I EDITORIAL
If It's Garbage, Keep It
Shande.
A sin, something that makes one shake
his head in sad puzzlement.
It's a shande to talk about this great
miracle of essentially evacuating
thousands upon thousands of Russian Jews
and then see what they see here in Detroit.
We go around beating our chests about
this wonderful job we've done, bringing
these emigres here and putting them up in
apartments. But few of us see just how
empty these apartments and some of these
new Americans' lives are.
A tour of the Resettlement Service
Warehouse at the Northland shopping
center taints this miracle. This is the place
where emigres may come to pick up do-
nated lamps, furniture, box springs, mat-
tresses, toys, linens, dishes and even
clothing. Don't forget that they come here
with little more than the clothing on their
backs.
But in the cavernous Southfield
warehouse, there are only a few sticks of
broken furniture, old sofas so worn and dir-
ty that they can't be recycled. There are
dishes chipped and crusted in dirt. There's
even a drinking glass with hardened
chocolate formed on the bottom. Somebody
donated this, thinking they were doing a
great favor.
There are no lamps to give. Instead,
there's a base to an old popcorn popper, a
bag full of plastic cake slicers with a busi-
ness name embossed on them for some sort
of promotion that did not work.
Three points:
First, last week The Jewish News re-
ported on the Helping Hands Project, a
Jewish Community Council Social Action
Committee effort in conjunction with
various synagogues to bring in day-to-day
living items to.the warehouse. This effort is
in critical need of your support.
The campaign asked for certain items
during designated months. Artwork was
scheduled for the month of March and
cleaning items such as pails and mops for
April. But don't limit the giving to those
items at those times.
Second, if a new item isn't to be donated,
don't give garbage. A table with peeling
wood veneer is garbage. A cracked mirror
is garbage. A sofa warn down to wood and
thread is garbage. It's enough that these
people chose to leave a country that
systematically stripped them of their re-
ligious dignity. When they walk into a
warehouse in Southfield, looking for basic
help to get their lives going, don't give
them a toaster oven with a burner out and
crusted crumbs caked on the inside.
Point three:
Large items of furniture are also des-
perately needed. How desperate? One cou-
ple in their 60s stored their belongings in
cardboard boxes and slept on two mat-
tresses on the floor. These are someone's
father, mother, grandparents. By the grace
of God, it could have been all of us.
The Resettlement Warehouse is located
in the Northland Mall in Lot E, two doors
from the Kerby's Koney Island. Its hours
are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, noon to 2
p.m., or by appointment. Large items can
be picked up at your door. The phone
number is 559-4566.
No more embarrassment. This commun-
ity is known around the world for its Jew-
ish community support. But a dirty glass
with hardened chocolate inside?
This is a shande.
Black Tuesday
Tuesday was a tragic day for Israel,
which experienced physical, political and
psychological assaults from friend and foe
alike.
A terrorist bomb in Buenos Aires
brought death and destruction. The five-
story Israeli Embassy was demolished, an-
other painful reminder of violent hatred
Israel endures, far removed from its
disputed borders. Israeli Defense Minister
Moshe Arens said the attack was "part of a
terrorist campaign which is being waged
against Israel by all kinds of Muslim holy
warriors and Palestinian terrorists." That
same day, in Tel Aviv, a Palestinian man
went on a rampage with a knife and sword,
killing at least two people and wounding
19 more on a busy street. Such violence has
escalated dramatically since the peace
talks began.
And at the White House on Tuesday
afternoon, President Bush rejected a com-
promise from several key Congressional
leaders, effectively killing the loan guar-
antee Israel had requested to help pay for
the housing of hundreds of thousands of
immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
No blood was shed, but the wound was
6
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1992
deep, marking a watershed of bitterness
between Jerusalem and its most powerful
ally.
One practical result of the loan guar-
antee rejection is that Israel will be looking
to the American Jewish community and its
already-strapped fund-raising organiza-
tions to help bear the burden of absorption
expenses. But on a political and diplomatic
level, the Israelis may become even less
willing to take risks in the slow-moving
peace process.
The Bush administration is hoping to
portray Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir as the man to blame for the loan
guarantee failure, for his refusal to agree
to the administration condition of a set-
tlement freeze. But Mr. Shamir's chief po-
litical rival, Labor Party leader Yitzhak
Rabin, told a UJA Young Leadership Con-
ference in Washington this week that he
would not be willing to withdraw to Israel's
pre-1967 borders.
Does the administration fail to under-
stand that Israelis are united on their right
to continue building settlements for securi-
ty reasons and to keep east and west
Jerusalem one city?
Dry Bones
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LETTERS
From Where Will
The Cure Come?
In the March 6 article writ-
ten by Rabbi Harold Schul-
weis entitled "Does Judaism
Speak to the Heart?" we find
that the remedy for the great
destruction that is now plagu-
ing the Jewish population of
America is to turn inwardly
to the so-called Jewish home
and the illness will be cured.
From where will this cure
arrive? From two career
parents who have no time and
who have little or no Jewish
education at all? From the
home environment where not
one Jewish book can be found
and if there is one it is never
opened? Where the Sabbath
day is not observed and if it
is, only to the barest
minimum?
No, Rabbi Schulweis, your
conclusion is wrong. The
modern "Jewish" home will
not be the answer to a dwindl-
ing practicing or interested
Jew. The changes that you
want to see will come about
when the Jewish people begin
to train their children from
the moment of birth about
what it means to be a "Jew."
When the child sees a
Jewish environment at home,
a kosher home, a home that is
filled with Jewish customs on
a daily basis, where the words
of the rIbrah are practiced and
not only preached in the few
times a year that the child is
in synagogue, then we may
begin to find a solution.
h"--
Until then, do not put the
onus on parents whose own
parents neglected their upbr-
inging and who may now ex-
pect the grandchildren to be
Jewish.
Vivienne S. Feigelman
Southfield
Buchanan And
Duke Repudiated
The presidential election
process in which we are cur-
rently participating should be
the confirmation of the
American form of democracy
in which citizens of diverse
races, religions, ethnicities
and political viewpoints have
the opportunity to debate
substantive issues of impor-
tance to our society.
As Americans concerned
about the continuation of our
democratic form of govern-
ment, we seek leadership
which will address important
concerns and offer sound solu-
tions to the issues which con-
front us. Candidates such as
Patrick Buchanan and David
Duke who offer simplistic
answers which tend to pit
groups against each other are
the antithesis of the
American system of
democracy.
Mark Schlussel, Paul D.
Borman, David Jaffe, Gerald
Cook, Alan Zemmol, Robert I.
Brown, Michael Eizelman,
Howard Zoller, Melvin
Raznick, Vickie Goldbaum,
Rabbi Ernst Conrad.