WE DENOUNCE ISRAEL'S
CLAIM 1 e3E1054LEM!
"
An Open Checkbook
Brought An Open Debate
Jay Kogan's $5 million, which Hillel leaders
chose not to accept at this time, did this com-
munity a tremendous amount of good.
Even if you had little or no contact with the
day school, the process worked through by Hil-
lel's board and parent body got to the raw core
of how important a day school is held by its com-
munity.
There were no losers here. Mr. Kogan has
shown himself to be a ba'al tzedakah, a right-
eous giver in our community. Hillel, a school
which has educated some of Detroit's finest lead-
ers, taught its future leaders that sometimes de-
cisions are difficult and causes are hard-fought.
If anything, the decision to turn away from the
$5 million will bring together the families of this
school, whether they call Oak Park or Farm-
ington Hills their home.
What Hillel faced, though, should be of spe-
cial attention to our community for other rea-
sons. After Bill Davidson donated $15 million to
the Jewish Theological Seminary, sources told
the Jewish News that the climate was right for
other big gifts to come the way of educational in-
stitutions.
Sometimes, be it timing, or the strings at-
tached to certain grants, the money isn't right
for the particular time. That was the case here
with Hillel.
This school will continue to grow on its ex-
isting campus, and continue to be among the na-
tion's elite Conservative day schools.
Mr. Kogan hopefully forced other community
leaders, not necessarily affiliated with Hillel, to
wonder about the future of day schools here in
Detroit. Oh, there's no question that the growth
of Jewish day school education is a success sto-
ry here. But it's getting so successful that facil-
ities such as Akiva and Darchei Torah and even
the Sally Allen Alexander Bais Yaakov School
For Girls, are bursting at the seams.
Finding prospective new homes for Darchei
Torah and Akiva has been difficult. And finding
the money to fund any moves or expansion has
also been problematic.
The point is we are growing as a communi-
ty, and with that growth we need to ask where
will we educate our children. We can't let growth
happen to us, where we find ourselves under the
pressure of leaving a facility for something bet-
ter. Instead, we need as a community to study
where Hinds needs will be best suited 20 years
from now. Where can Akiva experience contin-
ued growth? And how about the needs of Yeshi-
va Beth Yehudah's two facilities and Darchei
Torah and even Yeshiva Gedolah? Maybe
Maple/Drake is indeed too far out of the Jewish
communal picture? How about existing Jewish
facilities in Southfield and Oak Park?
When someone comes again, and it will hap-
pen, with a check in hand, there should be a bet-
ter plan in hand. Whether that plan comes from
Federation or from the schools themselves, or a
combination of the two, we need to have a bet-
ter idea now where our unborn generations will
thrive.
Federation officials, school boards and parent
bodies should act to help plot a reasonable course
now.
Non-Nuclear Spring
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Spring flowers are blossoming everywhere and
baseball is back on the radio. It's hard to picture
a more pleasant time of year — as long as one
avoids news reports about a United Nations con-
ference that began this week.
In New York City, representatives of 175 na-
tions convened on Monday to hammer out a re-
newal of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of
Nuclear Weapons. Most Western nations favor
re-signing the pact. But some non-nuclear ones
— claiming that nuclear powers are slow to dis-
mantle their weapons and have not shared nu-
clear technology for peaceful purposes, as
promised — are not so eager.
Some who are reluctant, like Egypt, claim that
the treaty lacks "universality." Translated, that
means that Israel, believed to have nuclear ca-
pabilities since the early 1960s, did not sign the
original accord and will not sign a new one. Oth-
er non-nuclear powers warn against pushing
through a majority vote, as some Western na-
tions say can be done. A vote without legitimate
debate and compromise would only irritate op-
ponents, potentially encouraging them to vio-
late an agreement from which they felt alienat-
ed.
Signatories to the original accord in 1970
should renew their pact.
