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 Letters must be concise, typewritten and double- spaced. Correspondence must include the signa- ture, home address and daytime phone number of the writer.