EDITORIAL

An Invitation

S

ay there, sports fans!
The North American Maccabi Youth Games has great con-
tests planned for Detroit next year, but we'll have to get out
of our couch-potato routines to truly enjoy them.
The Detroit Jewish community has invited 2,200 teenage
athletes to visit our city in August 1990 and participate in 15
sports. Detroit Jews, however, must move beyond the spectator
role to truly enjoy this international event and to make it a-
success.
For years Detroit Maccabi Club volunteers have emphasized
that the athletics at the annual games are only half the focus.
Equal in importance at the Maccabiah are the social and cultural
bonds that are forged by young Jewish athletes from all over the
United States and the world.
The entire Detroit community must play a major role to achieve
this second goal. The Maccabi Club has begun its recruitment
drive to sign up host families for the week-long Maccabiah (see
Page 5).
Being a host is a major committment, but feeding, housing and
transporting at least two teenage athletes for a week will have
rewards for both the athletes and the host family that far exceed
the effort.
The Detroit Jewish community cannot be spectators at its own
mini-Olympics. We cannot sit on the sidelines when we have a
golden opportunity to foster Jewish identification, Clal Yisrael and
Detroit's image. It will be quite a party if we do more than just at-
tend.

called it a watershed in Hungary's rapidly growing assertion of a
more independent, Western-oriented foreign policy.
Twenty-two years is a long time to wait for the resumption of
normal relations between countries. But it was, apparently, what
was required for at least one of the satellite countries of Eastern
Europe to muster the courage to assert itself in the face of other
Warsaw Pact nations that chose to look backward and not toward
the future.
Hopefully, Hungary's recognition of Israel is the precursor of
similar decisions by other Eastern bloc nations. If these occur, they
may change the political equation in the Middle East, a region
where the most fervid enemies of Israel, such as Syria and the Pal-
estine Liberation Organization, have long been clients of the Sovi-
et Union and other communist states. These are nations that have,
until most recently, been content to harangue Israel and question
her legality and morality, while coddling up to terrorists and mass
killers.
Between Hungary's recognition of Israel and the Soviet Union's
exchange about a year ago of consular delegations with Israel, it
seems more possible now that the Eastern bloc's dalliance with the
tyrants of the Middle East will be replaced by a clearer, more level-
headed and more peaceable approach to the region. This is not only
desired. It is urgently needed.

iZRAE1:2 MILITARY
BUDGET CONCERNS

Another Tear

T

hat tear in the Iron Curtain grows larger each day. First came
a new openness and economic restructuring in the
Soviet Union. Then came Polish elections which handed the
government to Solidarity. This was followed by Hungary's defiance
of its East German ally by opening its border to Austria and letting
thousands of East Germans stream through. All this was barely im-
aginable a year ago.
Now, Hungary has defied political imagination again. Barely 10
days after the exodus of East Germans began, Hungary became
the first Communist country to restore full diplomatic relations
with Israel after rupturing them during the 1967 war. Israelis
have greeted the move as "historic," and other Westerners have

LETTERS

Catholic-Jewish
Ties Are Helped

Cardinal Szoka's statement
urging the relocation of the
Carmelite convent at
Auschwitz eloquently cap-
tures the essence of this pain-
ful issue. The Jewish News is
to be applauded not only for
printing the Cardinal's state-
ment, but for its own very
sensitive editorial.
Two recent developments
provide reason for optimism;
Cardinal Glemp's announce-
ment that he now favors mov-
ing the convent, and the news
that the Vatican is in agree-
ment with this course of
action.
Let us all strive to return to
the cordial relations between

6

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1989

Catholics and Jews that were
temporarily upset by the
Auschwitz controversy.

Paul D. Borman
President,
Jewish Community Council

Glemp Reflected
Polish Feelings

Cardinal Glemp's anti-
Semitic remarks regarding
the removal of a Carmelite
Convent situated in
Auschwitz did not surprise
me at all. He honestly ex-
pressed his feelings and the
feelings of the majority of
Poles, including the Pope.
Pope Paul did not reprimand
him or speak out against
Glemp's remarks even though

the Pope knew that the con-
vent should have been remov-
ed two years ago.
As a former inmate of
Auschwitz (21/2 years) and the
sole survivor of a large, ex-
tended family, I remember
the Poles' superstitious,
medieval hatred toward Jews.
It is no surprise to hear a high
official of the Church openly
expressing his feelings and
the feelings of his flock.
I would advise my fellow
Jews not to visit Poland,
because every penny spent
there helps their economy
and gives more strength to
the Jew-haters. Our Jewish
leaders who are trying so
hard to promote understan-
ding between Poland and
Jews should not try so hard.

You can't teach an old dog
new tricks overnight .. .
Saul Raimi

Southfield

Cruel Scenario
For Polish Jews

Without appearing to be
the prophet of doom, there is
a scenario unfolding in
Poland today that forebodes
ill tidings for the few remain-
ing Jews in that country.
In the early 1980s when
Solidarity first started its
rumblings, there were Polish
government allegations that
the Jews in the labor move-
ment were the ones fomen-
ting dissension. At that time,
barely 5,000 Jews remained

alive in Poland with the
average age over 70.
Just last week Solidarity
chastised Cardinal Glemp for
aggravating a rift between
Jews and Christians over the
Carmelite convent at
Auschwitz. Solidarity's accus-
ed association with and
defense of Jews is acceptable
and tolerated by the Poles
only while Solidarity is riding
high and represents hope.
Today, Solidarity has
managed to snatch up seem-
ing victory in a setting where
all parties may fail. If this
democratic initiative is
economically or politically
unsuccessful, Solidarity will
take full blame. Should this

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