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EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

Beyond The Shoah

S unday's observance of Yom HaShoah was different.
It was more than just Holocaust Remembrance
Day.
As always, Detroit Jewry gathered to light candles
in memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust
and to stand in solidarity against such madness to assure that
it never happens again. Additional candles were lit in memory
of the Israeli soldiers, other Jewish soldiers and Holocaust sur-
vivors who have died.
That was stirring in itself
There we were, 600 strong, in the David and Marion
Handleman Hall and Auditorium at the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield. It was a chilly afternoon. Yet, as
survivors lit the memorial candles and
Cantor David Montefiore sang melodies dat-
ing back to the Shoah, I felt warmed by our
grit against oppression and by knowing that
we, as a people, were survivors.
Wisely, however, we also made Yom
ROBERT A. HaShoah a time to affirm our support for
SKLAR
Israel and its right to repel aggressors who
Editor
resort to suicide bombings, sniper attacks
and blood libel.
As a pro-Israel rally was taking place in New York City and
Israel's Operation Protective Wall continued for a 10th day in
the West Bank, Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, the founder and
executive director of the Holocaust Memorial Center in West
Bloomfield, gave a stirring keynote talk at the JCC. He comp-
pared Hitler's Nazis and Arafat's terror-
ists, saying each regime sprouted from
the intent of destroying the Jews.
He called President George W. Bush a
friend of Israel, but also scolded him for
telling Israel to "halt incursions" into
Palestinian areas before the terrorist infra-
structure there has been dismantled. "We
cannot let Jewish blood flow freely," the
Rabbi Rosenzveig
rabbi said.
He added, "That cannot be done.
That should not be done. That is morally incomprehensible."
"To uproot the source of terror," the rabbi said, "is an
inalienable right of any sovereign state, anywhere in the
world."
And he's right.

Breeding Hatred Of Jews

Perhaps the only Middle East nation whose value for human
life is similar to that of the West, Israel is compelled to guard
its borders and protect its people. To ignore the terror would
be to fuel the same conditions that rocked Eastern Europe
after Hider's rise to power.
The Palestinians also benefit by Israel rooting out disciples
of terror. They benefit by not losing their kids, their future, to
the allure of becoming a suicide bomber.
"Can you imagine an 18-year-old girl, with a life ahead of
her, going ahead and committing suicide — for what?" asked
Rabbi Rosenzveig. He was referring to the teenager, from the
United Nations' Dheisheh Refugee Camp, who blew herself
up March 29 at a Jerusalem supermarket, killing two Israelis,
including a 17-year-old girl.
Ayat Akhras, a high school senior who wanted to study
journalism in college, became a suicide bomber because she
was brainwashed to believe her future was bleak because of

the Zionist enemy, but that she could be a martyr in the
Palestinian cause by savaging Israelis. There also was the mat-
ter of her family earning anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000
as a payout, apparently funded by Iraq and the Palestinian
Authority.
"We cannot permit a society to develop a new culture, a
culture where you send young people to commit suicide,"
Rabbi Rosenzveig said, "while their elders enjoy themselves
and protect their lives."
Indeed, we can't.
He said the Holocaust taught us a vital lesson: "that we
must, that we will — and thank God, that we can — protect
ourselves when needed."
He said Israel's existence — the might and resolve of the
Israeli people — will secure that another Holocaust will
never happen again."
But that doesn't mean we can sit on the sidelines.
We can support the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit's Emergency Campaign for Israel, encourage Israelis
via the telephone orelectronic mail, urge U.S. understanding
of Israel's dire straits and help educate non Jews about the rea-
sons behind the Mideast crisis.
"Israel is now suffering like we had
suffered at the time of the Holocaust,"
Southfield's Abe Pasternak told me fol-
lowing Sunday's program. The 78-year-
old native of the tiny Transylvania town
of Betlen was imprisoned almost a year
by the Nazis before he was freed by the
Russians on May 9, 1945. At the slave
labor camp at Schlieben, he helped sabo-
Abe Pasternak
tage German anti-tank rockets — the
hand-held panzerfaust.
The war claimed Pasternak's parents and two of his five
brothers. "Israel supersedes everything right now," he said.
"God forbid something should happen to it."

Seeds Of Enlightenment

As I absorbed the solemnity of the day, and the depth of the
horror that Hitler subjected Jews to for at least seven years
and that Arafat has deployed against Israelis for nearly 19
months, I visualized images of the Shoah — of people herded
off the trains, huddled in the barracks, coaxed to the "show-
ers," mercilessly shot or hanged, and piled in mass graves.
That made it hard for me to concentrate.
I kept thinking about the Jews and others who, by fate,
became entangled in Hider's web of deceit and deception,
who were hopeful but aware, resolute but scared.
Michigan Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus captured the mood of
moment, saying: "It's up to us to make sure no person has to
go through that indignity again."
Dr. Steven Grant, a Holocaust Memorial Center board
member, caught my ear when he asserted, "Israel must make
peace with its neighbors, but a peace born of strength and
security, not appeasement."
I interpreted that to mean that Israel would be foolhardy to
threaten its well-being by summarily caving in to the Arab
world's demands.
Nothing seemed more urgent Sunday than going to the
JCC to observe Yom HaShoah and standing shoulder to
shoulder with fellow Jews in support of our beleaguered
homeland.
Southfield Councilman Jonathan Brateman put it well: "I
know survivors and I feel close to our history. I also believe in
Israel. As a Jew, this was a place I felt I should be." ❑

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