SECOND CLASS

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Celebrating 50 years of growth with the Detroit Jewish Community

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THE JEWISH NEWS

SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS

MAY 8, 1992 / 5 IYAR 5752

New Max Fisher Building
Dedicated By Federation

PHIL JACOBS

Managing Editor

ast winter, Federation
executive vice presi-
dent Robert Aronson
was looking at 6735 Tele-
graph Road as a building
with potential, and he
wondered what interna-
tional community leader
Max Fisher would think.

On Sunday, with a crowd
in the parking lot braving a
cool, spring wind, Mr. Aron-
son and 200 others heard
what Mr. Fisher thought
during ceremonies
dedicating the building in
his name.

"To be honored by your
own community is the
highest tribute anyone could
achieve," said Mr. Fisher,

83. "I'll remember it all of
my life."
Mr. Fisher said there are
three motivations that have
helped him in his work. One
of the motivations, he said,
is to unite the Jewish people.
In the 1940s and '50s, he
said, there was a tremen-
dous amount of divisiveness
among Jews on issues con-
Continued on Page 30

03

0
CO

Max Fisher addresses the crowd.

.A. Riots Rock
Local Residents

LIZABETH APPLEBAUM
nd PHIL JACOBS

I

t was almost like deja vu.
Last week, Dr. Larry
Platt watched the
destruction of Los Angeles.
Stores were looted.
uildings were set afire.
Men and women were pulled
from their cars and beaten
bloody.
Twenty-five years earlier,
j he had been with his father
> when the Detroit riots
began. Determined to pro-
tect his property, Dr. Platt's
father held a gun and sat
)

j

"The worst thing
was the total loss
of ethics and
morality. We've lost
sight of our
integrity."

Dr. Larry Platt

ear the front of his store in
the inner city. The two wat-
ched as nearby businesses
were looted and buildings
were set afire.
The difference was the ex-
tent of the damage, Dr. Platt
said. The Los Angeles riots
sparked by the acquittal
of four police officers in the

Rodney King beating —
revealed more hostility,
more panic and was more
widespread than in Detroit,
said Dr. Platt, who called
last week's incident "the
great fire of 1992."
A former Detroiter who
now serves as vice chairman
of the OB-GYN department
at the UCLA School of Medi-
cine, Dr. Platt was one of
many area natives touched
by the violence in Los
Angeles.
Dr. Platt had a first-hand
view of the devastation. He
treated riot victims at
Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center.
He could smell smoke from
the hospital, located just
outside Beverly Hills. The
fires made the Los Angeles
skies "as dark as Kuwait"
during the Gulf War, he
said.
And he helped remove
Torah scrolls from his syn-
agogue for fear they would
be destroyed by rioters.
Now, as the city begins to
calm, Dr. Platt mourns.
"The worst thing was the
total loss of ethics and
morality — the beating and
the killing and the looting,
the absolute recklessness,"
he said. "We've lost sight of

Continued on Page 22

EROSION
OF FAITH?

DETROIT'S CONSERVATIVE
CONGREGATIONS ARE
BATTLING FOR SURVIVAL.

Page 24

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