OPINION
The Torah Foreshadows
Saddam Hussein's Downfall
GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
Sitting in shul
last Shabbat
morning, with
my thoughts on
friends under
missile attack in
Israel, I read the
Torah portion,
looking for insights into the
current crisis.
Judaism instructs that the
words of the weekly Torah
portion have parallels to our
own times, and I recalled
how, on the very day that
Anwar Sadat flew to Israel
in November 1977 to begin
an historic peace process, the
Torah reading of the day de-
scribed the dramatic reunion
between Jacob and his
feared warrior brother Esau,
the father of the Arab
nation.
Sure enough, this past
Shabbat's Torah reading did
not disappoint, offering
eternal lessons as relevant
as the day's headlines.
The portion was Bo, Ex-
odus, Chapter 10-13, verse
16, and it is the dramatic
story of Moses going to the
Egyptian Pharaoh, at God's
instruction, and demanding
that the enslaved Jewish
people be freed. Pharaoh,
whose heart has been
hardened by God, refuses,
until the last of the ten
plagues, the killing of the
firstborn, changes his mind.
The last section of the
Torah portion deals with the
preparations the Israelites
were to make for the first
Passover seder, with God's
command that in every ge-
neration, parents shall teach
their children of the
miracles that God perform-
ed.
My thoughts turned to the
eternal struggle of the Jew-
In our generation,
Amalek is
personified by
Saddam Hussein,
who wages war
against Israel by
attacking helpless
civilians.
ish people — their quest to
be allowed to practice their
faith in peace while tyrants
sought their destruction.
Today's modern Pharaoh,
Saddam. Hussein, wages war
against Israel in a way that
is horribly unique, even for a
Jewish state that has en-
dured five wars in four
THE JEWISH NEWS
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
JANUARY 19 1991 / 3 SHEVAT 5751
decades. His heart hardened
by delusions of grandeur as
the supreme leader of the
Arab cause, he sends mis-
siles aimed not at troops but
at the center of Israel's
civilian population. His is
not a dispute over borders or
territory but over the very
existence of a Jewish state.
His enemy is the Jewish
people.
In the Bible, Pharaoh's
refusal to free the Jews,
after repeated warnings, br-
ings plagues and suffering
upon him and his people that
grow increasingly severe. In
Iraq, Saddam subjects his
people to wave after numb-
ing wave of bombing attacks
from an array of forces out of
a sense of stubborn pride.
"How long will thou refuse
to humble thyself before
Me?" Moses asks Pharaoh, in
the name of God.
In the end, of course,
Pharaoh is humbled. Im-
mune to the suffering of his
people, he responds only
when the plagues hit home
and his own firstborn son is
struck down.
Those with faith in an
eternal Jewish people can
take heart in the words of
the Torah and the example
of a tyrant brought low for
his evil deeds. Pharaoh, for
all his might and power, is
ALAN HITSKY
INA FRIEDMAN
Associate Editor
Th. .4.1.A Nese
J
r e u gr=irtc.ro
TP.li h... at By dawn Thursday, the
Thursday morning.. word commentatora were even
sad
Pass., .n5'ng
warning against euphoria.
wom rer.tmod
friends that the war in the
Cult- had had begun-
until further
stay at
"&t.o.. They seemed ready
...
The streets remain,
deserted, and no sirens went
eaanghto do ao. and caution
off. Whoever was steeped in
aimed the watchword
sweet slumber remained ra=4,,...tho day
that ".5* —
Pm-.
But by
on Thursday
just before 3 sr, w
whenthe
it rinjoly di d
d begi n to seem
Civil Defense authorities
that the alli ed op....tion to
mounted o e the radio
liberate Kuwai t
rat
.'r"d
their 'scaled gas-mask kith
muter all.
rd keep them dose at hand.
Israelis, who had felt deep
Br t h
that only
Tirs.:71
en = gO‘ t b h* er lYs 'Ler
wo
' b 171": ;mt., the si
tuation
ewarc
Still, a xnse d sleepy calm
prevailed
nt on i n the
1.-Pd
dead of night, its broad.
rasters looking 000l and
P.*
f.sional . they brought the
rc e r
sor:e
d I nikil? to sue-
P , mo d gratitude that, at
least far now, America and
herIliad coalition had done
tb
thei
A re
on the eorfier
mood
on
Pas t 24.
Doctors Change
Sinai's Status
KIMBERLY UFTON
A
t Sinai Hospital. Dr.
Hugh Beckman is
viewed as the idealist
who made a difference.
