EDITORIAL

Community Council Forum
Is More Than A Meeting

Jeannie Weiner, president of the Jewish
Community Council, is concerned that at-
tendance at Tuesday's annual meeting will
be light. At many organizational annual
meetings, awards are presented, speeches
are made, and we all go home happy and
sometimes bored.
But this year, the Council is hitting a hot
topic with a gutsy town meeting format.
Hard, front-line discussion on the issues of
racism, black and Jewish relations and the
suburbs' relationship with Detroit will be
discussed.
One would think that this would be
enough to draw a large crowd. Unfor-
tunately, as Ms. Weiner has said, attitudes
may keep people away. Attitudes like:
"What happens in Detroit isn't my prob-
lem. I live here in the suburbs. What
happens below Eight Mile Road is a Detroit
problem. Anyway, who goes into Detroit
anymore? I don't feel safe there."
Translation: Detroit is a predominately

black city. As a white Jew, I don't feel safe
there, and I don't have any use for it.
Besides, what happens in Detroit doesn't
influence my life.
In light of what happened in Los Angeles,
Tuesday is a perfect time and place to come
and talk about these concerns, these fears.
If we don't come to face them head on, then
how do we face ourselves and, more impor-
tantly, our children head on?
Who knows better about deep-seated pre-
judices than Jews? We, therefore, have a
responsibility to be more aware, more con-
cerned.
Until now, the Jewish Community Coun-
cil has gone into the various segments of
ethnic Detroit, participated in programs,
hosted meetings, built alliances. Now the
Council is offering an opportunity for all of
us to meet an issue head on, to talk about
it, to hurt from it, and to grow with it. That
is, if it's important enough for us. Based on
what we all saw in L.A., it should be.

Picking An Old Fight

In Israel it was a major controversy; in
the U.S. there was hardly any mention of
it. What are we to make of State Depart-
ment spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler's
endorsement of an old United Nations
resolution supporting the right of Middle
East refugees to go back to their homes?
Israel claims that the 1948 resolution is a
code for dismantling the Jewish state, and
political leaders of all stripes condemned it
and criticized the U.S. for endorsing such a
resolution in the midst of the peace process.
They are fearful that the Tutwiler state-
ment was a deliberate signal of a possible
change in the U.S. position on Palestinian
refugees which could allow millions of Pa-
lestinians around the world to lay claim to
pre-1948 homes in Jaffa, Lod and Haifa as
well as Gaza.
Jewish groups in Washington, though,
sought to downplay the statement; many
felt that Ms. Tutwiler "misspoke" (to

revive a Nixon-era phrase) and was simply
unaware of the political and emotional
ramifications of her remarks, which came
in response to a routine question at a State
Department briefing.
The incident is revealing. If it was inten-
tional, the Tutwiler statement was ill-
timed and preposterous. Israel will simply
never agree to the right of return for Pales-
tinians scattered around the world, and for
the U.S. to raise the issue now is foolhardy.
But even giving the Bush administra-
tion the benefit of the doubt, and sug-
gesting that the statement was a blunder,
Ms. Tutwiler's remarks, and subsequent
criticism of "distortions and misinterpreta-
tions" in the Israeli media, indicate a high
degree of insensitivity in Washington.
Doesn't anyone there believe that the best
thing to do after you put your foot in your
mouth is remove it?

The Courage of Insight

The conviction in Stuttgart on Monday of
80-year-old Josef Schwam.mberger was
assumed to be the last verdict in Germany
against an important Nazi officer: Old-age
is depleting their ranks. But the 11-month
trial demonstrated that, 47 years after the
end of World War II, a newly united Ger-
many has the courage to look at its
darkest, most evil years, to mete out justice
— and, to hopefully learn, as a people and a
nation, so such horrors do not happen
again.
In the meantime, the appeal in
Jerusalem of Josef Demjanjuk — who was
convicted for being "Ivan the Terrible," a

6

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 1992

guard who killed tens of thousands of Jews
at Treblinka — has become embroiled in
claims that the Israeli and American
governments have tried the wrong man.
Mr. Demjanjuk's sons have obtained
Soviet records that indicate their father
was a guard at Sobibor, not Treblinka, and
that the real "Ivan the Terrible" was nam-
ed Ivan Marchenko.
We do not know if these assertions are
credible. But if they are, Israeli and
American authorities should have the
same courage to investigate their misdeeds
as Germany has had while looking at its
nefarious past.

Dry Bones

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CONFER

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LETTERS

Taking Care
Of Our Own

Our Jewish community is
by no means a wealthy com-
munity. We are blessed with
a number of philanthropic in-
dividuals whose neshamos
guide them along the path of
extensive charitable pursuits.
With all this generosity at
hand, it is disturbing to
realize that our own local in-
stitutions are suffering from
desperate lack of funds.
Yet, when any one of
roughly a dozen out-of-state
yeshivot hold their annual
parlor meetings in our corn-
munity, they are able to raise
an average of $25,000 of
Detroit's money to support
those outside causes.
There is a well-known
Talmudic dictum based on a
Ibrah verse, which requires
members of a community to
care for their own poor before
undertaking to care for the
poor from across the border.
I welcome anyone who can
do so to justify sending
several hundred thousand
dollars out of state, when
clearly the need is very real
right here at home. I am over-
whelmed by what appears to
be community-sanctioned in-
stitutional suicide.
Desperate measures are
needed here to save us from
self-destructing.

Pinchus Franks
Southfield

Supervision
At Home For Aged

We commend Mr. Arnold
Budin for his honesty and
openness in the May 15 arti-
cle announcing his new posi-

tion as executive director of
the Jewish Home for Aged.
We cannot help but wonder4
where the president, board of
directors and professional,/
staff of JHA have been during
the preceding years in which
these homes were allowed to
deteriorate to their present-
state.
How has our Jewish com-
munity allowed this to hap
pen? According to the article,
at least one individua
reacted to the "rancid odors
and untidiness" at Borman
Hall.
Mr. Budin advocates
regular monitoring by family,
members of patients at the
nursing homes. What abould
patients with no family or
those with elderly spouses
who cannot make frequent
visits? Isn't this the respon-
sibility of a professional staff?
Who else is really capable of
recognizing the onset of life- ,
threatening situations?
The state violations on ,
these homes are public
documents available at Bor-
man Hall, Prentis Manor and
Citizens for Better Care.
Members of our group have
toured inner-city and subur!"I
ban nursing homes which
have far less serious viola-
tions. We have visited Jewish
homes for the aged in Seattle,
Los Angeles and Atlanta, and

our homes lag far behind.
We hope that Mr. Budin will
help our community achieve
the same high standards '
we've seen elsewhere.

Nancy Cohen,
Florence Glen,4
Elaine Fertel,
Elaine Weingardei
Concerned Citizens
for the Jewish Elderly