OPINION
A Civics Lesson
From Simi Valley
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
H
oward Falls unwit-
tingly gave a civics
lesson to his
classmates last Thursday.
One of the few black
students at Birmingham
Seaholm High School, Mr.
Falls told fellow tenors at a
high school concert, "I guess
you can beat me up tonight.
Nobody will care." That's
the lesson one black student
learned from a jury in Simi
Valley, Calif.
April 30 was erev Yom
Hashoah — Holocaust Re-
membrance Day, and the
parallels between Nazi
Germany and the verdict in
the Rodney King case are
hard to miss.
I've heard several philo-
sophical debates in the wake
of the verdict and the
violence in Los Angeles,
Atlanta, San Francisco and
Seattle. Well-meaning, car-
ing persons have stated,
"Maybe we didn't have all
the facts. Maybe the jury
was given evidence we didn't
have. Maybe . . ."
Those "maybes" make me
furious.
For one of the few times in
my adult life, an issue was
open and shut. There were
no shades of gray. A
defenseless man, lying on
the ground, was mercilessly
beaten by a circle of police
officers. And a passerby
caught it with a video
camera, all 62 blows to
motorist Rodney King.
It did not matter, as some
of the officers testified, that
they believed Mr. King was
on drugs or that he had a
criminal record. Once Mr.
King was on the ground with
no weapon at hand, the offi-
cers were guilty of being
Nazi brownshirts instead of
L.A.'s "finest."
Instead of being police offi-
cers, they became judge, jury
and executioner.
First they came for the
Jews, and no one cared.
Then they came for the gyp-
sies, and no one cared .. .
Then they came for me, and
no one cared. The Rodney
King verdict frightens me as
few events in recent years
have. When they come for
me, will anyone care?
The United States has
taught me from my earliest
days in public school that
this is the land of the free,
that no one is above the law,
that all are protected by the
.
law. Based on that credo, as
a country we have lectured
the world about human
rights:
We have chastised Israel
for allegedly abusing Arabs
in the territories. We have
made the former Soviet
Union accountable for its
Jewish citizens. We have
threatened renewed warfare
against Iraq because of its
genocidal treatment of the
Kurds.
But after April 30, how can
we hold up our heads? How
dare we laugh when South
Korea — no great upholder
of civil rights — sends a
commission to Los Angeles
to investigate the ghetto
wrath unleashed against
Korean Americans?
Have we so quickly
forgotten the lessons of
1938? Of 1967? Or did we
learn the wrong lessons?
In the spring of 1968, less
than a year after the riots,
Jewish areas of northwest
The issue was open
and shut. There
were no shades of
gray.
Detroit were up for sale.
Wholesale. I remember
counting 60 For Sale signs in
front of homes in one two-
block stretch.
It was a fire sale, literally,
of tremendous proportions as
Jews and other whites sold
at any cost and ran. And
we've been running ever
since.
In the name of bettering
ourselves, we have run far-
ther and farther from the
city and its problems. At the
first sign of other minorities
in our suburban neighbor-
hoods, we run again.
Richard Lobenthal, of the
Michigan Region Anti-
Defamation League, con-
tradicted me last week. He
described West Bloomfield
as the most integrated area
in metropolitan Detroit.
After thinking about it, I
had to agree with him. There
are many minorities living
side-by-side in West Bloom-
field. But how many of them
—of us — live "together" in
West Bloomfield, in Oak
Park, in Detroit?
How many black or Chal-
dean friends do you have?
How many do I have? How
many Arab? Do we get
together? Do we invite each
other to our homes? Or do we
It can still happen in Detroit.
live nearby and refer to each
other as "those people over
there," with nothing more
than an occasional hello.
America describes itself as
a melting pot of immigrants.
My own description is beef
stew. Like a stew, America
has many groups bubbling
together in the same pot. Like
a stew, if some of the ingre-
dients burn the whole stew
tastes bad.
After the riots of 1967,
many organizations sprang
up. New Detroit, Detroit
Renaissance and many
others were going to make
something positive come
from the ashes. Many of
those organizations are still
with us, but I speculate they
haven't worked well because
we haven't worked with
them.
Too often we trot out our
leaders — our Jewish Com-
munity Council, our rabbis
— to represent us at a black,
Chaldean or Arab commun-
ity event. We send our
representatives, or a check,
but refuse to put ourselves
where our lip service leads
us.
In the wake of '67, a gen-
tile and a Jew shook the
power structure of Detroit.
Henry Ford II and Max
Fisher put their money
where their mouths were,
funding the Renaissance
Center and a revitalization
of downtown Detroit.
Without their vision, the
RenCen, Greektown, Brick-
town, Stroh River Place, the
theater district would still
be dreams instead of reality.
But reality also says there
are many in our community
— gentile and Jew — who
refuse to cross Eight Mile
Road. Reality says there are
places in our community, on
both sides of Eight Mile,
where it is unsafe to walk in
broad daylight.
Reality says that we need
another RecCen, and more
visionary leaders, to con-
tinue the revitalization of
our city. But reality also
says that unless we get in-
volved. — you and me in
some personal way — histo-
ry will repeat itself:
Kristallnacht 1938, Belle
Isle 1942, Twelfth Street
1967, Los Angeles 1992.
There is no solace that we
did not yet add to the list,
Detroit 1992.
The little consolation I
have was in the fury in my
son's voice:
"They let them off," he
hissed at me as I pulled up in
my car. "Who? What? What
are you talking about?" I
- asked.
"Those four cops," he
snarled.
There is comfort there, but
will it be enough for Howard
Falls at Seaholm High or for
ghetto kids that have just
, been taught to throw away
their civics books because
the lessons don't apply to
. them?
Only we can make the
change. ❑
When The Torah Falls
ARNOLD SLEUTELBERG
W
e had just finished
the Torah portion of
the week, we had
dressed the Torah in her fine
blue velvet coat and silver
breastplate, yad and crowns,
and were ready to put her
back in her ark. The doors of
the ark were opened and in a
flash the other Torah came
tumbling forward out of the
ark and onto the floor.
All of us in the sanctuary
were horrified. Many jumped
forward to pick up the Torah,
redress her and replace her in
the ark, along with the Torah
from which we had just read.
With trembling, we sang
Eitz Chayim Hee and then
closed the ark doors.
The congregants returned
to their seats, I returned to
the bimah. I didn't know
what to do, I didn't know
what to say. Nothing else
seemed appropriate, so I went
on with the service.
We prayed some more, all
the while terribly upset by
what had happened. Yet I had
Rabbi Sleutelberg serves
Congregation Shir Tikvah in
Troy.
no words of consolation to
give as I needed consolation
myself.
It came time for Aleynu. I
went back to the ark, opened
the doors, and as we chanted
Aleynu L'shabayach I realized
more and more that we could
not go home without in some
way addressing the deep and
disturbed feelings we all had.
I didn't know how or what to
do until a hit of inspiration
came to me.
After the Aleynu I invited
the entire congregation to
join me in a circle on the
bimah. I took out the Torah
which had fallen and asked
each person, as the Torah got
passed to them, to say silent-
ly the prayer in their own
hearts.
It took about 20 minutes for
the Torah to make its way
around the circle of con-
gregants. During that time
there was weeping, outright
crying, lots and lots of hugg-
ing, very deeply emotional
hugs and kisses of the Ibrah
and prayers on behalf of the
lbrah and our relationship to
her.
When the Torah came back
to me I stood before the- ark
Continued on Page 10
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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