THE JEWISH NEWS

SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS

SEPTEMBER 14, 1990 / 24 ELUL 5750

Archbishop Seeks Close
Jewish-Catholic Ties

PHIL JACOBS

Assistant Editor

A

t a time when world
Catholic and Jewish
leaders have come
together in condemnation of
anti-Semitism, and a time
when the head of the Vat-
ican's commission on
Catholic-Jewish relations
called anti-Semitism within
Christian thought and prac-
tice a reason to do teshuvah,
repentance, Detroit's newly
appointed Catholic ar-
chbishop, the Most Reverend
Adam J. Maida, delivered a
similar message to the
area's Jewish community.
Rev. Maida spoke last
Thursday at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek as a guest of
the Jewish Community
Council, American Jewish
Committee and Anti-
Defamation League.
The previous day in
Prague, Czechoslovakia,
Jewish and Roman Catholic
leaders from 16 nations
agreed on the need for a
major initiative to combat a
recent rise in Eastern Euro-
pean anti-Semitism. The

Archbishop Maida:
"I want to move forward
together."

four-day conference resulted
in a statement calling anti-
Semitism "a sin against God
and humanity" and that
"one cannot be authentically
Christian and engage in an-
ti-Semitism."
It has been two years since
relations between the two
faiths became strained when

Detroiter's Study
Links Crack, Stroke

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

A

s a resident in neu-
rology, Dr. Steven
Levine was intrigued
by the devastating nature of
a stroke.
"I saw there was so little
that could be done for it and
strokes were, and still are,
one of the primary causes of
death a neurologist sees,"
said Dr. Levine, 35, of
Southfield, a director with
the Center for Stroke
Research at Henry Ford
Hospital's department of
neurology.
Over the years, that in-
trigue has translated into a
career of research, part of
which will be published this
week in the New England
Journal of Medicine, the
leading publication for the
medical profession.
A study headed by Dr.
Levine confirms an associ-

ation of strokes with crack
cocaine use, based on 28
cases from Ford Hospital,
the Yale Stroke Program in
Connecticut, Columbia
Hospital in New York and
the University of Miami
Medical School.
Of those 28 patients, two
died from crack-related
stroke and a large percen-
tage of the survivors suf-
fered lasting disabilities,
such as speech problems,
weakness and numbness.
"Cocaine is probably the
most common illicit drug
associated with stroke in
this country," Dr. Levine
said. "I think cocaine-
related stroke is much more
widespread than previously
recognized. Unfortunately
the number of cases are only
going to increase as the
crack epidemic continues."
The findings, Dr. Levine
said, do not represent a

Continued on Page 26

Pope John Paul II met with
Austrian President Kurt
Waldheim, a suspected
World War II war criminal.
The strain reached a boiling
point more recently over the
relocation of a Carmelite
convent that had been estab-
lished at the Auschwitz
death camp in Poland.
Archbishop Maida, who
came to Detroit this summer
from the archdiocese in
Green Bay, Wis., arrived at
Shaarey Zedek with the pro-
verbial olive branch in hand.
Before he spoke to the au-
dience of about 200 people,
he was warmly greeted by
Shaarey Zedek's Rabbi Ir-
win Groner, who is also the
newly elected president of
the Rabbinical Assembly.
Temple Kol Ami's Rabbi
Norman T. Roman, presi-
dent of the Michigan Board
of Rabbis, also spoke in sup-
port of Jewish-Catholic rela-
tions.
The archbishop told the
audience that there were
many other places that his
busy schedule called for him
to be that particular eve-
ning. But, because he want-
ed to make an early contact
with the Jewish community,
he made a commitment to
attend. He added that he
hoped it would be the begin-
ning of a close relationship
between the two faiths.
"We have to develop a
level of trust and of friend-
ship," he said. "And with
that trust and friendship we
need to move on together."
Archbishop Maida said
dialogue needed to be cons-
tant. He said Detroit needed
Jews and Catholics allied
and strong to help solve
many of its social problems,
be it feeding the hungry or
housing the homeless. He
added that Jews and
Catholics need not sit back,
but need, instead, to show up
as leaders within Detroit.
"I keep coming back to the
word dialogue," he would
later say in an interview
with The Jewish News, "but
Jews and Catholics need to
be talking to one another on
all levels. I can't make it any
more simple than that. It's
no secret that we've had
problems in communicating
recently. But any differences
Continued on Page 16

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BLUE
MARBLES

Detroit's Sephardic community
is struggling to retain its
heritage and customs.

PAGE 28