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Mr. Davidson's Priority
William Davidson doesn't just talk the talk.
Indeed, Detroiters know him as the owner of
one of the NBA's most successful modern-era
basketball franchises. He's a major supporter of
the University of Michigan. His Guardian In-
dustries in Northville is one of the world's largest
glass manufacturers.
Detroit's Jews and Israelis know Mr. David-
son, a Butzel awardee and former Chairman
of the Allied Jewish Campaign, as the man who
believed in Israel not just in words. His $100 mil-
lion glass factory in the Galilee, with some 400
employees, is the largest single undertaking of
private industry in the Jewish state.
Now, the entire national Jewish community
will have an opportunity to learn more about
Mr. Davidson or just to learn.
No, he doesn't talk the talk, and he rarely gives
interviews. But Bill Davidson has made his im-
print felt where it will have its most dramatic
effect — on education — and therefore on con-
tinuity.
His $15 million contribution to the Jewish
Theological Seminary will undoubtedly help
guarantee the training of our religious school
teachers and elevate the otherwise beleaguered
teaching profession.
We hope that the example set by Mr. David-
son will be followed not only by other philan-
thropists, but by all of us as important
communitywide fund-raisers as Super Sunday
approaches. Education is a concern that bene-
fits when money is directed its way. What Mr.
Davidson has shown is that through JTS, pri-
ority has been given to the status and image of
our teachers. Let's hope the rest of the commu-
nity responds in a similar way with funds for
needed training programs and methods of ed-
ucating our Jewish educators. This is a major
step as we as a people continue to maintain the
hope for preservation of our Jewish future.
Saddam And Hamas
Three events came together this week to remind
the world that the Middle East will remain a
volatile, dangerous place even if the peace process
produces a set of comprehensive treaties between
Israel and her neighbors.
Last weekend, an unpredictable Saddam Hus-
sein moved a significant military force to the
Kuwaiti border in what seemed like a repeat of
events leading up to his 1990 invasion. And Sun-
day evening, Hamas terrorists struck in the heart
of Jerusalem, killing a Jew and an Arab and slight-
ly wounding an American diplomat, plus 12 oth-
ers. That same day, Hamas kidnapped an Israeli
solider, jeopardizing the PLO-Israeli negotiations.
Those events punctuate two points:
* The current Mideast peace talks are only one
element in a complex regional equation that will
determine Israel's long-term security. Saddam Hus-
sein and his neighbors in Iran still have the pow-
er to foment violence, both directly and through
their terrorist surrogates. Islamic fundamental-
ists, who claimed responsibility for the murders in
Jerusalem and the kidnapping, will continue to
generate mayhem.
It will take a firm, ongoing American presence
in the region to keep the Saddam Husseins of the
world in check. The open-endedness of that corn-
mitment will be a political test for the stamina and
determination of this and subsequent adminis-
trations. Moreover, despite the promise of peace,
Israel will not be able to let down its guard for many
years, no matter how many treaties it signs.
* llamas' violence and Iraq's threatening moves
are stark reminders of the real alternative to the
current peace talks: an endlessly escalating con-
flict. Peace treaties with Syria, Jordan, Lebanon
and the Palestinians will not end the seething ha-
treds endemic to the region. But a stable peace be-
tween Israel and its contiguous neighbors will
hopefully provide a foundation for the profound so-
cial and economic changes that are necessary if
those hatreds are to be overcome in time.
A Middle East peace also will further isolate Is-
lamic and Palestinian radicals — and, thereby,
gradually diminish their power.
The week's events were sober reminders that
real change in the Middle East will take time. But
they also highlighted how much Israel stands to
lose if the current negotiations fail.
Why Arafat Choice Isn't Right
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By the time this editorial is read, maybe the news
leaks of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
and PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat winning the
Nobel Peace Prize will have been confirmed.
By the time we light our Sabbath candles,
maybe Mr. Arafat will have rescued the kid-
napped Israeli soldier Nahshon Waxman from
the hands of his Hamas captors. Maybe he'll still
be alive.
Maybe not.
In a morbid, tragic way Hamas has shown the
Nobel committee and the rest of the world why
the Nobel committee's consideration of Mr.
