Fieger apologizes
for dissing rabbis;
YBH expands.
Michigan gubernatorial candidate
Geoffrey Fieger has apologized to the
director of the Anti-Defamation
League for what was considered "past
anti-religious" comments he made in
1996.
The comments ridiculed certain
Christian beliefs and practices, and
likened Orthodox rabbis to Nazis.
In a letter sent to Fieger September
2, ADL National Director Abe Fox-
man wrote, "We find your widely
Remember When • •
From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
1988
Sweden's government pursued a credi-
ble report from a Swedish business-
man that Raoul Wallenberg was alive
as recently as 1986.
The Canadian Jewish Congress
protested its government's acquies-
cence of a request to exclude Jews,
women and those from Arab extrac-
tion from the Canadian military con-
tingent sent to monitor the cease-fire
between Iran and Iraq.
The Troy Jewish Congregation
hosted the first Dial-A-Shofar, a hot-
line for those unable to attend the
High Holiday services.
Elie Wiesel was announced to be
the principal speaker at Adat Shalom's
dinner honoring Rabbi Efry Spectre.
1978
The Camp David Accords began with
9/11
1998
30 Detroit Jewish News
reported past comments ... to be
shockingly offensive, outrageous and
unacceptable. We are also troubled
that you have tried to explain them
away rather than acknowledge that
they were wrong and offensive."
During a phone conversation with
Foxman late last week, Fieger said the
statements were "taken grossly out of
context." Nevertheless, he apologized
in a letter to Foxman.
"With respect to quotations attrib-
uted to me, I have already expressed
deep regret for any pain or offense
that may have been caused by any of
these statements," he wrote. "As I have.
stated publicly within the past two
weeks, I wish I had never made them
as they are neither a fair nor an accu-
rate reflection of my beliefs."
Fokman said he was satisfied with
Fieger's statement.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah recently
announced to parents that it has
secured slightly under two acres of
land adjacent to its boys' school in
Southfield. According to the Oak-
land County Register of Deeds, the
property — at 15951 Lincoln Road
— was purchased in March for
$164,000.
The school is considering using
the new site for a nursery school
building if it is unable to find a suit-
able existing structure, said Beth
Yehudah President Gary Torgow,
who estimates that construction of a
new building would cost upwards of
$1 million. The quest for new space
comes in response to a surge in
enrollment: with 768 students, the
yeshiva has grown by 34 percent in
the past five years.
Last year Jewish communal profes-
sionals got a discount on Jewish Com-
munity Center of Metropolitan
Detroit memberships. This year,
they're getting a 50 percent discount
on Hebrew and Judaica classes
through the Agency for Jewish Edu-
cation's Midrasha Center for Adult
Jewish Studies.
The offer extends to all staff at Jew-
ish organizations and applies toward
all courses. In addition, two lunchtime
Hebrew courses designed specifically
for Jewish communal workers are
being offered. Classes start the week of
September 14. Call (248) 354-1050
for more information.
As part of its annual Update and
Insight Program, the Anti Defamation
League has invited J. Brent Walker to
speak on The Assault on Religious Lib-
erty: The View from Our Nation's Capi-
tol at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, at
Temple Shir Shalom, in West Bloom-
field.
Walker is general counsel of the
Washington D.C.-based Baptist Joint
Committee on Public . Affairs, which
represents 12 Baptist groups that pro-
vide educational and legal services and
organize broad coalitions to help
resolve church-state issues.
Walker is also an adjunct professor
at the Georgetown University Law
Center, an ordained minister and a
member of the Supreme Court Bar.
Reservations for the free program can
be made at (248) 355-3730.
Fiesty columnist and hellion Molly
Ivins will expound on life in America
at a program sponsored by the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the Birmingham
Unitarian Church, 651 N. Woodward
in Bloomfield Hills.
Ivins is a columnist for the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram and a three-time
Pulitzer Prize finalist. For information,
call Jan Leventer at (248) 855-5200.
s
optimistic projections.
President Carter was hailed for his
decision to bar entry into the U.S.
any representatives of the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO) or
other groups advocating the assassina-
tion of officials of any government.
Southfield native Michelle Nagel
dedicated a grove of 1,000 trees in
the Judean Hills in Israel to honor the
memory of her grandmother, Ethel
Matz Nagel.
Benjamin Ben-Baruch was named
educational director at Temple Beth
Jacob.
1968
Israeli police and security forces
smashed up an Arab gang suspected
of involvement with recent bombings
in Tel Aviv.
President Lyndon Johnson spoke at
a B'nai Kith triennial convention
banquet in Washington, both admon-
ishing and praising Israel in its cur-
rent crisis with its Arab neighbors.
Four Detroiters, Thomas Klein,
Harriet E. Miller, Allan Nachman
and Donald J. Purther, went to repre-
sent their city at the first National
Young Leadership Conference where
Itzhak Rabin, Israel's ambaSsador to
the U.S., was a speaker.
Congregation Mishkan Israel
Nusach H'ari appointed Hyman Karp
as its honorary president.
1958
President Eisenhower signed a bill
providing a national shrine for Jewish
war dead.
A survey conducted by the World
Jewish Congress reported that 23,000
Jews immigrated to the Western
Hemisphere in the past two years, a
third of whom were motivated by
persecution in Egypt and Hungary.
A hula hoop contest for children
and adults was held at 7 Mile and
Grand River roads with a cash award
of $2,000.
40 campers from the Detroit area
returned from Camp Ramah where
Hebraic studies and Jewish living
were emphasized in the program.
1948
It was • reported 4,000 Chinese Mus-
lims held an anti-Semitic rally in
Peiping. Mayor Ho Sze-Yuan
declared that he was against Jews
because they "brought about Com-
munism, and are behind capitalistic
oppression of the people," and called
for support of the Arabs.
In Mexico City, 10 members of
the Jewish community were put on
trial by the Jewish Community
Court for not contributing to the
United Jewish Campaign in propor-
tion to their means.
Members of many Michigan Jewish
communities gathered in a ceremony to
send off $100,000 worth of equipment
to be shipped off to Israel through the
Zionist Organization of America.
Shaarey Zedek began its new Beth
Ha-Yeled Nursery School.