rooms of teachers Gary Weisserman
and Jennifer Rosenwasser. The stu-
dents responding here all reside in
West Bloomfield.
"At my lunch table, we spend
every day talking about the Middle
East," said 18-year-old Josh
Kimmel. "Everyone says this is
about religion. I disagree."
"This is an issue of worldwide
security," Josh said. "If we show ter-
rorism works, what's to stop it from
happening all over the world?"
.Alana Kuhn, 16, helped to plan a
local teen rally for Israel. "I think a
lot of people in high school, if
they're extremely to one side or
another, they discuss it," she said.
"I passed around a petition, .but a
lot of people wouldn't sign it. They
said, 'I don't want to make either
side mad at me."'
When it comes to the Middle
East, Paul Byun, 18, said there's a
lot going on behind the scenes that
he doesn't know.
Responded classmate Peter
Calloway, 18: "A lot of people who
talk about it all the time don't know
much either, but they talk about it
anyway."
Ashley Aidenbaum, 18, said that
having a "really liberal," pacifist
viewpoint was popular with teens.
"An advantage of being a liberal,"
she said, "is that you don't have to
be confused with the facts."
Ashley said she agrees that vio-
lence is not an answer, "but, at the
same time, there are certain situa-
tions that call for force. It's not your
job to be anti-ballistic when you're
being attacked, like the Israelis."
To Jared Goldberg, 18, the
Mideast situation is "an important
part of what I think about."
A member of the Michigan Youth
Caucus who worked on several pro-
Israel rallies, he said Israel sent its
soldiers to the Palestinian refugee
camp at Jenin because "a large con-
centration of militants lived there."
He said, "By going in and clearing
it out, house to house, very few
innocent people were killed."
Vihuti Kowlurun, 18, challenged
Jared to back up that the Israeli
army "tried not to kill innocent
civilians."
Ram Venkatuchalam, 18, pinned
the situation on an entirely different
West Bloomfield Talk
source. "The conflict was set up by
One place where discussion is
the British people," Ram said, "like
encouraged is West Bloomfield
India and Pakistan." ❑
High School, especially in the class-

the family, though not Jewish or
Arab, still argues about the Middle
East. "It's mostly arguing about the
facts," said the Roeper student, who
lives in Detroit. "There are so many
different opinions because there are
so many different versions of the
truth out there."
Ariella said she is astounded at
the racism she hears from adults.
"They'll be sitting there and racist
slurs will be rolling off their
tongues, and their 6-year-olds will
be sitting right there," she said.
"What kind of an example are they
setting?"
Daniel said "a lot of my Jewish
friends — not those who go to
Roeper" — use derogatory refer-
ences for Arabs.
Said Roeper student Rachel
Feldman, 17, of Pontiac,
"Generalizations like that are
racism. But when you speak out,
people say you're being naive."
She describes herself as "neutral"
on the Mideast.
Teens from several communities
attend Temple Shir Shalom's
Monday night school.
"I go to Cranbrook," said 16-
year-old Jeff Mann of Bloomfield
Hills. "A lot of kids who board
there are Saudi. When someone
brings this up [the Middle East situ-
ation], the teachers say, 'Don't talk
about it.'"
Marina Abayev, 15, of West
Bloomfield, who attends the
International Academy in
Farmington Hills, told her Shir
Shalom group that her school has "a
lot of Muslim kids."
She said, "The parents' influence
on the kids is what stirs up emo-
tions. I personally have a lot of
Muslim friends. They don't walk
around chanting, 'Down with
Israel.'"
Marina said she talked to one of
her friends about the Muslim rally
[which took place at 14 Mile and
Orchard Lake roads -in Farmington
Hills in April] and asked her what it
was about. "They did have signs
that said 'Sharon = Hitler,' but she
said, 'It doesn't mean we hate
Jews.'"

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