COMMUNITY VIEWS

Clarification

Equal Protection For All Americans

I

ciation (AMA) indicated that some
n the late '30s, the Nazis exter-
doctors
want to deny patients effective
minated individuals with dis-
lifesaving
treatment that they and
abilities. Dr. Leo Alexander,
their
families
wanted because the doc-
who worked with the U.S. Con-
tors
felt
such
patients
had a "not
sul at the Nazi War Crimes trials,
worth the effort quality of life." This
wrote that the killing of those with
suggested that those with
disabilities created the climate
certain handicaps had infe-
for killing based on race.
rior second- or third-class
Other scholars dispute such
quality lives, which were
ideas.
worth less than others'.
It is certainly true that
Instead of condemning such
neo-Nazi skinheads in Ger-
prejudice,
the AMA
many today are attacking —
declared it wanted to
and killing — individuals
accommodate" such views
with disabilities as well as for-
and allow health care insti-
eigners, black people and
tutions to have the final say
Jews. The Los Angeles Times
RON SEIGEL
about
such matters. Patients
noted in 1993 that some
Spec ial to
and
their
families could
skinheads kicked and spat
The Jew ish News appeal to administrators
upon a 46-year-old amputee,
within the institution or be
shouting, "Under Hitler, you
transferred to another institution if
would have been gassed!" German
one would accept them. If top officials
prosecutors were quoted as saying that
refused their appeal and transfer was
skinheads considered "the disabled
impossible, the patients' only option
unworthy of life."
was to die quietly. Since food is legally
Unfortunately, in the United
considered medical treatment, this
States the view that individuals with
might conceivably involve even starv-
certain disabilities are "unworthy of
ing
the patients to death.
life" is being boldly expressed by
Jack Kevorkian's crusade would give
influential people in the medical pro-
doctors power to actively assist in sui-
fession.
cides. Kevorkian stated that he does
In December 1996, a resolution
not want assisted suicide regulated by
passed by the American Medical Asso-
law, but wants "organized medicine"
to have the power to "make the rules"
Ron Seigel is the first vice president of
and
"change them every week" as
the Handicapper Caucus of the Michi-
more
is learned. While Kevorkian
gan Democratic Party. He was invited to
claims
to be championing "freedom of
hold a caucus at the Hate Crimes Sum-
choice,"
he wants to give near
mit in Atlanta.
supreme power to the very organiza-

"

tions that on the issue of denying
treatment and passive euthanasia have
totally rejected the choice of patients
who want to live.
Soon after assisted suicide was
legalized in Oregon, Hemlock Society
Director Faye Girsh discussed the idea
of having court-appointed guardians
with authority to make life and death
decisions. Girsh maintains she was
only trying to "open up dialogue." (In
short, don't get upset. We're only talk-
ing.) However, she noted the Canadi-
an Right to Die Society actively sup-
ports the idea. One wonders about the
assisted suicide crusade's commitment
to freedom of choice if it can be dis-
carded so easily.
Whether killing because of handi-
cap led to killing because of race in
Nazi Germany, there is certainly that
danger here. Racists are trying to con-
vince the public that black people are
"handicapped" in one way or another.
As a participant at the Hate Crimes
Seminar in Atlanta, I discovered that
the U.S. Senate is considering legisla-
tion making violence because of a per-
son's disability a hate crime. Unfortu-
nately, this legislation does not define
as hate crimes discrimination in health
care institutions that leads to death or
even the violent brutality in nursing
homes.
One hopes, though, that Americans
will demand equal protection of the
law for all citizens and will resist all
discrimination and violence no matter
who its victims or who the perpetra-
tors.

Ira Stoll, managing editor of the
Forward, has challenged two refer-
ences made about him in a Com-
munity Views column that ran in
The Jewish News on July 24.
In the column, Sidney Bolkosky,
professor of history and director of
the honors program at the Univer-
sity of Michigan-Dearborn, wrote
that "Stoll phoned a number of
university people who had signed a
petition at a conference in England
supporting" John Roth, who
turned down the position of direc-
tor of Advanced Holocaust Studies
at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum. "In each instance,"
Bolkosky wrote, "he seems to have
misquoted his respondents andfor
distorted what they had to say."
Stoll told The Jewish News he
did not misquote anyone or distort
anything. "No one has notified the
Forward to say they were misquot-
ed or their views were distorted,"
Stoll said. "Also, the article names
no one. I have no reason to believe
his (Bolkosky's) statement to be
true; in fact, I believe it is false."
Bolkosky also wrote there is no
evidence that Stoll or Morton
Klein, national president of the
Zionist Organization of America,
or columnist George Will "or the
other critics have bothered to look
at the written work of the man they
set out to remove -- more than 20
books written or co-authored by
John Roth."
Stoll told The Jewish News "The
Forward has run five stories since
May under my byline, all with
quotes from Roth's written work.
That's evidence of having looked at
the written work of the man, in my
view."

❑

LITTERS

office of the Israeli shelicha, Yael
Waxman, and other Federation pro-
fessionals to develop a tight-working
relationship.
In Israel, we are joined by our Part-
nership 2000 office, and the Jewish
Agency's Youth and Chalutz Depart-
ment, to manage the myriad do-Ails of
moving hundreds of teens safely
throughout the country. This task is
gargantuan, demanding great attention
to derail in order to assure the safety,
comfort and educational growth of our
teens in Israel.
Such a partnership requires good
will, patience and the recognition that
we are all working toward a common
purpose. The Jewish News became a full
partner in this regard, and we thank
you for that. The impact of this trip on
our teens, their families and the entire
community exceeds all measurement; it

8/7
1998

30 Detroit Jewish News

was a privilege for all of us involved to
be part of this fantastic voyage.
Rabbi Danny Nevins
Adat Shalom Synagogue

No Letter
Was Written

The article authored by Julie Wiener
pertaining to Congregation B'nai David
starting up a religious school ("A Differ-
ent Note" July 31) states that "...
BAHM President Henry Lonnerstater
provided a letter of recommendation for
Lanxner" (former Beth Abraham Hillel
Moses Cantor Ben-Zion Lanxner).
Please be advised that I neither wrote
nor signed such a letter.
Henry Lonnerstater
Immediate past president
Congregation Beth Abraham Hillel Moses

ZOA Challenges
Bolkosky Article

insistence that all the Arabs in Israel be
deported. He compared that proposal to
the German legislation of1937-38 to
deport Jews from Germany"
These are my responses to errors in
In fact, the Germans did not pass
Sidney Bolkosky's article ("In Whose
legislation
to deport the Jews, although
Hands Will Memory of the Holo-
they
did
pass
legislation that harassed
caust Rest?" July 24) about John
and restricted
Roth, who
Jews
in a variety
turned down the
of ways, which
position of direc-
encouraged
tor of Advanced
many Jews to
Holocaust Stud-
emigrate. Roth
ies at the U.S.
did
not make
Holocaust
any
reference to
Memorial Muse-
German
legisla-
um:
tion
in
1937-38
1. Roth, in a
or at any other
1988 op-ed piece
time. Roth did
for the Los Angeles
mention
Times, referred to
Moledet,
but he
the extreme rightist
The museum's architecture is a stark
went
far
beyond
Moledet Party's
reminder.

