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Anti-Semitism Fears

Interpreting the Anti-Defamation
League's new survey on anti-Semitism in
America (see stories on page 1) is akin to
deciding whether a glass is half empty or
half full. On balance, we see the survey's
findings as reflecting a half-full glass.

The survey found that 20 percent of those
surveyed hold strongly anti-Semitic
beliefs. Another 41 percent hold some anti-
Semitic beliefs, based on their yes-or-no re-
sponses to questions such as "Jews have a
lot of irritating faults," "Jews have too
much power in the U.S. today," and "Jews
don't care what happens to anyone other
than their own kind."

When one-in-five American adults is
found to hold strongly anti-Semitic beliefs
it is significant. But is it significant be-
cause it is a sign that Jews are a despised
minority who have much to fear, or is it
just another reflection of the many racial,
ethnic, religious and class divides that tear
at contemporary America and are already

well known?

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The truth is, American Jews are far more
visible and successful given their numbers
than are other minorities of equal size. One
example is the number of President-elect
Bill Clinton's key advisers who are Jewish.
In addition, Israel's strategic and cultural
importance to the United States has given

it a prominence far in excess to its size,

and that has also tended to reflect —
sometimes positively, sometimes not — on
American Jewry.
Despite all this attention, however, the
ADL survey also found that the "hard
core" of anti-Semites in this nation has
dropped by nine percent since it's last
survey on the subject 28 years ago. That's
progress —perhaps not enough, but pro-
gress nonetheless.
Jews have worked hard for their pro-
minence in America and we deserve all
that we have gained. But we cannot expect
all others to like and accept us just because
we want them to. Anti-Semitism is born of
a complex mix of psychological, economic
and theological factors and it will always
be present in the U.S. and the world —

regardless of how Jews act, or in what
numbers they exist (witness the situa-
tion in Germany).
The U.S. remains as welcoming a nation

for Jews as has any country that has ever
existed in the Diaspora. And one of the
comforting results of the ADL study is that
the more educated people are, the more
tolerant they are of others. We must
always be vigilant when it comes to anti-
Semitism, but there is no cause to become
rattled by undue fears. Education is the
tool and increased tolerance is the goal.

Painful Predictions

A man stood up at last week's Council of

Jewish Federations' General Assembly
in New York and told the story of his
sister's sukkah.
It seems the sukkah was given to her
from a neighbor. She asked her neighbor
why he was giving such a beautiful and
well-built structure away. The answer:
"The kids have grown up, so my wife and I
really don't need it anymore."

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Another speaker told how we parents
spend up to five years preparing our chil-
dren for their bat or bar mitzvah. There's
the running back and forth for cantor ap-
pointments, Hebrew school, countless trips
to synagogue and services. But on the day
after the bar mitzvah, the expectation to
continue Jewish education and the expec-
tation from the parents to continue atten-
ding services drops.
Still another person emotionally rose and
told a packed room about how she spent her
formative parenting years relying heavily
on synagogues and Federation to "make
my children Jewish." She was now publicly
asking a panelist how to talk to her son,
who wants to get married at a Unitarian
Church.
If there was any clear message brought to

light at the General Assembly, it was the
need for Jewish families to rely on them-
selves, to provide role models within the
home for learning, for observing customs
and attending services. It was also made
clear that we need to stop angrily judging
everyone who does not choose to fit the
mold of the "nuclear" Jewish family expe-
rience. Indeed, one young female rabbinic
student stood up and asked why was it our
goal to have her married with 2.2 children,
a station wagon and a dog. That's not

what she wanted.
Instead, we must work harder on our-
selves as individuals. If we took the
time, mere minutes per day, to keep learn-
ing, to make the bar and bat mitzvah part
of the Jewish experience but not the end-all
and be-all for our children, then maybe all
of this would be more attractive. Perhaps
those who look at alternatives would feel
less threatened and less defensive about
Judaism.
The older man with the sukkah needs to
keep his sukkah. His adult children and
their children need to see him building it.
Symbolically, it represents the walls and
structure of Jewish life. If it's folded and
put in the garage, then the rest of the story
is painfully predictable.

Opinion

It Was Veterans Day,
But Did We Care?

PHIL JACOBS

MANAGING EDITOR

0

n one of the hallway
walls of the Jimmy
Prentis Morris JCC is
a display of
photographs of Soviet Jew-
ish war veterans, many still
owning and wearing their
military medals.
It's a telling photo because
the Soviet Jews received
some sort of recognition, ac-
ceptance and honor from a
homeland that largely re-
jected their right to be Jews.
Many of the older Soviet
Jews now living in Detroit
can barely remember the
last time they celebrated a
Chanukah. But all of them
can tell you about World
War II, personally.
The war was not across a
continent. It did not spare
the children. These men and
women fought it and surviv-
ed it. The Jewish News and
members of the Soviet com-
munity here have been get-
ting together for the past few
weeks in a series of discus-
sions about important news
and how it's covered by both
the Jewish and secular
press.
Recently, there's been a
great deal to talk about,
mostly focused on the Clin-
ton win for President and its
ramifications for Israel and
American Jews. Last Mon-
day, a question came up at

our Northgate clubhouse

meeting that had little to do
with the news. One older
gentleman asked if Ameri-
cans en masse honored their
war veterans in any way.
The question came about a
week after Veterans Day. I
had to tell him that save for
a small minority of Ameri-
cans, Veterans Day meant
nothing more than the in-
convenience of closed banks
and no mail combined with
the joy that many Ameri-
cans seem to covet, a sale at
the mall.
On Memorial Day, I told

him, we'd honor our war
dead by going to the beach or
maybe back to the mall.
This was difficult for the',
Soviets to understand. But
we discussed the fact that
there were a combination of
factors that all of us in the
room needed to consider.,
First, they were there for
WWII. Not just the militar y
personnel, but the civilians.
Everyone was there and
everyone was a victim. As
difficult as life became here
in the U.S. during WWII
with rationing and blackout
curtains, shrapnel did not
rip through Main Street,
U.S.A.
The last war that marched
through American cities was
the Civil War. We talked)
about General Sherman's
march through Georgia to
the sea, how he purposely'
brought the war to thc 1
civilians so it would end
sooner. We talked about'
Vicksburg and how General
Grant had to starve its
citizens, not just its soldiers,
into submission. We brought
up the battle of Gettysburg '
and Antietam where in mere
days, more Americans died
in battle than the total
casualty figures of years of

Vietnam.

We also discussed why it
was important to fight for ?-
higher cause. Indeed, to this
day, tens of thousands of
Americans belong to re-
enactor companies and bat-,
talions that "fight" in
authentic uniforms,
weapons, locations and
equipment the battles of the
Civil War.

The Vietnam War was a

battle for a cause that the
country could not agree onlj
It was fought in a jungle on
the other side of the globe,
and it was a place that few
wanted to witness first-
hand. For the American

VETERANS page 8

