This Week
Cover Story/War On Terrorism
On Alert
Like most Americans, Detroit Jews live
with a greater sense of awareness
in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
HARRY KIRS BAUM
Staff Writer
A
, F^Cr
11/9
2001
14
open their mailbox and check return addresses.
The Jewish News staff blanketed the Detroit Jewish
community in the past two weeks to find out how
people are coping with these trying times. They
talked to a cross-section of people, which included
educators, therapists, business owners, rabbis, self-
defense teachers and students — and people like
you. Here is our report:
calculated plan that reduced three
American symbols to mass graves on
Sept. 11 altered our collective sense of
security forever.
The shock of terrorist attacks hit home when
United Airlines Flight 175 exploded into the south
tower of the New York's
World Trade Center at
9:02 a.m. Then we
knew the first crash, at
8:45 a.m., was no acci-
dent.
Glued to our TV sets,
we watched in horror as
the unreal scenario
unfolded. Can this be
happening in America,
we asked ourselves?
Now we know it can.
Nearly two months
later, as American war-
planes bomb Taliban
troops in Afghanistan
and New York firefight-
ers pull bodies from the
still-smoldering World
Trade Center rubble,
Americans deal with
official warnings of new
Travel agent Terry Rotenberg helps Judy Verona.
attacks and very real
threats of bio-terrorism.
Complacency is no longer an American option
now that terrorism hangs over us all. How we deal
Back to Business
with-that new reality varies, though.
On the morning of Sept. 11, Barry and Linda
A Newsweek poll taken last week of 1,001
Americans shows 11 percent feel "a lot less" safe now Solomon of Birmingham were flying home from
Italy when the pilot announced that every airport in
than they did before Sept. 11. Seventy-two percent
the United States had been closed, and that their
feel "only a little," or "not at all" less safe.
Though the majority is getting on with their lives, plane was landing in Amsterdam.
Four days after returning home, Linda Solomon, a
it's still clear something has changed. A nonchalant
photojournalist,
was scheduled to fly to Tucson for
sense of security is gone, replaced by a heightened
the
opening
of
a
show of her work. She cancelled
sense of awareness and caution.
her
trip.
Some people won't travel by plane, some will enroll
"It was too soon," she said. "I was very uncom-
in self-defense courses or buy a handgun; others may
fortable
with the security arrangements at the air-
simply be reminded of the potential threat when they
ports."
She now has returned to flying nearly every week.
"I'm not happy about it," she said.
Solomon is not alone. The travel industry is strug-
gling to recapture travelers in the wake of Sept. 11.
Terry Rotenberg, owner and manager of Gemini
Travel in West Bloomfield, said the travel business is
a hard sell right now.
Her business has suffered in the aftermath of the
terrorist attacks. A large percentage of people
booked for trips next summer have already can-
celled.
Judy Verona of Farmington Hills is working with
Rotenberg to plan either a golfing trip to the
Dominican Republic or a South American cruise,
leaving from Brazil.
"This is a terrifying time we're living in," Verona
said. Being Jewish does not make her more worried
about terrorists. "The way they went about the ter-
ror cut across all lines," she said.
Farmington Hills attorney Richard Bernstein said
his travel schedule has been dramatically affected. "I
used to travel almost weekly. In terms of airport
security, they have heightened the level of inconven-
ience, but they haven't heightened anything in terms
of security. The National Guard are primarily for
show," he said.
The attacks left an indelible impression on him.
"You live every day for the day. You want to put as
much and get as much as you can into every day."
Comfort And Help
The terrorist attacks have caused some people to
seek professional help to make sense of a world gone
awry, while others have turned to prayer and religion
for solace.
Rabbi Paul Yedwab of Temple Israel says he's seen
an increase in distressed congregants since Sept. 11.
"More people are coming [to services] because of
problems breaking out in the family and at work.
They're unfulfilled and unhappy, depressed and pes-
simistic," he said. Sometimes they can relate it
directly to terrorist attacks, sometimes not.
He says he generally suggests three things: prayer,
putting the terror attacks in perspective and turning
off the TV.
"It's a time when prayer really does help. In my
life, if I ask for a new Jaguar to appear in my drive-
way, it doesn't; but if I ask God for courage, God
grants courage," he said. "When talking with peo-
ple, I try to put it in perspective — 40,000 people
died in car accidents last year, 7,000 in terrorist
attacks. Both are substantial and regrettable.
"The same person who thinks life is falling apart
because of terrorist attacks, doesn't think twice about
getting in a car," he said.
"I also tell them to turn the TV off and listen every
hour on the hour to radio news. Then they will
know if something cataclysmic has happened. When
it comes to something so depressing, how can it be
good to watch the same thing over and over again?"
Dr. Alan Rosenbaum, a Farmington Hills psychia-
trist, says his office has been flooded with calls from
new patients and old.
"It's affecting all my patients terribly," he said. "It's
a major trauma that they're having a very difficult