JITOphdon
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Dry Bones
r IS ANGRY
www.cletroitjewishnews.com
To Break The Cycle
- FRE SAUDI
ith the horrific pressures Israel has
withstood and the human toll it has
suffered from 34 months of persistent
Palestinian terrorism, a dose of legisla-
tive overreaction should surprise no one.
Consider the Israeli Knesset's approval last week
of a measure decreeing that Palestinians who
marry Israelis or have other first-degree Israeli
family ties won't be able to live in the Jewish state
or apply for citizenship.
It is easy to see from where this legislation arose.
On March 31, 2002, a Palestinian Hamas terrorist
— having married an Israeli Arab and gotten citi-
zenship and his blue identity card — bombed the
Matzah restaurant in Haifa, killing 16
people and injuring dozens.
Israeli intelligence officials reported 19
cases of terrorists using identity cards
obtained through family reunification to carry out
attacks that took 87 lives. The Sharon government
said it wouldn't let Palestinians convert a marriage
license into a license to kill.
But the problem is that the solution appears
misdirected. At a time when the Europeans and
the White House are pressing Israel to make life a
little easier for West Bank and Gaza residents who
are law abiding, this piece of lawmaking seems to
oppose the effort to lessen tensions along the
Green Line.
If there is to be a lasting peace between Israelis
and Palestinians, both sides are going to have to
make real efforts at accommodation. The
Palestinians must disarm and dismantle their ter-
rorist gangs and must eliminate the vicious incite-
R(4AL
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AT Tke 1)A
ment against Jews that continues to
pour from their classrooms, their
~
media and their mosques.
At the same time, Israel has to show
it is serious about having the
Palestinians as acceptable neighbors.
Last week's law, however, contradicts
the objective of reducing confronta-
tion and lessening restrictions.
Knesset members may think they
struck a blow against terrorism, but
there's the perception that they are
overly regulating marriage and keep-
ing family members apart. Ahmed
Tibi, an Arab Knesset mem-
ber, asserted that his wife
couldn't have become an
Israeli citizen if the law had
been in effect when he got married.
There ought to be room for a more
sensible approach. The new law allows
case-by-case exceptions when the new
spouse shows serious intent to be a
good citizen — better to allow case-
by-case exceptions when the govern-
ment can show good cause for think-
ing the marriage or the family tie is
just a cover for intended terrorism.
There's value in placing limits in the
wake of the Palestinians' brazen sui-
cide bombings and sniper attacks, but
reaching, overbearing response to a legitimate
the Knesset's solution looms as counterproductive.
need to combat terrorism, secure borders and
To have Israel appear against family values for a
ensure the safety of all its citizens. ❑
significant percentage of its citizens is an over-
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AM
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EDIT ORIAL
Claims To The Claims
he board of the Conference
on Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany has unani-
mously reaffirmed its policy
of using part of the proceeds from the
sale of unclaimed East German Jewish
property to support Holocaust educa-
tion, documentation and research.
Reasonable people can disagree about
the policy, but the Claims Conference
deserves praise for facing the
issue honestly and directly.
At issue is about $90 mil-
lion of the $450 million the
conference has realized by selling prop-
erty to which there were no claimants
because no one in the owners' families
survived. Most of the money, $360
million, is already going to needy
Holocaust survivors and survivors' fam-
ilies around the world, supplementing
the amounts they were already getting
from direct compensation funds.
T
Over the last couple of years, the
Holocaust Survivors Foundation, some
Jewish federation leaders and the
Jewish Council for Public Affairs have
criticized the policy, saying too many
survivors still live in poverty and
deserve every dime the conference can
raise. from whatever source. But other
groups have defended the policy, saying
the money has bolstered efforts to keep
the memory of the Shoah
alive. Each of the 57 mem-
bers of the Claims
Conference board has had to
wrestle with his or her conscience
about which use of the money better
honored those families who were oblit-
erated. That has been a valuable
process — one that will make them a
better board and that will make the
conference an even better agency for
representing the needs of the living and
:le wishes of the dead. ❑
EDIT ORIAL
A Troubling Sign
he announced closing of a
local Lubavitch day school
is yet another sign of these
economically depressed
times, unfortunately.
Convergence of tuition, salaries
and other costs of running a school
created a perfect storm of sorts, forc-
ing the Oak Park-based Bais
Menachem Academy, an elementary
school for boys, to close
after eight years.
The continuing effect of
today's economic climate
will determine if founder
Rabbi Chaim Bergstein of Bais
Chabad of Farmington Hills reor-
ganizes and reopens after this next
school year.
He faced an immense challenge —
and a troubling risk — when tradi-
tionally small class sizes shrunk even
more. With fewer then 50 students
T
and no graduating class for the corn-
ing year, Bais Menachem fell prey to
the same gale-force economic winds
that have ravished so many other
local agencies and institutions.
Rabbi Bergstein never touted his
school at the expense of others. He
found a niche built around a
stronger emphasis on secular studies
than usual for Lubavitch schools.
But he ultimately lost a
critical mass of students.
The close of any Jewish
school is unsettling. It
means one less opportuni-
ty to embrace our youth spiritually
during their formative years.
The Bais Menachem closing is a
communal wake-up call as we recali-
brate the purpose and priorities of
our educational bedrock,
Federation's Alliance for Jewish
Education.
EDIT ORIAL
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8/ 8
2003
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