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A Mixed Message: Hate And Solidarity

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20

FARRAKHAN page 18

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Beth Abraham Hillel Moses
joined congregations across the
nation standing -- in protest --
outside their synagogues on
Shernini Atzeret.
The purpose of Monday's
demonstration was for Jews to
make a statement against Na-
tion of Islam leader Louis Far-
rakhan, who on the same day
assembled an estimated
400,000 African-American
males in the nation's capital.
It wasn't the march that an-
gered Jews, but its leader, the
Rev. Farrakhan, who has a his-
t,ory of making racist and anti-
Semitic remarks.
"As soon as I got the letter
(about the protest) I didn't hes-
itate to participate," said Rab-
bi A. Irving Schnipper of Beth
Abraham Hillel Moses, one of
several congregations partici-
pating in the protest organized
by the New-York based Amelia:
the Coalition for Jewish Con-
cerns. "We felt this was some-
thing that had to be done, and
it had to take place in a digni-
fied fashion."
As participants in the Million
Man March answered a call for
personal atonement and racial
solidarity, African Americans
and Jews closer to home ex-
pressed mixed reactions. Some
were able to separate the mes-
sage from the messenger, but
others could not
"Farrakhan delivers many
messages," said Bill Nabers, a
former officer of the Southern
Oakland County NAACP, who
wanted to, but was unable to
attend the march. "I support his
efforts to uplift the African-
American community, but I
don't support his hate message.
"His messages regarding eco-
nomics in the African-Ameri-
can community and messages
about taking responsibility for
what happens in the African-

what we see today, maybe it's
time to talk, not with any pre-
conditions. You hurt, we hurt;
you got pain, we got pain, too.
The question is, if the dialogue is
proper, then we might be able to
end the pain. And ending the
pain may be good for both of us,
and ultimately good for the na-
tion."
In words obviously aimed at
the Anti-Defamation League, his
harshest critic in the Jewish
world, he drew parallels to the
Middle East. "I guess if you can
sit down with (Yassir) Arafat,
where there are rivers of blood
between, why can't you sit down
with us and dialogue? It doesn't
make sense not to dialogue."
But ADL was cool to that sug-
gestion.

American community are all
things I find noteworthy and
embrace wholeheartedly. There
were people there, like Dennis
Archer, who are not and never
have been anti-Semitic."
Brian J. Kott, president of
the American Jewish Com-
mittee-Detroit Chapter, and
Allen Zemmol, president of the
Jewish Community Council,
both had a hard time separat-
ing the message from the mes-
senger.
"The march is a very difficult
thing to comment on because
the overall theme of the march
is appropriath. But its organiz-
er undermines its credibility,"
Mr. Kott said "It gives Far-
rakhan prominent visibility."
That visibility, Mr. Kott said,
could result in an outcome sim-
ilar to what David Duke expe-
rienced: he articulated his racist
point of view to the degree that
it lost him credibility and sup-
port.
Mr. Zemmol said, "(His par-
ticipation) is something he is go-
ing to be asked to deal with. The
Jewish community would like
to know his response."
Among the most outspoken
critics of Mayor Archer's par-
ticipation in Monday's march
was state Rep. Deborah Why-
man, a Republican from Can-
ton Township. Rep. Whyman
returned a campaign contribu-
tion from Mayor Archer.
"How can the mayor of one of
the largest cities in the United
States endorse the viewpoints
of. an arch-racist like Far-
rakhan?" Rep. Whyrnan said in
a written statement "I want no
part of Farrakhan's anti-Se-
mitic, anti-Catholic, anti-white
political agenda."
The mayor's office did not re-
turn telephone calls on the is-
sue. Cl

"ADL would ask Minister Far-
rakhan to apply to himself the
steps of atonement that he out-
lined for his listeners," said ADL
director Abraham H. Foxman in
a statement. "We continue to re-
quire the Nation of Islam to im-
mediately cease distributing
anti-Semitic literature. This then
could be a 'new beginning' and
the basis for dialogue."
Earlier in the day, President
Bill Clinton took a swipe at the
Nation of Islam leader in a
speech on the nation's racial cri-
sis in Austin, Texas.
"One million men are right to
be standing up for personal re-
sponsibility, but 1 million men
do not make right one man's mes-
sage of malice and division," he
said. El

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