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Editor's Notebook
Community Views
The Warm Glow Of 1990
Returns Every Year
Abortion And Violence:
De Humanizing Issue
ALAN HITSKY ASSOC ATE ED TOR
RABBI AMY B. BRODSKY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Stuart and Rhoda off. The sports are important, but
Taub are not ath- they're not the only thing. That's
letes, unless you why Detroit teens this summer
count the bowling will fly to Houston or Los Ange-
league. Their chil- les two days early for regional
dren have grown Maccabi games. The Detroit club
and they certainly wanted a guarantee that Shab-
don't have anyone bat would be part of the games.
who qualifies for the
Cleveland did a wonderful job
Maccabi Games.
last year hosting the North
But in 1990, when Detroit American games. But Detroit
hosted the JCC North American club officials were unhappy that
Maccabi Youth Games, the the opening ceremonies were
Taubs spent a week at the Jew- Sunday night and the games end-
ish Community Center, helping ed Thursday. If the athletes can't
to feed thousands of adult coach- spend some free time with the
es and teen-age athletes from all host family or take advantage of
over the world.
community Shabbat activities,
It wasn't a glamour job, serv- then the teen-agers are missing
ing the food. It didn't get the the point.
it
lies to "choose other activities."
"We've never tied participation
to ability to pay," he says. To that
end, Detroit Maccabi has had
some quiet contributors over the
years, and a fall fun-run raises
money to help families who might
have difficulty with the fee.
On Sunday, Feb. 5, the club is
adding a new fund-raiser: Movies
for Maccabi at the Pontiac Show-
case Cinema on Telegraph. Pa-
trons may attend any show at the
12-theater complex that starts
between 3:30 and 6 p.m. and a
Maccabi reception will be held
from 3 to 4:30.
Alan Horowitz worries about
fund-raising. "Maccabi is a posi-
tive experience for the kids, not
,-)
a charity," he says.
That's OK Movies for Maccabi
won't be my favorite Maccabi
memory, either. That would have
to be watching my 15-year-old
son hanging out last year with
Left:
two other swim team studs and
Part of the
an attendant crowd of young
Detroit
ladies. Or sons No. 1 and 2 in
team at
Cleveland's 1989 swimming together for the
first time, on a Maccabi relay,
opening
ceremonies and winning a silver medal.
Or watching Detroit's volley-
baliteam power its way to a gold.
Or seeing Jay Robinson and
family here, there and every-
where, making sure things are
running smoothly.
Or watching Stuart and Rho-
da Taub smile while remember-
ing working long hours in a
cafeteria.
The local Maccabi club loves to
I'm not sure I can be at Movies
win, but it also has emphasized for Maccabi on Feb. 5. And I
community-building, giving Jew- haven't asked the Taubs. But I
ish teens a chance to meet other know we'll all be there again in
Jewish youth, just like them, 1998, for the parties and the work,
from other places.
if the Detroit Maccabi Club de-
Detroit Maccabi is facing a cides to host the games again. EJ
dilemma this year. The Cleve-
Tickets for Movies for Mac-
land games cost each athlete
$450. Houston or Los Angeles cabi are $25 for adults and $18
this summer will cost $650, to for youth through age 18. They
cover the cost of air fare, uni- can be purchased at the door or
forms, entry fees. Club president by calling Sandi Matz, (810) 851-
Alan Horowitz worries that the 2660.
higher fee will cause some fami-
Top: A
Detroiter
flies down
the pool in
Cleveland.
headlines or the photographs in
the paper like the opening cere-
monies at the Palace, the sports
competitions, the social events at
Boblo and the Detroit Zoo.
Yet it left hundreds of volun-
teers like the Taubs with a wax in
feeling about themselves, about
Jewish youth, and about our com-
munity.
Maccabi has a way of doing
that. Since the first youth games
in 1982, Detroit's Maccabi Club
volunteers have been blessed
with an attitude that has rubbed
About
one
month ago, after
returning home
from doing some
errands, I turned
on the television
and saw the end
of a "newsbreak"
which caught
my attention:
"Two dead in shootings in
Brookline, Mass." My ears
perked up — Brookline? That's
where Dennis' (my husband's)
aunt, uncle, and cousins live!
What happened in Brookline?
Who died and why?
As I was horrified to find out
later, two people were killed
and five others wounded in at-
tacks on two women's clinics.
These senseless deaths still
haunt me. Two people cut
down in the prime of their lives
and for what reason? The de-
lay by some anti-abortionists
in condemning the murders
also troubles me a great deal.
How can someone who con-
siders him/herself to be "pro-
life" justify the killing of
people? It doesn't makes
sense.. Shouldn't "pro-life"
mean pro-life, not just pro-fe-
tus?
In the Jan. 15 issue of the
Detroit Free Press, Dr. Ronald
Graeser, medical examiner for
the western Michigan counties
of Newaygo, Lake and Osceo-
la, is quoted as saying, "If the
only way you can stop him (a
doctor who performs abortions)
is to kill him, it's morally jus-
tifiable. I think it's logical." To
kill a person because he/she is
performing an action with
which you disagree, rather
than trying to convince
him/her to do otherwise, is il-
logical, Dr. Graeser.
The anti-abortion groups
which -support such actions
Amy Brodsky is a rabbi at
Temple Emanu-el.
frighten me; they are danger-
ous. Donna Bray, director of
the Defenders of Life, reacting
to the Massachusetts clinics
killings, is quoted as saying:
"No children were murdered
that day." She seems to think
that all is well as long as no
abortions occurred that day.
What about those people who
died? Killing people — people
with families and friends, peo-
ple with lives — is reprehen-
sible.
My studies have led me to
the conclusion that abortion is
permitted in certain specific in-
stances. The sources (Exodus
21:22-23, Ohalot 7:6 and
Arakhin 7a are the main texts
usually cited in discussion of
the abortion question) clearly
support this conclusion. Many
Jewish organizations — from
the Reform, Conservative, and
Reconstructionist movements
as well as intergroup organi-
zations — espouse this view-
point. Together with
organizations from various
Christian denominations, we
form the Religious Coalition
for Abortion Rights. RCAR
was founded to keep abortion
legal as well as to stop the vi-
olence associated with the
abortion debate. Thirty-six na-
tional groups, representing
millions of religious, pro-choice
Americans, comprise RCAR.
Its work is crucial. RCAR
shows people that being reli-
gious and being pro-choice are
not mutually exclusive as the
so-called "Religious Right"
would have us believe.
Regardless of where each of
us stands on the abortion is-
sue, we must all stand togeth-
er against incidents such as
the one that occurred in Brook-
line last month. The murder-
ers must be punished; more
importantly, we must prevent
the killings from occurring in
the first place.
Is Yad Vashem
Optional?
LEONARD FEIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
M
any American Jews,
raised to believe that
Auschwitz is the
most important
thing that ever happened to
our people, will be confused by
the decision of Israel's Foreign
Office to drop a visit to Yad
Vashem (Israel's principal
Holocaust memorial) from the
mandatory itinerary of visit-
ing dignitaries. If Yad Vashem
is no longer where a visit be-
gins, what happens to the
"From Ashes to Rebirth"
metaphor?
Until now, official visitors
to Israel, as if to tell them
quite literally where we as a
people are coming from, were
taken to Yad Vashem. Pre-
YAD VASHEM page 8