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NEW YEAR GREETINGS
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Michigan Region
United Synagogue of
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6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 310
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301
(313) 642-4890
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Alan J. Tichnor
International
President
Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein
Exec. Vice-President/
Chief Exec. Officer
For information regarding Conservative Congregations,
please contact the United Synagogue office.
Babies
Don't Thrive
in
Smoke-filled
Wombs
MARTIN AND SUE
WEISS
AND FAMILY
OF
MODERN
BAKERY
When You're
Pregnant,
Don't Smoke!
13735 W. 9 Mile Road - Oak Park
and 26060 Greenfield
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WISH ALL THEIR FRIENDS
AND CUSTOMERS A
HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR
South Africa's Suzman
Feted by B'nai B'rith
Helen Suzman has been a leading Jewish
liberal in the fight against apartheid in
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South Africa.
Washington Correspondent
Adat Shalom - Farmington Hills
Ahavas Israel - Grand Rapids
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses - West Bloomfield
Beth Achim - Southfield
Beth El - Midland
Beth Israel - Ann Arbor
Beth Israel - Flint
Beth Shalom - Oak Park
B'nai Israel - Saginaw
B'nai Moshe - West Bloomfield
Congregation of Moses - Kalamazoo
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Shaarey Zedek - East Lansing
Shaarey Zedek - Southfield
Shaarey Zedek-B'nai Israel - West Bloomfield
Temple Benjamin - Mount Pleasant
Temple Israel - Bay City
Carol Tarica
Administrator
Michigan Region
H
JAMES D. BESSER
Member Congregations
Sharlene Ungar
President
Michigan Region
I
THIS SPACE CONTRIBUTED BY THE PUBLISHER
A
veteran opponent of
South Africa's now-
deteriorating system
of apartheid was in Wash-
ington recently to accept an
award from an international
Jewish organization.
Along the way, Helen
Suzman, a member of the
South African parliament
for 37 years, offered some
glimpses of how the Jewish
community has fared during
the dramatic reign of Presi-
dent F. W. de Klerk, who has
largely dismantled the
system of rigid racial dis-
crimination that made
South Africa a pariah in the
world of nations.
Ms. Suzman was honored
during the 36th biennial
convention of B'nai B'rith
International for her long
years of service to the cause
of South African freedom.
"I'm delighted and very
honored to have this award,"
she said in an interview. "I
am not known as a worker
for Jewish causes. I have
been devoting myself to the
wider aspects of politics in
South Africa, and more par-
ticularly to fighting the race
discrimination that the
previous government en-
forced so ruthlessly. So this
award has special meaning
for me and for the Jewish
community in, South
Africa."
Ms. Suzman, the South
African-born daughter of a
Lithuanian Jew, entered
Parliament in 1952, repre-
senting an affluent district
outside Johannesburg with a
large Jewish population. In
1977, she helped create the
Progressive Federal Party
and served as its only
parliamentary represent-
ative. She retired from the
legislative body in 1989,
when the reforms of Presi-
dent de Klerk began to
reshape the political land-
scape in South Africa.
"Helen Suzman played an
absolutely vital role in the
early years of the anti-
apartheid movement," said
Diana Aviv, associate ex-
ecutive vice-chair of the Na-
tional Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council
and a specialist on South
Africa. "For years, she was
Helen Suzman:
Many Jews are nervous.
out there on her own. She
cast a stark figure in
parliament — being a
woman, being Jewish, being
consistently liberal."
In the early days of the an-
ti-apartheid movement, Ms.')
Suzman said, the South
African Jewish community)
was reluctant to speak otit,---1
against the racial separation <1
laws — a reticence that she
publicly criticized at the
time.
At the same time, anti-
Semitism was common as
the white establishment
"I've had a lot of
angry letters over
the years — all of
them anti-Semitic, : n
of course."
Helen Suzman
reacted to the growing
threat to their rule.
"I've had a lot of angry
letters over the years — all
of them anti-Semitic, of
course," she said. "And I
have had various phone calls')
in the dark watches of the
night, threatening to come
and get me. Again, many -
calls were very anti-Semitic.
But I have a way of dealing
with that. I have a whistle
on the other phone, and
blow it very hard. I think I
generally knock the ear-
drums out of the caller.
seldom hear the same voice
twice."
Despite the violence that
continues to wrack South
Africa, she suggested that