Insight

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Tourism vs. Terrorism

The rabbi from Efrat encourages American Jewish visitors to Israel.

The community south of Jerusalem has worked diligently
to help its neighbors. Efrat established a hotline for
Palestinian women modeled after its own hotline for
IV e need you now in Israel," said Rabbi Shlomo women's rights, abuse issues and legal aid. The community
Riskin. "There's a war going on."
helps Palestinians who do not have medical insurance, and
With that seeming contradiction, the
helped establish an Arab medical clinic.
American-born head of Israel's Ohr Torah Stone
"This is important," the rabbi said. "In the long run, we
institutions and also chief rabbi of Efrat in the West Bank,
have to have peace" and live in harmony with Arab neighbors.
asked. Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit leaders to
"The city Arabs, the rural Arabs — they don't want a
spur more tourism to Israel.
right of return. It's [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat's
Rabbi Riskin was in Detroit last week as Young Israel of
cohorts from Tunis[Palestinians who were forced out of
Southfield's scholar-in-residence. He also spoke at Yeshivat
Lebanon] who want their old homes back [in Israel].
Akiva on May 17.
"We're not fighting the Palestinian people," Rabbi Riskin
"If Israel is our motherland and our homeland, and she's
said. "We're fighting the PLO [Palestine Liberation
in trouble, that's when she needs you
Organization]."
most. You don't stop visiting your
Before the rabbi's visit to the Max M.
mother because she lives in a bad area,"
Fisher Federation Building in
Rabbi Riskin said.
Bloomfield Township, part of a nation-
Federation President Penny
al fund-raising tour, it was reported
Blumenstein agreed with Rabbi Riskin,
that a suicide bomber had killed five
but defended Detroit's communal
Israelis and wounded dozens outside a
record inpromoting missions to Israel
shopping mall in Netanya.
since the start of the Palestinian intifa-
"Netanya is not Judaea and Samaria,"
da (riots) last September.
Rabbi Riskin said. "If the Palestinians
Federation Chief Executive Officer
wanted peace, [Israeli Prime Minister
Robert Aronson sought the rabbi's sup-
Ehud] Barak offered it. That's not what
port for a second approach: a massive,
they want.
United Jewish Communities' mission
"When they say the right of return,
aiming to bring 5,000 North American
they mean the 1947 armistice lines.
Jews to Israel during a designated week.
And that means no Jewish state."
But, added Aronson, the Israeli gov-
He said Israel expects nothing from the
ernment is sending a mixed message on
rest of the world. The European Union
tourism. "They need to say, 'Come.'
and the United Nations have been one-
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
But they also need to say, 'It is safe to
sided against Israel, and the pope — "sup-
come.'"
posedly a good pope" — has destroyed all
Rabbi Riskin responded that he "can't promise you noth-
the credibility that the Church has built since Pope Pius XII.
ing will happen" during a visit to Israel. But there is more
"He stood by in silence while the president of Syria
danger of an automobile accident than there is of a terrorist spewed anti-Semitism."
attack, he said.

ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor

Israel At War

The enemy has decided that the battlefield is going to be
the homefront, the rabbi said.
"We had already given up 98 percent of the lands where
Arabs live, and we were ready to give up 94 percent of the
rest. We gave up Al Aqsa, we offered east Jerusalem, and
what did the Palestinian do? They shot at us."
He said his Jewish community in Efrat has never had a
problem with its Arab neighbors. "We don't even have a
[security] fence," he said, "and we have never been sorry."
The mayor of a neighboring Arab village said nothing
would happen to Efrat if the fence was not erected, and
there has never been an incident.

Promoting Tourism

Turning back to the issue of tourism, Aronson told Rabbi
Riskin that UnitedJewish Communities had considered a
national rally in support of Israel and a special campaign to
fund-raise for Israel. "But nobody likes either idea,"
Aronson said. "Travel is the No. 1 thing we can do."
He added that every terror attack "endangers the unity of
our people" because every attack drives American Jewish
tourists away and makes Israelis believe they are fighting alone.
"It's hard to get other communities to see this as a priori-
ty," Aronson said, adding that the UJC hears from many
experts, but they tend" to be the same ones.
Aronson asked Rabbi Riskin if he would speak to the UJC to
provide another voice advocating Jewish tourism to Israel. ❑

Remember
When •

From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

.

litIn •
irsite&AA
Detroiter Irving Nusbaum was
named general chair for the Jewish
National Fund's testimonial dinner
dance.
Rabbi David Nelson of
Congregation Beth Shalom become
the first Jewish chaplain of the
Detroit Police Department.
Detroiter Sylvia Serwin was hon-
ored by the Jewish Home for Aged
for her 25 years of professional
service.

”:•?;•
ANO111.40''
Eis
The first public school in Nevada to
be named for a Jew is the Nate Mack
Elementary School in Las Vegas.
Detroiter Louis Horowitz was
elected president of Young Israel of
Oak-Woods.
Detroiter Irving Davis was select-
ed as the Greater Detroit Bowling
Association's man of the year.

:Ms.&

t

vt

Paul J. Miller of Flint was appoint-
ed to the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point.
A Haifa firm, Albit Computers, is
set to begin to manufacture and
export computer equipment.
Three hundred employees were
sought to staff the 156-bed Fisher
Patient Care Wing to open at Sinai
Hospital of Detroit.

An Arab infiltrator into Israel was
killed and two were captured after a
clash with an Israeli border patrol
north of the Gaza Strip.
Leo I. Franklin, son of the late
Rabbi Leo M. Franklin, was elected
president of Temple Beth El.

amitingweems agmr,
eimittA. Mal
atort

".

A 26-year-old Jewish woman,
Shirley Pearlove of New York, was
appointed the first White House
librarian.
Former Detroiter Dr. Oscar
Balchurn was awarded a fellowship by
the National Research Council to test
a diagnostic device for tuberculosis.
— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant I TN

5/25

2001