Help Wanted! "Just watching the news is more traumatic for our children than coming out here," said Tzip- pi Floresheim as youngsters worked all around her to prepare another hilltop protest site. "Peo- ple abroad think these demon- strations are over a political disagreement, but we feel that we're headed for a new holocaust. So the demonstrations are more a catharsis for our children than a trauma. At least they see that we're doing something." Other mothers speak of the ed- ucational value of "teaching chil- dren to love their land and that sometimes they must fight for what they love." But Dr. Kadman suspects that the demonstrators bring their children to potentially violent events because their presence has the desired effect — if not on the broader public then at least on the soldiers facing them. Indeed, before long the debate had spread from involving chil- dren in demonstrations to em- ploying women soldiers to remove them (along with their mothers and female protesters in gener- al). That controversy was sparked by film clips of female conscripts — who are no more than teen-agers themselves — openly weeping as they carried out their tasks. "Our girls were not drafted into the army for this purpose," a former commander in the Women's Corps argued hotly on the radio. But Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin soon silenced such complaints by shaming their pro- ponents into consistency. "The feminists demand that women be allowed to be fighter pilots but oppose their being used to evac- uate [settlers]," he sneered at a meeting of the Labor Party leg- islators. Besides, young women soldiers are not the only tender souls in the Israeli army. "When we reached the demonstration site and saw the hundreds of families — children, women, and babies, people tied with handcuffs to stones, buildings and vehicles — we were shaken," a 19-year-old paratrooper reported in the af- termath of one protest. "I signed up for an elite combat unit and find myself facing a crying little child. We'd rather return to corn- bat duty in Lebanon." Similar sentiments were voiced by soldiers during the in- tifada, when they spoke of feel- ing "humiliated" by having to chase stone-throwing urchins down blind alleys. Policing demonstrators, they argued then (and argue now), is not a task for which they were drafted or are trained. Indeed, after a meeting with legal and law enforcement officials Sunday, Mr. Rabin de- cided that from now on, only po- licemen will be used to vacate the settlers from their strongholds (while soldiers guard their perimeters). Yet the question remains whether protesters, whatever their cause, could not make their point just as forcefully without involving children in their strug- gle. "Every demonstrator will tell you that he's fighting for the sake of his kids, but that's not the point," said Dr. Kadman. "What we need is a wall-to-wall 'social contract' that leaves children out of social and political struggles. This is not an attempt to gag protest," he stressed. "Israelis have every right to air their griev- ances on the streets and hilltops. But if they're really concerned about their children's welfare, they should leave their kids at home." ❑ Bosnia, Again Jewish leaders — in the face of the Balkans tragedy see the Holocaust's lessons slipping away. Curriculum Facilitators/Speakers Needed Now! •Interested in working with Jewish youth and their families? •Committed to AIDS education in your community? •Looking for a satisfying volunteer experience? • The Michigan Jewish AIDS Coalition Needs YOU! Training for MJAC Curriculum Facilitators and Speakers BureaL. 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, September 11 & 13 and 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Sunday, September 17 No charge. To register, call: 810/356-2123 Training for new and veteran volunteers provided by the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project MICHIGAN JEWISH AIDS COALITION J MODERN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION! Bah ablZahalli hillel mows Our energetic, new religious school Director, Cantor Ben-Zion Lanxner, leads a terrific team of teachers at one of the most heymish shuls in town to bring the best in Jewish education to your entire family! FREE kindergarten for members omprehensive up-to-date curriculum Children's choir weekly learning service JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT T he U.S. Holocaust Memor- ial Museum, for the first time, has directly ad- dressed an issue in today's tumultuous world. Last week, diplomatic representatives from around the world gathered at the museum for a service intended to express ecumenical horror at the "ethnic cleansing" that con- tinues to ravage Bosnia. The week before, both Houses of Congress voted to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia, a stinging re- buke to the Clinton administra- tion. In the Senate, all nine Jewish members — eight De- mocrats and one Republican — voted with the GOP majority; in the House, support for the con- troversial action among Jewish members was strong, though not unanimous. Both events reflect something just below the surface of Jewish activism: more and more, Jewish leaders are afraid that the lessons of the Holocaust have been lost to a world that seems unwilling to take chances to stop genocide. Jews, like others, do not have solutions to the quagmire in the former Yugoslavia, which deep- ened this week with a Croatian offensive and resulting tidal wave of refugees. But increasingly, BOSNIA, AGAIN page 110 Connect to your Jewish heritage - Grow in knowledge Call us for more information - (810) 539-8012 Beth Abraham Hillel Moses 5075 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield 'Our BIG name reflects our BIG heart! IP TRADITIONAL JEWISH VALUES! 109