow Holocaust
survivors came here in the
Continued on Page 10
Let Us Know
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