Board of Trustees withdrew
the $5,000, including the
deductible.
"This just proves what it
means to be black in America
— powerless. Twelve or 13
students were able to take
away our funding."
Mr. Hyland said he doesn't
regard Mr. Farrakhan as an-
ti-Semitic.

"If someone wants to say
Mr. Farrakhan is anti-
Jewish, that is their right.
But we believe anti-
Semitism, by definition, re-
fers to blacks. We don't
believe it only applies to
Eastern European Jews.
Blacks and Arabs are
Semitic too." ❑

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Detroit Jews Reach Out
To Minsk Community

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

T

he Detroit Jewish
community has not
forgotten its promise
to help Jews in its sister city
of Minsk preserve their
heritage.
The Soviet Jewry Com-
mittee of the Jewish Com-
munity Council is sending a
handmade parakhet (ark cur-
tain) and shulkhan (bimah
covering) to Minsk, said Lin-
da Foster, program office coor-
dinator for the JCCouncil.

The ceremonial objects,
which have both Hebrew
and Russian lettering, will
be used in Minsk's only syn-
agogue, Ms. Foster said.

The JCCouncil
hopes to give the
ark curtain and
bimah covering to
Minsk teachers
who will be
studying in London.

They were handmade in
New York and recently
delivered to Detroit.
Detroit Jews discovered
the parakhet and shulkhan
were desperately needed by
the Minsk synagogue after
Dr. Zvi Gitelman, Univer-
sity of Michigan political
science professor, made a
week-long visit to the city in
January. The synagogue,
which was once a factory, is
not wealthy and must de-
pend on other communities
for ceremonial objects.
Delivering the parakhet
and shulkhan to Minsk is a
matter of timing. A group of
Minsk teachers will arrive
in London May 27 to study
Hebrew and Judaism for 10
days, Ms. Foster said. In-
stead of mailing them to
Minsk, the Soviet Jewry
committee hopes someone
can hand deliver the objects
to the teachers who will then
carry them back to Minsk.

Dr. Gitelman, who is plan-
ning a trip to Poland around
the same time, will try to
change his plans and stop in
England. If he cannot, Ms.
Foster may ask another
traveler or just mail the
parakhet and shulkhan to
London.
Sending the ceremonial ob-
jects is just one way the
Detroit Jewish community is
reaching out to the 40,000
Jews living in Minsk.
Detroit Jews have already
committed, through the
Joint Distribution Com-
mittee, funds to help reno-
vate the synagogue, the new
cultural center building, and
cover the expense of a
summer day camp, Ms.
Foster said. The Minsk
community hopes the day
camp will lead to a perma-
nent day school.
Future Minsk projects in-
clude sending medicine,
wheelchairs and housecoats
to the handful of Jewish
residents in a nursing home.
"We're taking it a step at a
time," she said. "We don't
need to do it all at once."
While so many are leaving
the Soviet Union, the
Detroit Jewish community
has not forgotten those who
cannot go. "There are still
refuseniks in Minsk. Most of
the refusals no longer give
reasons or just give the
standard answer of state
secrets," Ms. Foster said.
"Until every Jew who wants
to go gets out, we will be
writing letters and signing
petitions to both U.S. and
Soviet authorities."
Meanwhile, "we are trying
to help create and nurture a
Jewish life within the Soviet
Union for both those who
chose to stay or those who
have to stay," she said. ❑

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