•
COMMUNITY VIEWS
Working Together On
The Religion Book
served it with fresh bread I'd baked. I
hen I first met Lori, I
was
giddy and excited with our new
saw her as my Palestin-
friendship — at the sense that one
ian counterpart.
by one, we could prove history
I am Jewish and
wrong,
we could form the links nec-
married to an Israeli. She is Christ-
essary
for
peace.
ian, born to Palestinian parents. We
I
shared
with her my fantasy of
both have thick dark hair
visiting
her family with her
and blue eyes. She teaches
in
Ramalah
and bringing
fourth grade. I teach high
her with me to meet my
school English.
family in Tel Aviv.
We had both volunteered
At breakfast with my
to work for the school dis-
husband
the morning of
trict to revise the Religion
our
last
meeting,
the New
Book, a book meant to tell
York
Times
spread
beyond
the history and beliefs of
my
coffee
and
toast
on the
our community's religions
kitchen table, I read to
and to increase levels of
him, as I always do, para-
sensitivity and tolerance in
BETH AVIV
graphs
from the paper.
students and staff.
GREENBAUM
And
then
he has to listen
In February, during Lent,
Special to
to
my
diatribe.
Lori drove me in her aging
The Jewish News
The week before, I had
BMW to her home for
ranted
about Har Homa,
lunch. I admired her art,
the
housing
project
to be'built by
the fabrics on her sofa and chairs,
Jews
for
Jews
in
east
Jerusalem. It
and her Persian carpets. She served
triggered a suicide bombing in which
me delicious food — tomatoes on
four Jews died having lunch at
rice, Armenian string cheese, fresh
Appropos,
a trendy restaurant in Tel
•olives, and warmed pita bread her
Aviv,
just
down
the street from where
mother had baked. We shared the
my
husband
grew
up. Binyamin
same loaf, breaking off corners until
Netanyahu,
the
prime
minister of
we split the steaming middle.
Israel,
claims
the
land
for
the apart-
The next day, I drove Lori in my
ments
is
75
percent
Jewish-owned.
aging Volvo to my house for lunch.
I intruded on my husband's read-
She admired my art, my furniture,
ing
of the funnies in the Detroit Free
and my Persian carpets. I made her a
Press:
"Shouldn't 25 percent of the
meal she could eat for Lent and
units be reserved for Palestinians if
Beth Aviv Greenbaum is a high school
they own 25 percent of the land the
English teacher and a freelance writer
apartments will be built on?" I fatu-
who lives in Birmingham.
ously asked.
And then my husband read from
thing. Maybe we could do in Israel
the Free Press about Bernie Glieber-
and the West Bank what has taken so
man, who wants to put up integrated
long to happen in America. Maybe
housing on a vacant stretch of
we could raise a roof under which we
Woodward. "That's what they should
all could live
where our children
do in Israel, put up
might play.
integrated hous-
Then we went
ing," I announced,
•5. back to the
raising my cup of
meeting in the
coffee into the air.
windowless con-
My husband
ference room to
surprised me.
review the chap-
"Wait. That's not
ters we'd revised,
so far-fetched," he
and the old
said. "It would
issues began to
take private
replay them-
money. An Ameri-
• selves. On the
can Palestinian and
First page of the
American Jew
chapter on
could do it."
Christianity,
"Integrated
Jews were
housing for Arabs
described as
and Jews? We
responsible for
could talk to Max
Jesus' crucifix-
Fisher or Al Taub-
ion. Not an aus-
A Palestinian shepherd on a donkey
man. We could
picious way to
leads a flock of goats past a mechanical
talk to Lori.
begin. Then,
Maybe she knows a digger working-on access roads to the
responding to
disputed construction site at Har Homa my chapter on
philanthropic
in the eastern sector of Jerusalem.
Palestinian."
Judaism, Lori
When I left for
objected to my
the committee meeting on the Reli-
describing ancient Canaan in pre-
gion.Book, I left with optimism and
sent-day Israel and Lebanon. It was
hope. I was excited that perhaps two
also on Palestinian land, she said.
women in Detroit could instigate the
Everything began to have an emo-
building of integrated housing in
tional and political cast. And when
Jerusalem. Yes, Lori knew a wealthy
Gail, a Jewish parent on the commit-
Palestinian. She would speak to him.
tee, objected to my not mentioning
As we chatted, I felt that maybe we
BOOK on page 24
could, through our talk, do some-
I
e
LETTERS
Service is offering interactive work-
shops designed for couples who are
planning marriage or who are newly
married. Our focus is to prepare cou-
ples for their lives together. Our next
program is set to begin on Nov. 4. We
are looking forward to another suc-
cessful experience.
Lorraine Lerner
Workshop coordinator
Jewish Family Service
Writer Responds
To Klein Remarks
Morton Klein has called into question
several points of my op-ed piece in
defense of John K. Roth ("ZOA Chal-
lenges Bolkosky Article" Aug. 7).
Mr. Klein claims that my refer-
ence to legislation pased by the Ger-
8/14
1998
2 2 Detroit Jewish News
man government in 1938 is incorrect
and that the Germans passed no leg-
islation or decrees to deport Jews.
While there was no formal legisla-
tion, in October 1938, 17,000 Jews
were rounded up on secret orders
from Himmler and deported to
Poland. All were Polish citizens, liv-
ing in Germany. Poland had
demanded a renewal of passports,
and the Nazi government saw this as
an opportunity to remove them.
The Poles refused to allow the
trainload into their territory and the
hapless Jews were finally permitted to
disembark at Zbasyn, Poland, where
they were housed in inhuman quar-
ters. Herschel Grynszpan's family was
among those early deportees and when
he heard of their plight, he deter-
mined to shoot the German ambas-
sador. (He shot Ernst vom Rath
instead and this was used as a pretext
for the pogrom that came to be
known as Kristallnacht. That is the
reason Roth alluded to this early
event.)
As to the relative weight of acade-
mic support for Professor Roth's can-
didacy for the director of the
USHMM Center for Advanced
Holocaust Studies, I stand by my
original statement. Mr. Klein claims
that many academicians opposed the
candidacy. But in a letter that was
excerpted in the Forward (July 3),
Sara Bloomfield, acting director of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Muse-
um, wrote the following to John
Roth after his resignation:
"In spite of the public attention
given to your appointment by very
few individuals, there was and contin-
ues to be very strong support for you
as the right person for this important
position. As you know, we have
received an outpouring of support on
your behalf from the scholarly com-
munity."
The petition signed in England
supporting Professor Roth was pub-
lished in the Forward. That and other,
profuse endorsements were not only
for Roth's qualifications but for his
personal integrity. From Richard
Rubenstein to Michael Berenbaum,
from literary scholars to historians and
theologians, Roth received uniform
acclaim. Inevitable as it may be, the
politicization of the study of the
Holocaust will ultimately prove harm-
Mr. Klein points out that several of
Roth's books were edited or co-edited
with other scholars. From personal
experience, I will attest that editing a