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LETTERS
We prefer letters that relate to articles in the Jewish News. We reserve the right to
edit or reject letters. Brevity is encouraged. Letter writers generally are limited to
one letter per 4-6 week period, space permitting.
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fax to (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to: rsklar@thejewishnews.com
Shaarey Zedek
Bypassed Needs
Road Map Leads
To No Good
Regarding your story about
Congregation Shaarey Zedek failing
to renew Rabbi Leonardo Bitran's
contract ("Synagogue Talks," March
14, page 12), the Shaarey Zedek
leadership failed to consider the
young professionals and others who
join a synagogue because of its cler-
gy.
Although I have been a member of
Shaarey Zedek since my days at its
Beth Hayeled, my wife and I consid-
ered other shuls in the region just
before we got married.
We decided to join Shaarey Zedek
because we enjoyed the close-knit
community at B'nai Israel and
because of people like Rabbi Bitran.
We enjoyed Rabbi Bitran's sermons
and sidebar comments on what
Sephardic Jews would do in prayer.
We also enjoyed walking into shul
and having Rabbi Bitran call us up
for an aliyah. In addition, we valued
the wonderful relationship we devel-
oped with the rabbi and Sylvana,
both in and out of the synagogue.
Now that my wife and I are
expecting our first child in July, we
looked forward to raising our chil-
dren, and family, with the Bitrans
and other young families at B'nai
Israel.
• We admonish the leadership of
Shaarey Zedek for failing to consider
the needs of the community, partic-
ularly those of young couples and
new families who are looking for a
shul that is not only a place to wor-
ship but also a community.
We understand that Rabbi Bitran
was interested in growing his com-
munity. at B'nai Israel and wanted to
include other young couples and
families like ourselves.
With Rabbi Bitran's and Sylvana's
unexpected departure, we are devas-
tated for our community's loss and
wish them both well in beginning a
new life in a new community that
cares more about its congregants
than its leadership's selfish motives.
The void left by Rabbi Bitran's
departure will prove difficult, if not
impossible, to replace.
While we respect the clergy at
Shaarey Zedek and long admire -
Rabbi Joseph Krakoff and Cantor
Chaim Najman, the shul will be at a
loss for spiritual and emotional guid-
ance that Rabbi Bitran provided.
Daniel and Marni Cherrin
.
Berkley
Regarding the "road map" to peace in
the Middle East ("Trashing The Map,"
April 4, page. 29) , the issues at hand are
becoming quite clear. The battlefield of
diplomatic forces is now fully arrayed.
On the one hand, there is the United
Nations and the European Union. Both
are eager to accept the Palestinian
Authority as an appropriate partner in
peace. Their real aim, however, is to
throw a bone (a Jewish bone) as
appeasement to the Arabs.
Then there is the United States,
which --- through National Security
Adviser Condoleeza Rice (who says the
process of the "roan map" is irrevocable)
and Secretary of State Colin Powell
(who claims that the U.S. will accept
only "comments on the road map") —
is going down the primrose path of the
Oslo agreement.
We, of course, know how the Arab
nations react to Israel. Even Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon has accepted
(albeit with conditions) the "road map."
On the other hand, against this awe-
some coalition there is arrayed the not
inconsiderable force of the Israeli and
U.S. citizenry. They have indicated in
polls that they are overwhelmingly
opposed to the establishment of a
Palestinian state. This sensible citizenry,
along with a few editorial writers and a
few organizations such as the Zionist
Organization of America, are the only
opposition to the "road map."
Let us hope that the voting public of
Israel and the United States will prevail.
They understand that a Palestinian state
is anathema to peace and would only be
a terrorist state. The "road map" to peace
is only a road map to "Oslo" and war.
Joseph Savin
president, ZOA-Michigan Region
Southfield
Good For Iraq,
Good For PLO?
Recently on television, National
Security Adviser Condolezza Rice pro-
claimed that the United States' efforts
to quell Iraq and depose Saddam will
succeed and all fedayeen will be elimi-
nated.
Why did Ms. Rice not say the same
thing with regard to Israel and their
ongoing stalemate with the PLO/feday-
een?
Even after another militant Arab
defeat, Iraq will not turn "democratic."
Still, the U.S. State Department (Rice's
voice with President Bush's gestures)
will boost the PLO/fedayeen into a
pseudo-Palestinian government, stealing
the Judean-Samarian Hills from the
Jews with the rest of Israel as future
bait.
Is this President Bush's vision of a
"peace" in the Middle East? A brand
new Palestinian-Arab state established
on obviously Jewish land?
All that will be accomplished, despite
President Bush's reassurances to Jews
being blown up in Israel, is to bring
about a new anti-Israel war: militant
Arabs who murder, Europe that
applauds.
Michael Drissman
Farmington Hills
Anti-War. It's
Anti-Semitic
President of France Jacques Chirac's pro-
Saddam stance seems to have embold-
ened his nation's anti-Semites.
"Street protests against American and
British military action in Iraq have esca-
lated into attacks by Muslim youths on
Jewish demonstrators, sparking fears of a
new wave of anti-Semitism across
France," the Telegraph in London,
England, reports.
"Protesters, some of them carrying pic-
tures of Saddam Hussein, burned the
Israeli flag and turned on Jewish students,
attacking one of them with an iron bar,
during a series of anti-war rallies."
This isn't the first time this has hap-
pened.
Last month, the Jerusalem Post report-
ed that anti-American demonstrators -
attacked arid injured two young Jewish
boys.
And in an earlier incide'rit, "three
masked men attacked a 21-year-old
female Jewish student in the French
town of Aix-en-Provence and carved a
Magen David [Star of David] on her
arm. "
JPost reader Edward Hume offers this
suggestion:
Given the anti-Semitic acts happening
in France with the tacit approval of the
French government, it's probably time to
declare that French Jews may come to
the U.S. and be granted refugee status
automatically.
Such an announcement by our gov-
ernment would embarrass the French
government; it might embarrass them
enough to take steps to end the danger
to French Jews.
If the French do not stop, it might
allow French Jews to escape persecution.
Michael Seltzer
Bloomfield, Hills