Op inion Editorials are posted and archived on JN Online: www.detroitjewishnews.corn Inhuman Costs e are not going to pretend to under- stand why a young man would walk into a crowd of people coming home from prayers and blow himself up. We do not have any counsel worth sharing on why a crowd of other people, living across a "green line" a few miles away, would begin celebrating when they heard the young man had killed 10 people, includ- ing several infants and boys and girls. There is nothing in our experience as Jews that would lead us to comprehend such madness. We place too high a value on life to be able to get inside the heads of people who are taught that it is more blessed to die a terrorist martyr than to live like a saint. We also know, sadly, that our Jewish nation cannot sit by and do nothing in response to these barbaric acts. We wish we could counsel the leaders to stay their hands, but we cannot give that advice because we don't believe it. We know that — no matter how care- ful our soldiers try to be — the retaliation will be cruel, that it will kill and maim victims just as inno- cent as those who died in the Beit Israel neighborhood last Saturday. We know it would be better to talk than to shoot and bomb, but we also know that the desire to talk will be misunderstood, that it will be seen as a mark of weakness and that it is most likely to bring even more of the suicide bombers into our streets. We want, almost desperately, to believe that some third party — the United States or Saudi Arabia — can bring a halt to the violence by somehow forcing us and them to step away from a legacy of hate. But we know that the deaths — more than 1,200 since Sept. 28, 2000 — and the thousands of wounds to children and women and men have simply fresh- ened a resolve to hate. We would like to believe that "their" leader has some real power to turn a valve and shut off the flow of weapons to those who live for the terror they can create, but we can't even be sure that he has such a power any more or that he knows how badly he failed when he unleashed terrorists. We would also like to believe that "our" leader does have an effective plan for protecting us, but as the vio- lence has grown in response to almost every step he has taken, we don't see how that belief can be justified. But we don't have another solu- tion to urge on him, so we have to accept his call for increasingly harsh action to show the other side that we are not cowed, even though we know that harshness will mean more deaths on both sides. Those of us who live thou- sands of miles away cannot really understand what it must be like to go shopping, for instance, or take our children to Shabbat services knowing that a man or woman might suddenly cry out "Allahu Akbar," "God is great" in Arabic, and blow himself or herself and us to kingdom come. We can recoil in shock and horror when we see the bits of blood and bone being collected for burial, but we don't really put ourselves in that place every day, so we don't know how raw our emotions would be or how bit- ter we might become in demanding revenge. We are busy mourning our own young American soldiers dying in a land 10,000 miles away as they search for the rem- nants of a different terrorist force, and we have only so many hours in the day to allot to tragedy. We would like another great miracle to happen, for some force that we cannot anticipate to extin- guish these flames of war. But we know that will not happen until the people on both sides agree, at the deepest level, that this madness is only that, an EDITO RIAL Related coverage: page 14 Jews And Culture s Atlanta arah Hughes performed beautifully in cap- turing the women's figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics last month. Now everybody is looking for a piece of the 16- year-old superstar, including the Jewish community. With chests swelling with pride, Jewish "detectives" have reported that Hughes' mother is Jewish and her two brothers became b'nai mitzvah. Unable to say — and seemingly unconcerned — whether she practices the religion, they're ready to count her in. Secure in that knowledge, Jewish supporters boast that three of the top four finishers in the competi- Jason Green is managing editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times, sister publication of the Detroit Jewish News. His e-mail address jgreen @atljewishtimes. corn insanity, and not a force that can accomplish any- thing that will make the future brighter. Despite what some have said in recent days about how a striving for peace might actually have made peace less likely, we know that the route to laying down arms must be mapped by people and their leaders who are committed to peace above all else. From our distance, it has long seemed that some- thing could be done to meet the legitimate needs of both sides that reasonable people could sit down with other reasonable people and find a common ground. But now we think that we never did under- stand how vile was the poison just below the sur- face, how high the flames of hatred had leapt. We fear they will be a long time in burning out. While the conflagration continues, we can suggest patience and fortitude and courage and prayer. We may feel helpless, but we must never be hopeless. And we remind ourselves never to forget that those are real human beings, not demons, who are dying on both sides. O I say we are. And it's not necessarily a bad tion — Hughes, silver medalist Russian thing. Irina Slutskaya and fourth-place finisher Jew come in all shapes and sizes. A quick Sasha Cohen — are all Jewish. These look at the 2001 American Jewish Identity "experts" are pretty sure that Michelle Kwan Study, produced by the Center for Jewish can't read Hebrew. Studies at the City University of New York, Jews surely have arrived as a force at the reveals some interesting results. Only 51 Winter Olympics. percent of Jews surveyed said they were But does it matter? Does it matter that Jewish because of their religion, while 40 JASON former Enron Chief Financial Officer percent responded they are Jewish because GREEN Andrew Fastow is Jewish? How about shock Contributing their parents are Jewish. artist Howard Stern? Being "Jewish" means completely different In a culture where more than half marry Editor things to different people. For the Chasidic outside the faith, Jews are looking for role Jew, it might mean keeping kosher, not models who break the stereotype. We're not working on Shabbat and spending time at syna- all lawyers and doctors and financiers. Some of us gogue daily. For the cultural Jew — a "bagel Jew" as may even be crooks. one woman in my office is fond of saying — it But it raises an interesting question: Are we at a might mean acknowledging heritage or celebrating cultural divide — split between those who are prac- ticing the religion and those who are connected GREEN on page 36 with its traditions by lineage?