UP FRONT

Local Activists Form Coalition
For Peace In The Middle East

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Features Editor

T

heir voices have been
ignored for too long,
peace activists in the
Detroit area say.

"We've seen racists and
fascists have their platforms
heard while the peace ac-
tivists were overlooked," adds
Ken Knoppow, a member of
New Jewish Agenda. "So we
decided to form an umbrella
organization and to be one
coherent voice for all those
who identify with the Israeli
peace movement."
The result is the Greater
Detroit Jewish Coalition for
Peace in the Middle East, re-
cently established to pro-
mote the views of the Israeli
peace movement and to
educate the local community
that "pro-Israel does not
mean only support for the
current Israeli govern-

ment," according to coalition
co-founder Sherri King, a
member of the Labor Zionist
Alliance.
The coalition includes rep-
resentatives of the Labor
Zionist Alliance, Americans
for a Progressive Israel,
Workmen's Circle, New

"Pro-Israel does
not mean only
support for the
current Israeli
government."

Jewish Agenda and Friends
of Peace Now.
The group supports:
• Recognition of the State
of Israel by the Arab states
and the Palestinian people.
• Recognition by the State
of Israel of the Palestinian
people's right to national
self-determination, in-
cluding the possibility of an

independent Palestinian
state.
• Exchange of land for
peace, with final boundaries
to be determined through
negotiations.
• Protection of both sides'
security needs. Security ar-
rangements must be includ-
ed in a peace treaty.
• Negotiations with all
parties to the conflict willing
to participate, including the
PLO. Each participant in
negotiations must choose the
path of negotiation over
violence, because it is not
possible to resolve this con-
flict through military
means.
Many participants in the
new coalition believe the key
word in describing their
organization is dialogue.
Through their upcoming
programs and forums, they
hope to further support for
negotiations between Israel

Enjoying the Chanukah program Dec. 17 at Temple Israel are, front
row, Courtney Bloom and Karll Gartrell, and seated, Robin and Jennifer
Bloom, Heather Gartrell and Dana Gersten. Separate parties for Soviet
and American Jews in the Family to Family program and Temple Israel
youth combined for a concert by Gemini.

Continued on Page 16

ROUND UP

Now Hear This:
Telephone Shiur

Lessons of the Chofetz
Chaim, who believed that
shmiras halashon, guarding
one's tongue, was the
primary means of obtaining
God's mercy and help, are
now available on a 24-hour
telephone hotline.
Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz
of Aish Hatorah in
Jerusalem hosts the lessons,
which rim about 10 minutes
and change daily. The
lessons focus on understan-
ding shmiras halashon,
learning how to observe it
and how speaking well of
one's fellow man can affect
everyday life.
The number in English is
(718) 436-5166 and in
Yiddish (718) 436-5656.

In Search Of The
Ultimate Chicken

Miffiintown, Pa. — Empire
Kosher Foods this month
sent its first shipment of
Hamilton breed poultry
chicks to Japan.
Bred at the new Hamilton
Farms, where scientists are
conducting extensive genetic
research, the chicks are the
latest step in Empire's sear-
ch for "the ultimate
chicken."
Empire spokesmen said
the company hopes to de-

velop at Hamilton Farms,
which opened last year, a
genetic strain of chicken ex-
pressly designed for the
kosher poultry industry.
They predicted the new
chicken could appear in the
next four years, but did not
give an eggs-xact date.

Rabbi Finds Home
At Catholic School

What's a nice Jewish boy
doing at a Catholic univer-
sity? He's the Jewish
chaplain and lecturer in
theology if he's Rabbi
Harold White.
Rabbi White, who served
from 1962-68 at Congrega-
tion Beth Israel in Ann Ar-
bor, just began his 23rd year
at Washington, D.C.'s
Georgetown University, the
only Catholic university
with a full-time rabbi as
chaplain.

Rabbi No Effect
On Mixed Couples

New York — Whether a
rabbi officiates at an inter-
marriage makes no
difference in the Jewish
practice of the new couple,
according to a recent study
by Egon Mayer, professor of
sociology at Brooklyn Col-
lege.

Seventy-two percent of the
intermarried couples Egon
interviewed said they did
not believe a rabbi's refusal
to marry them was a reason
to distance themselves from
Judaism.
Most of those interviewed
who said a rabbi refused
their first request to officiate
found another rabbi to do so.
About one-third of the
couples said their first re-
quest was refused.

A Bridge Of Doves
And Colored Paper

Ma'alot, Israel (WZPS) —
More than 200 Jewish,
Christian, Druze and Arab
children recently built a
bridge that consisted of
doves and colored strips of
paper.
Participants in "The
Bridge Project," a multi-
cultural program coor-
dinated by two California
art teachers to teach about
different cultures, built a
bridge of friendship in
Ma'alot, which together
with neighboring village
Tarshiha has the only joint
Jewish-Arab local council in
Israel. They made crafts
from other countries and
wrote wishes on colored
strips of paper, then tied
them to branches of olive
trees.

A California art teacher helps an
Arab boy make a hamsah.

For his Israeli craft, each
child created a hamsah, a
talisman against the evil
eye, of his own hand. The
final prints were bound
together to form the"Carpet
of Peace," which will be
displayed at a museum in
California.

Soviets Sponsor
Jewish Meeting

For the first time in more
than 50 years, the Soviet
Union this week is hosting a
conference on Jewish
history. The event is spon-
sored by the Jewish
Historical Society of
Moscow, the Soviet
Sociological Association of

the Academy of Science and
the Association for Mass
Creativity.
Participants at the event,
titled "The Historical Des-
tiny of Jews in Russia: The
Beginning of Dialogue," in-
clude Jewish Theological
Seminary Chancellor Dr.
Ismar Schorsch and JTS
history professor Dr. David
Fishman.
In addition to par-
ticipating in the conference,
Dr. Schorsch gave a sermon
during Dec. 24 services at
the Moscow Synagogue.

Jewish School
Opens In Poland

A group of 14 Polish
Jewish preschoolers recently
became the first to enroll in
a newly opened Jewish
kindergarten in Warsaw.
The children, the first to
enroll in a Jewish
kindergarten in more than
40 years, sang Jewish songs
and learned the Aleph Bet as
class began.
The project is being funded
by the Ronald S. Lauder
Foundation, which also has
expressed interest in reviv-
ing the Polish Yiddish
theater and has plans to help
preserve Auschwitz.

Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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