h

The History Lesson

When blacks turned from communal progress
Blacks and Jews have come half circle since the
1960s, the glory days of the civil-rights move- to black progress, the civil-rights movement
ment. It used to be that we would march arm- bogged down. When affirmative action became
in-arm through the major streets of this nation's a symbol for black quotas, Jews jumped, or were
communities, moving an agenda forward that pushed, off the civil-rights ship. The progress
called for equal rights for all U.S. citizens, re- was achieved when we were working for equal-
ity for all.
gardless of race, ethnicity or religion.
The great hope for the future in America is
Now we hold each other at arm's length.
Monday's forum at the Birmingham Temple the growing black middle class, sharing the vi-
was indicative of what ails us as a nation. Few sion of the rest of our citizens for homes, jobs,
blacks came to hear the program. The most education, family. But, as these gains become
sparks were struck by Temple Shir Shalom's more common, poorer blackain our central cities
Rabbi Dannel Schwartz and the Anti-Defama- charge that they are being left behind.
How blacks, whites, Jews, and all Americans
tion League's Richard Lobenthal over Jewish
react to the have-nots among us is the test we
tactics in the great black/Jewish debate.
In fact, we will continue to be divided and must pass to ensure America's future. We must
achieve little social progress in this country as strive to build up our own house — the problems
long as we continue to forget the great lesson of Jewish education and assimilation are para-
of the '60s: together we can achieve, divided we mount. But we can't repair our own home while
ignoring the problems of the neighborhood.
will fail.

Hamas At Home

TH E DETRO I T J EW ISH NE WS

On Monday, Yassir Arafat said what much of
Israel and her friends should have heard a week
ago: The Palestine Liberation Organization will
cooperate with Israel and others in combatting
terrorism. That means fighting Hamas, the Is-
lamic fundamentalist group that in the last two
weeks has jubilantly taken credit for attacking
a night-life area in central Jerusalem; kidnap-
ping and murdering Israeli soldier Nachson
Waxman; and the suicide bombing of a bus in
the heart of Tel Aviv that killed 22 people.
Mr. Arafat's track record with such pledges
makes us cautious. In 1988, he condemned ter-
rorism against Jewish and Israeli targets. The
United States then opened a low-level dialogue
with the PLO. Those talks were halted when Mr.
Arafat refused to condemn an attack by terror-
ists on a Tel Aviv beach.
Without concrete results, Mr. Arafat's remarks
are nothing more than posturing. They do not
quell mounting domestic pressure on Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to break off ne-
gotiations with the PLO. They do not ease the
grieving of families who have tragically suffered
in recent weeks. And they do not calm the fears
of Israel's supporters in this country.

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Mr. Arafat's PLO is not responsible for the re-
cent acts, but it is liable for activities in Jeri-
cho and the Gaza Strip. In Gaza in particular,
Hamas openly holds rallies, chanting threats to
anyone who opposes its goals.
For his part, Mr. Rabin has pledged to excise
the cancer of Hamas from the Middle East. For
this, he needs Mr. Arafat's assistance and the
help of American Jews.
Mr. Rabin and others claim that untold
dollars, perhaps in the millions, flow to Hamas
from the West, including the United States, and
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. The
money is difficult to track because Hamas op-
erates schools, day-care centers and relief agen-
cies on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But how
much of this money goes toward Hamas' mili-
tary and political endeavors? How many dollars
are deducted from U.S. taxes by Hamas sym-
pathizers in the United States? Do those mak-
ing such donations even know where their money
winds up?
Such questions deserve serious analysis. So
does the question of how to halt the flow of mon-
ey to Hamas from Iran and Saudi Arabia.

„ , WAS A

*CAP" PiSrou
oR A WATER

WART GUN.

Opinion

Blood On Windshields:
Why Are We Laughing?

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

Anyone who ever
sat through a se-
mester of political
philosophy is fa-
miliar with that
volatile debate:
Does freedom of
speech give us the
right to yell "Fire!"
in a crowded
movie theater?
Last Saturday night, I yelled
"Fire!" at the movies. The theater
was crowded. Heck, it was packed.
And, you know what? No one
budged. It was kind of like they
didn't even smell the danger.
Flashback: Earlier that
evening, two friends suggested
we catch a late-night showing of
Pulp Fiction, the bloody gangster
flick about two coked-out hitmen,
a disturbed boxing champ and
victimized ladies with dubious
romantic connections. (The plot?
There wasn't one, so don't expect
a recap here.)
I paid my $5, warned that the
movie was violent. How violent?
I should have asked beforehand.
Hardly a scene went by with-
out some gruesome portrayal of
homicide, drugs and destruction.
Apparently, writer/director
Quentin Tarantino decided to in-
clude some comic relief. It was
side-splitting. Get this:
John Travolta (who played the
wanna-be-slick gangster Vincent)
rides in the front of a car driven
by pal Samuel Jackson. Travol-
ta points his gun at a quivering
boy in the back seat.
The car drives over a bump
and ... oops. The gun fires. The
boy dies. A salad of corpuscles
and brains splatters all over the
back window. Travolta curses in
flippant regret, then turns to-
ward the dashboard.
The audience members
laughed loudly.
Sitting in the third row of the
theater, I had the opportunity to
look back and examine their
smiling faces. Hey-Tarantino,
buddy. I guess your gore really
worked for this crowd. They're
cracking up.

But I sat there shaking. I won-
dered what was more morbid:
The movie or the fact that people
were enjoying it? That's when I
decided to yell "Fire!"
I walked halfway up the left
aisle and waited for calm. Then
I hollered: "Why are we all wast-
ing our $5 on this piece of trash?
It's about nothing more than
death and destruction."
Folks, this movie got great re-
views. It's No. 1 at the box office.
Roger Ebert gave it four stars. It
won at the Cannes Film Festival.
Many of my close friends think it
deserves an Oscar. Awesome cin-
ematography, they say.
Granted, we're all entitled to
our opinions, and I categorical-
ly oppose censorship. But if Big
Daddy ain't looking out for our
well-being, someone's gotta. T.Rst
Saturday, I mounted my moral
high horse and decided that
someone was me.
I had to yell `Tire!" Especially
as a Jew, I believe we must some-
times sacrifice politeness to voice
our deepest convictions.
Silence is more comfortable,
true. And I extend apologies if
you were in the crowd and felt
rudely interrupted.
Last week, I drove an elderly
woman to Adat Shalom Syna-
gogue, the site of a benefit for the
group Parents of Murdered Chil-
dren. More than 300 metro De-
troiters gathered that night to
mourn their dead family mem-
bers.
On the way to Adat Shalom, I
listened to that woman. I heard
the recollections of her grandson,
a young entrepreneur, blud-
geoned in the head, left dead for
days in a locked apartment.
She'll never get the bloody im-
age out of her mind.
Want your kicks, movie-goers?
How about ditching your date at
the cinema and attending an
event like the Parents of Mur-
dered Children benefit? Listen
to these people's stories. See the
pain in their faces.
Now that's entertainment.

❑