What Israel Means To Me...

Alyssa R. Martina
President and Publisher, Metro Parent Publishing Group

Israel has a deeply personal significance: the
site of a special love story that resulted in the
marriage of my parents: my mother, a beautiful
sabra and my father, a young American doctor,
whose crossed paths, during the War of
Independence, began a journey that would lead
them to Detroit and a life dedicated to family
and community.

Israel has a special place in my heart for many
reasons. Israel represents a place of persever-
ance and character, resolve and vision, beauty
and passion. Israel comes alive by virtue of its
essence: the strength of its people, the plethora
of its voices, the ardor of its history, its archeo-
logical importance, its transformation from a
land of arid terrain into a productive and fertile
habitat, its geographical location, and its unmiti-
gated spirit. Israel vividly demonstrates the awe
of what was, the intensity of what is, and the
promise of what can be. As a beacon for Jews,
Christians and Moslems, it is my hope that
Israel will one day symbolize a country where
hope, harmony, peace and tolerance is ushered
in as the prevailing standard for all of its inhabi-
tants.

AMP
Amur=

A message brought to you by the

American Jewish Committee

Metropolitan Detroit Chapter

In Celebration of Israel

Visit our Website www.ajc.org
For membership Information,
call (248) 646-7686

To Yasser Arafat: You mention you
want to die as a martyr ("What About
Arafat?", April 5, page 16). Mahatma
Gandhi and Martin Luther King were
martyrs. You will not be remembered
as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin
Luther King.
You will be remembered as Adolf
Hitler and Joseph Stalin because they
slaughtered their own people as well as
others. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin
were not martyrs.
Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield

Hadassah Thankful
For Wide Support

baking for a class that could

change your life?

Join Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg for a
course on mystical concepts in Judaism

on Sundays • 10:30 a.m.

at the Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center
5595 W. Maple Rd., W. Bloomfield

For more information about this class as well as other
classes on Jewish Mysticism & Basic Judaism
call the Torah Center 248-855-6170
visit us at bctc770@aol.com

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TRADITION!
TRADITION!

alithingsjewish.com

Call Alicia R. Nelson

248.557.0109

4/12
2002

6

Letters are posted
and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com

Arafat Like Hitler,
Not Like Gandhi

Ilk

"•111.""

LETTERS

Sale ends 4-3O-O2

The Greater Detroit Chapter of
Hadassah would like to thank Adat
Shalom Synagogue and Temple Israel
for inviting us to join them in bring-
ing Olympia Dukakis to the Detroit
community ("Olympia's Odyssey,"
March 15, page 82).
Ms. Dukakis performed the illumi-
nating and touching one-woman
show "Rose," a story of one woman's
life, from the shtetl in Russia to the
ghetto in Poland, from the sewers in
Warsaw to the glamour of Miami
Beach. It also depicts the life of her
family who settled in Israel. It's a
story to which we can relate — both
horrific and touching.
Also that evening, Hadassah
'Hospital in Israel was featured on
"Nightline." It was notable that the
entire show was devoted to a place in
Israel that tries to rise above the poli-
tics of the region. At Hadassah, medi-
cine and life are the issues. Arab and
Jewish doctors, nurses and techni-
cians work together, side by side, to
treat all patients with care and the
best that medicine has to offer.
The trauma center is crowded with
Arab and Jewish patients who share
hospital rooms. The devoted staff has
begun to feel the affects of the daily
tension. How can a patient whose
injuries include nails dipped in rat
poison, so that his blood will not
coagulate, have no affect on the doc-
tors and nurses who try to save his
life? How can a nurse, whose child
has been killed by an Arab suicide
bomber, work to save an Arab infant?
Only the government employs
more people than Hadassah. Today,
the economy of Israel is being threat-
ened. The absence of tourism has
caused restaurants, hotels and shops

to suffer. Yet, the people survive.
Hadassah provides employment —
and hope. We are all looking for ways
to help and make a difference.
We cannot stop the bloodshed, but
we can stop the bleeding!
Elaine Sturman
president, Greater Detroit Chapter
of Hadassah
West Bloomfield

God Alone Is
Our Savior

Your description of the April 1 prayer
and solidarity gathering at Adat
Shalom Synagogue (Editor's Notebook,
"Coming Together As Jews," April 5,
page 5) refers to Congregation Shaarey
Zedek Rabbi Jonathan Berkun's quote
from the Haggadah's well-known pas-
sage "in every generation they rise up
against us to destroy us." You then fol-
low this by saying "Yet, we've perse-
vered." In fact, the Haggadah con-
cludes this passage with v'haKadosh
Barukh Hu matzileinu miyadam, "and
the Holy One Blessed Be He saves us
from their hands."
Later in the same piece, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon is quoted as say-
ing that " the Jewish people are inde-
structible." Are we Jews so arrogant or,
indeed, irrational, to believe that our
people have survived millennia of per-
secutions, crusades, inquisitions,
expulsions, pogroms, holocausts, wars
and suicide bombers because of our
own stubborn perseverance, or ingenu-
ity, or military prowess, or, perhaps,
sheer luck?
As we now witness a frightening
resurgence of anti-Semitism and vio-
lence against the Jews, not only in the
Middle East but in Europe as well, we
must heed the Haggadah's words. It is
due time that we Jews acknowledge to
ourselves and to the world that it is
only because of God's promise to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that we have
any claim to the Land of Israel. And it
is to God alone that we must all pray
for our protection and survival in our
homeland and in a world that seeks
our destruction.
Dr. Janet Snider
Southfield

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