Arafat was premature.
The supposed peace is still in its early stages.
If Mr. Arafat had shown over the 'years that he
could successfully form a government, co-exist
peacefully with Israel, and more importantly
control terrorist units of all sorts, then we can
talk Nobel prizes.
If we learn today that Mr. Rabin and Mr.
Arafat are the Nobel winners, we urge the Is-
raeli prime minister to consider non-acceptance.
At this time, the message behind the Nobel Prize
has been severely damaged. It's inappropriate
for the Israeli leader to give Mr. Arafat this sort
of equal credibility. Unless, of course, over time,
the killing and kidnapping stops.
Maybe it will.
Maybe not.
61104—e641-
Letters
Dismay Over
Sara's Situation
I read with a great deal of dismay
your Sept. 23 front-page article
which describes the very difficult
times that Sara's Deli is going
through.
When I think of all the Jewish
holidays, Friday and Saturday
nights that this kosher restau-
rant is forced to be closed, I can
truly appreciate its struggle to
survive.
This restaurant remains ar-
guably the only place in town
where Jews of all persuasions
and gentiles can sit down to-
gether and engage in the Amer-
ican pastime of dining out.
With over 90,000 Jews, Michi-
gan should certainly be able to
support Sara's.
If every Orthodox, Conserva-
tive and Reform Jewish family
would go just once a year to
Sara's, rm sure that it would be
able to survive and flourish.
Ken Borin
West Bloomfield
Sending A Message
To Ourselves
Last Shabbat we read Parshat
Noach. Every year when we read
this parsha I am reminded of the
young man I used to see on the
No. 27 Egged bus from Ramat
Aviv to the central bus station in
Tel Aviv.
The man had Down's syn-
drome.
He would sit in the same seat
on the bus, behind the driver. I
sat a few rows behind him. He
quietly talked to himself.
One day I sat directly behind
him, and I could hear what he
was saying. He was repeating the
story of Parshat Noach. I heard
him saying softly to himself,
"Yarad geshem arbaim yom, yom
v'layla." I remember thinking
that he was a bit strange, but
that he seemed nice.
He would get off the bus in
front of the kirya, the haphazard
collection of Quonset huts set be-
hind barbed wire which is rough-
ly the equivalent of the Pentagon.
I remember that he never missed
his bus stop. Unfortunately, I
could not say the same.
I would take the No. 201 bus
south from Tel Aviv and get off a
few stops before Rishon LeZion,
at the Veterinary Institute in Bet
Dagan. On several occasions I
was awakened by the driver af-
ter we'd arrived at the Egged sta-
tion at Rishon, and would have
to take another bus back to the
Veterinary Institute.
I don't recall anyone ever talk-
ing to this fellow, and I don't be-
lieve that I did, either. We have
a son with autism, so of course
I'm used to behaviors a lot more
"off the wall" than merely know-
ing the young man who sat in
front of me on the bus. Why did
I need to have a handicapped
child of my own in order to be
sensitized to the needs of hand-
icapped people?
I think that my attitudes and
experience, prior to having a
handicapped child, are probably
typical of many people. We think
that people with handicapping
conditions are different, some-
how strange, and it's easiest to
just avoid interacting with them.
We may feel superior to them
as well.
When you have a handicapped
child, you observe how people
treat your son or daughter, and
you think a lot. Just because an
individual is handicapped, it does
not follow that God considers him
or her any less of a person than
people who are not handicapped,
and there's no reason why we
should either.
It seems to me that the rea-
sons why most of us don't make
efforts to reach out to the handi-
capped in our community lie both
with our schools and with what
we teach our children at home.
Sure, we're all pretty busy. But
you'd be surprised how little time
it takes to take a handicapped
child out for ice cream once in a
while, or volunteer with JARC
(or any other agency that deals
with people challenged with
handicapping conditions) and
talk with these people for an
hour. Everyone needs friends,
but handicapped people fre-
quently have none.
Spending time with less for-
tunate individuals can be an up-
lifting experience, and you'll feel
pretty good afterward. At the
same time, its humbling, because
it makes you realize that the
health and happiness of you and
your family should not be taken
for granted.
David Loeffler
Southfield
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