EDITORIAL

A Singer Stilled

Isaac Bashevis Singer's life was a tribute
to the possibilities of imagination, the
pleasures of fiction, the joys of Yiddish and
the broad. and enriching contours of Jewish
culture and life, both in America and east-
ern Europe.
Although Mr. Singer's craft was steeped
in Jewish myth and mysticism and was
placed in Polish shtetls and the boroughs
and apartments of New York Jews, it
transcended time and place and the
specificity of ethnicity.
It was, in fact, timeless.
"My firm belief," Mr. Singer once said,
"is that if we don't respect and worship life,
then we don't respect and love God

Himself."
The Nobel laureate's respect for life and
his love of God were apparent to his many
readers. His writings celebrated life. Yet,
he never shirked from looking into its
mysteries and its sinister darkness.
And he kept alive the peculiar vitality
and richness of Yiddish — the Mamma-
loshn — at a time when generations of
younger Americans could not tell a
mamzer from a mensch.
With Mr. Singer's death last week at the
age of 87, the world lost one of the last of its
authentic storytellers. And Jews lost yet
another link to their past and their
ancestry.

LETTERS

Hollow Victory

Exactly one year after Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait, it is fair to ask what was ac-
complished by the massive counter-
offensive that the United States-led coali-
tion launched five months later "to reverse
the Iraqi aggression."
Throughout the six-week war, President
Bush maintained that Saddam Hussein,
the one man responsible for so much
human tragedy and international in-
stability, was not the target. No one
believed him. Unfortunately, he was tell-
ing the truth.
The administration was not as truthful,
though, when it maintained that it would
put an end to Iraq's military threats to
Israel and other Mideast countries, by fin-
ding and destroying Iraqi nuclear
facilities.
Among the valuable lessons learned by
the United States as a result of the Gulf
War is that it can direct the nations of the
world, and the United Nations, and that it
has regained a pride in its military.
But there are lessons Washington failed
to learn, chiefly that the Arab world is very
different from our own. In the Arab world,
a leader can cause the deaths of 150,000 of
his soldiers, the destruction of one's society
and bring untold misery to millions of
citizens and still be perceived as a hero,
even the victor. Because Saddam Hussein
survived and is still in power.
Washington failed to learn that power
and pride is everything to an Arab leader.

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Saddam will not be weakened by economic
sanctions. They may cause starvation and
suffering to his people, but as long as he
survives, he cares not a whit how many of
his countrymen perish. Saddam does not
view Washington's hesitation to pursue
him, or his nuclear arsenal, as humane. He
sees it as a sign of weakness.
Israel, too, learned some valuable, if
painful, lessons from the experience. One
was that the United States will do what it
can to protect the Jewish state in time of
emergency; two, was that such protection
might not be enough.
Israel endured some 40 Scud missile at-
tacks on its civilian population, at the re-
quest of the United States to stay out of the
war. But that would not happen again.
Jerusalem is more convinced than ever of
the need to maintain its own security, to
develop its own anti-missile missiles that
will provide more than psychological pro-
tection for its population.
As our Foreign Correspondent Helen
Davis noted, Saddam Hussein continues to
represent a threat to the region, not least
to Israel. "He is a constant, mocking
challenge to American power and the
international will, a permanent reminder.
of Western vacillation and inconstancy."
The 30 states that stood so bravely
against Saddam Hussein earlier this year
should resolve to put Iraq out of its misery
and recognize that the task that they
began now richly deserves to be completed.

Veterans Ask
State Fair Change

The Allied Veterans Coun-
cil of Wayne County has in-
stituted a letter-writing cam-
paign regarding having the
Veteran's Memorial Monu-
ment at the State Fair
Grounds upgraded and pro-
perly maintained and having
free admission to. the
Michigan State Fair
reinstituted for veterans on
Veterans Day.
With the upcoming elec-
tions and all the positive
media attention to those
returning from the Persian
Gulf, the Council recom-
mends that we all not only
continue but also intensify ef-
forts to alert both our elected
officials and the general
public that we who have
defended this country should
be actively honored and have
our needs met, and not, as
has been the recent trend,
have our interests overlooked,
pushed aside and forgotten.

Roy F. Sproule Jr.

President, Allied Veterans Council

Holocaust Stories
Are Necessary

With respect to your recent
articles on the hidden child
survivors, those children who
were in hiding during the
Holocaust who were saved by
the actions of courageous
Jews and Christians, as well
as on the other survivors,
those who were able to escape
from the Nazis into the Soviet
Union, we wish to commend
The Jewish News for its
coverage of these largely un-
told histories of the
Holocaust.
It is essential that we con-
tinue to know and learn
about the very real and per-
sonal stories of what happen-
ed to our people during the

Holocaust. In this way, the
events of the Shoah become
more real and more
meaningful.
Hopefully by hearing the
survivors' stories, we become
more sensitive and caring
human beings and we also
become more dedicated to the
importance of remembering
and teaching the lessons of
the Holocaust.

K

Charles Slow

President, Children of
Holocaust-Survivors
Association In Michigan

Role For France
In Middle East?

"French Back Jerusalem
Palestinian Role In Talks"
(New York Times July 26):
This is the same France that
refused to allow U.S. planes to
use French airspace when the
U.S. attacked Libya, causing
the loss of two airmen.
This is the same France
that ousted NATO, causing
the U.S. and NATO to seek
new bases at a cost of millions
of dollars.
Is France the place for
American tourists to spend
their money?

Milton Rose

Farmington Hills

Ann Arbor
Memorial

We greatly appreciate the
very informative article about
the Ann Arbor Holocaust
Memorial Foundation in your
June 28 issue.
I wish to correct the article's
observation that U-M Presi-
dent James Duderstadt has
approved our selected site. In
fact, President Duderstadt
has invited our foundation to
submit a proposal to the U-M

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