THE VOLVO 850. AVAILABLE IN TWO SIZES: Both the front wheel drive Volvo 850 Sedan and 850 Sportswagon come equipped with a peppy 168 horsepower engine. Four wheel anti-lock disc brakes. And Delta-Link rear suspension. Both have been designed with a sleeker, more eye-catching body style. And both are available at your local Volvo dealer. Stop by and try one on for size. We'll make sure you get a perfect fit. VOLVO Drive safely. REGULAR. • ' • •"" .". :',. ' • \ •.•," . RABBI IRWIN GRONER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS T • • • • THEISM VOLVO 850 SEDAN: $25,5110* EXTRA LARGE. ... • '''''' ''' '' ... .7 .. . THE 1995 VOLVO 850 SPORTSWAGON: $26,880* 'Ms IN STOCK FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY Michigan's #1 Volvo Dealer DWY E R ANDSONS 624-0400 Maple Rd. West of Haggerty *Includes automatic transmission, all standard equipment Destination charge, option packages, tax, license are additional. AMERICAN FRIENDS OF ARIEL GREATER DETROIT CHAPTER INVITES YOU TO MEET & HEAR DINA SHALIT Assistant to the Hon. Ron Nachman Member of the Knesset & Mayor of Ariel DISCUSS THE DETRO IT J EWIS H NEWS "ARIEL - A CITY OF GREAT PROMISE FACING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE" 32 WHEN: Thursday, October 13, 7:30 p.m. WHERE: Congregation Beth Achim, Southfield The public is invited. AMERICAN FRIENDS OF ARIEL 810-569-1516 18451 West 10 Mile, Southfield, Michigan 48075 COMMITTEE IN FORMATION: Sidney Silverman Dr. & Mrs. I. Walter Silver Morris D. Baker Ezekiel Leikin Dooming Civilizatio With Our Violence Gerald Keller Nathan Lipson Sam Grand Dr. Robert K. Brateman James Hack Jonathan Brateman Dr. Jerome Kaufman Rae Sharfman Hymie Cutler his week, we read in the Torah the celebrated story of an ancient catastrophe that wiped away civiliza- tion, leaving only one man, his family, and the animals that he had patiently and carefully gath- ered into the safety of an ark. The man was Noah, and his society was known as the Generation of the Flood. What transgression did they commit that exacted God's decree of total destruction? The Torah, sparing in its de- scription, says only that "the earth was filled with violence." The very beginning of civilization was almost doomed by man's propensity to injure and violate the life of his fellow. The text is as contemporary as today's headlines. What is the most serious problem confronting modern man? Is it economics, the impact of technology, concern about the environment, over- population, drug addiction? All of these challenges can be met by the insight, resources, and pro- ductivity of highly advanced Western civilization, if we could but summon the will. But one problem hangs like a sword of Damocles over the world and has in overt and covert ways affected the quality of life in our time — the scourge of violence. Each day sees more killing in the areas of conflict around the world, murders, rapes and mug- gings on our city streets, gang wars, the brutality that takes place in the inner city neighbor- hoods, political assassinations, and all the other forms by which the human existence is attacked, assaulted and disfigured. We do not respond with suffi- cient indignation to the preva- lence of violence in American life. The Congress of the United States has yet to pass an effective gun control law. We are indiffer- ent to the affect of the mass media on our lives and the lives of our children. No generation growing up in any epoch of his- tory or any place has had to face such a deluge of violence as modern American youth. Many youngsters play with toy guns be- fore they can read. The mass me- dia blur the distinction between reality and fantasy, between right and wrong. Movies have become more explicitly violent, present- ing a pornography of violence in which every twitch, shriek, and contortion of the victim is por- trayed. This disregard for human life, for human dignity, for Irwin Groner is senior rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Zedek. human existence itself cannot, but in some measure, affect the attitudes, the fantasies, and per- haps even the behavior of the audience. From a moral perspective, vi- olence is not only a matter of murder or grand larceny. It be- gins with petty crime, a small in- sult, a murder of a person by degrees. In the eyes of God, Mamas, the term for violence in the Noah story, is not only the violenti crime that makes the headlinbs, but it is the thousand little assaults that we perpetuate every day against our neighbor's sensitivity, a friend's ego, a maid's peace of mind, parent's dignity, a child's self-respect, a colleague's self-worth, a competitor's equal opportunity. Every time we sneer at a human being, we spill a drop of his blood. Every time we utter a cutting and unkind remark, we kill the victim a little bit. When- ever we humiliate another per- son, we do violence in his self-image. The plight of the poor and the deprived represent another kind of violence, subtle, hidden, but no less powerful and destructive. It is shocking that an affluent coun- try perpetuates hunger, need and misery in the slums of its cities. Violence to the human spirit is the daily portion of those who live Shabbat Noach: Genesis 6:9-11:32 Isaiah 54:1-55:5. in urban slums, with their sub- standard housing, filth, and in- adequate education. The lack of opportunity, the elimination of hope and the growth of despair are the products of this form of covert, but no less real attack upon the lives of the poor — the victims of society's indifference. The story of Noah is meant to convey an eternal truth — that violence is not natural to hu- manity; it is a perversion of the process and meaning of creation, an aberration of what is really means to be human. May our generation be enabled to replace violence with justice, understanding, truth and love, so that Isaiah's prophecy can be fulfilled for us: "Violence shall no longer be heard in thy land or des- olation or destruction within thy borders; for in the place of thy defensive walls will be the deliv- erance of the Lord, and in the place of thy protective gates shall be the praise of Almighty God." ❑