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Community Views

Editor's Notebook

A Growing Awareness
Of Similarities

Welfare Reform
Or New Terror?

MELVIN J. HOLLOWED. JR. SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

ALAN HITSKY ASSOCIATE EDITOR

It was a glittering extrav-
aganza. In April, all of
metropolitan Detroit, it
seemed, turned out to par-
ticipate in the grand open-
ing of the Museum of
African American Histo-
ry. The buoyant mood of
the celebration was infec-
tious as the attendees
were caught up in both the historical sig-
nificance of the new museum as well as
genuinely feeling good about the rebirth
of the city as a whole.
The museum is stunningly beautiful
with its towering cut-glass rotunda and
brass and marble finishes.
About an hour after I arrived, I began
to wander through the interior of the build-
ing. I came upon a glass door and entered
the room before me. I walked a few feet up
what seemed like a bridge, and suddenly
I stopped.
As I looked around, I realized I was in
the midst of a slave ship replica. As I
leaned over the railing and looked down
into the hull of the ship, I
saw statues of slaves
packed together like sar-
dines, chained by neck,
hand and foot and bound
for the New World. There
was scarcely enough room
between them to move.
I felt as if someone had
grabbed me by the shoul-
ders and thrown me up
against a wall. It was hard
to breathe.
I scanned the faces of
the statues one by one un-
til my gaze settled on the
face of a boy who was hold-
ing his knees and staring
at nothing. He looked just like my son. My
fingers gripped the railing and my eyes
filled with tears.
This exhibit depicted the Middle Pas-
sage, which refers to the horrible journey
from various West African ports to cities
such as New Orleans, Charleston and
Richmond, all in furtherance of the slave
trade.
Thirty million men, women and chil-
dren died during the Middle Passage be-
tween 1640 and 1863, when the mortality
rate was nearly 25 percent. Each voyage
took nearly two months to complete.
It wasn't until I was in the car on the

Melvin J. Hollowell Jr. is a shareholder at

Butzel Long.

way home that I was reminded of my vis-
it to the Holocaust Memorial Center in
West Bloomfield several years ago and
some of the striking similarities between
African-American and Jewish histories.
My good friend Joel Jacob arranged for
Henry Dorfman to accompany us on a tour
of the Holocaust Center. I was deeply
moved by Mr. Dorfman, a Holocaust sur-
vivor and museum benefactor, as he ex-
plained how as a boy he escaped the Nazis
by jumping from a train that was on its
way to one of the death camps.
. I learned that 6 million Jews were killed
by Hitler's Third Reich in places like
Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald.
During slavery in the United States, the
Underground Railroad was the name giv-
en to the safe houses and other places in
which fugitive slaves could stay while es-
caping to the North. Similarly, there was
an exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Cen-
ter depicting a network of houses, farms
and commercial establishments that would
hide Jews who were trying to flee the evils
of Nazi Germany.
"*.

start a new career, to qualify for citi-
zenship? Fleeing persecution and dis-
crimination for freedom and family
reunification sounds easy in theory. It's
a little more difficult in practice.
But suppose you made that decision,
you took the plunge and decided to em-
igrate. What happens after you arrive
in your new homeland and the gov-
ernment,,in the interest of economy,
decides to change the rules?
Can your family — recent immi-
grants themselves — support you?
Can they house you, feed you or, most
expensively, afford your medical bills?
And if they can't, will the local
Jewish federation be able to step in as
the safety net in place of the govern-
ment?
Federation Apartments last month
was forced to notify some of its resi-
dents that federal funding may expire
next year. If not renewed, some older
apartments will lose their rent subsi-
dies. No one expects it to happen, but
it's a scary prospect for any senior, let
alone an elderly immigrant already fac-
ing a benefits cutoff if he doesn't obtain
U.S. citizenship.
Maybe we made an expensive mis-
take in the 1970s
and 1980s by en-
couraging Soviet
Jews to escape from
the quotas, the
Pamyats, the Zhi-
ronovskis. Maybe
we should have just
funneled them to
Israel — and that
was a separate de-
bate within the
Jewish community
at the time.
I don't agree with either premise, but
that hardly matters. The deed has al-
ready been done. And I think, in all
fairness, Congress has to recognize that
legal immigrants, especially persecut-
ed refugees, may have a difficult time
adjusting to our society.
The elderly especially have trouble
learning English, finding and holding
a job, qualifying for private health in-
surance, passing the citizenship exam.
Could we do it at age 60, 70 or 80?
A promise has been made to these
people by the U.S. government, the na-
tional Jewish agencies, our own Fed-
eration. Now we are breaking that
promise or, if you prefer, changing the
contract in mid-stream.
If we have to economize, then let's
do it. But we should tell the world that
as of such-and-such a date, the rules
will change.
For those who came under the old
rules, under a different set of promis-
es, the rules should stay the same.
According to Sen. Carl Levin's office,
the Senate Finance Committee is con-
sidering such changes this week and
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is
seeking legislative action before the
July 4 recess.
Let's hope our political leaders can
give our new Americans a smile with
their civics lesson. ❑