Israel knows something about countries who
claim to be in accordance with the pact. Iraq was
one of the first and Iran later pledged to abide by
it. Both say they will again commit to it. Syria has
not made its intentions clear. We recall the sum-
mer of 1981 when the Israel Air Force success-
fully bombed Iraq's French-built nuclear reactor
in Iraq. This week, there were more reports about
China's agreement to sell nuclear technology to
Iran. North Korea, an exporter of weapons to Syr-
ia, also is believed to be either on the road or at
the door of nuclear capability. We must also be
mindful of the inability of U.N. inspection teams
to search Iraq for conventional weapons.
When Israel is confident that all of her neigh-
bors are willing to forgo the nuclear weapons
path, it should put its signature on the treaty.
The nuclear game is a dangerous one. The more
mechanisms in place to monitor the spread of
nuclear materials, the better.
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JERUSALEM
VISITORS
CENTER
Letters
A Deeper Meaning
To 'Palestinian'?
For the first time, the Detroit
Jewish News had given "aid and
comfort" to the enemies of Jews.
Recently, the Jewish News pub-
lished an article on the intifada
by Eric Silver which talked about
"cars received in Palestine."
We repeat. There is no "Pales-
tine," and there are no "Pales-
tinians." For 47 years, the State
of Israel has insisted that its pop-
ulation consists of Jews and
Arabs but no "Palestinians." Only
now, with Gaza and Jericho be-
ing the cities under "Palestinian
Authority," does the Jewish News
claim that that is "Palestine."
Jericho and Gaza are not "Pales-
tine." Even Yasser Arafat does
not claim that. "Palestine" re-
quires Jerusalem as its capital,
but Israel claims the city is re-
united and never to be split apart
again.
Besides, "Palestine" was a
slave name imposed on Israel by
the Roman Empire in 135 AD. It
was designed to break the con-
nection the Jews had with the
Land of Judea and Israel. Both
the Romans and their intent
have long ago died, but the
British Empire found that the
Jews alone, used "Palestinian" as
a substitute for "Zionist" (Tell Me
Why, by Elizabeth Applebaum).
The Arabs, because the British
were imperialist, refused to use
the word until 1964 with the
founding of the PLO.
If the Detroit Jewish News
wants to call the Arabs of Judea-
Samaria, "Palestinian-Arabs,"
then the Jews who live there too,
must be called "Palestinian-
Jews." That way, "Palestinian"
has no meaning as the Jews fight
the Arabs again over ownership
of land.
rabbi refuses to officiate at in-
terfaith marriages, then the mes-
sage sent out to the
intermarrying children will con-
tinue to be one of rejection rather
than welcome."
I am unfamiliar with any
study that supports this conclu-
sion. As a matter of fact, the 1990
National Jewish Population
Study found precisely the oppo-
site. This study was reported on,
at length, in an article entitled
"Rabbi or No Rabbi, Jewishness
Isn't Affected New Study Says",
in the June 8, 1990 issue of the
Jewish News. The article stated
"that no positive connection may
be positioned between rabbinic
officiation and non-officiation and
subsequent (Jewish) communal
involvement."
Synagogues grow and shrink
for a variety of reasons. Signifi-
cant factors include quality of the
clergy and the school, welcoming
atmosphere, location, level of pol-
itics within the congregation, fi-
nancial committments required,
congregational activities and
much more.
Synagogues which meet most
of the needs of the congregants
in these areas tend to grow; syn-
agogues which fail to meet most
of these needs tend to lose mem-
bers.
I have little knowledge of the
specific causes of Temple Beth
El's decline in membership. How-
ever, I would urge the member-
ship and the board of Temple
Beth El to seriously examine why
the membership numbers are de-
clining. When they do so, I am
confident that they will not find
a rabbi's refusal to officiate at in-
termarriages to be a significant
factor.
Rabbi Daniel Pernick,
Pearl River, N.Y.
Michael Drissman,
Farmington Hills
Interfaith Weddings
Not A Factor
Your March 31 cover story re-
ports that the board of Temple
Beth El feels that a rabbi's refusal
to perform interfaith weddings
has been a reason for the temple's
decline in membership. In the
words of their presidential advi-
sory committee, "...if the senior
Letters Policy
Letters must be type-
written, double-spaced,
and include the name,
home address, daytime
phone number and sig-
nature of the writer.