survivor who takes the law into his own hands.
Some 50 years after his family was murdered in
the forests of Lithuania, Max Menuchen, a
Harvard University religion professor, encounters
the man responsible. But that man has a fatal ill-
ness and is not expected to live long enough for
the legal system to do its work.
Menuchen decides to mete out his own punish-
ment, and it is up to talented trial lawyer and fellow
professor Abe Ringel to defend him.
Like Ringel, Dershowitz has been criticized for
defending guilty people. In answer, he reminded the
Book Fair audience that the United States is a place
where the legal system does its best to investigate
crimes before filing charges.
"Would anybody want to live in a world where
the vast majority of the people accused of crimes are
innocent?" he asked.
In the question-and-answer period, Dershowitz
called the case against the 13 Iranian Jews accused of
spying for the United States and Israel "a total sham."
"None of these people have had any contact with
American or Israeli intelligence," he said. Instead,
the 13 have been caught in a battle between Iranian
centrists and fundamentalists.
Dershowitz said he is ready to go to Iran "at any
moment" with a team of lawyers from countries
including Canada and France. Their strategy is one
of carrots and sticks.
And, if the Iranian clerics were to bring the 13
Jews to trial and inflict punishment, the clerics
would be subject to trial should they leave Iran,
Dershowitz vowed.
As a lawyer, he gave advice to an audience
member who, as a Holocaust survivor, was seek-
ing restitution for property seized during the war.
However, he said, it would be wrong if the hor-
rors perpetrated during that era boiled down to a
series of financial lawsuits.
Dershowitz also had vitriolic criticism for political
candidate Patrick Buchanan, warning that he must
be taken very seriously as a threat to the Jewish peo-
ple. Like Hitler, Buchanan conceivably could be pro-
pelled into office by an economic downturn, he said.
Characterizing Buchanan as "a classic, old-fash-
ioned anti-Semite," he said the presidential con-
tender is not just a Jewish problem. He has never
stood up for a downtrodden person in this country.
The only ones he's stood up for are Nazis."
Audience members surveyed were unanimous in
praise of Dershowitz both as a person and as a speaker.
"He has the great gift of being passionate
about everything he's concerned with," said Cynthia
Mandelbaum of West Bloomfield.
Audience member Howard Malzberg of
Detroit said Dershowitz had talked about topics that
should have been raised 40-50 years ago.
Phyllis Salter of Royal Oak said the talk was
"very provocative and informational."
"He held the bragging down and let the facts
speak for themselves," Salter said. "I don't know
how one person can be involved in so many things."
Her opinion was echoed by Selma Tenenbaum of
Farmington Hills, who said Dershowitz "evokes
competence that someone is on guard for us and
capable of taking action." 1-1
Ready, Set, Read
Opening Day at the 48th annual Jewish
Book Fair features local author event.
T
SHELLI DORFMAN
Staff Writer
here were enough
books to house a small
b
library. But the sound level proved it was
anything but, as the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit opened
the first full day of the 48th annual Jewish Book Fair
on Sunday.
The' Nov. 7 event, at the JCC's D. Dan & Betty
Kahn Building in West Bloomfield, was the site of
intent shoppers and book browsers, students, fami-
lies and serious book collectors.
In their own section, in the midst of the Janice
Charach Epstein Museum/Gallery's current exhibit
about book art, sat 17 Detroit-area authors, most
new to the field of writing, many self-published and
all there for their connection with the Jewish corn-
munity.
Different from the overall fair, with its lectures
and shelved books, the Local Author Fair is a place
for writers and readers to interact on a personal
level. Authors have an opportunity to display their
works, enthusi-
astically discuss
their stories and
maybe sign
their first auto-
graphs.
For the sec-
ond year,
Marilyn Weiss
teamed up with
Irene Winkler
Brian Golden
to co-chair the
Local Author
Fair. In its fourth year, Weiss says the event has
become a familiar addition to the overall book fair,
with "word of mouth" bringing the writers and their
works.
One author participated after his mother, Ruth
Brownstein, mentioned to Weiss that her "son the
doctor" had written a book. Intrigued, she brought
it to her committee, who entered David
Brownstein's The Miracle of Natural Hormones, 2nd
READY, SET, READ
on page 12
The Price Of Success
s
Crowd overwhelms capacity.
uccess breeds success, it is often said.
Organizers of the 48th annual Jewish
Book Fair discovered success also can breed a
whole slew of disgruntled people. So many peo-
ple turned out to hear Alan Dershowitz, the
Nov. 6 opening night speaker, that they over-
flowed the Marion and David Handleman Hall
and Auditorium as well as the overflow room.
At its peak, the crowd reached about 1,500,
said David Sorkin, executive director of the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
Handlernan Hall's legal seating capacity is about
650. Room 332, the only room at the D. Dan &
Betty Kahn Building with closed-circuit television
capability, can accommodate another 400 or so.
"Another couple hundred were beyond our
capacity," Sorkin said.
Realizing the situation, event co-chairs Carrie
Kushner and Sylvia Gotlib, their families and
about 75 volunteers and Center employees —
includiiig Sorkin --- gave up their seats.
Although Zachary Davies of Oak Park got a
seat and was pleased with the speaker, he was
critical of the way the event was handled.
"A huge crowd should have been easily anticipat-
ed for a speaker of the stature of Alan Dershowitz,"
Davies wrote in a letter. He suggested that for
future opening night events, admission be by ticket
only, with free tickets available in advance.
"As it happened, I am sure many people went
home with a poor impression of the Jewish Book Fair
and the Jewish Community Center," Davies wrote.
His suggestion likely will be considered at the
Book Fair post mortem, said Sorkin and JCC
president Larry Wolfe. "It's a good news/bad news
cenario," Wolfe said. "A number of people have
en me suggestions, and we will look into them
ust as soon as Book Fair is over."
Expanding the JCC's closed-circuit capabili-
ties to additional rooms at the. Kahn Building
and/or to the Jimmy Prentis Morris Building of
the JCC in Oak Park would enable more people
to see and hear the speaker, although not in per-
son. Cost-effectiveness is a factor in considering
this option, Wolfe said, especially if it was need-
ed only a handful of times each year.
Another idea is moving the forum to the JCC
gym, the building's largest room, for an extreme-
ly popular speaker such as Dershowitz. However,
Wolfe pointed out, the gym has terrible acoustics
and uncomfortable, hard-to-access bleachers.
And giving out free tickets in advance still may
result in shutting out some people wanting to attend.
"We are desirous of correcting any problem
that comes up," Sorkin said. "But when you have
this kind of event, either you are too successful
and have too many people or you have no one
and people say, Why can't you turn out a crowd?'
"Our intention is to make everybody happy." ❑
— Diana Lieberman
Staff Writer