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Public Domain Is Appropriate
For Once 'Private' Debate
If you've been following these pages lately, it
seems as if one group after another is holding
critical town hall-like meetings to determine the
very future of their organizations.
Indeed, Hillel Day School is weighing whether
to accept a $5 million gift that has as a condi-
tion, moving to the Maple-Drake Jewish Com-
munity Campus. The beleaguered JCC Health
Club sponsored an open forum so that its lead-
ership could hear the concerns and suggestions
of its members. Temple Beth El, which recent-
ly decided to end its relationship with Rabbi
Daniel Polish, is also publicly questioning the
direction it will take.
A contingent of mayors from Israel's Galilee,
taking part in the joint Project 2000 with the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, vis-
ited our community last week in a sort of reverse
Miracle Mission. One of the mayors comment-
ed several times how impressed she was with
levels of activity she saw here.
She was Edna Rodrig, deputy mayor of
Nazareth Illit. And she was right. The key,
though, is that all three meetings held an in-
terest that went far beyond the four walls of their
respective buildings. As critical as we can be of
ourselves, Detroit's Jewish community does hold
a concern and feels a responsibility for its mem-
bers, be they in Oak Park or Farmington Hills.
Hillel's decision-making process is important
even if we don't have children enrolled, because
it could affect the funding decisions of the Fed-
eration as well as bring in issues of continuity
and even Jewish migration once again.
The JCC Health Club, an important cog of the
facility's ability to effectively move forward to
the next century, is important to us all. As we've
reported, the 1950s-70s concept of a JCC is at
risk, and now is being publicly debated. The role
of the JCC will most certainly have to change
if it is to survive.
Beth El has opened itself to scrutiny, and is
almost a model of what happens when a temple
or synagogue must weigh its spiritual duties
with its financial stability. Beth El is not alone
in the Detroit community when it comes to fis-
cal problems, nor is it alone across the country.
All three of these issues are important enough
to be publicly debated. This is hardly bad news,
though. It's important, and its place in the pub-
lic domain proves Mayor Rodrig's observations.
When a community is moving forward, there are
often growing pains. There will be more meet-
ings, more public give and take.
And it's all so right that the give and take is
public.
TH E D E TRO I T J E WI S H NE WS
Fixin' To Run You
In the Jewish News:
Go Ahead, Draw!
4
So, you were the one in class who phased in and
out of Ancient Greek History 101 with
lively drawings of the teacher in
toga and laurel leaves gracing the
inside covers of your notebook.
Everyone you know thinks you are
funny, not funny looking. And, you'r
also politically knowledgeable. Let's s e
now. You can draw, you're funny and ou
know what's going on in Jewish De oit
and the world. That can only mea one
thing. It's time to get a life. Just kidding. You
open up your local newspapers, and when you
see the editorial cartoons or comics say to no
one in particular, "I can do that."
But you never have.
Here's your big chance. The Detroit Jewish
News is looking for one or two people to take part
in an editorial cartoon rotation. But first you must
pass the supreme test. No, it's not a Greek His-
tory 101 exam, it's even more difficult: the ap-
proval of our readers. When we receive significant
numbers of entries, we'll run them on our edi-
torial page and we'll ask our readers to vote.
4 We'll take the
\\,,t
popular decision along
\\\ with those of our editors
and art team and who
knows, maybe the stuff on
your notebook cover wasn't such
a waste of time after all.
We're looking for editorial cartoons that in-
clude local subjects. While a likeness of Rabin,
Clinton or Arafat is fine, we want you also to
illustrate local people and issues you might see
in The Jewish News.
Go ahead and give it a try. Send three nonre-
turnable entries to Phil Jacobs, Editor, The De-
troit Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Rd.,
Southfield, MI. 48076. No phone calls, please.
Just send us your stuff.
Letters
Bad Idea
When the rabbi becomes a true
chief executive officer, and aban-
dons teaching Torah, then he has
forgotten what business he is in.
Sounds like a bad idea.
Eliezer Fmkelman
Berkeley, Calif
Write Checks
To Polish Victims
After reading your article, "Re-
building the Past," I did not know
whether to laugh or cry over the
actions of some of my fellow Jews.
Two local attorneys — one of
them a Jew — are encouraging
Jews to step forward if they can
prove that she/he or their rela-
tives owned land in Poland that
was stolen by the Nazis. The Pol-
ish government will "generous-
give back a portion of land to
the claimant — although the gov-
ernment concedes it will more
than likely be a smaller parcel—
with the condition that the Jew-
ish claimant contribute money
and resources for the develop-
ment of that land. If you do not
pay the asking price, you do not
get your property back. In other
words, pay the thief or relinquish
your claim to your property. Such
a deal.
It should come as no surprise
that Polish government officials
are "eager to get the land back to
Jewish developers." They are
smart enough to remember that
it was the Polish officials of sev-
eral hundred years ago who wise-
ly encouraged and welcomed
Jews to settle on Polish land.
During this time period, Poland
was the beneficiary of Jewish
brains, money and hard work in
developing its economy. Of
course, this was "repaid" when
Jews who managed to survive
the Nazi death camps came
home to their neighborhoods only
to be murdered by their Polish
neighbors who then confiscated
their homes and property.
If the Polish government is so
eager to amend the wrongs of the
past, why not just write a check
to the victims? Please do not for-
get to include appreciation and
interest. But don't expect a thank
you for giving back to me what is
rightfully mine to begin with.
And please don't add injury to in-
sult by telling me I have to pay
to reclaim even a portion of my
land and pass this off as the deal
of the century.
I would like to remind the two
attorney deal makers, particu-
larly the Jewish one, that Polish
land is soaked forever with Jew-
ish blood. A land of bones and
ashes ofJews who died there just
50 years ago is no place for Jews
to help a Polish government de-
velop its economy and industri-
al zones. I would rather
encourage you to place your time
and efforts — and Jewish mon-
ey — in developing the Jewish
homeland, Eretz Yisroel. There
is much work to do there. And I
can assure you that your efforts
will reap higher financial and
spiritual rewards to the benefit
ofJews everywhere.
Miriam S. Shear
Oak Park
High Cost
Of Being Jewish
Thank you for the article on the
cost of being Jewish. But it was
mute regarding one aspect of the
expenses associated with
kashruth, day-school education,
yomim tovim, and the like.
When the price of kosher
chicken exceeds non-kosher by
well over a dollar a pound; when
a palm frond and a citrus fruit for
Sukkot command $60 or more;
and when the cost of a jar of
gefilte fish at Pesach time jumps
by half over the identical jar (also f/\
certified kosher for Passover) the
rest of the year, there's no ques-
tion that we're being gouged.
The Talmud relates the story
of a sage who reacted to the in-
creasing of prices by local potters
after Pesach by threatening to
rule that it would no be longer be
necessary to discard and replace
pots used before the holiday, de-
priving the potters of a captive
market to prey upon. Today's
rabbinate can profit from this ex-
ample. For all we know, the ex-
pense may be all that holds many
people back from living Jewish-
ly. As advocates of Yiddishkeit,
the rabbinate's interests lie in
acting to end abusive pricing and
letting the law of supply and de-
mand generate more "con-
sumers."
Eliahu Shevin
Oak Park
LETTERS page 10