EDITORIAL

Jewish Southfield's Future

For the past three editions The Jewish
News has taken an inside out look at
Southfield and the role the Jewish com-
munity has played and hopefully will play
in it.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to under-
stand a great deal of the information that
we learned. There are those who have
commented they could have told us what
we learned without our writing a single
word. Some readers told us that by writing
these stories we did nothing but draw at-
tention to the city's Jewish role, and we
could wind up doing harm.
Any suspicion or attention given an area
usually means the Jews will sense trouble
and run, another reader said.
We sincerely hope that this is not the
case. What we have learned more than
anything else is that there is a Jewish
future in Southfield, an important, vital
one. It's going to be up to the Jewish com-
munity, however, to solidify that future.
The Detroit Jewish community is known
throughout the country for quick reactions
during an . emergency. Time and time
again, this newspaper has noted this re-
sponse, be it for the needs of the Soviet
emigres or the support of the armed forces
allied against Iraq. If this Jewish commun-
ity wants it to be true, then Southfield will
continue to be a Jewish address.
If the Jewish community is concerned
about the future of Southfield's public
schools, we suggest there is more than
enough academic spirit and strength
within the community to invest in the
school system's future.
If the city's Jewish community is aging,
we suggest efforts continue between the
Neighborhood Project and the real estate
community to show off what Southfield has
to offer to Jewish home buyers.

The bottom line is whether or not the
Jewish community really wants all of this
to work. We feel this community is that
powerful, that dynamic that it can make
Southfield happen for Jews.
One community official wondered aloud
why there are so many pieces of the Jewish
community littered throughout Detroit. He
talked about churches that once were syn-
agogues, neighborhoods boarded up with
traces of Jewish community left behind.
And he asked if this was going to be the
scenario for Southfield.
The answer is not easy. But clearly, it's
up to the Jews in Southfield. They can
leave or they can stay.
It's easy to run, and maybe it's hard to
stay. Staying might mean getting involved
in task force committees, and sitting down
in living rooms with your neighbors. Stay-
ing might mean not listening to what your
friends have to say. Staying might mean
making a statement with your child's edu-
cation. All of this is a risk. But it's a risk
that can work.
What are we teaching our children if we
constantly run? We're teaching them that
it's okay to leave our synagogues, our
rooted heritage behind. We're teaching
them that instead of standing and fighting
for better public school education, let's let
someone else worry about it. If it doesn't
work, then it's not our problem.
One of these days our community is going
to run out of running room. The only learn-
ing pattern has been not to integrate, not
to get involved. But one day, there will be
no other place to go.
If leaving Southfield is a consideration
for you, consider staying. There is ab-
solutely so much in Southfield for all of us,
and it can be there for our children and
grandchildren as well.

Danger In The Ex-USSR

This past weekend, the impossible
happened. Exactly 74 years and almost
seven weeks after Vladimir Lenin installed
a communist government in Moscow, the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased
to be. There is neither a union nor a soviet
nor socialism. Perhaps this is what Karl
Marx meant when he spoke of the
"withering away of the state" as the final
stage of communism.

Just what will fill this power vacuum has
yet to be clearly defined. A
"commonwealth" is the term being used.
Those two syllables have a certain comfor-
ting ring. It smacks of the Commonwealth
of Nations, that last vestige of the ven-
erable British Empire that links 47 in-
dependent, self-governing nations.

But from its start, the British Com-
monwealth was a centrifugal force for
nations with some modicum of stability.
The Commonwealth of Independent States
being formed from the wreckage of the old
USSR links republics that are going
through a wildly centripetal stage. They

6

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1991

are careening away from each other, cut-
ting off pipelines, food shipments, and
medical supplies between each other. For
now, it may be every republic for itself;
next week, it may be every man, woman
and child for themselves.
And therein lies the fear of whatever is
supplanting the USSR. Instead of a
"commonwealth," there may be anarchy;
instead of a difficult passage from state so-
cialism to some half-way enlightened form
of capitalism, there may be capitalism at
its very worst: an Adam Smith brand of
laissez-faire, totally free-market economy
in which greed, survival and base instincts
run rampant.
That is precisely why efforts to help the
3.5 million Jews still in the USSR to
emigrate must intensify. At the very
minimum, efforts to ship food and medical
supplies to Jews must redouble. Economies
in the ex-Soviet empire may crumble; star-
vation may become commonplace. As they
do, anti-Semitism may be unleashed that
will echo the worst of the Kremlin's poli-
cies.

LETTERS

Remembering
Pearl Harbor

I am writing regarding the
letter in The Jewish News of
Dec. 13 by Mr. Glaser, concer-
ning Dec. 7, 1941.
Although you may not have
been able to locate a living
Jewish veteran from this area
who served in Hawaii on that
historic day, it should be
noted that Petty Officer Se-
cond Class Harold E. Shiff-
man was among the Navy
men killed on the U.S.S.
Arizona at Pearl Harbor. He
was from Detroit and a
graduate of Central High
School. His photograph is in-
cluded on the memorial wall
at the Department of Michi-
gan Jewish War Veterans
building, Southfield.

Jonathan D. Hyams
Detroit

Sending Two
Mixed Messages

I agree with the premise of
Carla Jean Schwartz's article,
"Sending a Mixed Message."
Parents in interfaith families
should choose one religion in
which to raise their children.
There should, accordingly, be
the observance of only one set
of holidays in that household..
I do object, however, to the
implication of her statement
that she applauds conver-
sionary families for
celebrating only one holiday.
We must all remember that a
convert to Judaism is a Jew.
A marriage between a Jew by
choice and a Jew by birth is
a marriage between two Jews.
It should come as no surprise,
therefore, that such a house-
hold practices only one
religion and one set of
holidays.
The Jewish community
wonders why the rate of con-
version has declined over the

years. Could it be that at-
titudes such as the one ex-
pressed by Ms. Schwartz and
many others like her have
contributed to that decline?
We are enjoined by our sages
to treat the Jew by choice as
a Jew and never to remind
him or her that he or she has
not always been Jewish.
Let us never forget that our
history — both ancient and
modern — is replete with ex-
amples of Jews by choice who
have helped to save the
Jewish people.

Dr. Nancy Gad-Harf
Program Director
Temple Israel

The AJCongress
And Diplomacy

The JTA report about
Jewish leaders meeting with
the Saudi ambassador (Dec. 6)
reeks of self-congratulatory
braggadocio.
It appears that leaders of
the American Jewish Con-
gress have held "high profile"
meetings with Prince Bandar,
the Saudi Arabian am-
bassador to Washington,
which one participant
described as a "break-
through." The "break-
through" was apparently the
result of four years of private
talks between the am-
bassador and the American
Jewish Congress, and the sub-
ject matter dealt with Arab-
Israeli relations .. .
What gives these dramatic
encounters an air of sur-
realism is that a press release
issued by the Saudi govern-
ment on Nov. 20 referred to
the ambassador's sessions
with "important and influen-
tial Jewish leaders" as being
aimed at persuading Israel to
freeze the settlements and to
acquiesce in the Arab inter-

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