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DETROIT

THE *WISH

2 3 CHESHVAN 5755/OCTOBER 28, 1994

The Farrakhan Impasse

An intercongregational forum asks: What does it take to be friends?

RUTH UTTMANN STAFF WRITER

he Rev. Louis Farrakhan, who repeated-
ly sparks Jewish fury with his anti-
Semitic and racial slurs, became a central
motif in the second annual forum on
black-Jewish relations held Oct. 24 at the
Birmingham Temple. The event
attracted more than 300 people.
Right, Richard
The crowd, almost entirely
Lobenthal, and
white, gathered to hear presentations by below, the Rev.
Richard Lobenthal of the Anti-Defamation
Diane Smalley
League and the Rev.
Diane Smalley of the
Hartford Memorial
Baptist Church in
Detroit.
`The topic is timely,
media. The press has positioned the Rev.
particularly for the
Farrakhan in the middle of black-Jewish
Detroit community,"
relations and almost exclusively reports
says Mark Bulmash,
on negatives.
who chaired the event.
"The Farrakhan issue, in terms of
"Both the African-
black-Jewish relations, is at best a pim-
American and Jewish
ple on the body of the total interactions
communities have had
amongst blacks and Jews," he said.
a long history of coop-
Mr. Lobenthal referred to productive
eration. In many re-
partnerships between the communities.
spects, they have
Last spring, the ADL sponsored
fought some of the
"Children Of the Dream," a program that
same battles against
flew six Ethiopian teen-agers to Detroit
racism, bigotry and ha-
from Israel. The young people met other students
tred.
"However, if you hay e paid any attention to the at 11 local high schools. Mr. Lobenthal also men-
media, you cannot help but come to the conclusion tioned black-Jewish discussion groups and annual
that the links between the two communities have interethnic seders, sponsored by the ADL and the
South Oakland NAACP.
frayed."
One of the problems, Mr. Lobenthal said, is the IMPASSE page 8

A 43rd Open Book

Ms year's Jewish Book Fair has a list of enticing topics.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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cemetery in Detroit is e me
to forlorn tombstones.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

hris Lewis recently opened a new chap-
ter in her life when she moved from
Virginia to Michigan. Now she's about
to do the same for the Jewish Book Fair.
Ms. Lewis is director of the Jewish
Community Center's cultural arts department. In
planning this year's Book Fair, set to open next
week at the West Bloomfield JCC, she has select-
ed a collection of diverse writers whose works bring
to mind the wise words of 16th century English
philosopher Francis Bacon: "Some books are to be

ENTERTAINMENT

Super-Charged

Clock Mana

Volunteers pull off
a Campaign blitz.
Page 14

Hard workers make time
for a personal lite.

Page 40

rant Expenence

`Paved With Gold'
crosses the lines.
Page 77

tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be
chewed and digested."
Among the guests at the 43rd annual Jewish
Book Fair: famous (or infamous) self-defined "rad-
ical lawyer" William Kunstler; an Israeli author
who infiltrated the neo-Nazi movement; a woman
who writes about a lesbian town of Chelm; the au-
thor of a glowing biography of a Palestinian lead-
er; and Tikkun editor Michael Lerner, whose
aphorisms (like "the politics of meaning") have be-
OPEN BOOK page 10

‘3,.. -. A.N.‘

• k

qq

iii Hou

Bowlers are flocking
to a new singles league.
Page 95

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Contents on page 3