SECOND CLASS
THE JEWISH NEWS
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
JANUARY 25, 1991 / 10 SHEVAT 5751
Community To Rally On Sunday
In Support Of Israel And U.S.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
and PHIL JACOBS
D
etroit's Jewish Fed-
eration has hastily
organized a rally to
show community support for
Israel and the U.S. govern-
ment.
The 2 p.m. Sunday gather-
ing, to be held at Congrega-
tion Shaarey Zedek, "will be
a rally of few speeches,"
Federation Executive Vice
President Robert Aronson
said. "This is more of an op-
portunity to come together;
the speakers are less impor-
tant than the assembly of
people."
Federation will offer free bus
service to the rally from the
Maple/Drake JCC and the
Oak Park JCC. Busses will
run from 1 to 2 p.m. to the ral-
ly and will return to the
centers from 4 to 5 p.m.
Included in the day's
events will be the first of two
phonathons, with a second
set for Feb. 3, reflecting the
Federation's stepped-up
efforts to secure pledges
made to the Allied Jewish
Campaign and Operation
Exodus. Neither the time
nor location of the
phonathons will be revealed
because of security concerns.
The Campaign has thus
far collected $19 million of
its $28.5 million in pledges.
Federation has been asked
to transmit roughly $14
million to the United Jewish
Appeal by the end of March.
Here And In Israel
Night Brings Terror
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
and PHIL JACOBS
T
hey are thousands of
miles and time zones
apart. One is in
Jerusalem, the other in
Southfield. But for both
Phyllis Koenigsberg and
Channa Greenfield, the
terror comes at night.
Though the threat of Iraqi
missiles is pervasive, after-
noons in Israel are not
without their curious nor-
malcy. The buses run, stores
are open, restaurants serve
spicy falafal and men and
women are out on the street,
always with their gas
masks.
"But when night falls we
all get frightened," says
Mrs. Koenigsberg of Oak
Park, who is staying for
several weeks with family in
Jerusalem. "I know one
woman who goes to bed with
her hearing aid on. We listen
for every sound."
Mrs. Koenigsberg, who
arrived earlier this month in
Israel for her grandson's
brit, first heard the mourn-
ful wail of the sirens as the
family was finishing
Shabbat dinner last Friday.
The family ran to the
home's "sealed room," made
ready for a chemical attack.
The windows had been taped
to prevent glass from shat-
tering, and keyholes were
covered to stop gas from
creeping in. The necessities
were all there: a radio, a
first-aid kit, bottled water
and a flashlight.
After they closed the door,
the family placed wet towels
at the bottom, another
precaution against gas.
Then they waited and
prayed.
"I have never been so
moved in my life as when my
grandchildren, 4 and 6 years
old, were saying tehillim
(prayers) in that sealed room
on Friday night," she said.
It is prayer and the sound
of her mother's voice that
also keeps Mrs. Greenfield
going when she hears news
of what is happening near
her brother's home in
Rechovot, just outside Tel
Aviv.
Mrs. Greenfield's mother,
a Holocaust survivor, is wor-
ried that Saddam Hussein's
intent is identical to the
terror she experienced some
50 years ago.
"My mother was crying to
me on the phone," Mrs.
Greenfield says. "The bombs
and the sirens bring World
War II back to her. I'm wor-
ried. I'm very saddened that
things like this can still
happen in this world. This is
Hitler all over again. He
holds the world in his hand
and he's shaking it up."
Former Detroiter Bernard
Epel and his wife and two
small children live in
Herzliya, a Tel Aviv suburb.
Mr. Epel often hears the Ira-
qi missiles landing in Tel
Aviv.
The unpredictability of the
attacks are maddening, Mr.
Epel says. "The worst part is
the tension and the waiting.
Everyone is always waiting,
which means a great deal of
anxiety."
But for that moment, at
least, the waiting was over.
At 3 p.m. last Tuesday, Mr.
Epel was compelled to cut
the interview short.
"Wait — that's them," he
exclaimed suddenly. The air
raid sirens had just sounded.
"Sorry, got to go."
Hours later the siren was
silenced, the Iraqi Scuds
thwarted by Patriot mis-
siles. Hersh and Diane
Schaefer put their gas masks
down and prepared a pot of
coffee. It was midnight in
Jerusalem.
"People are tense," says
Mr. Schaefer, a former
Detroiter and Michigan
State University graduate.
"This is like a war of
nerves."
Gila Natan says she feels
her mother's steely nerves
coming through to her in
Southfield all the way from
Petach Tikvah.
"My mother is the one who
is always saying that she
has faith in Hashem (God),"
Mrs. Natan says. "And she
transfers that faith and
strength to me." El
Detroit's effort is part of a
national UJA emergency
cash drive to bring in $400
million. The funds are re-
quired for Soviet immi-
grants who continue to pour
into Israel and need housing,
medical care and job train-
ing. From Jan. 17-20 alone,
when Iraq launched its first
two missile attacks on
Israel, 1,719 Soviet Jews
were brought in for reset-
tlement.
"The Israeli government is
completely absorbed" with
the war effort, explained
1991 Campaign Co-chairman
Larry Jackier. "It can't ad-
dress social welfare needs.
That's the part we can do.
We have to respond to our
brothers and sisters in Israel
by reaching into our pocket-
books."
Mr. Aronson said security
will be provided for Sunday's
rally. He added that the
Jewish community needs to
remain calm no matter what
happens in the Middle East.
He said Jewish communal
activities should continue
without a sense of fear.
State of Israel Bonds also
has announced an emergen-
cy campaign to secure $100
million in bond capital, both
new purchases and outstan-
ding commitments, during
the next two weeks. The
campaign will include a
number of drives in the
Detroit area.
Discussing the special
campaign, Meir Rosenne,
president of the Bonds
organization, said that
Israel's increased need for
military preparedness, com-
bined with the cost of resettl-
ing Soviet immigrants and a
loss in tourism, has taken a
heavy financial toll on the
country.
The Israel Program Center
is coordinating information
about volunteer oppor-
tunities in Israel. Workers
are needed in Israeli
hospitals, schools and kib-
butzim, often to fill places
left by soldiers gearing up
Continued on Page 22
PERSIAN GULF CRISIS
❑ Can Israel afford to strike back? Can
she afford not to?
❑ Will the strengthened U.S.-Israel
alliance last beyond the battlefield?
❑ The view from the sealed room:
first-hand accounts from Jerusalem.
❑ The Arab equation: a setback for the
Palestinians.
❑ How lies and myths led us to war:
an analysis.
❑ Plus, articles on Detroit's Jewish
community and the Gulf war.