DETROIT
ADL And Videomakers
Work Out Compromise
AMY J. MEHLER
Staff Writer
S
B'nei Akiva and NCSY students rally for Israel.
B'nei Akiva Holds
Rally For Israel
AMY J. MEHLER
Staff Writer
B
'nei Akiva of Detroit
staged an outdoor ral-
ly last week in protest
of President Bush's decision
to wait 120 days before
reaching a decision regar-
ding co-signing loan guar-
antees for Israel.
Members of the religious
Zionist youth movement met
after Yom Kippur to make
signs and review their posi-
tion.
"We felt betrayed by Pres-
ident Bush," said Danny
Yolkut, 16, in 12th grade at
Akiva Hebrew Day School.
"This isn't what we're ac-
customed to hearing from
the American government.
We decided there had to be a
way to publicly show our
outrage and our support for
Israel."
Rivky Schramm, 16, a
youth leader, said it was im-
portant for the local chapter
to take a stand.
"We were all very upset
watching the news," she
said. "There are thousands
of Jews in Israel without
homes. We don't think the
U.S. government has a right
to prove a political point at
the expense of so many Jew-
ish immigrants."
David Victor, 25, a
Southfield attorney back
from a nationwide, pro-
Israel lobbying trip to Wash-
ington, D.C., commended the
group for their initiative.
"This kind of activism
makes this country great,"
said Mr. Victor, who spoke
in Washington on behalf of
the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee.
Addressing the crowd of
students from B'nei Akiva
and National Conference for
14
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1991
Synagogue Youth students
Sept. 19, Mr. Victor de-
scribed his trip and some of
his goals.
"It wasn't like we
descended at once on Capitol
Hill," said Mr. Victor, stan-
ding outside Congregation
Beth Achim in Southfield.
"We were part of a political
process. You want to get
your point across —forceful-
ly, clearly, briefly — but
with respect."
Mr. Victor met with
several local congressmen
and with Sens. Carl Levin
and Donald Reigle. The
lobbyists, he told students,
were advised to stress the
humanitarian aspect of pro-
viding loan guarantees to
Israel and to ensure that pol-
iticians understood the U.S.
government was not being
asked to loan Israel $10
billion.
"There are those in Con-
gress and even in the Senate
who still don't understand
the difference," Mr. Victor
said. "About 300,000 Soviet
Jews have come to Israel and
1 million are expected!'
Jay and Ranana Wolff, di-
rectors of the local B'nei
Akiva chapter, said the
youth movement tries to in-
still political and social ac-
tivism as well as love for
Israel.
"The rally was completely
youth inspired," said Mr.
Wolff, a former director of
B'nei Akiva in New York.
Danny Yolkut, coordinator
of educational programming
for Detroit, felt their point
was worth the half hour
spent standing in the even-
ing's chill.
"Some passersby honked
at us and some honked for
us," he said. "But at least
people saw us."
❑
uzanne Gildenberg
thought the sound of
TV at 1:30 a.m. would
lull her and 14-month-old
Melissa to sleep.
It was late, so Mrs.
Gildenberg settled herself on
the couch, propped the baby
on her lap and flipped on
Channel 4. Melissa soon
dropped off, but an
"infomercial," advertising a
series of Christian video Bi-
ble stories for children, kept
Mrs. Gildenberg wide awake
the next half hour.
"I liked most of it, but then
parts of the tape described
Jews as Christ-killers and
enemies of Jesus and the
Church," said Mrs.
Gildenberg of West Bloom-
field. "They had big noses
and beards and always wore
a tallit (prayer shawl). "
Animated Stories from the
New Testament, distributed
by the Dallas-based Family
Entertainment Network,
has responded to viewer
complaints and is coop-
erating with the Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith in revising its series
of 13 videotapes as well as
the bank of national comer-
cials that promote them.
About six Family Enter-
tainment Network ex-
ecutives met with ADL
leaders Sept. 11 in New
York to discuss the videos
and their scripts.
