EDITORIAL

Cousins Of Desperation

For three days last week, the news
reports carried riveting, though tragic
details of a disgruntled former postal
employee's deadly rage and the defeat of a
Nazi's bid for the Louisiana governor's
mansion.
It's important to recognize that the Jew-
ish Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit led an effort to obtain co-signatures
from across the racial, economic, religious
and political spectrum to condemn David
Duke and his candidacy.
Here on the same petition are Jew, Chal-
dean, black and Arab. Members of these
groups don't always see eye-to-eye. Yet here,
in the common backdrop of condemning
out-and-out hate, names like Jessica
Daher of the American Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee and Sam Yono
of the Chaldean Federation of America are
on the same list as the Council's Executive
Director David Gad-Harf. We commend the
Council's effort, and we can only hope that
nationally, similar efforts among civil-
thinking people have been launched.
There is, however, another effort that
needs our careful attention. In some ways
the Royal Oak Post Office shooting is a dis-
tant cousin to the rise of a David Duke.
Here, we learn, was a disgruntled former
postal worker, Thomas Paul Mcllvane, who
tried unsuccessfully through arbitration to
get his job back. The Royal Oak Post Office,
we also learn, was having more than its
share of problems in the area of personnel
management. Employees were under
tremendous stress to perform under
tedious time deadlines.
Here was one of its own snapping under
the pressure. But it just wasn't the

pressure of the post office. It's another in-
dication of the pressure the middle class is
facing when all goes wrong, when personal
worth is measured in one's job, and when
you are told your job — your worth — is no
longer needed.
Several factors fit in here. Of course,
we've placed them under the umbrella of
the recession. But with the recession come
unemployment, wage and hiring freezes,
less saving and more debt. While the coun-
try still clamors in an unwieldy debt pic-
ture, the scene inside the walls of Ameri-
can homes is often one of quiet desperation.

When everything a person has come to
believe in isn't working for him, a place
where he can cast his lot of anger is in the
voting booth. Not that there's any justifica-
tion for voting for a hatemonger, but if
there's any time that's ripe for someone
like Mr. Duke to make a run for office, then
our country's worst of times are his best of
times. This is especially true for the middle
part of our society where this recession
seems to be hitting the hardest.
Thomas Paul Mcllvane's sick rage might
have been tinged with other problems in
his life. But he's not the only one out there
who is hurting. Our hope is that people will
take heart and not vent their anger against
their fellow man with a gun or against
their nation with a David Duke.
President Bush's "kinder, gentler
nation" is in need of a firm hand and a
direction that will tell us everything is go-
ing to be all right or better yet, show us
that everything is going to be all right. If it
doesn't happen soon, we'll have more
bloodshed to clean up, be it the result of
the body politic or the desperate.

LETTERS

Book Covered
Detroit Events

I of course read with great
interest Philip Slomovitz's
comments (Nov. 8) regarding
my book, Harmony and
Dissonance. Mr. Slomovitz
played a major role in that
history and his remarks
therefore carry double
importance.
I would like to respond to
only three points in Mr.
Slomovitz's commentary. He
noted that "there is a rich
Detroit Zionist history" but,
in his view, it "does not
emerge sufficiently" in the
book. No one knows more
about that rich history than
Mr. Slomovitz; indeed, he
shaped a good deal of it.
Harmony and Dissonance
contains a chapter on Zionism
in each of its four parts. The
longest of those chapters is
the one in the final part.
Since the book is about all

6

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1991

aspects of the Jewish popula-
tion, I could only include a
portion of that "rich history"
of Detroit Zionism. It was my
intention to reflect the pro-
portional support and popular
importance of that movement
and others.
Apropos of this subject, Mr.
Slomovitz wrote that
Hadassah also received too
little mention. The book is
not a history of Hadassah, but
I paid considerable attention
to the movement, including
for example, recognition of
the Wetsman sisters ("Sally"
Davidson and Fannie Saul-
son), who, along with Jennie
Gordon, Miriam Hershman
and others, met Hadassah's
founder Henrietta Szold in
Detroit and then founded the
Detroit chapter. There are
Hadassah photographs in the
book and discussion of their
accomplishments in the
chapters on Zionism and on
Jewish women in Detroit.

Finally, Mr. Slomovitz
wrote that "the work does not
indicate that Congregation
Shaarey Zedek was the first
and only (large synagogue) to
enroll the entire membership
as affiliated Zionists." On
pages 273-274 of Harmony
and Dissonance, the story of
that fateful April 28, 1943
meeting at which all 812 con-
gregants of Shaarey Zedek
identified themselves as a
totally Zionist congregation is
told in some detail.

Sidney M. Bolkosky
Professor of History
University of Michigan — Dearborn

Different Reaction
To Michigan Daily

Your articles (Nov. 1) about
the frightening Holocaust
denial ad in the Michigan
Daily failed to point out that
by Sunday evening, a forum
was held at the Residential
College in East Quad to

LETTERS

discuss the ad and the so-
called "revisionists."
While the ad brought
several thousand Jews and
non-Jews together in concern
and anguish, the Sunday
evening meeting was in-
itiated by Hank Greenspan
and Sid Bolkosky and drew
some 60 Jewish and non-
Jewish students and
faculty .. .
Each of the speakers offered
information about who the
"revisionists" are and what
their horrible literature
means for Jews and non-Jews.
Those who attended asked
questions, exchanged ideas
and then heard the editor and
assistant editor of the Daily
defend their printing of the
ad.
Bolkosky accused the two
editors of irresponsible and
childish behavior. He rejected
the excuse that different ads
offend different people. Green-
span and Bolkosky focused
their attention on the
psychological and historical
significance and danger of
Holocaust denial.
Those who attended this
forum felt better informed.
There is certainly reason to
be worried about such ads
and such irresponsibility on
the part of Jewish student
editors. But Bolksoky and
Greenspan at least moved
quickly and intelligently to
address this neo-Nazi danger.

Abe Pasternak
Southfield

Family Service
Not Unsympathetic

I applaud Phil Jacobs on
bringing the issue of the im-
pact of the recession on the
middle class to the attention
of your readers (Nov. 15).
Jewish Family Service is par-
ticularly aware of this issue
because of the many families
and individuals we have

assisted through this
frightening experience. We
help on average 220 people a
month in this program and
distribute over $200,000 per
year in cash and food cer-
tificates, a small amount corn-
pared to the needs in our
community.
I decided to write as I was
concerned by the portrayal of
the agency as a harsh and un-
sympathetic place to come to
when one is in need of help.
Jewish Family Service has
limited funds to work with
and therefore, by policy, must
assist individuals to identify
other resources and utilize
whatever entitlements they
have first, before community
funds are expended. We are
concerned about the dignity
of the individual and his or
her right to self-determi-
nation.
Our role is to help people
help themselves by realis-
tically identifying and evalu-
ating their options and mak-
ing informed decisions. Part
of this process is helping them
to understand what assist-
ance they can expect from the
agency and what our limita-
tions are. Our staff are
dedicated and highly trained
individuals who know com-
munity resources and what it
means to need help.
Our preference is that in-
dividuals make decisions that
are best for them and their
families. The experience of
having to ask for help of any
kind is humbling and difficult
enough. We have no interest
in seeing people humiliated
by "the system" or losing
their homes.
The agency strives to be a
resource for the whole com-
munity. Financial assistance
and emotional support during
hard times are only two of the
many excellent services
which our agency offers.

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