EDITORIAL

Alliances Of The Elite

This week's black-Jewish conference at
Michigan State University was a real at-
tempt to analyze the deteriorating state of
relations between the two groups.
A year ago, MSU was rocked by the
storm that seems to follow Nation of Islam
leader the Rev. Louis Farrakhan like a
tornado in a trailer park. In more recent
news, the Crown Heights incident has not
done a great deal to bring anyone together
in search of black-Jewish understanding.
So with this incident still fresh, it was good
to see an effort such as this week's con-
ference at MSU.
One of the conference speakers cited one
of the main difficulties accurately when he
called the alliances built between the two
groups as "alliances of the elite." We
agree. The elite in this case are typically
black and Jewish men and women who

meet and talk politely over issues they can
find as common ground.
But typically, these are the same par-
ticipants for many years. Day-to-day rela-
tions are filled with doubt and mistrust.
We still believe that the best way to under-
stand one another is to stop running away.
Understanding is perhaps easier when
black children are playing in your house
with your children. There's less conflict
when your black neighbors invite you out
to a movie. Yes, there is a real need to go
from conflict resolution to understanding
deep-seated suffering.
We fully support Prof. Barry Gross'
statement that things that were said dur-
ing the conference need to go beyond the
conference. Blacks and Jews are historical
partners. The problem is we've all
forgotten why.

A Celebration Of Hatred

One year after the reunification of Ger-
many, the specter of Nazism has reared
again. The two-week wave of violence
against foreign workers in Germany has a
familiar, sad refrain for students of Jewish
history . . . and for Germans.
Pessimistic observers, in the months
before the reunification, warned of econ-
omic turmoil and unrest that would be
brought on by the difficult merger of an af-
fluent, but economically stagnant, West
Germany with the woeful problems of the
crumbling communist state in East Ger-
many. Unfortunately, their dire predic-
tions have come true not only in Germany
but throughout newly freed Eastern
Europe.

Ethnic battles in Croatia, Soviet Georgia
and other parts of communist-dominated
Europe have proven that history can re-

peat itself. Attacks on foreign workers
throughout Germany, weak police reac-
tion, a poor economy — is this 1991 or
1935? Have we and the Europeans learned
nothing in the last 45 years since the end of
the most brutal war in the history of the
world?

Where is the outcry inside Germany?
Why are the German defense forces not
used to bolster the inadequate police?
Where is the Western media and public
reaction to a repetition of events that led to
the Holocaust?

LETTERS

Insulting Message
For Yom Kippur

Gary Rosenblatt (Sept. 13)
tells us when, on Yom Kippur,
in synagogue services we get
bored in shul, we should just
read a book (not "study
Torah," just read a book). His
advice insults all those who
come to pray, not only the
chazzan, speaking for the con-
gregation to God, and the rab-
bi, but everyone there to say
the prayers and mean them.
His counsel further sug-
gests that Jewish worship is
a mere formality, so that,
merely filling a chair suffices;
so, if he really believes that
we pray sincerely, then he in-
sults God, and, if he doesn't,
then he calls himself (and all
who take his advice) a
hypocrite.
Perhaps I misunderstand
his intent. For in not 300
words, he has issued a stunn-
ing challenge to the integri-

6

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1991

ty, authenticity, indeed, the
very existence of the syna-
gogue as a place of worship
and service to God. If that
was his intent, then he writes
with exquisite subtlety, which
would then account also for
the lower-middle-brow, third-
writing writings he recom-
mends in place of prayer and
Torah study: a wonderful, if
subtle Yom Kippur message!

Newkirk, that "a rat is a pig
is a dog is a boy."
However, she pointedly left
out another of PETA's well
known positions, that being
the lament that "while six
million Jews died in concen-
tration camps, 60 million
broiler chickens die in the
United States every year."
Quite a comparison and quite
an obvious omission.

Jacob Neusner

Joel J. Smiler

Distinguished Research Professor
of Religious Studies
University of South Florida, Tampa

Rochester

`Slanted Article'
Misses Comparison

In the blatantly slanted ar-
ticle by Assistant Editor
Elizabeth Applebaum on ani-
mal rights in the Oct. 6 edi-
tion, I noticed a glaring omis-
sion. Ms. Applebaum quoted
the PETA position expressed
by its director, Ingrid

Animal Activists
Debase Jews

Animal rights certainly is a
Jewish issue. We as Jews
must be wary of Ingrid New-
kirk, co-founder of PETA, Peo-
ple for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals. "Six million died
in concentration camps," she
told the Washington Post,
"but six billion broiler
chickens will die this year in

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LETTERS I--

slaughterhouses." Only Nazis
could come up with a more
anti-Jewish statement equat-
ing Jews with animals.
PETA has repeatedly at-
tacked Jewish methods of
preparing kosher animals
and may attempt to legislate
kosher meat out of existence.
The largest animal "rights"
group in the country, its 60
full-time Washington em-
ployees command a $7 million
annual budget and 250,000
members. I'm scared of any-
thing that size that threatens
Jews.
PETA also leads an anti-
science crusade against
medical research. Like the
Nazis, animal rights ter-
rorists have looted and
destroyed laboratories of na-
tionally supported resear-
chers such as Edward Taub
and John Orem. Instead of
burning books, they destroyed
the careers of the people that
write them.
Jews have always suffered
from anti-science and
anti-intellectual movements.
When government policy
shifted from enlightenment
to pan-Slavism in Russia,
Jews were beset by pogroms.
The abandonment of rational
thought for the mystic con-
cepts of the Volk preceded
Nazism.
Here in the United States,
an already huge anti-science
movement is promoting ani-
mal rights over racism, sex-
ism, and other "differen-
tisms." Its international
counterparts defend animal
rights over the rights of
thousands of people tortured
and jailed yearly, documented
by Amnesty International.
They are defending animal
rights over those people star-
ving because of wars in
Ethiopia and Iraq. Their $7
million budget could eradi-
cate blindness in children of
Nepal, but instead stymie
cancer and AIDS research.

The people spending time
and money bolstering animal
rights are ignoring man's own
inhumaninty to man.
Through actions against
medical research, they are
worsening the human condi-
tion. Their anti-intellectual
stand and analogies between
the food industry and the
Holocaust are despicable and
debasing to Jews.

Dr. Robert Levine

Oak Park

Loan Guarantee
Hides Problem

One issue rarely discussed
is whether loan guarantees
are really in Israel's long-
term best interest.
Israel's primary problem is
a poor economic climate
which makes loan guarantees
and foreign aid necessary.
Israel has high taxes, a
massive bureaucracy and too
much government ownership
of industry, all of which
discourage private invest-
ment and cause thousands of
talented Israelis to flee to the
U.S.
Do we show friendship by
lobbying for more aid while
ignoring the source of Israel's
problems? Although our in-
tentions are good, we may be
acting more like families of
alcoholics, who make excuses
for their kin instead of forcing
them to confront their
disease.
True friendship requires us
to struggle with these issues.

Nat Pernick

Southfield

