Editorials Editorials and Letters to the Editor are posted and archived on JN Online: www.detrohjewishnews.com Death With Dignity S kepticism helps guard against over- confidence. And it's hard to believe a group of Detroiters can shape a home hospice-care service in Israel, half a world away. The distance issue remains, and so does the test of time, but make no mistake: we're begin- ning to believe. The Milton and Lois Shiffman Home Hos- pice in the Valleys, in the central Galilee, grew out of a trans-Atlantic dream to provide an alternative to physician-assisted suicide. The Detroit Jewish community and a local university run by a Catholic order pur- sued the dream together so terminally ill Israelis could live out their last days with dignity and in relative comfort. The human= itarian thrust is to deliver specialized treat- ment and religious chaplaincy until nature works its course. Such care doesn't cure, but it does ease pain. On a typical day, the Shiffman Home serves 35 patients, 30 Jewish and five Arab. It links the Hospice of Michigan and Madonna Univer- sity, run by the Felician Sisters, with Detroit Jewry's Partnership 2000_region. And it's per- haps the biggest success of the Jewish Federa- tion of Metropolitan Detroit-sponsored part- nership. Federation, via the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, pays the lion's share of Shiffman's $200,000-a-year operating budget. Fittingly, the service preserves the memory of Milton Shiffman. a giant of Detroit Jewry. Simply put, he and his wife Lois saw a need and embraced it. They Ove $100,000 to help Detroit bring hospice care to Afula, Nazareth, Nazareth Ilit, Migdal HaEmek and the Jezreel Valley — a growing region of 200,000 people. Milton Shiffman died suddenly in January, less than two months after he and Lois hosted many of the key players in the hospice named for them. Lois, who shares her late husband's compassion, hosted a similar gathering on May 22, during a weeklong visit by Shiffman hospice leaders. Conceived in 1996, this fragile experiment in the central Galilee is taking root thanks to: • An interdisciplinary approach — building patient care around nurses, doctors, social workers, clergy and other professionals. • On-site support from three of Israel's most hospice-savvy institutions, including Hadassah Medical Center, meaning Detroit doesn't have to solve every crisis. • A Madonna-developed curriculum in hospice care, tailored to the Shiffman staff, who are truly pioneers facing great odds. Notably, the early success of the Milton and Lois Shiffman Home Hospice in the Valleys has caught the imagination of Israeli health insurers. These insurers don't cover home hos- pice care yet, but Kupat Cholim, the largest HMO, pays some of Shiffman's staff costs. Members of that staff said Monday that they are working hard to make us here in Detroit proud of them. And proud we are. 0 IN FOCUS Telling His Story West Bloomfield residents Bradley Gonick, 12, and his mother, Andrea Gonick, were featured speakers at the recent Anti- Defamation League national leadership conference in Washing- ton, D.C. They told the gathering of 500 lay and professional leaders about their experiences with Bradley receiving more than 1,500 antisemitic death threats on the Internet. The local ADL office stepped in to assist the family, investigate the prob- lem and help stop the e-mails. Above, Bradley a student at Hil- lel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit, was a poised speaker at the podium. Right, Bradley, with his mother, was thrilled to meet Vice President Al Gore, who addressed the conference. Who Said Pulling Out Would Be Easy? I f getting out of Lebanon was going to be easy, Israel would have done it long ago. So this week's seemingly inglorious retreat should not be read as a defeat or a humiliation. It wasn't smooth, and it wasn't pretty, but it was necessary. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak deserves credit for doing what a majority of Israeli mothers and fathers wanted — and what he promised to do a year ago — getting Israel's soldiers out of a land where more than 1,000 of its sons had died. For many Americans, the pictures of Hezbollah fighters waving their rifles in triumph evoke memo- ries of the American pullout from South Vietnam two decades ago, just about the time when Israel first moved its troops across the border to try and control PLO attacks on its northern settlements. But the comparison is inappropriate. In Vietnam, American troops were far from home, fighting for a cause. In Lebanon, the IDF was safeguarding Israel's own border, insuring that terrorist massacres of Related story: page 19 kindergarten children and other Israeli civilians would occur no more. In getting out, Israel takes a calculated risk that Syria and Lebanon will understand their responsibil- ity to rein in Hezbollah. If they do, the evacuation will have saved Israeli lives; if not, the battle will continue to rage on and precious blood on both sides of the border will continue to be spilled. But one thing is certain: the costs in Israeli lives lost in the Lebanese quagmire could no longer be justified by a strategic presence that had, from a military per- spective, become increasingly indefensible. In the 1980s, Israel arguably could stop cross- border attacks on its civilian populations in Kiryat Shemona and its northern corridor by creating a buffer zone. Now, more than 20 year later, the mist siles in the hands of Hezbollah permit it to go right over the IDF's head, almost at will. In hindsight, Barak and his generals should have foreseen the swift Collapse of the Syrian Liberation Army and the wariness of the United Nations to quickly fill the void — which undermined any hope of a dignified withdrawal. Once the peace talks with Syria stalled and Barak's July pullout crept closer, the SLA troops had little choice but to surrender or flee. Apparently, most wisely chose the second option. Adding to the appearance of disarray was the unexpected violence of the previous weekend in the West Bank, where Palestinian protesters turned their venting into an ugly, bloody reminder of just how hard it is to cross that last, shaky bridge to peace. Before we pile on Barak, we should ask ourselves this: How many retreats (particularly of the defeat- ed) were ever smooth and glorious? As Israel goes down just such a bumpy road, its shock absorbers had better be ready. For now, Barak is at the wheel. He may not be • the perfect navigator — as his recent policy short- comings clearly indicate — but did anybody really expect his road into the uncharted territories of peacemaking with Syria, the Palestinians and Lebanon would be without breakdowns? Barak is actually keeping his promise, and staying the course, in trying to make peace with Israel's neighbors. In Israeli politics, that should count for something. More important, he's bringing our boys home from Lebanon. In Israeli living rooms, that should count for even more. 0 5/26 2000 39