ohJITEditorials
Editorials and Letters to the Editor are posted and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com
A New Starting Line
D
-
etroit has been a major force in the
Jewish Community Centers' Mac-
cabi Youth Games. When Detroit
, hosted the second games in 1984,
participation jumped from 300 at the first
Maccabi in Memphis in 1982 to 800. In 1990,
Detroit partied with 2,200 teen-aged Jewish
athletes, and last year, this community raised
the ante to 3,200 competitors.
The untimely death of Detroit Maccabi
mentor Jay Robinson last year coincides with a
turning point for the national teen Maccabi
movement: the end of massive, single-site
North American ze2n games held every second
year.
Maccabi leaders rightfully have decided that
no city can adequately host, entertain and
organize high-quality competitions for 3,000-
plus athletes competing in 14 to 18 sports.
An off-year system — holding Maccabi
games for 500-600 athletes at each of five or
six "regional" sites around the United States —
will become the yearly formula. But there are
kinks to work out.
The competitive level of the regional games
has always been lower than the North Ameri-
can games. With regionalization, stronger
teams from the major cities are disbursed
throughout the country.
If the competitive level drops, some teen
athletes may decide that Maccabi just isn't
worth the effort, and the cost. In addition, will
we lose the international delegations who col-
ored the North American events: the Israelis
leading the parade of athletes, the Mexicans
and their sombreros, the Aussies' bush hats,
even our friends from nearby Windsor?
With one of the largest participating teams
and as a three-time host, Detroit has wielded
considerable clout behind the scenes to shape
the JCC Maccabi program. That influence
extends to which regional sites Detroit attends
as it seeks the strongest competition.
The Detroit planners will have to analyze if
site selection and the resultant transportation
costs, levels of competition, earlier school start-
ing dates, conflicts with high school fall sports
schedules or other factors are having an impact
on Maccabi athlete participation. And, if so,
the leaders will decide what can be done to
compensate.
True regionalization might be the answer to
lowering costs and could serve to enhance geo-
graphic rivalries and competition.
Detroit's major contribution to the JCC
Maccabi Games so far has been its emphasis
on Jewish activities as well as athletics. Its con-
tribution to the next phase of this important
Jewish event should be to ensure that the
games' mass appeal continues. Fl
IN FOCUS
The Zagar Stone Tucker
Grant Unit of the B'nai
B'rith Metropolitan
Detroit Council revived
its summer picnic on
Sunday in the West
Bloomfield gardens of Jeannette and Jerry Olson, above. Atten-
dees included Mark Kopitz, inset, of Farmington Hills. Fran
White and Rae Schane co-chaired the get-together.
Fine Tune The Bill
Jr
Th
ewish members of the U.S. House of
Representatives found themselves in a
corner earlier this month when faced
with a vote on the Religious Liberty
Protection Act. The measure passed, 306-118.
Oddly, the majority of Jewish lawmakers voted
against while it had overwhelming support
from most national Jewish organizations across
the spectrum. That unusual dissonance high-
lights what U.S. Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.),
described as the "false choice" offered by the
bill.
The legislation is broadly designed to pre-
vent government intrusion into private reli-
gious practice, a cause all of us reflexively
champion.
On its face, the measure approved by the
House remedies the problem. It would prevent
state and local officials from imposing a "sub-
stantial burden" on the free exercise of religion
unless they use the "least restrictive means" to
further "a compelling interest" such as health
or safety.
Examples that supporters use of unaccept-
able intrusions include policies that bar Jewish
children from wearing kippot in public school
or the requirement of autopsies, which violate
an Orthodox interpretation of Jewish law.
The legislation replaces the 1993 Religious
Freedom Restoration Act, overturned by the
Supreme Court two years ago for overstepping
its bounds. Its attempt to be broader, however,
has triggered opposition by gay and civil rights
groups. They claim it would make it easier to
discriminate against people on the basis of sex-
ual orientation and marital status. They argue,
for instance, that the measure would allow
people to invoke religious principles to justify
a refusal to hire or house gays.
That concern drove the majority of Jewish
lawmakers to vote against the bill, including
Nadler, an original sponsor. He voted no after
the defeat of an amendment he crafted to try
to ensure existing civil rights laws would not
be superseded.
As the Senate prepares to take up the
measure, Jewish groups continue to voice
public support for it, with some private mis-
givings.
ivinas.
b
We agree with the bill's sponsors that reli-
gious freedom must not be trampled upon by
"insensitive bureaucracy or bad policy." But we
also support Nadler's concern. We believe the
bill's authors need to find a clearer way to pro-
tect religious freedom without compromising
civil rights. Li
LETTER
Armed Force
And Tradition
Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz rec-
ognizes that the concept of
peace pervades Jewish tradi-
tion, but he doesn't go far
enough ("Achieving Peace In
The Jewish Tradition," July
23). Tradition didn't stop with
King David. We were paci-
fists, as a group, for 1,500
years since the end of the
Roman Empire. Living this
ideal transformed Jewish tra-
ditions on warfare.
Concluding that Judaism
still condones armed force in
response to vague evil because
King David did is dangerous.
Unfortunately, many people
who think they know evil when
they see it are wrong. Jews have
been wrongly stereotyped as
evil. This rationale was even
used by a Jew to justify his
assassination of Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
On the grander scale,
Judaism cannot consider war-
fare acceptable when modern
biological, chemical and
nuclear weapons can poison
everyone no matter what their
ideology.
Our bodies are on loan
from God. Jewish blood is no
redder than that of those
whom we consider enemies.
We are all created in God's
image; none of us has the
right to kill another in calcu-
lated and planned wars. Espe-
cially since Gandhi's demon-
stration that victories can be
non-violent, Judaism as a reli-
gion should no longer regard
war as acceptable.
Not surprisingly, there is a
7,1 13()
199f,
WS
11 E
Detrc" jewis