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Rabbis Support
Anti-Gun Drive

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NEW IN DETROIT?

SHALOM DETROIT
WELCOMES NEWCOMERS TO
OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY

2/9
2001

16

Call the Women's Department at
(248) 203-1459 for more information.

Visit us on the Web: www.thisistederation.org

1 Wiek

A number of local rabbis have joined
the interfaith effort opposing expansion
of Michigan's concealed weapons law.
At Tuesday's press conference in
Detroit involving Christian, Muslim
and Jewish clergy, Rabbi Joseph Klein
of Temple Emanu-El described as
"evil" the state legislature's year-end
action to make concealed weapons
permits easier to obtain. "The Torah
commands us to not stand idle while
the blood of our neighbor is spilled,"
Rabbi Klein said. "This legislation will
only increase the blood spilled."
Among the rabbis supporting the
effort to have a statewide referendum
on the new law are Paul Yedwab of
Temple Israel, Daniel Nevins of Adat
Shalom Synagogue, Norman Roman
of Temple Kol Ami, Sherwin Wine of
the Birmingham Temple and Mark
Goldfarb of Flint's TeMple Beth El.
The Michigan Board of Rabbis was
expected to consider the petition drive
at its meeting this week.
Dr. Daniel Krichbaum of the
National Conference for Community
and Justice in Detroit said most reli-
gious organizations are "against hand-
guns, and if we get the religious corn-
munity involved, we'll get the sup-
port" for the petition drive.
"We have people willing to volun-
teer" to collect petition signatures, Dr.
Krichbaum said. Additional volun-
teers can call him at the NCCJ, (313)t,
567-6225.

— Alan Hitsky

Target Of Hate
In Traverse City

A recognized hate group delivered a
package of hate literature Monday to a
Traverse City synagogue active in
human and civil rights, said the con-
gregation's rabbi, a former Detroiter.
The package included an inflammato-
ry handwritten note blasting a pro-
Israel organization.
In a press statement issued Tuesday,
Congregation Ahavat Shalom Rabbi
Stacie Fine, formerly assistant rabbi at
the Birmingham Temple in
Farmington Hills, said the literature
was authored by the National Alliance,
which, according to the Anti-
Defamation League, promotes racism
and anti-Semitism.
Included were stickers with hate
messages toward blacks, Jews and
homosexuals, a gun rights pamphlet, a

Staff Notebook

defamation of the late Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. and a newspaper ad on
Israel scrawled with misspelled anti-
Semitic graffiti, the rabbi said.
Traverse City police are investigat-
ing, but have no comment.
"Obviously, the person or people
who sent this package are hate-mon-
gers unable to assume personal and
public responsibility for their racist
message," said Rabbi Fine, who speaks
at Traverse City's annual Martin
Luther King Day Jr. observance. "The
intent was to frighten or intimidate,
but I feel even more strongly about
promoting a message of diversity,
peace and justice."
This is the first time the Hillsboro,
W.Va.-based National Alliance, a 1970
spinoff of the National Socialist White
People's Party, has targeted the 100-
member independent synagogue.
Rabbi Fine,. however, said she heard
from the group in 1997, after it
planned a "Nordic Fest" in the area
and spread its leaflets downtown and
elsewhere. The group's action prompt-
ed the creation of the Hate Free TC
organization.
The rabbi noted that National
Alliance's founder and leader William
Pierce wrote and published "The
Turner Diaries," a fantasy novel of vio-
lent terrorism some believe inspired
the 1995 bombing of the Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City by
Timothy McVeigh.
In the aftermath of Monday's inci-
dent, President Gary Appel said
Ahavat Shalom hopes to teach the
public about the tactics and messages
of hate groups.
As he put it: "We hope that all peo-
ple of goodwill will stand together
when any minority group receives
such messages."

—Robert A. Sklar

Israel Caucus
Meeting Set

When the Michigan Democratic Party
State Convention begins this weekend
in Detroit, Israel supporters will have
a chance to hear Rep. David Bonior
(D-Macomb County), Dale Kildee
(D-Flint), former Michigan Governor
Jim Blanchard and U.S. Sen. Debbie
Stabenow at the Michigan Israel
Democratic Caucus.
The event will be held at no charge
from 8:45 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb.
10, at Cobo Hall Convention Center
in Detroit, Room D2-11. For more
information, call (248) 546-4936.
— Harry Kirsbaum