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Remembering Warsaw
Fifty years ago on April 19, young Jewish men
and women who had already endured un-
speakable deprivations in the Warsaw Ghetto
took up arms against their Nazi tormentors.
For six weeks, the resistance fighters man-
aged to hang on in the face of an overwhelming
German military force.
Before most died and a few managed to es-
cape through the Warsaw sewers to do battle
another day, the ghetto's heroic fighters man-
aged to inflict several hundred casualties on the
Germans.Over the years, the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising has become a symbol of courage and
human dignity, as well as a counter to the claim
that the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe went
meekly to their deaths in the Holocaust. But
while the Warsaw uprising is perhaps the best
known instance of Jewish resistance to Nazi
terror, it was by no means an isolated event.
Across Europe — in Bialystok and the Parczew
Forest, in the villages of White Russia and Bel-
gium, in the mountains of Yugoslavia and in at-
tics in Amsterdam — Jews resisted in ways that
were at times dramatic and at times sublime.
Some sought to sabotage Nazi supply lines, while
others sniped at German soldiers on patrol.
Some acted in tandem with others, Jews and
non-Jewish partisans alike, and some took in-
dividual action.
Others showed their resistance by coura-
geously refusing to abandon elderly parents or
young children, and by clinging to their faith in
God, Jewish tradition and self-respect even as
they withered away in the death camps. Fifty
years after the slaughter of a quarter million
Jews from Warsaw alone, the Jewish state that
was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust re-
mains in grave danger.
In the Diaspora, meanwhile, Jews are in dan-
ger of disappearing because of their own igno-
rance of the value of their roots and traditions.In
that sense, the battle waged in the Warsaw
Ghetto continues. It must be fought with the
same determination and courage shown by those
young Jews who in the Warsaw Ghetto Upris-
ing underscored the strength of the Jewish soul.
To stop fighting for Jews and Israel now would
be to betray the courage and dignity of the War-
saw ghetto resisters and the millions of others
who were killed in the Holocaust and in the
struggle to establish Israel.
Read This Carefully
If You Care About Rights
It was a quiet enough case.
A Native American citizen living in Oregon
was denied unemployment rights for using the
hallucinogen peyote as part of his religious ob-
servance. An issue that started in an Oregon
courtroom, though, threatened the religious
freedom of other faiths and cultures as well.
The ruling said basically that if a state de-
cided something conducive to religious prac-
tice was illegal, there was no place a citizen
could go to appeal. The decision was moot.
The decision is not a moot point for Jews as
it influences us in many ways. A Jewish sol-
dier might be told he can't wear a yarmulke
as part of military dress. An autopsy might be
performed on a Jew even though it is against
Halachah. Synagogues might be zoned out
of commercial areas. A student may be pe-
nalized for missing school on the second day
,
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Net6k-1 F3oRS
,
Trade Center And
Stereotypes
Since all of us are more prone
toward criticism than praise,
we thought it would only be
fair to compliment the media
when they act responsibly.
We commend your organi-
zation for how it handled the
aftermath of the tragic World
Trade Center bombing, partic-
ularly as it pertains to avoid-
ing "stereotyping" the Muslim
community. Often in such cas-
es, we tend to blame an entire
community, supporting dis-
criminatory stereotypes, rather
than make important distinc-
tions.
Muslims' are law-abiding cit-
izens who like other Americans
have made important contri-
butions to this country.
We commend your handling
of this story as well as your
fairness and commitment to
balance and restraint.
Marcel G. Hage, Kamal H.
Shouhayib, Arnold S.
Michlin, Victor G. Ross
American Arabic and
Jewish Friends
of Passover.
The cliche is that these are some of the
greatest times to be Jewish in American sod-
ety. Jews are succeeding and assimilating so
well into American society that they are ab-
solutely an important part of this country.
But when we take a right away and let the
government decide what is acceptable reli-
gious practice, we step backward for all reli-
gious groups. So now the case can be anything
but quiet. Jewish leaders from across the po-
litical and religious playing fields have come
together, working to give Americans the right
not to be discriminated against for using pey-
ote or for wearing a yarmulke.
History shows that quiet infringements of
rights cause serious damage.
We cannot allow this to happen, especially
in a quiet way.
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Letters
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eft
Start A Battle
Of The Banners
The First Amendment is by far
the most important provision
of the U.S. Constitution. If
Arabs want to post a Star of
David, dripping with blood, let
them do it (Jewish News,
March 26). Let them hang a
different banner every day, es-
pousing any view they want.
The more banners they post,
so much the more indifferent
the public will be to them.
And if I were a student at
Wayne State today, as I was
more than 50 years ago, I
would hang my banner under
theirs — and change mine
every time they changed theirs.
My first banner would depict
five turbaned Arab types, smil-
ing and looking at the bombed
World Trade Center. One
would say to the other, "Great
job."
My second banner would
depict, again, five Arab figures,
smiling gleefully and gazing at
the destroyed barracks in
Beirut in which 241 Marines
died, saying, "Great job." ;
My third banner would be I
Saddam Hussein with four
Arab types, overlooking ,
mound of slaughtered Kurds
and saying, "Great job." Etc.
Let's just see who would win,
the Battle of the Banners
Gabriel Glantz
Ft. Lauderdale
Passover History
In your editorial, "Passover'
Eternal Message" (April-2), you
suggest that the Exodus from-
Egypt took place "approxi-
mately 3,273 years ago," and
that ever since then, "their an-
cestors..." have recalled the
event through Passover obser-
vances.
In the first place, I have go
back and checked several his-
torical texts, both Hebrew and
English language texts, and
are in agreement that the ex-
act year of the Exodus was
2448, which places the event
precisely 3305 years ago if w
are counting back from the rec-
ognized current Jewish year
5753. Of course, you meant to
say that "their descendants
have remembered ever
since..."
Avie Shap .
South fie
Farrakhan And Racism
It is ironic that Louis Far-
rakhan should be asked to
speak at a fund-raiser for th
Malcolm X Academy (Jewish
News, March 26). Farrakhan
was a bitter foe of Malcolm X
and denounced him after the
assassination. There were even
rumors that Farrakhan was
responsible for Malcolm'a
death.
In fact, Farrakhan's group
was worried about how Spike
Lee was going to portray Mal-
colm's murder and they
warned the movie maker to
"proceed with caution," claim-
ing that the "Jews were back-
ing Lee," and that the
filmmaker was being "used to
make it appear that it was
Muslims who killed Malcolm
X."
LETTERS page 10