JEWISH NEWS
CC
UJ
LLJ
R4
Douglass Bloom, president of the Jewish Community
Center:
"We're Jews. We go on and we keep building a com-
munity. Rabin helped show us the way in many ways. He
cherished peace more than anyone."
Helen Moss, shopping at Book Fair:
"This will cause a schism in Israel. A schism between
the secular and the religious is there."
Mark Schlussel, past president of Federation:
"This is a day of infamy in Jewish history. We need
to mourn for ourselves as a people, for Rabin and for all
Jews. "I was profoundly stunned. Have we as a people
begun to imitate our adversaries?
"There was a whole process of dehumanization of Ra-
bin where people found it acceptable to place him in a
Nazi uniform and do all sorts of abusive and despicable
things. 'The Talmud teaches us that we as Jews have the
right to hold different opinions with one another.
"I believe the assassination of Rabin has a parallel with
that of Abraham Lincoln."
Rabbi Solomon Gruskin, Congregation B'nai Zion, Oak
Park:
"We should teach our people not to kill."
Carol Plotkin, of Franklin:
"It's a very devastating blow to Israel and to the rest
of the world. It's horrifying to think that another Jew-
ish person could have killed Rabin."
Ahmad, a Lebanese immigrant:
"We condemn this brutal action. I had great hope be-
cause Rabin was the man to make peace with Lebanon.
"We (Lebanese) are against any killing. The guy that
killed Rabin killed the peace. But, we will not let it go.
It will be revived.
"I still have great hope in Peres. We will support him."
Rabbi Bernard Antin, WSU law student:
"On a personal level, I'm deeply upset by his murder,
not because I supported the peace process or because I
supported Rabin's behavior in any way, shape or form.
"However, you don't settle things with bullets; you set-
tle them with balance. I would have liked to have seen
Rabin leave office, but not in this way."
"It's very sad that the assassin would have used God
in his defense. I don't think this is the Jewish way to ac-
complish your ends. I think it reflects badly on observant
Judaism. I just really hope this doesn't affect people's view
of Orthodoxy and the rabbinate.
"I don't believe in land for peace, but a Jew's life has to
be guided by Halachah (Jewish law), and the idea of squar-
ing the murder with Jewish law is a non-starter."
Kevin Elbinger, Wayne State student:
"I was convinced that it was the Islamic jihad that did
it. No doubt in my mind. If it had been an Arab, the whole
peace process might have gone down the tubes."
Shira Drissman, Wayne State student:
"I was very surprised. I walked around in a daze for
about an hour. I never agreed with Rabin, but I never
thought about (the killing) being a possibility in trying to
stop the giving away of Israel."
"But you can't just stop telling the truth because you might
be labeled something," she said. "The truth is the truth.
If people don't like it, that's too bad. Either you're true to
yourself, or you're not."
Osama Siblani, editor and publisher of theArab Amer-
ican News:
"We share in the condemnation of the assassination of
the prime minister's life. We are not in a state of mourn-
ing. Nor does the event call for joy and laughter. To be
straightforward about it, if Arafat were to be assassinated,
I don't think many tears would be shed in the Jewish com-
munity.
"We have been calling for peaceful coexistence, and
now Jews are killing Jews. That's something we won't
celebrate. It's another sad chapter in the history of the
Middle East.
"Yitzhak Rabin was shot and killed because he shook the
hands of Arab leaders. This is the kind of thing we're try-
ing to stop. We hope the future will be in the hands of peo-
ple who want peaceful coexistence in the Middle East." ❑
emorial Service
At Adat Shalom
Thousands gather
to bid farewell to a
lover of peace.
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
1111
iriam Wolock felt as if she had paid
a shiva call with thousands of other
, mourners Monday night.
"We can all listen to news reports
and grieve privately, but there's com-
fort in being with relatives, friends
and neighbors," said Ms. Wolock, of Beverly Hills.
Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
was gunned down at a peace rally in Tel Aviv, the Jew-
ish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit began organiz-
ing Monday's memorial service at Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington Hills. Rabbis and cantors
from temples and synagogues throughout the metro
area came to eulogize Mr. Rabin and to share prayers
and song with an audience estimated at 4,500.
Bertha Wember of Oak Park said the shooting of Mr.
Rabin reminded her of the day in 1966 when Rabbi Mor-
ris Adler of Congregation Shaarey Zedek was killed. He
was shot by a mentally ill young man, during Shabbat
services. Then, as now, she felt the urge to grieve com-
munally. "In a crisis like this, you tend to gather with
people who feel as you do," she said.
PHOTO BY BILL GEMMELL
"My daughter Carolyn said to me just this morn-
ing, 'Who would have thought Israel would come to
this?' "
Iry Goldfein of Southfield said he searched for and
found at Adat Shalom what he called a "Jewish cof-
feehouse."
"I felt the need to share my grief with others. I felt
the need to sing 'Hatikvah; " he said.
Mr. Goldfein and a crowd that packed the vast sanc-
tuary, social hall and hallway of Adat Shalom sang the
Israeli national anthem and the song Mr. Rabin sang
before his death, "Shir LaShalom" (Song of Peace).
The service drew dignitaries like Detroit Mayor Den-
nis Archer, U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham, U.S. Rep. Joe
Knollenberg and U.S. District Court Judge Avem Cohn.
"My wife and I came here to express our sorrow," Sen.
Abraham said. "Hopefully, the peace process will
continue, but it will continue under sadder circum-
stances."
Mayor Archer likened Saturday's assassination to
the killing of President John F. Kennedy, who risked
public popularity by pushing an agenda that included
civil rights for minorities. Mr. Kennedy's work, the may-
or noted, was continued by his successor, Lyndon B.
Johnson.
"Their loss, I share it," he said, gesturing toward the
crowd.
Mr. Rabin's legacy — a
People arrived in droves
peace, however fragile — was
at Adat Shalom
the central theme of the eu-
to observe the memorial
service for Prime Minister
logies by Adat Shalom Rabbi
Yitzhak Rabin.
Efry Spectre; Congrega-
tion Shaarey Zedek Rabbi Ir-
win Groner; Rabbi Lane
Steinger of Temple Emanu-
El; Rabbi Steven Weil of
Young Israel of Greenfield;
Hahn Shacham, deputy con-
sul general of Israel-Midwest
Region; Federation President
Robert Naftaly and industri-
alist Max Fisher.
They spoke of Mr. Rabin's
history as both a man of war
and a man of peace, invoking
parallels with the biblical
struggles of Moses, Judah
and Joshua.
Like Moses, who saw the
Promised Land when he as-
cended Mount Pisgah, Mr.
Rabin "climbed the mountain
of faith," but was cut down
before he could grasp the
peace he desperately sought,
Rabbi Groner said.
"Our loss is intensely per-
sonal. It is like the entire
Jewish people is a family,"
the rabbi said, warning
against the "savage lan-
guage" that has lately
marked political discourse in
Israel and boiled into the ha-
tred that left Mr. Rabin dead.
"We grieve tonight over a c_/
man termed the most unsol-
dierly of soldiers," Rabbi
Spectre said. "He bridged the