I EDITORIAL

Guardians Of The Dream

Dayenu.
Enough.
How many times through the course of
history do Jews come face-to-face with
questions involving Israel? Each and every
day the world, through the media,
scrutinizes Israel's settlement policy,
Israel's request for loan guarantees, Israel
and the intifada, Israel's defense and
Israel's very right to exist.
There are other issues we as Jews face as
well, just 50 years after the Holocaust.
There are few better times in world history
for Jews to practice their religion freely
and succeed in the Diaspora. But with that
success and freedom comes an astounding
intermarriage rate, and news that Jewish
assimilation into Judeo-Christian society
carries its own sort of baggage.
In times past, that baggage was often
protected by the 11th commandment of the
American Jewish community, the one that
says, "Thou shalt not air thy dirty laun-
dry." Unfortunately, if society has trouble
with the recession, so do we Jews. If
alcoholism and substance abuse grow in
society, so will it grow in the Jewish com-
munity. If family violence is a national
issue, it's also our issue. And one would
only wish that AIDS was somehow anti-
Semitic.
Today marks a very special day for this
newspaper. It is the milestone of a dream
that Philip Slomovitz brought to this com-
munity at a time when Hitler massacred a
generation, and Palestine was a controver-
sial hope.
As part of the commemoration of 50 years
of The Jewish News, we have assembled a
special issue which includes reproductions
of front pages. Read them closely. Whether
it's 1942 or 1992, the basic story about
Israel hasn't changed. It still has to fight

every single day for its existence. We as
Jews wake up daily holding onto a re-
ligious and cultural identity that we ab-
solutely need to hand to our children.
That's what the dream of this newspaper
— passed from the Slomovitz family to
publisher Charles Buerger and associate
publisher Arthur Horwitz is all about.
We realize that we're the guardian of an
important part of the Detroit Jewish corn-
munity's very fabric. Fifty years from now,
with God's help, someone else will hold the
responsibility of that guardianship. And no
matter what the publisher's name is, there
are issues that will always remain the
same. There is Israel in the world view and
day-to-day life of our Jewish community
both in Detroit and in America.
For 50 years, we've been a mirror. Our
readers see themselves in this newspaper.
Our newspaper is for and about our
readers. No matter if you are 21 or 91, you
are part of this paper, this tradition. And
together we realize that the guardianship
we talk about isn't exclusive to ink and
paper and photographs. It's the tzedakah
we give to those among us who are hurting,
the Jewish education we give to our chil-
dren, the housing we give our seniors, the
opportunity to serve and to succeed. All of
this you'll find through the years in the
pages of this newspaper. It's here, because
of the work and conviction of this Jewish
community.
Yes, we're the guardians, but we're here
because you're here.
Dayenu is a double-edged word. There's
the side that says, "Enough already; when
will the pain of Israel and the Jewish peo-
ple end?" The other side says, "Enough;
now let us move on together with hope."
That's the message we carried on March
27, 1942. That's the message we carry now.

For Pollard, Justice
Is Again Delayed

Despite last week's denial of convicted
spy Jonathan Pollard's appeal, his sup-
porters have taken heart in the dissenting
opinion of federal Judge Stephen Williams,
who termed Mr. Pollard's life sentence a
"fundamental miscarriage of justice re-
quiring relief."
Mr. Pollard, who passed American
military secrets to Israel, broke the law.
There is no overlooking this important
fact, and Mr. Pollard admits his guilt.
Moreover, legal guilt implies a debt to
society that can only be erased by some
measure of punishment for Mr. Pollard.
But the available evidence appears to
support Mr. Pollard's contention that the
federal government reneged on its word —
agreed to by Mr. Pollard in return for his
guilty plea — not to seek the maximum jail
term possible under the law, or to pros-
ecute Anne Pollard, his former wife.
That is the issue here, and it must not be
lost in the acrimonious debate over
whether Mr. Pollard is, or is not, a genuine

6

FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1992

Zionist hero. Only legal arguments count
in the appeal process.
The villain here clearly seems to be ex-
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger,
who wrote a still-classified memo to the
sentencing judge that urged the toughest of
penalties for Mr. Pollard, one, according to
sources, that fit what Mr. Weinberger
termed "the magnitude of the treason
committed?'
In fact, however, Mr. Pollard was never
charged with treason. His crime was to spy
for a friendly nation, Israel.
A 2-1 verdict may be better than being on
the losing end of a 3-0 shut out. Further-
more, the technical nature of the majority
opinion is also cause for optimism.
But Mr. Pollard remains incarcerated,
and his fate now rests with the Supreme
Court. Injustice has been heaped upon Mr.
Pollard, and the Jewish community owes
him its support during the next round of
his fight to have a trial.

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OPINION hi—

Extensive Input
In Education Decision

DR. CONRAD GILES

T

he healthy debate over
our Jewish commun-
ity's . school system
demonstrates the importance
we attach to the Jewish
education of our children.
Sadly, the group with the
most at stake is the one least
able to express an opinion;
the elementary school
youngsters who will use the
services of our schools and
who will shape the communi-
ty of tomorrow.
Their education — not the
structure that has been in
place to deliver that educa-
tion — is the highest priority.
Our children deserve the best
education possible, and our
community and education
agency will have to make
changes to see that they get
it.
What I find distressing is
the amount of heat — not
light — generated by some
critics of the community pro-
cess that is going into reex-
amining that education
delivery.
A former president of the
United Hebrew Schools would
have us believe (March 20)
that his agency had never
been consulted about the
drastic decline in elementary
student enrollment, or asked
to remedy the situation with
enhanced services.

Dr. Giles is past president of
the Jewish Federation and
chaired the Jewish Education
Study Committee.

He did not mention the
years of discussion that took
place between the agency and
the planning divisions of the
Jewish Federation in the hope
of improving services and
reversing the downward slide.
In response to several
points that were made, I
would like to suggest the
following:
• Community forums are
often a valuable way to assess
community needs. Federation
has held a number of them on
various topics, such as the

There were
hundreds of
meetings that
involved
individuals across
the spectrum.

most recent on assistance to
persons with disabilities.
But there are other ways to
assess needs — like the hun-
dreds of meetings on the sub-
ject of Jewish education that
have involved individuals
across the entire spectrum of
the community over the past
three years. Their input led
the Jewish Education Study
Committee to its current
recommendations.
• Anyone familiar with
Detroit Jewish history and
the creation of our organized
Jewish community knows
that Federation and its agen-
cies were founded by volun-
teers. The community man-
Continued on Page 20

