EDITORIAL
Opting For More Solid Ground
At Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
So many times, we heard that Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah's finances were held
together by "chicken wire and chewing
gum" and help from the Federation. So the
news that Yeshiva Beth Yehudah was
planning teacher layoffs and an increase in
tuition can be taken in different ways.
For the teachers who were dismissed, the
news was not so good. Even with an accep-
table severance, a person's life's work is
difficult to quantify with money. The
Yeshiva board, however, did what it could
for the teachers under extremely difficult
circumstances.
A tuition increase, no matter how small,
how equitable, is still a tuition increase.
Multiplied by the number of children in a
family, it is still a difficult move.
Pain is sometimes necessary when over-
coming a major hurdle. Facing the struggle
of its life, and a possibility of more than $1
million in debt, the Yeshiva is looking at
survival.
If we believe that every Jewish child is
entitled to a Jewish education, then we
must also insist that Jewish families main-
tain responsibility for their children's edu-
cation. Somehow, someway, families have
to be responsible for the lifeblood of their
school. It's not the school's responsibility
alone to provide for the family. In the
longer term, the community's leadership
must rearrange its Allied Jewish Cam-
paign allocation priorities to provide addi-
tional assistance to all Jewish schools.
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„ AND SOME
NOVEMBEIZ,
Pt-eAS-r!"
41
It's difficult and it hurts. But cost-
cutting, tuition increases and staff reduc-
tions are the unfortunate reality of the
1990s. To pretend that money isn't tight is
to do more long-term damage.
The Jewish News has reported over the
weeks that the Yeshiva was in a dangerous
slide. It appears as if its board has dug in
its heels. No matter how painful this up-
coming year, it's to the Yeshiva's credit
that it recognized the necessity to move
forward, discarding the chicken wire and
chewing gum and opting for more solid
ground.
To The Brink Again
With Saddam Hussein
Monday's resolution of the latest crisis
between Iraq and the United Nations was a
sham and a disgrace. After Iraq had
stymied UN inspectors for several weeks, it
was allowed to determine the composition
of an inspection team.
Saddam Hussein took the UN to the
brink — and it was the UN that blinked.
The scenario for the showdown at the
Agricultural Ministry in Baghdad mir-
rored Saddam Hussein's scheming since
the cease-fire began: First, pretend to
adhere to the cease-fire terms; next, draw a
line in the sand forbidding complete com-
pliance with those terms; finally, allow UN
inspections, but just a bit more on Iraq's
terms than before.
In addition to repeatedly trying to evade
UN inspectors, Baghdad has waged an
economic blockage against the Kurds in
northern Iraq, attacked the Shiites in the
south, and refused to join negotiations on
the Kuwait border.
Allowing inspectors into the Agriculture
Ministry does not address other violations
of the cease-fire, nor does it assure that
future inspections will not be impeded. To
hopefully persuade Iraq of the folly of its
ways, the following actions should be
undertaken to address each of its violations
of the cease-fire agreement:
• Iraq's Air Force, which has resumed
flights of fixed-wing aircraft, should be
grounded, forcefully if necessary.
• The UN should use arms to protect its
personnel in Iraq.
• The Iraqi who killed a UN employee
Dry Bones
should be turned over for trial to the nation
where the victim had citizenship.
• Economic sanctions should be tighten-
ed, and the UN should patrol Jordan's
border with Iraq, where most of the sanc-
tion infractions occur.
The implicit promise of the Gulf War was
that it would oust Saddam Hussein. New
initiatives against Iraq should carry no
such promise. Saddam has proved himself
too durable for that. But the screws should
be tightened on him in the only way he can
understand — with military muscle — in
the hope that he finally realizes that the
world will not countenance an outlaw
nation in its midst.
The world should also be put on notice
that, if Iraq sends Scuds toward Tel Aviv,
as it did during the Gulf War, Israel will
probably not exhibit the same restraint as
it did when the Allies promised to van-
quish the foe. The new "peacenik"
government of Yitzhak Rabin will almost
surely respond to new Scuds with Israeli
jets. If it does, Arab nations will (unofficial-
ly) cheer from the sidelines, eager to see
Saddam Hussein toppled and his military
apparatus a threat to them no more.
Ironically, given the new mood regarding
an Arab-Israeli peace, Iraqi attacks on
Israel may backfire. Instead of further
isolating the Jewish state from its
neighbors, incoming Scuds may, for once,
give Israel and its Arab neighbors a com-
mon enemy and a common purpose that
transcends real estate or ideology.
((
LETTERS
Where Is Love
For Fellow Jews?
I read Susan Tawil's (July
17) letter regarding Blu
Greenberg with some con-
cern. Ms. Tawil appears to
have continued her letter a
couple of paragraphs too far.
One can certainly unders-
tand that Ms. Tawil does not
consider Blu Greenberg to be
representative of Ms. Tawil's
position. And one might not
get a lot of opposition to the
statement that Blu
Greenberg does not represent
"mainstream Orthodox
thought."
But was that not enough to
say? Having expressed her
own opinion relative to
whether Ms. Greenberg is fit
to be her representative, why
did Ms. Tawil feel compelled
to take a cheap, broad-brush
shot at anybody whom she
does not consider to be
"sincere Orthodox Jews"?
Note that one need not only
be Orthodox, but "sincere" (a
value judgment I am sure Ms.
Tawil is willing to supply on
an individual basis) as well.
It is certainly easier to
understand, given this type of
gratuitous verbal violence,
why Satmar and Lubavitch,
Sephardi and Ashkenazi, and
other "sincere Orthodox
Jews" feel such a wonderful
warmth toward one another.
I believe that the spirit of our
sages who not only preached,
but practiced, love for all of
their fellow Jews, is missing
here.
When one has the ability to
reach out to other Jews and,
through love and understand-
ing, educate them as to why
one position is better than
another, then that is the path
which should be taken before
anyone's character or sinceri-
ty is questioned.
I agree with Ms. Tawil that
the integrity of our belief has
been important in keeping us
together. But it also appears,
from the voluminous-7-
literature which our people\''
have produced (women as well .
as men), that we have also
been sustained because we
are more like the tree which
bends in the wind than that
which opposes it.
We have adapted our ways
countless times to account for
culture, dress (ask any Chasid
— pick your sect), time, place,
1
and situation.
Such flexibility has not re- (j- -
quired, and does not require,
demeaning of the Torah. But
lack of it may, in fact, lead to
demeaning the very values
which Ms. Tawil appears to
find so dear.
Leonard I. Wanetik
West Bloomfield
Why Some
And Not All?
0 <
Managing Editor Phil
Jacobs wrote July 24 that all c‘
local candidates in West
Bloomfield's election ought to
be covered by The Jewish
News — whether the can-
didates are Jewish or not.
I wonder whether Mr.
Jacobs believes even
Democrats should be includ-
ed. Twice this year The
Jewish News has published
election pieces about West
Bloomfield's local candidates.
Twice this year the
Democratic candidates, =-
myself and two others — all
Jewish by the way — were
Continued on Page 10