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EDITORIAL

`Reality Check'
Needed in Community

Paul D. Borman, outgoing president of
the Jewish Community Council of Detroit,
told an audience of several hundred at
Tuesday evening's annual meeting that
the Jewish community "must face tough
questions" about its future.
We agree with Mr. Borman and we con-
gratulate him for his three years as presi-
dent of the JCCouncil. We also offer our
support to newly installed president
Jeannie Weiner.
Mr. Borman, taking on President Bush's
style of describing himself as "the presi-
dent for education," called himself the
"president for Israel" because under his
reign the group sponsored three separate
trips to Israel. He also said the Jewish
Community Council has made strides in
areas of black and Jewish relations and
black and Arab relations.

While we commend the JCCouncil's show
of solidarity with Israel, we also suggest
Ms. Weiner's job should be "president for
the reality check." Contrary to what the
JCCouncil might think, relations between
Jews and blacks in this city are at an all-
time low, reflecting the national deteriora-
tion. And before we start patting ourselves
on the back about our improving relations
with Chaldeans, we encourage the JC-
Council to not stop at an occasional cross-
cultural dinner. We encourage the JC-
Council to follow-up with long-term pro-
grams involving Jews and Chaldeans.

Let's also not forget that Chaldeans —
Christians from Iraq and Syria — do not
consider themselves Arab. The reality here
is that the •Jewish community, and the
Jewish Community Council, has few rela-
tionships with the Detroit area's Arab
community.
With the largest Arab community out-
side of the Middle East in our backyard, we
need some sort of relations. This is an Arab
community that was strong enough to boo
a touring Israeli basketball team off the
floor at the University of Michigan-
Dearborn. This is an Arab community that
does a good job of finding its way, and
stating its views, in the secular media.
Meanwhile, Jewish emigres keep coming
to Detroit needing language skills, jobs and
further acculturation. Yad Ezra's food
lines grow longer and more of the Jewish
middle class is falling through the smaller
socio-economic safety nets.
And despite not wanting to accept the
truth, many Jews are looking to move from
Southfield. Why? Because the educational
system supposedly isn't as good as it once
was. Why? Because blacks are moving in.
We are running from the same blacks with
whom Mr. Borman says we are improving
relations.
The mission now is not to run to Israel
and show solidarity. The mission now is to
take a close look at what is happening,
what is really happening, at home. A real-
ity check is truly needed.

Israel's "Friumph
In Operation Solomon

Last weekend, Israel did what it does
best: Rescue Jews in peril. Within 21
hours, 34 Israeli planes flew more than
14,000 Jews from Ethiopia. This was
almost the entire Jewish community of
that war-torn country.
"Operation Solomon," as the flawlessly
executed airlift has been dubbed by Israel,
is an undiluted triumph for the Jewish
state at a time when it sorely needs one.
In the last decade, the nation's image has
been tarnished by the war in Lebanon, by
its stance toward settlements on the West
Bank, by its handling of the intifada, and
by often-frigid or bumbling relations with
its chief ally, the United States. The Ethio-
pian rescue has brought Israel to another
of its finest hours, an hour which again af-
firms one of the central tenets of its foun-
ding 43 years ago: That somewhere on the
planet there would be a haven for a people
who have been persecuted and hounded
and vilified in too many places and for too
many generations, that this refuge would
be open to all Jews, regardless of their
country of origin or their politics or (as in
the case of the black Ethiopian Jews) their

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FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1991

color.
Indeed, as Israel's Deputy Foreign Min-
ister Benjamin Netanyahu said after last
weekend's rescue, Israel is the only coun-
try that has ever brought blacks to
freedom. Israel's reversal of African
blacks' more frequent journey into slavery
again validates that nation's highest
ethics, its compassion for Jews everywhere,
and its very raison d'etre.
Soon enough will come the problems of
absorption; for a moment, though, let us
bask in the pride of this effort.
The rescue would not have been possible,
though, without the leadership of Presi-
dent Bush, who intervened directly with E-
thiopia's acting president and made the
airlift possible. It was an example of coop-
eration between two allies, Israel and the
United States, whose countries are founded
on the principles of democracy. Too often,
of late, those allies have been squabbling
over Mideast peace efforts. Perhaps this
stunning rescue will remind Washington
and Jerusalem of their shared values and
help bridge the gap that has widened bet-
ween them.

LETTERS

The Indictment
Of The Poles

I have read Phil Jacobs' ar-
ticle which was so full of in-
sight and truth about Lech
Walesa and Poland. The let-
ters to the editor which
followed have criticized Mr.
Jacobs unjustly.
I wonder whether or not
those who wrote the unfavor-
able letters ever lived in
Poland before, during, or after
the war and the Holocaust.
Well, I did! I was born in
Poland where my family had
lived for many generations.
And I must tell you that the
Poles were instrumental in
pouring misery on me and
most of my fellow Polish Jews.
When the war started, I was
only 11 years old. By that age
I already had become used to
the ingrained hate and
discrimination that goes far
beyond the anti-Semitism
that American Jews
recognize.
Suddenly, I was thrust into
the ghettos, the labor slavery
and the concentration camps,
completely separated from
parents and family. It was six
years of hell and horror on
this earth. But, after all this,
after the liberation, I finally
was going home.
lb what? Only a handful of
Jews had managed to make it
back to my home town,
Zwolen. My mother and
almost all of my many
relatives had been carted off
to a common fate; but, at least
I had hoped to meet again
with my father and 6-year-old
brother who had been hiding
out in a nearby village.
But I found out that they
had been pointed out and
handed over to the Germans
by the Poles, probably for
some vodka or a bit of sugar.
These Poles knew my family
and knew me. They had been

our neighbors. Do you think
that they welcomed me back?
A few forlorn Jews gathered
in an old, still-standing house.
I was with them for a few
weeks, long enough for two of
us to be killed, and to find out
that Jews were being hunted
down and murdered during
pogroms taking place all over
Poland.
I left not a moment too
soon. I found out later that
the day after I fled, Poles had
surrounded the house looking
for me and had shot up the
house at random, scattering
the few who had not as yet
run off.
These neighborly Poles
thought that I had returned
to claim some property
belonging to my uncle. Had I
remained behind one more
day, I would not be here to
write this letter.
No matter the belated
apologies carried by Walesa
from the Poles; it is in no one's
power to forgive them. That
would be descrating the
memories of millions of Polish
Jews.

Sally Horwitz
New Haven, Conn.

Roundtable
Is Continuing

The May 10 issue of The
Detroit Jewish News included
an article by David Margolis
entitled "Orthodox Thinkers
Stopped Before Starting." The
article is misleading in many
ways. I am quoted in bold let-
ters that the roundtable "no
longer exits."
In fact, the roundtable does
exist, as the article goes on
to state. To enhance its status,
it has become part of the Rab-
binical Council of America,
and is now known as the RCA
Roundtable. This decision was

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