Editorials
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Community Spirit
knew them.
While money is never the answer,
in this case it is a step in the healing
process. The brothers, who were left
with very little, are beginning to get
on with their lives with the help of a
generous community.
That includes the janitor who con-
tributed $5 of the $6 he had in his
pocket, apologizing that he couldn't
give more.
It includes the children who can-
vassed their friends and sent $24 to
the Michalson fund.
It includes you. Your support will
help lift the financial cloud from
this deep tragedy. In the coming
weeks, the Jewish News will keep you
abreast of further developments. In
the meantime, we ask that you add
your help for these two grieving
young men. ❑
Pho tos by Barbara Barefield
o event in recent years has
so broadly touched the
Detroit Jewish community
as the tragic story of the
Michalson family ("A Time To
Care," June 23, page 12).
The June 12 death of Mark
Michalson at age 52 left his sons,
Ben, 16, and Jeremy, 20, alone in
the world. The boys' mother, Joan
Penner Michalson, died in 1998
after a 20-year struggle with multi-
ple sclerosis. There is no other close
family still living.
Word of the tragedy swept through
the community. Distant cousins
stepped in to help immediately. Old
friends offered places for the Michal-
son brothers to stay.
Attorneys are working on the legali-
ties of making Jeremy the legal
guardian for Ben. Others are working
on selling the family condominium in
Novi. A fund in the boys' names was
established at the Jewish Family Ser-
vice.
Too often, events around us do
not touch us directly or are not in
our power to change. With the
Michalson boys, many Detroiters
know the family or someone who
IN FOCUS
Tax-deductible checks, payable to
Jewish Family Service, can be sent
to JFS at 24123 Greenfield,
Southfield, MI 48075. Write in
the memo portion of the check:
Mir...liaison brothers.
Second
Century
voif044‘
Klezmer and other Jew-
ish music energized an
evening hosted by Stan
and Iris Ovshinsky of
Bloomfield Hills to
inaugurate Second Cen-
tury, the Workmen's
Circle Michigan Dis-
trict Endowment Fund.
Workmen's Circle is a
100-year-old organiza-
tion promotihg social
and economic justice .
and Yiddish culture.
Local offices, including a Sunday
school, are in Oak Park. Above,
performing are WC members Yale
Strom and Jannina Barefield of
New York, both former Detroiters.
Left, Second Century leader Bob
Kaplan of New York speaks to the
gathering, including, front row,
District Director Karen Rosenstein
of Troy and activist Estelle Cohen
. of Farmington Hills; Stan Ovshin-
sky sits behind them and Maureen
Petrucci of Royal Oak is standing.
Fingers Crossed
ro
resident Bill Clinton better be right. The
decision to summon Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat to a summit meet-
ing later this month should be a wonderful sign that
both sides believe they can reach an agreement on a
substantial plan to normalize relations between Israel
and a new Palestinian state. It would have been the
height of folly for Clinton to arrange the meeting with-
out substantial advance assurance that the result will be
a major positive contribution to peace in the Mideast.
Surely, all those months of quiet talks between
the negotiators found some common ground. Sure-
ly, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her
deputy Dennis Ross are confident that the remain-
ing differences can be effectively compromised.
But what if they are wrong? What if the sides ulti-
mately cannot resolve the most controversial points,
like what part of Jerusalem Arafat gets to call a capital
and which West Bank settlements are truly going to
be under total Palestinian control? Yes, Barak and
Arafat can sign something saying that those tough
questions will be resolved in the future, but what will
Related story: page 19
that have gained? Another agreement like the one
reached at Wye River that is unworkable and unen-
forceable? One that brings down the tottering Barak
government with no real movement toward a more
stable relationship with the Palestinians?
No guts, no glory, of course, and Clinton certain-
ly wants to go out of office being remembered for
what he contributed to world peace rather than
what he contributed to public disenchantment with
the presidency. And the peace process needs a bit of
outside pressure — calling the summit was, Clinton
said, "the only way to move forward."
The Palestine Liberation Organization, in particular,
does need some nudging. Its leaders seem to have an
unerring ability to miss golden opportunities, as this
week's affirmation that they will declare statehood this
fall, willy-nilly, attests. Here they have an Israel that is
finally willing to concede them the statehood point in
the broad context of a peace deal, and they insist on
behaving as if the issue were not on the bargaining
table. The only thing worse would be if they carried
out the step — which would certainly be met by an
Israeli annexation of West Bank land, which would, in
turn, further enrage Arab sensibilities and provoke
more of the mindless mischief that simply makes peace
even harder to work out.
The language of the summit announcement left a
lot of wiggle room. The idea, it said, was to get con-
sensus on a framework agreement that could be
signed by the second week of September. That
"framework" language means that not every "i" must
be dotted, which means the sides could agree simply
not to settle their most vexing questions. They could
declare' great achievement without actually having
truly settled anything more than what the negotia-
tors have already worked out.
But that may pot be enough. Ordinary Israeli citi-
zens genuinely want an end to the uncertainty and to
the deep-down knowledge that violence can be
launched against them at any time. It is less clear what
ordinary Palestinians want, because that has been
clouded by the unremitting antisemitic propaganda the
PLO dispenses for its own political reasons.
If this summit does not significantly advance the
peace process, Barak and Arafat will not have anything
meaningful to try to sell their nations, and extremists
on both sides will seize on that as an excuse to push
away from a negotiated overall settlement. The price of
failure could be extraordinarily high.
We hope the moment is upon us. We wish we
were more certain of success. We will keep our fin-
gers crossed. 111
7/7
2000
33