As Jews, We Need
An Invasion, Quickly
Fifty years ago, June 6, 1944, American sons and
daughters amassed in a show of strength and
faith that eventually would bring good back to
the shores of Europe and defeat an evil that was
threatening the world.
D-Day was dramatic in its scope, yet horri-
fying in the amounts of young life it claimed. We
know all of that, though. It's good and it's noble
to talk about lessons the world should have
learned.
There's got to be more. More invasions. If
D-Day symbolized anything, it was good over-
coming evil at a horrible price. The leaders of the
day had to decipher complicated enemy codes.
They had to secretly bring thousands of pieces
of military hardware together and transport it
to a foreign coast. They had only a certain
weather window available. They had to climb
cliffs while being shot at from the top by the
enemy.
Today, 50 years later, the Jewish community
has its own turning point. We have Jews who
are leaving our faith out of complacency or
bitterness. We have families within our own com-
munity who are in need of economic and social
assistance. We have Jewish children whose
parents are finding it difficult to afford a Jewish
education for them.
There are no ships to amass, no troops to as-
semble, no secret codes to unlock. We need an
invasion, though. We need to deliver available
Jewish education to our families. We need to
invade the cold finger of judgment and rid it from
our fabric, because all it serves to do is separate
us. We need to invade the unaffiliated and bring
them home.
Fifty years ago, editors wrote of a tyrant who
was using a system to exterminate Europe's
Jewry. He almost saw his system through to the
finish. There was a job to be done in 1944, and
we are thankful, grateful for what our parents
and grandparents achieved. Fifty years from
now, our next generations won't have to read
what was done in 1994. There might not be many
of us left to tell the story. That is why we need
to invade now. If our weapons are checkbooks,
volunteer hours, trips to Israel, an increase in
Jewish consciousness at home, fine.
But we need to realize that no matter how
comfortable we live as American Jews, it's D-
Day today, tomorrow and the next day.
Jerusalem Forever,
Without Compromise
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King David and his troops captured Jerusalem
from the Jebusites more than three millennia
ago. The building foundations that they subse-
quently laid — spiritual and physical — were
not of the temporary nature.
Since then, in Jewish prayer every day, our
people have focused on eternal Jerusalem as the
center of our theological being. For more than
two years, in words and deeds, Palestinians have
planned to make Jerusalem, or at least part of
it, their spiritual and physical capital. Can the
Jewish people or the Palestinian people live with-
out the whole of Jerusalem as their own? The
answer is no. Some have made proposals for
Palestinian jurisdiction over east Jerusalem and
Jewish jurisdiction over west Jerusalem. East
Jerusalem, however, is home to thousands of
Arab residents, thousands ofJews and the gov-
ernment of Israel's main office building complex.
Some would say that only Palestinian rule would
solve the national aspirations of both groups.
We don't think so. In this confusing peace
process, the soul of any Jew who cares for Israel
has been rocked and even battered. The un-
thinkable has become fact: proposals to give up
the Golan Heights, preparations for Yassir
Arafat's arrival in Jericho, convicted Palestin-
ian killers ofJews released en masse from Israeli
prisons. Relinquishing Jewish sovereignty over
Jerusalem, where some complicated compro-
mises can be worked out, is not an option.
Jerusalem is where we dig in. Jerusalem, the
last item on the agenda in the elongated and
painful peace negotiations process, cannot be-
come Beirut. Israel and the PLO must work to
ensure that neither of its radicals make it such.
Israel alone has earned the right to govern all
of Jerusalem. Since the Jewish state recaptured
the eastern half of the city from Jordan in 1967,
Arab residents have reaped the benefits. They
can vote in Israeli elections and directly influ-
ence their lives. They use vastly improved Israeli
social services and municipal works. They enjoy
freedom to all sites of worship. And they have
gained one of the highest standards of living in
the Arab world. No one is asking them to leave
their homes if they prefer to be under Palestin-
ian rule. We do ask Jerusalem's Arabs, however,
to deal with the reality of the situation.
If Jews and Arabs can live together in
Jerusalem, no matter how tense it may be at
times, then the peace process will work. Whether
or not they can do so is not up to Mr. Arafat or
Israel's democratically elected leaders, but to the
hearts and minds of all citizens of the eternal
Jewish capital.
Letters
Hillel Editorial
And The Facts
The editorial of May 27 on "For-
getting Class Struggle" left some
issues that need to be cleared up.
1) Parents felt the Hillel Day
School board was not commu-
nicative when it withheld crucial
financial data needed to make
decisions;
2) ran up a $75,000 deficit for
1994;
3) doubled the total debt (now
$500,000) over the last 3 years
and;
4) raised tuition 23 percent
and doubled tuition during the
last six years triple the growth of
inflation.
Giving money means people
have it, not that they make bet-
ter decisions spending it. Current
policy was tuition-driven tax and
spend. We asked it to become
budget-driven. Don't blame it
on teachers' salaries.
Who negotiated the excesses
in the administration? Wealthy
people didn't write checks to meet
payroll. They
went down to
the bank, bor-
rowed money
and lumped the
five-figured in-
terest into the
budget.
Discrimina-
tion because of
a "certain finan-
cial level" is
wrong. We
questioned
whether the
founding philos-
ophy of Hillel as
a community
school was be-
ing threatened
by bad manage-
ment and an
elitist attitude.
"Sitting behind
closed doors"
and refusing to Stephen Breyer
admit parents
to meetings hopefully will cease
with the new administration.
None of the slate backed off to
volunteering although it is diffi-
cult to give daytime hours when
both parents have to work.
Where are Federation's prior-
ities when it comes to funding
day schools versus the Agency for
Jewish Education?
An interesting fact you over-
looked. Even if the alternate slate
had won all six seats, they could
not have carried a single vote on
either the executive or general
board.
Why is looking for a measure
of fiscal integrity considered di-
visive? If "those who can give
trade in their headaches and go
elsewhere," what were their mo-
tives in the first place?
There is a tendency upon gain-
ing power to think you know
what is best for others. Judaism
fortunately does not hold with
this view and rebukes those who
do.
Andrew M. Beider
West Bloomfield
Judge Breyer
And The Court
James Besser's article May 20,
"Breyer's Jewishness all but un-
noticed," contains an interesting
misstatement of fact.
Mr. Besser states that if Judge
Breyer "is confirmed, as expected,
it will be only the second time in
Supreme Court
history that two
Jews have
served simulta-
neously." This
statement is at
the very least
technically in-
correct.
The two pre-
vious Jewish
justices that Mr.
Besser appar-
ently refers to
are Benjamin
N. Cardozo and
Justice Louis D.
Brandeis, who
served together
from Feb. 24,
1932 until Car-
do zo's death
July 9, 1938.
Justice Felix
Frankfurter's
service on the
court as Cardo-
zo's successor is said to have be-
gun Jan. 17, 1939, upon his
confirmation by the Senate.
Justice Brandeis did not resign
until Feb. 13, 1939. These facts
are confirmed by the Congres-
sional Quarterly Guide To The
U.S. Supreme Court.
At the time of Cardozo's death
BREYER page 8