COMMUNITY VIEWS

Will Our Grandchildren View Us
The Way We See The Holocaust?

F

Jewish history of over 2,000 years.
or some time, the Jewish
There is a story about a Jewish sailor
community has been
from Palestine in the 1930s who
embroiled in discussions
arrived in Crete to find a flourishing
about Jewish continuity.
and
lively Jewish community. Return-
Studies and surveys have
ing to Crete in 1948, he dis-
been done nationally and
covered
that the Jewish com-
locally, and funding priori-
munity
had
vanished. The
ties have slowly changed to
last Jews from Crete were
address our deep concerns
rounded up by the Germans
about the potential end of
in 1942 and put on ships.
the American Jewish com-
They
did not perish in the
munity. In Detroit, we are
camps
with the other Greek
committed to spending more
Jews,
but
died instead when
dollars on Jewish education
their
boats
capsized.
for adults and children; and
On a very hot, humid day
JEAN NIE
we are looking for ways to
this past summer as I walked
WEI NER
preserve ourselves as a peo-
along the streets of the for-
ple.
Special to The
mer Jewish neighborhood in
Recent studies have
Jewish News
Chania
(Hania), the former
taught us that our children
capital
of
Crete, I was struck
are less concerned with the issues that
with
overwhelming
sadness. The
involved us in Jewish life and Jewish
streets are still beautiful with colorful
organizations. The Holocaust, an
flowers draped over walls and doors.
event so catastrophic and central to
My
husband and I had asked in town
the lives of older Jews, is under attack
for
the
location of this street and a
by revisionists and deniers; and now
small
house
with the number 32.
we must teach our children the "facts
When
we
finally
found it and knocked
of the existence" of the Holocaust. To
on
the
door,
we
discovered
that the
Jews, for whom the Holocaust was a
old
woman
who
lived
there
was sleep-
contemporary event, the phrase "Jew-
ing. She arose and reluctantly came
ish continuity" takes on a different
out when we said "synagogue" very
meaning.
persistently.
With her key, she walked
I thought about this a lot on a
us
around
the
corner to a dangerously
recent visit to the island of Crete, the
dilapidated
building,
the remnants of
largest Greek island. Crete is the origi-
a
synagogue
from
1790,
an oven for
nal home of the Philistines and has a
baking matzah, a mostly burned, roof-
Jeannie Weiner is immediate past pres-
less area over which there had been a
ident of the Jewish Community Council
sanctuary.
of Metropolitan Detroit.
"What happened?' we asked.

"Bomba," was the reply. The woman
was not Jewish, but she was the keeper
of the "key to the synagogue." The
building had been destroyed in the war.
This was a remote town on an
island that not all tourists to Greece
visit and we have been to many
"ruins" around the Mediterranean;
this, however, was different. The heat
and the scene were oppressive. We
could almost hear the sounds of the
Jews of Chania.
For me, the Holocaust is not an
event which is histo-
ry. The Holocaust
stays within me as a
memorial to those
who perished. Jew-
ish continuity is not
only about 1998
and beyond, but it
also represents the
need to remember
the 2,000 years of
Jewish history
which finds not one
survivor on the
island of Crete.
If we Jews were
like calculators and
could "clear" our
memories and start
afresh, we would not do it. For Jews,
memory is a significant part of our
lives. Memory provides the link
between the generations and enables
us to cherish our dead. This is not
dwelling in the past, but making room
for the past in the present and for the
future.

We understand that for today's Jew-
ish children, there is a need to give
them a living religion that offers
promise and reason. But Holocaust
education and remembrance must
continue to be valued activities in the
Jewish community.
Our children should not be told
that they must remain Jewish to cheat
Hitler from his goals, for there are bet-
ter reasons to remain Jewish. Cheating
anti-Semitism and Nazi murderers
along the way works, too.
I would want the
Jews of Chania to
know that they are
not forgotten. At
the same time, I
don't want one of
my grandchildren
to someday stroll
past the remnants
of the Detroit Jew-
ish community
and feel over-
whelming sadness I
felt in Crete. \X7e
should create a liv-
ing and loving
Judaism in our
lives for our chil-
dren and ourselves;
but we can also remember the past,
even its horrors, teaching our children
to preserve our Jewish memories.
Our commitment to Jewish educa-
tion and values and the preservation
of our individual and collective mem-
ories will, hopefully, provide our Jew-
ish continuity. ❑

no secret, of course, to Syria and
Iraq. Nor was it a secret to the Euro-
pean countries that designed and
built those poison gas plants, nor to
the Soviets that supplied those mis-
siles. It was an American "secret"
that Pollard was ordered to keep only
from the Israelis.
As a result of Pollard's warning,
Israel acquired gas masks and anti-
poison medicine kits that it distrib-
uted to protect its people during the
Gulf War.
A grand jury spent many months
studying the case and brought "no
charge of having harmed the United
States, its people or security." Pollard
was never accused or indicted of
treason or betraying diplomatic
secrets. Jonathan Pollard was indict-
ed on just one count — an illegal
transfer of classified information to

an ally, Israel. Passing classified infor-
mation without permission usually
has a maximum sentence of two to
four years.
Jonathan Pollard, in a non-jury
trial, was ordered to spend the rest of `\
his life in prison for that "crime."
That was a most cruel and unusual
punishment!
The withholding of information
vital to Israel's very existence was in
violation of the 1983 Mutual
Exchange of Intelligence Agreement,
promising America would help safe-
guard Israel's security. Instead, the
United Sates withheld vital intelli-
gence from Israel.
Pollard alerted Israel to the exis-
tence of chemical weapons manufac-
turing plants in Iraq and Syria,
which the United states preferred to
keep secret. The state and defense

LETTERS

be attended to not only by people
who are in violent situations, but
also by rabbis who need to take this
issue more into account.

Hedy Nuriel

Executive director, HAVEN

Pollard Case
Revisited

America has a case of civil disobedi-
ence. There is a man in an American
jail because he defied orders and gave
Israel warning of preparations for
poison gas attacks on the country
that could have killed hundreds of
thousands. That man is Jonathan
Pollard, who was an American intel-
ligence officer.
Pollard courageously defied orders
of American government officials

2/20
1998

30

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Jonathan Pollard

that, if obeyed, could have led to the
mass slaughter of Israelis. That was