Stephen Griffin, chief ex-
ecutive officer of the Family
Entertainment Network,
said he and a staff of former
Walt Disney animators were
dismayed by the Jewish re-
sponse. Mr. Griffin said he
Black-Jewish Dialogue
Loses Black Chair
NOAM M.M. NEUSNER
Staff Writer
T
he black-Jewish dia-
logue group sponsored
by the American Jew-
ish Committee has lost half
its leadership.
Norman Dillard, who
served with Frank Sklarsky
as co-chairs of the group, an-
nounced he would no longer
hold the position. Mr.
Dillard, who is black, said he
could not effectively lead the
group because two active
members, Charles and
Roberta Wright, have an-
nounced that they would not
be involved this year.
"No one else has the draw-
ing power," Mr. Dillard said.
"Mr. Wright's departure
will have a strong impact."
The group, which has a
mailing list of over 60
names, is divided evenly
between black and Jewish
members. Each side elects a
co-chairman of the dialogue
group and votes on an agen-
da.
Mr. Dillard, who is respon-
sible for convening an elec-
tion of a new black co-chair,
said he could not identify
any viable candidates.
"I don't know anybody
that motivated," he said.
"We don't know who is still
involved."
The Wrights are taking a
year off from community in-
volvement to start a busi-
ness writing and selling tex-
tbooks on African-American
history. Mr. Wright was the
founder of Detroit's Museum
of African-American Histo-
ry-
The Wrights were not
available for comment.
The situation, says Mr.
Sklarsky, "calls into ques-
tion the viability of the (dia-
logue) group." Without
black leadership, dialogue
may not exist in its current
form, although other dia-
logue groups may pick up
the slack.
"This group has stopped
many times before," said
Mr. Sklarsky, who em-
phasized that the problem
was logistical, not
ideological. "The talking
won't stop."
However, AJCommittee's
group is suffering from what
Mr. Sklarsky called an in-
evitable inertia. All dialogue
groups eventually exhaust
issues, and members begin
to look beyond mere talking
to action.
"Once a dialogue has been
going for two years," said
Mr. Sklarsky, "the dialogue
members begin asking
themselves, 'What now?' "
The group tries to tackle a
variety of issues of interest
to the two communities.
Among them are the rise of
the Nation of Islam, urban
ills and current events. ❑
first received a letter in June
from a Jewish group from
Milwaukee complaining
about the portrayal of first
century Jews and Judaism.
"This brouhaha came as a
shock to us," Mr. Griffin
said. "Our intent was to
share stories of the Bible.
We've showed the tapes to
groups of Christian children
"We worked hard
not to create an
anti-Semitic
feeling, and now we
feel that's just
what did happen."
N
Stephen Griffin
and not one had a negative
reaction to Jewish people."
However, directors of the
Simon Weisenthal Center in
Los Angeles and several di-
rectors of ADL regional of-
fices, including Richard
Lobenthal in Detroit, found
fault with the Family Net-
work version of Bible stories.
"We (the ADL) saw it, and
we found it contained a
variety of anti-Semitic
stereotypes in text and in il-
lustration," said Mr. Loben-
thal, director of ADL's Mich-
igan Region.
At the request of the ADL,
Mr. Griffin sent Rabbi Leon
Klenicki, director of inter-
faith affairs for the ADL, all
nine videotapes to review.
Rabbi Klenicki spent three
days examining the mate-
rial.
"We were surprised and
concerned," said Rabbi
Klenicki, "but stressed we
didn't believe the Family
Network had an anti-
Semitic intent. We just
think they show a lack of
knowledge about first cen-
tury Jews."
Rabbi Klenicki outlined
much of what he and ADL
executives found offensive in
a letter sent in August to the
Family Network.
The rabbi pointed out his
concern for the New Testa-
ment becoming the pretext
for "theological anti-
Judaism."
"The New Testament,
compiled years after Jesus'
death, does not reflect this
reality," the rabbi said. "It
does, however, echo the con-
troversies and confronta-
tions of the compilers, the
theological clashes of Heb-
N