itorials

Editorials and Letters to the Editor are posted and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com

Right To Know

IN FOCUS

I

srael's fervently Orthodox Jews — the
haredim — are easy targets for more lib-
eral Jews unaccustomed to very devout
levels of observance.
As is any group of Jews, the haredim are
open to constructive criticism. But Israeli
newspaper columnist Ze'ev Chafets' haredim-
bashing at the International Institute for Secu-
lar Humanistic Judaism's Colloquium '99
vividly illustrated lashon hara (evil speech).
So why did we report his Oct. 7 remarks?
We did so because:
• Chafets gave the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit-funded colloquium's
keynote address to an audience of 325, includ-
ing many local Jews.
• he grew up in Pontiac and was active at
the old Congregation Beth Jacob, and so he
has deep local roots.
• you, our readers, deserve to know what a
renowned Jewish journalist who made aliya 32
years ago has to say about one of Israel's news-
making religious groups.
As a Jewish newsmagazine, it's our role to
tell you what notable speakers to the commu-
nity have to say about Jewish culture or

thought. By doing so, we enable you to draw
your own informed conclusions = from out-
rage to agreement.
That's not to say we'll recount every inflam-
matory anecdote. We abide by journalistic
standards of fairness and decency. And we're
sensitive to what is said merely for its shock
value or spitefulness.
In Chafets' case, we ultimately chose to
spare readers from a particularly derogatory
comment about the haredim. But we quoted
some of the commentary, and some of the
audience reaction, to provide at least a sense of
his message.
Yes, a newspaper is a messenger — a bearer
of both good and bad news.
We edit for length and content, but we
wouldn't be fulfilling our mission if we wrote
only "vanilla" stories. One of our greatest chal-
lenges is deciding how much flavoring to add.
We don't quote every demeaning remark we
hear, but the hopefully compelling exchange of
ideas that our pages do offer helps distinguish
us from government-controlled news publica-
tions in countries like Cuba, Russia, China
and Iraq.

Checking on construction of the new Mikva Israel in Oak Park
are general contractor Ron Monkman and Rabbis Shmuel
Irons, Yissacher Wolf and Yoel Sperka, and Michael Baum of
Mikva Israel. Concrete foundations were poured last week. The
two pools and 18-room building on the Alfred A. Taubman
Jewish Community Campus should be completed next year.

LETTERS

Tarnished Gold

T

The Right Depth

he glacier that is Shoah has calved a
new iceberg, one that threatens
America's titanically complacent
view of its behavior
toward European Jews at the
end of World War II. Like other
icebergs, this one — a report on
a looted "gold train" in Hungary
— is menacing enough on the
revealed surface and more
frightful in its suggestion of the
90 percent that lurks below.
The report, by the Presiden-
tial Advisory Commission on
Holocaust Assets in, the United
States, centers on a trainload of
gold, silver, paintings, china and
furs that American troops cap-
tured in a tunnel in Austria in
May 1945. It was headed
toward Germany, but papers showed that the
Nazis had looted much of the train's cargo
from Hungarian Jews.
Inexplicably, the U.S. forces made little
effort to safeguard the contents; in fact, one
general openly helped himself to silver and
fine china to stock his Austrian chalet. Jewel-
ry and furs were sold to American soldiers
and two suitcases filled with gold dust simply
"disappeared," the report said. Eventually,

some of the goods were auctioned off in New
York for the benefit of a United Nations
refugee agency.
But the American officials
made no effort to find the orig-
inal owners much less try to
return the 24 carloads of Nazi
plunder. The property, officers
declared at the time, was
"unidentifiable" — a conve-
nient finding that presumably
was meant to excuse the failure
to protect the possessions of
thousands of Hungarian Jews
caught in the Holocaust.
It is to the presidential corn-
mission's great credit that its
report does not try to hide this
shameful episode. And we hope
it triggers some renewed effort,
however belated, to make restitution to the
survivors and their heirs.
But looking at a doleful photograph of
thousands of gold wedding bands in a crate
that was part of the train's cargo, we wondered
if the American soldiers had thought about the
couples those rings represented. It reminded us
again of how much the Holocaust still has to
teach about mankind's persistent inhumanity
to man. fl

Looting of
gold train
suggests
deeper
menace.

Ideologies
And Tolerance

The Jewish News featured an
article ("The Future Is Now,"
Oct.1) on the Secular
Humanistic movement's Col-
loquium '99, which was to
explore "Jewish survival."
Admittedly, "religious plural-
ism" is the popular catch
phrase these days, but how far
does our community's toler-
ance to alien ideologies within
Judaism have to extend?
By the way, your con-
tention that "some Jews local-
ly don't consider Sherwin
Wine's congregants to be Jew-
ish" is a statement based on
unfortunate misconceptions
and errors. According to Jew-
ish law, one who is born of a
Jewish mother or converted
according to halacha is a Jew,
no questions asked — no
matter what his religious
beliefs or lifestyle. What's the
point of the Jewish News dis-
seminating information that

serves to promote divisiveness
and erode the unity that your
publication calls for?
An understanding of the
oft-quoted talmudic dictum
Maaseh avot siman l'bonim —
"The deeds of the forefathers
are a sign post to their descen-
dants" — explains why Secu-
lar Humanism cannot be
viewed as a movement within
Judaism. In the Torah reading
for Oct. 23, Lech Lecha, our
forefather Abraham, the first
Jew, leaves his land of birth
after God tells him, "Go from
your land, from your birth-
place, from the house of your
father to a land that I will
show you." He and his wife,
Sarah, embraced a belief in
monotheism and devoted the
rest of their lives to spreading
this belief among the idola-
trous peoples of their area.
Like our biblical ancestors,
Jews throughout history have
been willing, even in dire cir-
cumstances, to sanctify God's
name. The Avinu Malkeinu
prayer ("Our Father, Our

10/22
1999