THE JEWISH NEWS
THIS ISSUE ar
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
Peace Platter
Sinai And U-M
Top U.S. Study
Top 40s veteran Casey Kasem brought his push
for Middle East peace back to Detroit.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Features Editor
man surrounded by
numbers, from the
bottom of the charts
to the top five hit songs,
Casey Kasem has his own
No. 1 priority: Arab-Jewish
relations.
The longtime "American
Top 40" radio host returned
this week to his hometown of
Detroit where he helped lead
workshops for the Los
Angeles-based Foundation
for Mideast Communication.
Born Kemal Amen Kasem to
Lebanese Druze parents,
Kasem is a board member of
the foundation, a non-profit,
non-partisan group that
works to foster dialogue
between Arabs and Jews.
Kasem invited about 50
local Jews and Arabs to each
of foundation's two semi-
nars. The foundation would
not give the names of par-
ticipants, saying only that
they represented a wide
spectrum of Jewish views,
including the New Jewish
Agenda.
B'nai Moshe past presi-
dent Robert Roth, who par-
ticipated in a workshop, said
he found the event
"worthwhile. I appreciated
having the opportunity to
•
hear directly the positions of
both sides."
Kasem, who dreamed of
becoming a baseball player,
had little interest in Arab or
Jewish affairs while growing
Casey Kasem: "We have to see
that the face across from us is
human."
up. A member of his high
school radio club, he majored
in English at Wayne State
University. He became a
disc jockey in 1954 and even-
tually settled in Los
Angeles.
"American Top 40," which
plays the top-selling hits on
the popular music chart
NOVEMBER 3, 1989 / 3 HESHVAN 5750
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
from the bottom to the top,
made its radio debut in 1970.
Today, Kasem hosts
"Casey's Top 40" on the
radio and "America's Top
10" on television."
In the early 1980s, Kasem
became disturbed by what
he calls the "constant
defamation and vilification"
of Arabs on television pro-
grams, in newspapers and
movies. He decided to begin
a letter-writing campaign to
producers.
In 1982, when Israel in-
vaded Lebanon, Kasem was
disturbed by reports of the
many killed in the fighting.
"I thought I'd better get
involved before another
hundred were killed and
before there was another
Sabra and Shatila (refugee
camps where hundreds of
Palestinian refugees were
murdered)," he says.
Kasem, who is active in a
number of anti-war causes,
began by reaching out to
groups like New Jewish
Agenda, which advocates a
two-state solution in the
Middle East. He attended a
seminar for Israeli-
Palestinian dialogue "and I
thought: this seems to be the
answer."
A Jewish acquaintance
advised Kasem to meet with
Continued on Page 20
A
lthough Sinai
Hospital is serving
people who are more
seriously ill than patients in
other hospitals in the coun-
try, it has one of the nation's
lowest mortality rates, a
new study shows.
In the greater Detioit
area, Sinai and the Univer-
sity of Michigan hospitals
were the only two acute care
facilities to rank among the
top 2 percent of 5,577
hospitals in the nation with
low mortality rates, accor-
ding to Dr. Michael Pine of
Michael Pine and Associates
health care consultants in
Chicago.
"It is a pretty clear pic-
ture. Sinai does an excep-
tional job," said Joan Pine,
spokesperson for the con-
sulting firm. "The other
Detroit area hospitals are all
average."
Pine Associates studied
the hospitals using data
from the federal Health Care
Financing Administration
for Medicare patients ad-
mitted to hospitals in 1986
and 1987. In conducting the
research, the firm con-
sidered the number of pa-
tients admitted, their
ailments — primary and
secondary —age, sex and
other health indicators.
"We took the study very
seriously," Sinai President
Robert Steinberg said. "It
points out the attention to
detail we give. The results of
the study speak well of our
care and service."
Although Sinai and other
health officials said Dr.
Pine's study makes good use
of HCFA's mortality
statistics, some hospital ad-
ministrators and health care
experts reject results of the
research. Opponents of the
study said mortality rates
are not adequate ways of
"Some hospitals
are doing a lot
better than
others."
measuring a hospital's per-
formance.
"Quality of care depends
on physicians, and physi-
cians change hospitals often.
So how can you rate a
hospital based on how many
people died there,?" said
Steve Simmons, vice presi-
dent of the Southeast
Michigan Hospital Council.
"There are limitations to
mortality studies. You can't
determine mortality as
quality of care."
Even though Pine's study
heavily weighs the variable
health factors, Simmons said
mortality rates can not take
into account all facets of il-
Continued on Page 24
CLOSE-UP
F 11 1.1.SIIELF
A wide array of authors
are scheduled to appear at this year's
Jewish Book Fair
Page 26