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Compensation For Survivors:
A Critical Issue To Be Learned

We write this editorial almost two months ahead
of the event. Chances are we'll repeat it in the
weeks ahead.
On Sunday, May 18, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Michigan's Holo-
caust survivors and their loved ones will have an
opportunity to learn how to cut through the red
tape to collect almost any form of compensation
or restitution they feel due them from the Ger-
man or Swiss governments.
It's no secret that one of the most important
news stories to be uncovered recently is the be-
grudging admittance by the Swiss government
of untold sums of money invested in their banks
by Jews. Yet, when those Jews or their descen-
dants went to collect their monies, many with
specific bank account numbers, they were told
— by the Swiss banks — that the accounts didn't
exist.
Then there is the continuing unraveling sto-
ry of Jewish property, gold and art stolen by the

T H E

PROMISED LAND

THE CONTINUING STORY OF JEWISH LIFE IN THE DIASPORA

BECCA

by Jordan B. Gorfinkel

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BETHBERNIE
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Germans during the Holocaust and invested with
welcome arms by the Swiss.
Fran Victor, president and executive produc-
er of Victor Harder Productions, is instrumental
in the local Survivors of the Shoah Visual His-
tory Foundation and with the help of several area
sponsors, is putting this program together.
If you are a survivor, please plan to be there.
If you know of a survivor or are a family mem-
ber, please come. If you know survivors who live
outside of the conventional Jewish neighbor-
hoods, in Northern Michigan or the UP, please
get to them. There are many people who feel
that the red tape and bureaucracy is too diffi-
cult, too much to go through, that it isn't worth
it.
If you are entitled to more compensation, it is
worth it. If you've lost money in Swiss banks, it
is worth it.
This is a real opportunity.
We urge you to learn as much as you can.

EMAIL >TPL@JEWISHCARTOON.COM<

"4k4k,

krialkQe.. .at4UN„

An Excellent Adventure

THE D ETR OI T J E WIS H N EWS

Likely to be overheard this week: "My rabbi's a
real clown. Would you just look at those floppy
shoes, green hair, red nose and blue freckles?"
Maybe your rabbi won't be dressed as a jester
Saturday night and Sunday, but we hope he or
she dons some other unusual garb for Purim.
This year, with an interminable flood of seri-
ous news, Purim is a very welcome harbinger of
spring. Don't worry, the immediate and long-
range Jewish woes aren't going away: assimi-
lation, lack of affiliation, anti-Semitism,
frightening headlines from Israel and fear for
Jews in the former Soviet Union are here to stay.
Of course, the party poopers will still focus on
Purim's dark side — murder, intermarriage,
degradation of women and so on. (What a great
plot for Fox-TV!) But for most of us, the com-
munal Purim mantra overwhelms such tradi-
tionalpilpul, or Jewish intellectual hairsplitting.
That's because Purim offers a short, sweet com-
mand: Have fun, baby, whether you want to or
not! By the way, are you using that grogger or
can I?

30

With that in mind, this week on pages 59-64
we offer our annual Purim spoof. Remember, it's
a joke. We remember well a few years ago when
a number of people called to find out when Woody
Allen was talking to Angry Young Jewish Sin-
gles, the new group we announced.
If you still can't divorce yourself from Purim's
serious side, focus on this: Many commentators
note the relation between the word Purim and
Yom Kippur, literally "a day like Purim." They
add that the holidays, which speak of the ex-
tremes of frivolous joy and intense introspec-
tion, are at opposite ends of the Jewish calendar
year.
So for the rest of the year, Judaism is about
finding the balance between the two. That is no
small undertaking, but it is indeed the essence
of the Jewish experience. We must greet that
challenge with open arms as we embrace the
fears and opportunities of the larger culture of
which we are a part. But this weekend, we'll do
so with a rubber nose.
So have fun!

6355360 @MCIMAIL . COM .

11

Do You
/ What
Think?"

If you think you are owed restitution
or compensation by either the Swiss
or German government, we'd like to
hear about it.

To respond: "So, What Do You Think?"
27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034

Indifference
Is Unbecoming

A few weeks have elapsed since
Arthur Horwitz's outrageous col-
umn regarding Jonathan Pollard;
and to my great satisfaction, it
isn't quite forgotten as evidenced
by Kenneth Tnsson's excellent re-
buttal ("Pollard, Priorities and
American Fairness" March 14).
Mr. Lasson invokes two of Ju-

MI

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Discrimination
Is Faced

I applaud Joe Kort ("Whatever
Form It Takes, Intolerance
Hurts" March 14) for the courage
daism's very important mitzvot: to describe the discrimination he
pidyon shvuyim (redemption of faced growing up as a gay male.
captives) and "He who saved one We must learn from Joe's expe-
person is as if he saved the en- rience to open our minds and
tire world."
hearts and to treat all people
No, all those fellow Jews who with tolerance and respect.
champion Jonathan Pollard's
Our entire Jewish communi-
cause do not do so because for ty is invited to discover, explore
them he is "the poster boy for and discuss issues that homo-
American Jews who feel like sexual individuals and their
there is an anti-Semite lurking families confront on a daily ba-
in every shadow." What an insult sis. MJAC will present "Kulanu
that is! Rather, they see great in- — All of Us ... Being Gay Is Not
justice which they try to correct Just About Sex," 7 p.m. Tuesday,
because im ein ani ii mi li (if I am May 20, at the Maple-Drake
not for myself, who is for me?).
JCC. Help ensure that our cur-

The last thing Jonathan Pol-
lard should have to contend with
are fellow Jews so indifferent to
his plight.

Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield

rent generation of youth does not
suffer the injustices that Joe
Kort endured.

Linda Lee
President of MJAC