Stop And Think
RACHEL GREENBERG SPECIAL
To THE JEWISH NEWS
cally want to find out for
themselves.
Stop and think.
This is some-
thing that
should be
done with
someone
you love
and care
about. It
should
I
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take place
somewhere
romantic —
not in the
back seat of
your mother's
car. I may
sound like a
mother myself, but
I have seen too many
friends get hurt by
lovers who don't call
the next morning.
When it comes to
ex in the '90s.
sex, the most important thing
This is a topic that to remember is: Set your own
most parents take rules. Don't let anyone force you
too seriously and most teen- to do what you don't want to do.
agers take too lightly. In their And when you want to do it —
stringency, parents do not want be careful.
to confront their children to find
Teachers in most schools
out if they are having sex. They teach their students about dif-
believe that if they don't think ferent sexually transmitted dis-
about it, then it won't happen.
eases, teen-age pregnancy and
Wrong. Sex is a very common contraceptives. This is great, but
activity among teen-agers today. students aren't listening.
It is happening among middle- They're experimenting.
school and high-school students.
The worst part is that parents
In past generations, dates usu- are not enforcing the lessons
ally ended with a kiss goodbye. taught in school. Parents do not
Now, a kiss leads to sex.
have to teach abstinence; they
Some of you might think that don't have to hand out condoms;
I sound extreme, but I'm only but, they should teach the
being realistic. I graduated from meaning of making love and
high school last year, so all my when it is appropriate.
information is up-to-date. I dis-
Many students are not using
tinctly remember a friend of protection because they are too
mine crying to me because her embarrassed to buy it or ask
boyfriend had just broken up their parents for help. If you are
with her. I tried to tell her that too embarrassed to use protec-
she would have many more tion or ask your partner to, then
boyfriends. Then she threw you are too immature to be hav-
some dramatic news at me. She ing sex.
had lost her virginity to this boy
This is what parents should
a week before. She was only a be emphasizing.
freshman.
Sex is taken too capriciously
I was in shock. What was a these days. I am afraid that chil-
freshman in high school doing dren and teen-agers will not un-
having sex? Especially with a derstand the seriousness about
boy she had only been dating for sex until it is too late. "Too late"
a short time? This story soon is when pregnancy occurs or the
started repeating itself among blood test comes back HIV-pos-
many underclassmen and fel- itive.
low high-school seniors I knew.
To parents, I say: Please talk
In the last eight years, AIDS to your children. And to my
has become a serious issue peers, I say: Think before you
among teen-agers, but the rate have sex because the result
of teen-age sexual activity has could be far from pleasur-
increased. Peer pressure is a able. ❑
heavy factor. Friends tell each Rachel Greenberg has finished her
other that it was the most won- freshman year at Oakland Com-
derful thing that ever happened munity College where she is
to them. Teen-agers who haven't studying law enforcement.
experienced sex yet automati-
ot
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Finding Our Overleniti
1
n late February, Dr.
Baruch Goldstein en-
tered the Tomb of the Pa-
tnarchs in Hebron and brutally
murdered more than 40 Mus-
lims at prayer. This incident and
its implications for the Middle
East peace process were plas-
tered on the front pages of news-
papers everywhere. As a recent
graduate of the University of
Michigan, I want to make Jew-
ish News readers aware of the
responses from two Jewish stu-
dent groups on campus.
First, let me make it clear
that I believe the Hebron mas-
sacre was exactly that: a mas-
sacre. It was a slaughtering of
innocent people at a most cru-
cial time in Israel's history. I ac-
knowledge and condemn it like
every thinking and feeling Jew
should. Dr. Goldstein commit-
ted a horrendous act that, sad-
ly, had the power to make the
world again question its judg-
ment about the Jews.
There was no silence — and
rightly so. Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin, along with nu-
merous Israeli public officials and
Jewish leaders internationally,
expressed their deepest condo-
lences to Yassir Arafat and the
Muslim people. To do so was a
personal choice and profession-
al obligation to other members
of the Jewish community.
University of Michigan stu-
dents responded, as well. The
Islamic Circle and the Arab
tral campus and distributed
fliers. Segments of the flier read:
"The occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip are the un-
derlying causes of the Hebron
Massacre. We, as Jews and Zion-
ists, take responsibility for vio-
lence committed in our name..."
A few days later, the Univer-
sity Hillel ran an ad in the
Michigan Daily expressing con-
dolences to the families of the
victims. The advertisements
cost upwards of $550 and Hillel
members asked Jewish stu-
dents to contribute money for
payment of the ad.
Eliot Goldstein, a PZC cochair
who helped write and distribute
the fliers, feels that "you can be
both a strong believer in the
State of Israel as well as in jus-
the Palestinian position on cam- tice for the Palestinian people.
pus nor anywhere else, I un- These views are generally
shared by PZC members."
derstand and expect it.
Darone Ruskay, a Hillel
The Palestinian students
used the incident to their best board member who helped write
advantage. They mobilized the advertisement, said, "After
worldwide political sympathy in the massacre, I felt badly for
their favor. This was a smart those who lost family ... I didn't
move. The Arabs on campus did want the already-tense rela-
what they needed to do for their tionships between the Arab and
Jewish (student) communities
cause.
It is, in fact, the Jewish stu- to get worse."
In fact, after Ma'ariv (evening
dent organizations' responses
services) that Friday at the Hil-
I feel the need to address.
The Progressive Zionist Cau- lel house, Mr. Ruskay an-
cus (PZC) is a Jewish student or- nounced to the congregation:
ganization on college campuses "Although I am upset that they
throughout the United States are holding the vigil on Shab-
and Israel. After the massacre, bat, I encourage everyone to go.
the PZC posted a banner on cen- I must warn you, there will be
American Student Association
held a midnight candlelight vig-
il one week after the incident oc-
curred. Participants marched
from central campus to the
Rackham Graduate School
building in utter silence. That
Friday, they held a public rally
condemning Israel and its oc-
cupation of the territories.
They called for an interna-
tional presence there and a re-
moval of settlers. These,
however, are not the protests to
which I am responding. In fact,
although I neither agree with
I want to make
readers aware.