dERU5A M
'*14i. •‘•
ft.
•
rwITA,Ar":4N,
,
-
,
1
Israel's Ballot Box
Dry Bones
ELEcnONS
ARE FR66 AMD
KNIOCRATIC.
Letters
Jonathan Pollard
More On Pollard
$26 million. And the Women's Division is active
in supporting causes contemporary to the turn-
of-the millennium needs of this community. Even
with the roles of women changing, moving away
from the household and into the business world,
the Women's Division has stayed at the forefront
in terms of care and giving. Our community rec-
ognizes our wives, mothers, grandmothers and
sisters who have given back their time and mon-
ey to help their fellow Jews in Detroit and around
the world.
Fifty years from now, our daughters and
granddaughters will look at our current leaders
and realize the great continuum in which they
are fortunate to be members. It started 50 years
ago, and Women's Division is as important for
our future as it was for this community's past.
AND 114IS
MAKES THE M
A WORM?
N MAC. UN
/I
))
fir inp
_-•
Division's Urgent Role
ISRAELI
L
rn po,
•
Israel's important national debate is reaching ref- thing but peace and prosperity for our brothers
erendum May 29. In Detroit, many Jews identi- and sisters there. Yet, no matter how much we
fy with either the right or the left wings, which disagree with the methodology behind peace, we
means Likud or Labor. For some of us, the inter- need to support Israel's democratic process.
est in Israel's election is more compelling than Democracy and Judaism are not polar opposites.
anything Clinton vs. Dole could muster. Most cer- Yes, it's important to offer dissenting opinions.
tainly, if Likud and Labor held U.S. conventions, We urge, however, that the debate outside of Is-
the plank work from the floor would easily be rael not reach a level that can be perceived as de-
more volatile, more exciting than anything we'll structive. Unfortunately, we know that it can.
Israel, its leaders, its people and its supporters
be seeing from the Dems or the GOP this sum-
need
to be buoyed in a global sense with an eye
mer.
But we have to get a grip. The fact is, no mat- toward its security, its prosperity and its growth.
We here in Michigan can help. Let's "allow" Is-
ter how passionate we are about this election, it
belongs to the Israelis. We can "arm-chair quar- rael to have its election without tearing Israel and
terback" from Southfield, West Bloomfield, Oak each other apart.
The day following the election, Israel's debate
Park or anywhere else. But Israelis, by and large,
want peace. Whether the concept involves Oslo will continue.
Again, thinking globally, Israel's democratic
II or sealed borders, Shimon Peres or Benjamin
Netanyahu, the future of Israel is up to the Is- process allows it to be a shining star in a region
raelis. So many of us spend so much time tearing where men of tyranny still rule. Peres and Ne-
apart Israel from the outside in. We 'know" about tanyahu are guardians of this democracy; they
Israeli life; we "feel" Israel's pain. Yet, we live here are not above it. It's that ability to debate, t _ o dis-
in Detroit. And some of us are more than will- sent and to vote that make it possible to think
ing to make the "stuff' of Israel's ballot box noth- of a secure, growing, spiritual Israel.
Israel is an emerging regional economic pow-
ing more than hate, division and ridicule.
er.
It's grown up. Let its citizens decide the future
Yes, Israel is so much a part of the lives and
souls of Diaspora Jews. None of us wants any- of their country — and respect their vote.
Fifty years ago, before there was a State of Is-
rael, before Detroit's Jewish community was so
highly organized on both local and national lev-
els, a group of our mothers and grandmothers
got together. The need then was pressing. Jew-
ish refugees from the Holocaust were making
their way to the United States, to the Midwest,
to Detroit. Many of these people were orphaned
children.
Indeed, an editorial in the March 22, 1946, edi-
tion of The Jewish News called on the commu-
nity to support the Federation's campaign goal
of $2 million to help fund the absorption of dis-
placed Holocaust survivors. In that same edition,
an article covered a Women's Division forum at
Temple Beth El. The subject: 'The Jewish Peo-
ple of Europe — Will They Live or Die?"
Fifty years later, the campaign is at around
,
•A tt . V1151- 1 CrTY
cAent.
•1-15.
Now A MIIER or Re29:Cr
FOR ALL FAITIAS
AND ALONE
fN 1146
MIDDLE
EAST
The three things I was hoping
your readers would become
aware of regarding Jonathan
Pollard's dilerrima: First, that
the laws violated by others to
keep Pollard where he is are, in
my opinion, serious enough for
the attorney general to have in-
vestigated them — which didn't
happen. Just two violations were
mentioned. Second, that which
came easily to my attention
could have been discovered by
investigative reporting. And,
third, there is much more that
space cannot allow.
Dr. Sidney Leitson
West Bloomfield
Questioning
Federation
About a year and a half ago,
Elizabeth Applebaum, an asso-
ciate editor of The Jewish News,
gave a talk at the JCC in West
Bloomfield. Her topic was Jew-
ish heroes. During the discus-
sion period, a man in the
audience got up and said: "I don't
know who my Jewish hero is,
but I know who my Jewish un-
hero is: It's the Jewish Federa-
tion of Metropolitan Detroit."
Unfortunately, there are
many people in the Jewish com-
munity who feel the same way
about that organization. For
about 30 years, the Jewish corn-
munity knew that something
would have to be done about
Borman Hall. Yet, when the
time came to move the residents
from the Detroit location, the
best the Federation could do is
send them to Menorah House
where in some cases three and
four women have to share a
room and one bathroom.
The Federation is now in the
process of doing away with Pren-
tis Manor.
The United Hebrew Schools
buses were falling apart when
the Federation decided to do
away with them.
The Federation is spending
thousands of dollars on the JCC
in West Bloomfield. Federation
officials have hired several "effi-
ciency experts" at huge salaries
to come in and do away with the
Center's problems. As everyone
knows by now, they have rent-
ed office space for the ex-direc-
tor of the Center to raise funds
for capital improvements. Why
was this additional expense to
rent office space necessary?
My dictionary defines the
word "federation" as a union of
organizations. Just what orga-
nizations make up the Federa-
tion? Who does this organization
answer to? Who selects the peo-
ple that are elected officers and
put on the board?
Before the Federation moved
to Bloomfield Hills, it was known
as the "Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion of Metropolitan Detroit." It
seems to me that with the elim-
ination of the word "welfare"
from its name, the Jewish Fed-
eration of Metropolitan Detroit
lost track of what type of an or-
ganization it is supposed to be.
Lenora Noler
Southfield
Letters Policy
Letters must be typewritten,
double-spaced, and include
the name, home address, day-
time phone number and sig-
nature of the writer.
Brief letters (less than a
page), arriving by noon Tues-
day, will be given preference.