Doctors say
mustered
the forces reaponaible for
significantly boosting the
censm count to record highs
at the hospital, which has
been lasing about 5750,000 a
month.
Administrators and board
rnembers suggest he single-
handedly mi.. the hospital
from merging with the
iktroit Medical Center, a
move many feared would
result in selling some of
Ltiler=e Wic1114 i5 . "ng
'lie had the conviction
that the physicians could
make tm impact." whd Dr.
medicine. "We all wanted
the hmpital to survive. but -
tiolscely came forward before
Hugh. He believes nothing
can stop us He refuses to
thinkno and refuses to
think closure:*
Yet when Sinai Hospital's
beard of trustees this week
voted unanimously to
discontinue discussions that
started in August with the
DNIC and focus on operating
an independent facility in
Detroit. Dr. Beckman, who
trained at Sinai and has
been on idatTaince 1956. was
reticent about taking credit.
Dr. Beckman .id all he
did was make a few phone
calls to the right people —
habilitation chair Dr. Joe
Hone, Dr. Rubenfire and
other department heads.
From the phone calls atrne
a meeting on Dec. 15, at
which time Meters formed a
audition to save the 35-year.
old facility. Their aim to
keep the hospital alive and
in Jew:, hands in the midst
of speculation that a buyout
lry DNIC could have resulted
Co-aimed on Page 22
We were aware that
despite two consecutive
nights of missile attacks on
Tel Aviv, no one had been
seriously injured. The rabbi
told us that we are witness-
ing a miracle no less dra-
matic than the biblical Ex-
odus and that it is our duty
to tell our children the story
of these wonders.
Looking ahead to this
Shabbat's Torah portion,
Beshalach, we will read of
the attack by Amalek, the
epitome of Israel's eternal
enemy, on the civilian
population of the children of
Israel, specifically the old,
the feeble, the women and
children.
Continued on Page 12
Keeping Up With The News
And The War In The Middle East
Attack Brings
Israel Relief
public reassuring news
American plan. were ,
par,tly dealing with the
missiles po ised to strike at
Israel airfields in
destroyed; the lowly Jews,
after centuries of slavery,
are freed and given a
homeland. And it is that
homeland they defend so
fiercely today, thousands of
years later.
In synagogue last Shabbat,
the rabbi led us in prayers,
as is done each week of the
year, for the welfare of the
American government, the
state of Israel, and the young
men and women of the
Israeli army. This time,
though, we read the words
more carefully and with
tears in our eyes. And we
recited Psalm 81, which calls
on God to take revenge on
Israel's enemies who seek
her destruction.
I
t took Herculean effort to
get a misleading headline
on last week's front page
of The Jewish News.
Operation Desert Storm
began Jan. 16, just minutes
after the Jan. 18 newspaper
was completed and sent to
the printer. Hours later, Ina
Friedman filed a story from
Israel, updating her article
on Page 24 which described
the mood in Israel before the
United Nations coalition
opened its attack on Saddam
Hussein's forces in Iraq and
Kuwait.
When the updated story
reached The Jewish News
Thursday morning, the
editors and publishers were
faced with a dilemma: what
do we do? We wanted
Friday's newspaper to be as
up-to-date as possible. This
is a continuing struggle for a
weekly newspaper,
magnified in times of war
when events are fluid and
can change in the flash of a
guided missile.
A call to our printer
revealed that the special
"Zero Hour" section on the
Middle East developments,
led off by Ina Friedman's ar-
ticle, had already been
printed. We could substitute
the new copy and re-print
21,000 copies of eight pages,
but it would cost hundreds of
dollars and possibly half-a-
day in time. It might jeopar-
dize timely delivery to the
post office for Friday
distribution.
So we made a decision. We
would leave the section
alone. We would use the new
material on Page 1.
We removed a full-page
advertisement, clearing
Page 2 for Phil Jacobs' time-
ly article on the views of
local Jews who have been
traditionally liberal and an-
ti-war, as well as the story
that had been on Page 1 by
Elizabeth Applebaum and
Alan Hitsky on Detroiters'
concerns in advance of the
coalition attack.
We placed the new story on
Page 1 with the headline:
"Attack Brings Israel
Relief."
We raced 22 miles across
town to get the new pages to
the printer on Detroit's east
side. And we prayed, hoping
the paper would get out on
time. Little did we know
that in just a few short hours
our prayers would be over
life and death.
What a shock Thursday
evening. Maybe we were
lulled by the optimistic
assessments from the
U.S. military in Riyadh.
Continued on Page 12
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
7