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.