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NOVI

In Pineridge Center
Novi Rd. at 10 Mile Rd.
(1-3/4 Miles south of 1-96)

348 - 9300

Sale Ends Thursday,
April 16, 1992 at 8 p.m.
NEW HOURS: Mon-Fri 10-E3
Sat 10-7 Sun 11-5

Call 348-5640

SOUTHFIELD

In F&M Plaza
Southfield Rd. at 12 Mile Rd.
(1 Mile North of I-696)

557-3344

PRIOR 5ALE5 EXCLUDED • SOME ITEMS NOT EXACTLY AS PICTURED

LEBARON CONVERTIBLE

Plonk

$

PURELY COMMENTARY

279

Owner
Baird on approved (rola. 15,000 milcs per year 111110111111/1 Wit11110 penally. 10' per 'nil,' over I5 000
CUTS5 bear nail Irar Total of Vnpnrnt fra:e nundhlu ooymen1 uudliply number oi payment, Plus

InrIndri 10`S down p"unnrn1. Retina:trim) option 5ubjefl In limrin paymciiI5. Inrludes rebate. Ash fielder Or additional details.

*AI SHUMAII * 4,1

motor sales,

CHRYSLER

Inc

Corner of Pontiac Trail & S. Commerce Rds .

WALLED LAKE

• 669-2010 •

Plymouth

I'

Never Hush-Hush
On Anti-Semitism

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

G

loomy reports is the
phrase by which the
concerns over the
vast increase of anti-
Semitism in the world in the
past few years is defined in
reported plans on issuance of
a "white paper on the preva-
lence of anti-Semitism" pro-
posed by Israeli cabinet
leadership in Jerusalem.
The very consideration of
such a white paper draws
immediate emphasis to the
endlessness of Jew baiting
and the virtual admission of
the impossibility of ever cur-
ing it. Nevertheless, the
immensity of the amount of
hate mongering in recent
years lends importance to
the renewed considerations
of actions to resist the
venom.
Disconcertion with the
concern of the growth of an-
ti-Semitism in this country
is heard in the comment by
Abraham Foxman, the
distinguished and coura-
geous director of the Anti-
Defamation League, that
"indications are that anti-
Semitism is worse today
than any time since World
War II." The Foxman com-
ment is accompanied by
many references to hatreds
and anti-Semitic acts. As he
states in Front Line, the
ADL monthly newsletter for
February 1992:

How do you qualitatively
measure anti-Semitism? By
the intensity of hate, of
violence, of hurt? All these
have been on the increase.
A year ago, could we have
imagined that a Jew would
die on the streets of New
York not because of what
he did or said, but only
because he could be iden-
tified as a Jew. But that is
exactly what happend to
Yankel Rosenbaum last
August in Crown Heights.
He was murdered in cold
blood only because he was
identifiable as a Jew.
Anti-Semitism is more
oranized today. Five or ten
years ago, most incidents
ADL documented were
perpetrated by individuals.
Now more of the hatemon-
gers are organized — rais-
ing the level of hate and the
intensity of violence —
whether they are
skinheads, members of the
Identity Church, the Ku
Klux Klan in its reincarna-
tions, or the like.

Abraham Foxman

Today, we have problems
on our nation's campuses
. . . Today, ADL is reporting
acts of crude, ugly, vulgar
anti-Semitism on campus,
the place where our future
leaders are learning the
skills to deal with society.
I recently went back to
my birthplace, Barono-
wicze, in Byelorussia. I
wanted to find a place to
say Kaddish for those in
my family who perished
there under Hitler. I could
not find a trace that they
had lived, never mind find
the place where they were
slaughtered.
How do we establish the
fact that six million died?
Where do we start? Can
you imagine telling the sur-
vivors of Auschwitz,
Treblinka, Buchenwald
and Dachau in 1945 that in
less than 50 years they and
we would have to debate
what happened to them?
Then there is the Jeffries
phenomenon — part and
parcel of the "let's debate
the truth" movement. Pro-
fessor Leonard Jeffries of
New York's City College
says, among other things,
that Jews were in large
part responsible for
slavery. He also says that
Jews, along with the Mafia,
controlled Hollywood and
jointly contrived to portray
black people negatively.
When we challenge this as
racism, some people say:
"Why don't you discuss it?"
This is Kafkaesque .. .
If someone submitted an
ad to college newspapers
under the guise of acade-
mic freedom saying that
salvery did not exist,
would there be a debate?
In this country today there

is a new level of tolerance
for intolerance. There was
a time if a public official in-
sulted someone of another
religion or ethnic group,
that official would become
a "non-person!' Today, an
individual who publicly
displayed the swastika or a
Ku Klux Klan hood, says,
"It was a childish prank,
part of my growing up."
And 700,000 people voted
for him.
There may be a measure of
curiosity in the manner in
which ADL headlined the
Foxman statements. His
summations suggest finding
new ways to deal with anti-
Semitism and he proposes
the following:
In the last several years,
ADL has had to spend
more time not in exposing,
but in cajoling and
pleading with decent peo-
ple to speak out. What
troubles us is not that a
Jeffries exists, but that
there are so few voices say-
ing that what he stands for
is racism and anti-
Semitism. What troubles us
is not that there are rap
groups who sell hate lyrics
but that hundreds of peo-
ple help to create, package,
advertise and promote this
music and none says, "This
is ugly, this is hate, this is
bigotry?'
Today 46 states have hate
crimes statutes. ADL wrote
the model. But the level of
punishment for those
crimes is not universal. We
must make sure that there
is a price to pay for hate,
for anti-Semitism . . . that
someone who commits ar-
son in the name of bigotry
will not be treated as just
another felon. We must
find new ways to deal with
this new epidemic of
anti-Semitism.
Let me introduce my per-
sonal treatment of the in-
humanities challenging us.
From the periods of hatreds
that were introduced by
Ford, Coughlin, Hitler, et al,
there was our struggle to
teach our people never to
panic into "hush-hush.
I endorse the Abraham
Foxman appeal for strength
to the ADL program. Let me
append a repetition of my
advocacy of the manner in
which to fight anti-
Semitism. Let it always be
with the courage of insisting
Never be a "sha-sha" Jew;
always be a leader in con-
demning bigotry, hatred and
anti-Semitism.

"

❑