THE JEWISH NEWS
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
THIS ISSUE 60(P
SEPTEMBER 8, 1989 / 8 ELUL 5749
Three former U-M
students combine their
knowledge of medicine
with their
talents as artists.
Leaders Wary
Of Glemp Visit
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
The impending visit to Detroit of
Polish Catholic Church leader Car-
dinal Josef Glemp has left several
Detroit Jewish leaders wary.
In recent weeks, Glemp has accus-
ed Jews of controlling the world's
press, spreading Communism and
claimed the demonstration last
month at a monastery established at
the Auschwitz Nazi death camp was
intended to kill the nuns living there.
Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, ex-
ecutive director of the Holocaust
Memorial Center in West Bloomfield,
expressed sadness when he learned
that Glemp was coming to Detroit to
visit Cardinal Edmund Szoka during
Glemp's United States tour this
month.
"He has to be made aware that
the comments he has made sound, to
the Jews who lived in Poland, like the
anti-Semitic statements heard in
Poland before World War II," Rosenz-
veig said. Accusations similar to
Glemp's led to pogroms in Kielce and
Pshtik in the 1920s, Rosenzveig said.
"Between 1921 and 1939," the
rabbi said, "Jews in Poland didn't
dare walk the streets on Christmas.
People coming out of the churches
were very agitated against the Jews.
"For these statements to come
from a cardinal, especially after the
Holocaust, is very, very painful."
Rabbi Rosenzveig said he did not
condone the August demonstration at
the Auschwitz convent led by Rabbi
Avraham Weiss of New York. Weiss
and several of his followers were
beaten by Polish workmen while
policemen looked on. "But does Car-
dinal Glemp believe that Rabbi Weiss
would kill the nuns?" the rabbi ask-
ed. "To accuse Rabbi Weiss like that
is ridiculous" and mirrors classic
anti-Semitic cannards that Jews
ritually murder Christians.
Cardinal Glemp has advocated
tearing up a 1987 agreement signed
by four Catholic cardinals and Jewish
leaders which called for the nuns to
vacate the convent by last February.
The nuns are still in the building. The
Continued on Page 12
Political Insiders
Eyeing Carl Levin
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell,
chairman of the key Foreign Rela-
tions Committee who has been a con-
sistent supporter of Israel since he
was first elected in 1960.
Pell is being challenged by Rep.
Claudine Schneider, who has a good
record for Israel. Known as an institu-
tion in Rhode Island, Pell might have
a tough time defeating Schneider, a
former television anchor from Pro-
vidence, who is popular in her district
which makes up half of the state.
• Levin, one of the staunchest sup-
porters of Israel in the Senate,
defeated his Republican challenger
Jack Lousma by only 52 percent in
1984 during the Reagan landslide in
Michigan. In 1988, Bush took
Michigan. Now Levin is a prime
target of the Republicans.
Analysts warn that parties
typically target any vulnerable in-
cumbents — Republican or Democrat.
Therefore, they caution, Jewish sup-
porters must offer assistance to any
friend in trouble, no matter what par-
ty. As a general rule, political action
Jewish political watchdogs are
keeping close tabs on U.S. Senate
races for three Democratic in-
cumbents — among them Michigan
Sen. Carl Levin — who are vulnerable
in the 1990 election.
Joining Levin are Paul Simon of
Illinois and Tam Harkin of Iowa, all
long-time friends of Israel who serve
on committees that deal with
weapons sales, foreign aid and free
trade.
Levin, first elected in 1978, is a
member of the Armed Services Com-
mittee and chairs its subcommittee
on conventional forces and alliance
defense. Harkin, first elected in 1974,
serves on the Appropriations Com-
mittee and its subcommittees on
defense and foreign operations.
Simon, elected in 1984, serves on the
foreign relations committee.
Another Democratic friend of
Israel who could be contested, but
whose race has not been targeted as
significant as the other three, is Continued on Page 12