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Dry Bones
Spiritual Bonding
ike marriages, mergers hold the possibility
of good fortune or rough times.
Four years into the merger of the two
congregations that. created it, Young Israel
of OakiPark (YIOP) is primed for success.
With 240 member families, it continues to be the
largest.941-i6d6X synagogue in Michigan. And on
the heels 614 major renovation, it is now a model
for the National Council of Young Israel, the North
American umbrella agency for 25,000 member fam-
ilies. The congregation is symbolic of the staying
power of Oak Park as a thriving population center
for the Detroit Jewish community.
Last week, YIOP held its fourth annual dinner,
and honored 38 "past presidents." The
congregation
was formed in 1998 from
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the merger of Young Israel of Oak Woods
and Young Israel of Greenfield, both stal-
warts of Detroit Jewry's Orthodox movement since
the 1950s.
Morris Noversky was the first president of Oak
Woods, Louis Harris of Greenfield and Ruvi Singel
of YIOP. Their presidencies lived up to the high •
expectations that come with being the first to lead a
congregation. They set the standard for all the oth-
ers who also received a presidential plaque for serv-
ice and sacrifice.
The presidential roll call at the June 12 dinner,
held in the new Saltsman Social Hall of YIOP's
Peter Weiss Center, was a tribute not only to long-
time lay leaders like Alex Saltsman and Morris Flatt,
but also the vibrance of the Young Israel philosophy,
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which pairs a love of Torah with a wider
view of Orthodoxy.
Marking its 90th anniversary this year,
the National Council of Young Israel serves
150 synagogues, including Young Israel of
Southfield. .A sister agency in Israel repre-
sents 50 synagogues. All share a heimish
approach to synagogue life.
Young Israel arrived in Detroit in 1925
and followed Detroit Jewry's northwesterly
march, which began at the turn of the last
century around Hastings Street on the near
east side. When Young Israel moved into
southern Oakland County nearly 50 years
ago, it proved that Orthodoxy
could flourish outside the central
city.
At the dinner, YIOP Rabbi
Reuven Spolter put the work of all the
presidents in perspective: "Perhaps most
importantly, thank you for using your
power to bring about shalom, to bring
peace among divergent groups of people,
among different interests and competing
concerns, to making the difficult choices,
but always with an eye toward the needs of
klal, of the community, and always with an
eye toward bringing our community
together.
Notably, YIOP congregants welcome Jews of all
backgrounds into their spiritual home. Their only
wish is that you bring into their midst the joy of
EDITORIAL
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something presumably called "The Interim State of
Palestine." This gesture, the State Department seems
to be saying, will bring such joy to the hearts of
Palestinians that they will throw away their strap-on
explosive belts and their anti-Semitic textbooks, and
their claims to ancestral land in Haifa and Tel Aviv,
and will embrace Israel's future security.
Sorry, but much as we want to get the terrorism
stopped and meaningful negotiations going again,
this "Practically Palestine" idea is a non-starter. It is
far more likely to exacerbate than relieve
tensions on both sides of the Green Line.
The primary effect of recognizing an inter-
im state would be to bolster the Palestinian
regime of Yasser Arafat, a corrupt and ineffectual gov-
ernment that should be removed from power as soon
as possible. Arafat certainly would make the claim that
the international community had Finally recognized
the validity of the statehood he declared four years ago,
and that he was now free to bring in more weapons
and seek a seat in the United Nations.
Most Palestinians, on the other hand, would recog-
nize that this interim nation, with no defined borders,
no agreement on Jerusalem and no refugee rights was
simply a bad joke. Palestinians quite possibly would
become even angrier with the United States and Israel
than they are now. They would see this proposal as
EDITO DIAL
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OFF -114E- LAST
`Practically Palestine'
friend of ours likes to tinker with motors
that won't run. He'll jiggle a wire here,
twist a cover there — maybe even bang a
hammer on some part for a while —
before twisting the ignition key and.finding after
several minutes of cranking that the motor still won't
start. Once, he managed to run the battery dead
before we could get him out of the driver's seat.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's Mideast pol-
icy reminds us a lot of that futile friend.
Six months ago, for example, Powell con-
vinced President George W Bush to say that
he endorsed the idea of Palestinian state-
hood. The idea, apparently, was that the
Palestinians would be so delighted by this gesture that
they would give up the terrorism and come running to
a bargaining table to make a lasting peace with Israel.
The actual response was more homicidal bomb-
ings and shootings of Israeli civilians, including
Tuesday's bus attack that killed 19 Israelies and
wounded at least 55. The response also included the
effort to smuggle 50 tons of illegal Iranian arma-
ments into the state-in-waiting that Powell had been
backing so enthusiastically. The motor of meaning-
ful peace talks was deader than before.
Now comes the latest tinkering, the suggestion
that the U.S. should announce it favors creation of
THESE
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being Jewish, learning Jewishly or seeking a deeper
understanding of who they are.
To all who have helped make Young Israel of Oak
Park a blessed merger, we say, yasher koach! CJ
simply further postponing any rational solution.
Israel, too, would find the interim status of little
comfort. It has been ready to grant the Palestinians
statehood in the context of reciprocal concessions
that assured security for the Jewish state. In fact, since
the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel has ceded to
the Palestinian Authority governance of more than 95
percent of the residents of the West Bank and Gaza,
in effect already allowing an interim Palestine.
But actual statehood must follow, not precede, a
showing by the Palestinians that they can govern
themselves effectively, that they will suppress the
terrorists and that they will honor their commit-
ments to Israel's security.
Peace is not going to be achieved in a single step.
The plan_worked out by Senator George Mitchell's
commission more than a year ago laid out a series of
sensible interim measures that might have been
effective. They did not include interim statehood
any more than they did the security fence that Israel
is now unwisely building to surround the West
Bank, a $100-million project that will have to come
down when proper boundaries are drawn.
The State Department needs to stop tinkering with
a mechanism it obviously doesn't understand. It should
join the rest of the Bush Administration in making it.
clear to the Palestinians that until they become respon-
sible drivers, statehood isn't going anywhere. The car
that could carry them to a better future isn't going to
start until they fix what is really broken. ❑
6/21
2002
37