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Share Thoughts
Of Good Will
I'd like to update you regarding the
conditions of Dr. Shmuel Yurfost and
Hadar Gidin, who were both seriously
injured in the suicide attack at the
shopping mall in ARIL ("Strength
Amid Tears," May 19, page 5).
Dr. Yurfost, one of our senior sur-
geons at HaEmek Medical Center,
affiliated with the Rappaport Faculty of
Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology, Haifa, Israel, has, in fact,
lost one of his eyes and has just now
begun to see slightly from his second
eye. He is able to see vague images and
light and the prognosis is cautious opti-
mism. Shrapnel is still embedded in his
remaining eye, and our beloved doctor
must undergo further operations.
Hadar Gidin, the 21-year old female
security guard who blocked the suicide
bomber's path with her body, is still
hospitalized. She was critically wound-
ed; our physicians fought an epic battle
to save her life and her legs.
Miraculously, she has taken her first
steps. She still has a long road to full
recovery, but the prognosis for this
brave woman is very good.
I visited Hadar together with a cou-
ple on a goodwill trip here from the
United States. They asked. Hadar if she
was angry and what she felt now. Her
answer was, "I'm not angry at anyone.
I'm just very grateful that I was able to
stop the terrorist from killing more
people."
I will be happy to forward any good-
will messages you would like to express:
rich_l@clalit.org.il
Larry Rich
Americans to get an idea of the magni-
tude of this protest, we would have to
imagine 60,000 U.S. Marines refusing
to serve.
Charlie Varon
San Francisco
Jewish Community
Needs To Be Heard
Kol hakavod to the Rabbinical
Assembly, which recently sent 30
Conservative rabbis to Capitol Hill to
seek extension of the new child tax
credit to low-income families — a pro-
vision that the Senate had included in
the recent $350 billion tax-cut bill but
the House Republicans removed in
conference ("Tax-Cut Clergy," June 20,
page 24).
To my knowledge, the appearance of
these rabbis in the halls of Congress
marked the first time that representa-
tives of the organized Jewish communi-
ty have raised their voices in protest
against the Bush tax cuts and the dra-
conian cutbacks in services that are
resulting from this policy, all across the
country.
Our American Jewish community
has stood silent for too long in the face
of this administration's manifestly
unjust and unwise right-wing domestic
agenda.
A notable exception has been the
National Council of Jewish Women,
which has been waging a lonely fight
against President Bush's effort to pack
the federal courts with judges who do
not support reproductive rights or the
separation of church and state and who
give short shrift to civil liberties.
Tax-cut crusader Grover Norquist
Development and gloated in a recent op-ed in the
Public Relations Office,
Washington Post that the Bush strategy
HaEmek Medical Center is well on its way to destroying our
Afula, Israel progressive tax system, shifting the bur-
den of taxation from the wealthy to the
working poor and middle class while
shrinking the federal budget to the
point where it no longer can provide a
social safety net. Can anyone doubt
that Bush is seeking to undo the great
work of FDR and the social compact
of the New Deal?
I was visiting Detroit last week and
Shame on the Conference of
read the Jewish News.
Presidents of Major American Jewish
I was stunned that your Editor's
Organizations, United Jewish
Notebook piece ("Solving the Riddle,"
Communities, Anti-Defamation
June 20, page 5) lacked even a word
League and other national Jewish
about the deep divisions within Israeli
organizations that have elected to stand
society when it comes to Prime
mutely on the sidelines while all this is
Minister Ariel Sharon's policies.
taking place. They have taken a narrow,
More than 1,200 Israeli soldiers and
self-interested approach, confining
reservists are refusing to serve in the
their lobbying to issues that involve
occupied territories. For us as
Sharon Policies
Divide Israel
7/ 4
2003
6
lars will be spent in support of charita-
ble endeavors ranging from medical
research, to education, to culture and
the arts, and job training. In like man-
ner, Ford Motor has invested heavily in
a number of Jewish causes, both locally
and nationally.
In a truly selfless manner, Ford
Motor has time and again provided
critical funds to support worthwhile
causes indifferent to its own economic
position. Many other companies can-
not say the same as Ford Motor is truly
unique in its commitment to the
broader community.
The company founded by Henry.
West Bloomfield Ford is now one of the nation's greatest
practitioners of tikkun olam (the Jewish
obligation of repairing the world
around us). May it continue for anoth-
er century!
Bryce A. Sandler
Israel and domestic legislation, which
they think might have an immediate,
direct impact on Federation agency
budgets.
We Jews are fond of quoting Hillel:
"If I am not for myself, who will be for
me?" But he also said, as quoted in the
same passage of Pirkei Avot, "If I am
only for myself, what am I?"
Jewish communal leaders who have
been unwilling to criticize George W.
Bush on domestic policy because they
fear antagonizing him when it comes
to Israel need to take another look and
start doing some serious teshuvah.
Nancy E Kaplan
Old Henry Was Fair
With Hiring Policy
Royal Oak
Old Henry [Ford] was the classic ideo-
logical anti-Semite, having been
exposed to The Merchant, Protocols, etc.
("Still Puzzling," June 20, page 14).
But he was truthfully able to declare
Your June 27 cover boldly proclaims.
that "some of my good friends are
"Affirmative Action Ruling Pleases
Jews," as indeed even Nazis were insist-
Most Jews."
ing.
Two points:
His ideological anti-Semitism did
• How do you know? What survey
not interfere with his pragmatic busi-
or poll did you commission or review
ness sense, choosing the best architect
in the days following the recent U.S.
— Albert Kahn — and other business
Supreme Court decision to reach this
associates who were Jews and with
conclusion? Is it possible that this state-
whom he had cordial relations. He did
ment merely reflects your own liberal
not discriminate against Jews in hiring
bias and projection on the subject?
policy. So there really isn't anything
• In reality, if most Jews fully knew
puzzling in Henry's enigmatic attitude
and understood the implications of the
toward Jews.
Supreme Court's decision and its sug-
This is quite a common phenome-
gestion of group versus individual
non.
Jack Adler rights (a concept found nowhere in our
Oak Park Constitution) they would or should
reject affirmative action, as it is cur-
rently practiced in the U.S., outright.
The implications of the "group rights"
concept for a minority of 2 percent are
devastating.
While the Ford Motor Company
In this respect, it might interest you
founder's anti-Semitic activities should
and your readers to know that when I
never be forgotten, at least equal atten-
was a student at the University of
tion should be paid to what Ford
Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor
Motor Company does by way of sup-
and engaged in a discussion of affirma-
porting charitable activity today ("Still
tive action with a professor at the law
Puzzling," June 20, page 14).
school (who later became dean of the
In 2001, the Ford Fund (Ford
law school at a nationally prominent
Motor's philanthropic division) gave
university), his comment to me was
away $113 million to dozens of worthy
that if we went simply by merit, half of
causes with particular emphasis to
the law school at Michigan would be
charities in Michigan. That figure set a
Jewish (a possibility that did not sit
national record for such corporate
well with him).
community involvement.
Still like "affirmative action" versus
Even this year, when Ford Motor
merit?
faces one of its most economically chal-
David Arm
lenging times, tens of millions of dol-
West Bloomfield
Court Ruling
Ignores Reality
Note Ford's
Current Efforts