COMMUNITY VIEWS
The Price Of Peace
Movingly Questioned
JANET ARONOFF
Special to The Jewish News
I
recently accompanied U.S. Sen.
Connie Mack (R-Fla.) on a fact-
finding mission to Israel.
The senator brought along his sis-
ter, a Franciscan nun, his daughter
and son-in-law. From the start, it
became evident that he wanted to
keep the visit private because even
though the trip was sponsored by the
Zionist Organization of America
(ZOA), and the senator is a seasoned
politician and keen supporter of Israel,
he refused anyinterviews.
But something happened on the
trip that moved him so much that
when he returned to the United
States, he delivered a speech of
Churchillian proportions on the Sen-
ate floor. His words not only verbal-
ized the deep fear that has been grow-
ing within me, but they legitimized
my feelings as well.
Let me back up for a moment.
Over the past year, I have been active
in MATCKH — Mothers Against
Teaching Children to Kill and Hate.
The group of mothers and grand-
mothers, modeled after NLkIDD
(Mothers Against Drunk Driving), is
committed to exposing that Arab
Palestinian children are being raised
on a daily diet of hate and terror
Janet Aronoff of Bloomfield Township
is a co-founder ofM_ATCKI-1 and a
member of the ZOA national board.
toward Israel and Jews. For example, a
scene from a Sesame Street-type TV
program called "The Children's Club"
portrays a young girl of 6 or 7_reciting
a poem extolling the virtues of being a
suicide warrior at the entrance of
Jerusalem.
If there was one thing I was deter-
mined to do on this trip, it was to
make sure the senator was exposed
to these chilling images firsthand. So
at our meeting in the King David
Hotel with Itamar Marcus, the
Israeli chairman of the Anti-Incite-
ment Committee set up as a result
of the NX7ye agreement, I arranged a
viewing of "The Children's Club"
program. Everyone in the room was
shocked. But this is how Senator
Mack put it: "I have a grandson
about that age, the age of the little
girl. How would I feel if he were
being taught hatred on television?
How would you feel if your govern-
ment was teaching your children to
hate? Could you conclude that they
were serious about long-term peace
with their neighbors?"
It was actually Marcus' expose, in
his capacity as head of the Center for
Monitoring the Impact for Peace,
which convinced us at MATCKH to
continue with our work, even after the
- TV programs were pulled off the air.
The monitoring center has examined
140 textbooks published by the Pales-
tinian Authority Ministry of Educa-
tion for grades 1-12. In these text-
books, the maps of the area are called
"Palestine" without a trace of Israel;
with its aircraft."
"Extremely chill-
c__
in g" were the words
the senator used to
describe his reaction
to that afternoon in
- the King David
4
Hotel. From then on,
he did not fail to
bring up this senti-
ment wherever we
went. Whether it was
ta.r.
a two-hour private
reception at the prime
minister's residence or
at meetings with
Israeli political leaders
(we met with Anatole
Sharansky, Moshe
Arens, Ehud Olmert
and Limor Livnat), or
w
later upon his return
home when he
addressed the presi-
dent and his col-
Prime Minister Binyamin and Sara Netanyahu with Janet leagues on the Senate
Aronoff at her Bloomfield Township home during a Detroit floor, Senator Mack
visit following his election in 1996
never failed to raise
the issue.
Two other meetings had a profound
Jews and Israel are delegitimized and
impact on Senator Mack and me as
the jihad is glorified.
well. The first was a private meeting
The senator chose this example
we had with Arabs who were being
from a third-grade grammar lesson to
persecuted for their Christian faith.
describe the educational material to
The details of the suffering and tor-
his colleagues in the Senate. "Com-
ture of those poor people did not leave
plete the following blank spaces with
a dry eye in the room. The second
the appropriate word: 'The Zionist
meeting was with a group of parents
enemy . . . (blank) . . . civilians with
of American children killed by Pales-
its aircraft.'" The correct answer is,
PRICE OF PEACE on page 30
"The Zionist enemy attacked civilians
4c.
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LETTERS
surprise — that the Conservative and
Reform movements, with comprehen-
sive, active and well-funded educa-
tional divisions, had yet to meet the
challenge presented by their own
Schools' new media" needs.
Further, the overall tone of the arti-
cle was rather negative, while the
prognosis (for using Judaic software in
the classroom) is actually quite good.
There are many new, exciting software
packages, produced by independents
and mainstream companies, reaching
the market. There are more and more
trained professionals entering the field,
more and more talented individuals
and companies pooling their energies
and resources with interested institu-
tions, more funding sources being
identified, more on-line annotated
databases of products and programs
being made available, more emphasis
3/26
1999
28 Detroit Jewish News
being placed on effective and realistic
integration techniques and training,
and more serious ongoing forums and
conferences addressing the key issues.
Finally, as a clarification, I was the
initiator and a founding partner of
the enterprise that created the CD-
ROM edition of the Encyclopaedia.
Judaica.
Irving D. Goldfein, Ph.D.
President, Infomedia Judaica Ltd.
Southfield
Sinai Quality
Is Remembered
It is with much sadness that I realize
that Sinai Hospital, the very hospital
whose groundbreaking I remember, is
actually closing its doors ("Goodbye
Construction began
on Sinai in 1951.
6
Sinai; Hello Sinai-Grace" March 5).
How can a hospital close its doors?
From the time Sinai opened in
1953 until his untimely passing in
June 1970, my father, Rabbi Dov
Bakst, was its rabbi, supervising the
operation of the first kosher kitchen,
which prepared between 150 and 200
meals each day for patients who
observed the laws of kashrut. He was
also a counselor, teacher, conductor of
religious affairs, translator and part-
time psychologist at the hospital.
His loyal professionalism on the com-
munal scene and his warm yiddishe feel-
ings of honor for each and every human
being elevated the hospital and helped
make it into the model of what a Jewish
hospital should strive to be.
Those v,rho had to spend time at
Sinai Hospital during the nearly 50
years of its lifetime knew they were
provided not only with the highest
level of medical care, but also the
highest level of spirituality. When the
Jewish neighborhood moved five miles
north, there was still a rabbi who con-
tinued to walk those five miles to
ensure each patient's comfort on Shab-
bat and Yom Tov.