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Philip Schaengold: Superb
Commitment To Community

The sale, merger, affiliation — whatever we're really came to this town and helped make Sinai
calling it — is now complete. Sinai Hospital, a Hospital attractive to the DMCs of the world,
will be missed.
44-year-old Jewish facility, is
Mr. Schaengold knew
part of the Detroit Medical
that
his mission was to
Center.
right
a listing ship. He
What is gained here from
also probably realized
the sale, which sources
that after he helped guide
say will result in anywhere
Sinai into a more desirable
from $50 to $60 million, is
position, his work would be
a fund that will help the long-
done. Mr. Schaengold, as of
term needs of Jews who
Monday, is no longer the
fall through the cracks of the
CEO of Sinai Hospital. He
organized social welfare sys-
leaves
the hospital as more
tem. Also, there will be plans
than a "fix-it man." He has
in place to give something
become a valuable commu-
back to the people of the city
nity member, someone who
of Detroit, hopefully in the
really cared to turn Sinai
Outer Drive area of Sinai Hos-
around.
pital.
Is there a place for Mr.
DMC has pledged that it
Schaengold
in our communi-
will continue offering Jewish
ty? That's up to him and to
services such as kosher food
the Jewish community.
at Sinai and Huron Valley
Wherever Mr. Schaengold
Hospital. All of these are good
lands,
the community he
Phil
Schaengold:
Righting
a
listing
ship.
things.
serves will benefit.
What needs to be noticed,
We hope, though, that it is here in Detroit.
however, is that Philip Schaengold, a man who

The Prime Minister
And The Pope

While not unprecedented, the informality of the
meeting in Rome this week between Israel Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Pope John
Paul II said much about the positive direction in
Jewish-Christian relations.
In 1964, the Catholic Church formally recog-
nized Judaism's legitimacy and ended charges
of deicide, that Jews were responsible for the
murder of Jesus of Nazareth. But only three
years ago, Israel and the Vatican created formal
diplomatic relations. For Jews outside of Israel,
the Vatican's previous policies were seen as en-
couraging anti-Semitism and undermining Is-
rael's legitimacy. Today, no one can hide behind
cf)
• Christianity to declare the modern Jewish state
invalid or to endorse anti-Semitism.
= So when the prime minister and the pope met
`L) in Rome on Monday, we saw two historic reli-
ve gions, one which sprang from the other, corn-
' fortably learning to live with one another. While
E, not a religious leader, the prime minister of Is-
rael is without question a representative of the
Jewish
people.
o
For his part, Mr. Netanyahu repeated the 1994
invitation of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Ra-
bin for the pope to visit Jerusalem in the year
2000. The pope again declared his desire to do
so. This comes in light of Mr. Netanyahu's state-

28

ments, which we staunchly endorse, that
Jerusalem must stay united under Jewish sov-
ereignty and that there must be guarantees for
Christians and Muslims to peacefully worship
as they see fit.
Perhaps the best part of the visit came in the
heavy press coverage. It enabled Prime Minis-
ter Netanyahu, still seen by many as truculent
and uncompromising, to be shoulder to shoulder
with a very likable pope. All the while, the Is-
raeli leader used the diplomatic charm that, while
serving in Israel's U.N. mission a decade ago,
made him a media darling.
Witness this exchange. The pope, in front of
reporters, told the blond-haired Sara Netanyahu
that she looked like a nice Polish woman. She in
turn said that her ancestors did come from
Poland. Mr. Netanyahu quickly added, "After six
generations in Jerusalem.
"Thus, the Jewish pride in Israel and
Jerusalem was without question heard in
the halls of the Vatican. That is no small
achievement after centuries of either official
or undiscouraged anti-Semitism emanating
from throughout the church's hierarchy. And it
is a message we hope that within a few years
Pope John Paul II hears on the streets of
Jerusalem.

THE PROMISED LAND by Jordan B. Gortinkel

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FOR THE JEWISH NEWS GROUP. 0 1997 BY JORDAN B. GORFI NKEL. ALL RIGH TS RESERVED

\ •

Letters

Euthanasia Poison
Raises Concern

Michigan State University thinks
its new euthanasia poison for an-
imals should be used for humans.
This bothers me, as it did the Eu-
ropean Patent Office examiner
who reviewed the patent appli-
cation for this product.
The examiner, Mr. H. Theuns,
perhaps remembered the use of
such chemicals in Germany,
where they were used in "mercy
killing" of handicapped children
in the 1939 T4 program. He ob-
jected that "the applicant is seek-
ing protection for an agent for
committing euthanasia on hu-
mans" and asked for an explicit
statement on this.
Michigan State's attorney in
Germany wrote MSU that "the
examiner's statements are rather
strange." She then successfully
argued to the patent office that
"if it should ever become legal to
use the compositions in human
beings, the patent claims should
encompass the use for this pur-
pose." The patent was granted
this past October.
Everyone knows that the pur-
pose of a patent is to license it to
make money. MSU specifically

sought to include human use in
its patent protection. The profes-
sors who invented the poison, in
referencing articles on human
use, suicide and criminal law in
Germany, Switzerland and the
United States, must have un-
derstood the purpose to which it
would be used.
MSU has refused to divulge
the name of the company it has
licensed to market this danger-
ous chemical, hampering anyone
desiring to monitor and prevent
its use in humans.
MSU, an official state body,
has blurred the distinction be-
tween animal euthanasia and
killing people, and this concerns
Jews. "Active euthanasia," mean-
ing giving someone a chemical
that kills him, is against Jewish
law and state of Michigan law.
We should be uneasy at the sim-
ilarities between this blurring
and that which occurred in Ger-
many in 1939.

MARROW page 30