Window Of Opportunity
For JPM And Detroit
Good news often comes in clusters.
The dedications this week of the
Charlotte Rothstein Park spanning 1-696
and Yeshiva Beth Yehudah's Sally Allan
Alexander School for Girls in the reno-
vated B'nai Moshe building are positive,
tangible evidence that the Jewish com-
munity is committed to retaining a vibrant
presence in the north Oak Park area.
Now, the long-awaited expansion of the
Jimmy Prentis Morris Jewish Community
Center facility is a step closer to reality
with the Jewish Federation's announce-
ment this week that it will spearhead a
$3.5 million campaign to add recreational
facilities, programming and an indoor pool.
Yes, the Federation is about to launch its
Allied Jewish Campaign at a time when
charitable giving is squeezed by a weak
economy and overseas needs, particularly
relating to Soviet and Ethiopian absorp-
tion in Israel. But its willingness to under-
take a separate campaign for the JPM ex-
pansion, with assistance from United Jew-
ish Charities, demonstrates Federation's
recognition of the special "window of op-
portunity" which now exists to preserve
and enhance an area that can have deep
roots for future generations, too.
As Crown Heights Burns:
Lessons From New York
Violence by blacks against Jews last
week turned the Crown Heights section of
Brooklyn into a war zone and caused
Lubavitcher Chasidim to describe the
horror as a pogrom —a frightening image,
but all too appropriate in describing a
deliberate effort to shed Jewish blood.
The riots were precipitated when a 7-
year-old black boy was killed by a car,
driven by a Lubavitcher Chasid, that had
gone out of control. Angered by what seem-
ed to be preferential treatment of Jews —
police ordered the first ambulance on the
scene to remove the Chasidic driver, who
was being attacked by the crowd — riots
ensued and a gang of blacks that night
fatally stabbed a 29-year-old Chasidic rab-
binical student.
The riots are a tragedy on several levels,
all regrettable and most avoidable. Among
the several dimensions to this catastrophe:
• Attempts to parallel the violence bet-
ween the Lubavitch and black communities.
Such descriptions in the media and
elsewhere are simply untrue. They belie
the fact that violence was generated by
black gangs and has become decidedly anti-
Semitic. Rioters burned an Israeli flag in
front of Lubavitch headquarters. They
have chanted and carried slogans referring
to "finishing what Hitler began" and
asserting that "America is not Palestine."
As New York Mayor David Dinkins
noted, there were two tragedies in Crown
Heights: "One a tragedy because it was an
accident, the other a tragedy because it
was not."
The importance of that distinction cannot
be over-emphasized.
• The reluctance to restore law and order.
For two nights, police looked on as stores
were looted and cars burned in Crown
Heights. Dozens of citizens and officers
were injured. Mayor Dinkins made per-
sonal appearances in the community to try
to defuse the tension but it was the decision
6
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1991
to bring in 3,000 police officers that ended
the nights of violence.
• The vacuum in responsible black
leadership.
This was evidenced by the ease with
which such charlatans as Rev. Al Sharpton
and Alton Maddox have come into Crown
Heights, which is overwhelmingly black,
and stirred up trouble, blaming Jews for a
variety of social problems and demanding
vengeance.
-
• Jewish timidity regarding blacks.
The Crown Heights riots suggests that
national Jewish organizations are more
responsive and forceful when attacking an-
ti-Semitism that occurs in Eastern Europe
than in their own backyard. And while
Jewish leaders quickly denounce ethnic
slurs from neo-Nazis, they are more reluc-
tant to protest when the source is the black
community.
Adding to the layers of confusion was the
fact that Lubavitch can be difficult to work
with. There has long been tension between
Lubavitch and mainstream Jewish organ-
izations, who complain that Lubavitch in-
sists on going its own way and disdains
from taking part in community-wide ac-
tivities. Offers of assistance to Lubavitch
this week from other Jewish organizations
have been met with polite refusals.
If nothing else, this latest episode may
cause Lubavitch to rethink its self-imposed
isolation from the organized Jewish corn-
munity.
In Crown Heights this week, calls for
racial calm, bolstered by a powerful police
presence, may provide a short-term respite.
But the simmering resentment of black
residents against what they perceive as
preferential treatment for Chasidim from
police and politicians make future violence
seem inevitable. Only a sincere effort
within the Crown Heights community to
explore black and Jewish misperceptions,
in an atmosphere of mutual respect, can
prevent the next riot.
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10
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LETTERS
Communal Service
Solution Needed
Your article "Leadership
turnover concerns agencies"
(Aug. 23) was of particular in-
terest to me as I am one of the
executives who is retiring this
year. Although I am confident
that we will be replaced by
able people, there is a
problem.
I have observed that with
each passing year it is in-
creasingly difficult to recruit
qualified Jewish communal
service professionals, not on-
ly in Detroit, but also in other
cities.
Talented young Jewish
graduates no longer find the
field of Jewish communal ser-
vice a viable choice. The cost
of graduate school education
is high and scholarships and
loans that were once abun-
dant are now scarce.
In addition, the Jewish
community no longer views
employment in human ser-
vice occupations with the
same value as in the past.
The result is that Jewish
students either avoid entry
into human service profes-
sions (fields where we were
once "over-represented") or, if
they do enter the human ser-
vice field, prefer private sec-
tor jobs where the better
economic rewards help offset
the high cost of a graduate
school education.
If this trend continues,
future Jewish communal ser-
vice executives will be hard to
recruit and as a result local
Jewish communal services
will suffer.
Aware of this problem, the
Jewish Vocational Service,
more than a decade ago,
established Project JOIN.
This program recruited about
15 or 20 talented Jewish
graduate students each year
and provided them with in-
ternships in local Jewish
agencies. Many of the
students stayed on to become
Jewish communal service
professionals, others became
active volunteers and board
members of our local agen-
cies. The model clearly works,
but the program is too small
to have a major impact.
Because of the urgency of
the problem, I hope that the
Jewish community will ad-
dress the issue of providing
incentives, both tangible and
intangible, to encourage
Jewish students to enter the
field of Jewish communal ser-
vice. Since the issue is of na-
tional importance I hope it
finds its way onto the agenda
of the Council of Jewish
Federations.
While the change-over of so
many executives this year is
an unfortunate coincidence
that creates a short-term pro-
blem that will soon be
remedied, it does foreshadow
a basic problem that must be
addressed now, lest a decade
from now we find ourselves
unable to recruit qualified
executives.
Albert I. Ascher
Executive Vice-President
Jewish Vocational Service
Quakers Defend
Peace Platform
Elizabeth Applebaum's ar-
ticle, "Such Good Friends?"
(July 26) sets out to examine
the work of the American
Friends Service Committee
(AFSC) on Middle East
issues. Instead, she repeats
several old rumors, unsub-
stantiated assertions, and
half-truths circulated by long-
time critics of AFSC .. .
More important, Ms. Ap-
plebaum implies that AFSC
is one-sided in its approach to
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