PH OTO BY RICHARD SCHEINWAL D
SHIR LASHALOM
(A Song of Peace)
Let the sun rise, the morning shine,
The finest of prayers can bring us back no more.
And he whose flame has been extinguished,
Who's buried in the ground,
No bitter wails will wake him, will him restore.
No one can bring us back from the dark of the grave.
Here, neither the joy of victory
Nor paeans for the brave; can help.
Just sing therefore, a song to peace
Don't whisper prayers.
Far better sing a song to peace,
And sing it way out loud.
Let the sun in through the flowers.
Don't look back, let the fallen rest.
Raise your eyes in hope, not through the barrels of a gun.
Sing a song to love and not to victories.
Don't say "a day will come": go bring that day yourself,
For it is not a dream.
In all the squares, ring out a song for peace.
We mourn the passing
of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
THE JEWISH NEWS
ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA
METRO DETROIT DISTRICT
is shocked and outraged at the
assassination of Prime Minister
YITZHAK RABIN,514
and conveys its deepest condolences
to The Rabin Family, The People of
Israel, and The House of Israel.
BULLETS page R10
can. It's hard for those who don't
know to understand that Ortho-
dox men really, honestly cannot
come to an event where a woman
is singing. The law they follow is
called Kol Isha. The memorial
event organizers knew this, yet
they still had a woman up there
singing. For most, it's not a prob-
lem. In fact, it even sounds ridicu-
lous. But I guarantee all of you: If
there were some remote
philosophy or law that would
offend an African American, a
gentile, or anyone else, we would
have made sure that the issue
never came up.
How many times I have heard
Jews labeling Orthodox with
offensive words. You all have
heard, no doubt, the smirks about
observant families having so
many kids, and living hand-to-
mouth. Or people who refuse to
walk into an Orthodox synagogue
because there is no mixed-gender
seating. The rumors, the misin-
formation sometimes rules all of
us. Yet, we don't learn the whys,
the reasons.
Maybe more Orthodox people
would have come on Monday
night if the event were staged at
a more common site.
I can turn this around easily.
Because, unfortunately, I've also
heard my share of quips out of the
mouths of the most observant
about Conservative and Reform
Jews. A lot of time it's done with
such sarcasm, it's difficult to
believe that the sources have
really learned anything from the
Torah they live by.
But these little quips have got
to stop. It's not funny to call a Re-
form temple a "church." It's not
funny to call a Reform mikvah a
"country club pool."
On Tuesday, many faxes came
over our machine, mostly from
people condemning the assassi-
nation of Yitzhak Rabin. Only one
of these faxes came up with a
solution. It came from the desk of
Dr. Mark Smiley, the headmas-
ter at Hillel.
In a strongly worded state-
ment, Dr. Smiley proposed that
a Declaration of Educational
Principles be prepared dedicated
to "Ahavat Yisrael (the love of
Israel) against violence in edu-
cational teaching, the respect of
other Jewish political, religious
positions and against the teach-
ing of hatred of others."
The Torah requires
tolerance.
I am urging in this column
that organizations, be they Or-
thodox, Reform, Conservative,
secular, or any other label, step
forward and participate. The
truth is, we don't know much
about other Jews. In an effort to
make friends with everyone else
in Detroit, we've forgotten about
our very own community.
We're turning so much into us
vs. them. I remember, though, re-
cently looking around the room
at the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
dinner and seeing Jews from all
parts of the community coming
together to support a good cause.
I remember just last week, in the
social hall of B'nai Moshe, Or-
thodox, Reform, Conservative —
Jews from all walks of life —
gathering in support ofYad Ezra,
the kosher food bank.
And I remember, two years
ago, people in yarmulkes with
Jews from all over the commu-
nity building a playground to-
gether at the JPM. In all three
cases, we were building some-
thing strong. But we can't restrict
that spirit of cooperation to a ban-
quet hall or a community center.
We have to live tolerance, in our
homes and outside our homes.
Unity Shabbat?
I'm not sure we'll ever come
close to real unity, until we bother
to learn who we are. ❑
Who Recalls Gedaliah?
History Repeats Itself
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
.
•
6, :
.rinz
t:n8
-1
May the Lord comfort you with all the
mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
GEORGE MANN
EZEKIEL LEIKIN
SIDNEY SILVERMAN
President
Exec. Vice Pres.
Hon. Chairman, Nat'l Board
T
he last time a Jew assassi-
nated a Jewish head of
state was in 586 BCE,
shortly after the Babyloni-
ans captured Jerusalem.
The victim, Gedaliah, was said
to be a pious Jew, a righteous
man. The Babylonians had ap-
pointed him governor of Judah,
but Ishmael, a descendant of the
Jewish royal family, lusted for
the job and killed Gedaliah to get
it.
Some historians note that
Ishmael might have been trying
to overthrow Babylonian rule.
But his plan didn't work. The few
Jews who had remained in the
area, post-Babylonian exile, fled
to Egypt out of fear that King
Nebuchadnezzar would blame
them for Gedaliah's death.
"That was it for any significant
Jewish population in Israel," says
Rabbi Steven Well of Young Is-
rael of Greenfield.
Rabbi Weil conveys this story
in the wake of Yitzhak Rabin's
assassination. The tragedy could
be a case of history repeating it-