THE JEWISH NEWS SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY THIS ISSUE 60cP Bias Incidents Jump In Michigan And U.S. ALAN HITSKY Associate Editor R eports of anti-Semitic incidents in Michigan jumped from 33 in 1988 to 57 in 1989, giving the state the sixth highest total of bias complaints in the country in the annual audit conducted by the Anti- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. Richard Lobenthal, Michigan Region director for ADL, blames the heavy in- crease in the state on neo- Nazi skinhead groups. Na- tionally, the ADL blamed skinheads for 8 percent of the 845 vandalism incidents and 587 harassment in- cidents reported, double the number attributed to skinheads in 1988. Lobenthal says a 22-year- old Auburn Hills resident has organized skinhead groups in Grand Rapids, Flint and Clio, and possibly in Gibraltar and Wyandotte. "Clearly, the neo-Nazi skinheads (in Michigan) have increased in strength significantly in the last year," Lobenthal says. Although he does not have conclusive proof, Lobenthal believes more than half the incidents in Michigan are skinhead related, based on the types of messages scrawled during an incident. Major incidents in Michigan in 1989 included: • Twenty-five car tires slashed in Ann Arbor near a Neo-Nazi skinheads, Lobenthal believes, are responsible for half the incidents in Michigan. home hosting an Israel In- dependence Day party. • An outdoor sukkah and some items inside it burned at Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park. • Swastikas appearing on the elevators at Lincoln 1990s Issues: Apathy, Emigres ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM Features Editor R obert Aronson said he expected controversy when he spoke this week before a local Jewish group. Instead, the Jewish Welfare Federation's exec- utive vice president received frequent applause and praise as he discussed issues, such as financing the resettlement of Soviet Jews and Jewish youths' lack of interest in Israel, facing the American Jewish communi- ty in the 1990s. More than 40,000 Jews will leave the Soviet Union annually in the coming years, Aronson said at the Zionist Organization of America's Einstein Lun- cheon Forum. Some 1,000 Soviet Jews are expected in Detroit this fiscal year; 250 of these have no relatives in Detroit, he said. Jewish agencies in the Detroit area already have been strained trying to deal with housing, job retraining and placement, and teaching English to the new im- migrants, Aronson said. One answer to the situa- tion may be increased cam- paigns, he said. Jewish communal leaders already are predicting a national campaign for Soviet Jewry with a $350 million goal. Jewish communities would be asked to increase by 50 percent the amount they raise for their annual local campaigns. Detroit would thus be responsible for an additional $15 million, sole- ly for the Soviet Jewry cam- paign, Aronson said. "That $15 million would be in addition to meeting our Continued on Page 22 Towers Apartments in Oak Park, a building with many Jewish senior citizens. • A car literally covered with neo-Nazi graffiti in Livonia. • Vandalism at the Moon Lake Apartments in Or- chard Lake. • The Knights of Pythias lodge in Waterford suffered $20,000 in damage July 29. Anti-Jewish slogans and Nazi swastikas were daubed on the building. • Satanic messages, "The Holocaust is alive" and "Kill JAPs" were sprayed on a storage shed at Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills in November. Lobenthal believes "it is inconceivable" that there were only 39 incidents in Michigan last year. "If you want my guess, there were more than 400." He says the strict reporting criteria used by ADL eliminates many in- cidents from being included, "but what is valid is that we use the same criteria from year to year. So the rate of increase (in the number of incidents reported) is valid. It is a very good indicator." Michigan ADL is trying to combat anti-Semitism through its World of Difference programs in more than 30 area school districts. The program for middle and high school students will be expanded this year to the elementary grades with the completion of a new study guide. ADL nationally is considering a similar pro- gram for college campuses, which recorded a 30 percent increase in incidents last year. The local ADL has also created a consortium of police agencies in metropolitan Detroit, bring- ing together officers who deal with skinheads and hate crimes to share infor- mation. "There was an officer in Auburn Hills who had a whole file on skinheads, and the teen officer in neighbor- ing Rochester didn't know him," Lobenthal says. A tip from the Auburn Hills officer led to an arrest Continued on Page 22 JANUARY 19, 1990 / 22 TEVET 5750 CLOSE-UP CRAIG TERKOWITZ Rabbi kiln Steinsaltz and Random H0//se aim JOr a mass market with a nay English edition.