How easy would it be
to learn a new
language, start a new
career, qualify for
citizenship?

I could go on, comparing, for example,
the statutory restrictions placed on the
Jews through enactment of the Nurem-
berg Laws to the second-class treatment
blacks endured from the Supreme Court's
Plessy vs. Ferguson "separate but equal"
doctrine and the Jim Crow laws of the
South.
Last weekend President Clinton
and others began a national dialogue
on improving race relations. In my view,
that is a tremendously valuable under-
taking for the nation, as I believe that
the more we communicate with one an-
other and learn from one another, the
sooner we will realize that our similari-
ties are 10 times greater than our differ-
ences. ❑

TheDJN@aol . corn

11

Some 40 Detroiters
boarded a bus last
month and, in a mod-
em American tradi-
tion, joined groups
from all over the Unit-
ed States in Washing-
ton, D.C., to seek
redress from their gov-
ernment.
Unfortunately, it's not their govern-
ment. They don't have a government
because they are new Americans.
With the changes last year in the
welfare laws, legal immigrants in the
United States have been placed in a
Catch-22 situation: They must obtain
U.S. citizenship in order to continue to
receive welfare assistance or Medicaid.
The law says an immigrant must live
here five years before being eligible for
citizenship. The "reform" says anyone
not obtaining citizenship within five
years will lose his assistance. Part of
the Catch-22: Even when an immigrant
passes the written and oral exams for
citizenship, he can still wait 18 months
— without his former benefits — be-
fore he is sworn in as a U.S. citizen.
On the face of it, the welfare reform
act passed by Con-
gress is a reason-
able change. It
encourages immi-
grants to become
U.S. citizens, dis-
courages lifetime
welfare assistance
and puts the finan-
cial onus on the im-
migrant's U. S .
family or legal spon-
sor if the immigrant
cannot make it here on his own.
But the change ignores the reality.
Many of those hardest hit by this law
are the elderly. In the case of elderly
Jews from the former Soviet Union,
they have come to America to be re-
united with family who escaped from
religious persecution in their homeland.
In this case, a combination of cir-
cumstances helped their emigration.
The Jackson-Vanik Amendment on
U.S.-Soviet trade helped raise the Iron
Curtain. U.S. welfare laws and fami-
ly reunification policy made it easier
for Soviet Jews to come here. The He-
brew Immigrant Aid Society, working
with dozens of groups around the na-
tion like Detroit's Jewish Federation,
brought thousands of Soviet Jews to
the United States.
Multiply that effort by dozens of oth-
er nationality groups and organizations
and you understand Congress' concern
about the cost.
But we must also understand the hu-
man cost.
Let's exchange places with the im-
migrants. How ready are we to pick up
and move to a strange land, where we
may know a few people but not the lan-
guage, where we may find a son or
daughter and their family but must
leave other family behind.
How easy would it be to learn a new
language at this point in your life, to

now for pluralism
M at What
in Israel? Have we all taken
Do You a step backward?
/ Thinkr

To respond: "So, What Do You Think'?"
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