This Week

Room from page 23

"One of the most popular forms of
music is klezmer," Rabbi Wine said.
"There is a band, dressed up like old
Jews from the shtetl — not one is
Jewish."
"Do we have to die in order to be
loved?" he said.
Southwest of Vilna, a field of a thou-
sand misshapen stones forms a stark
memorial to the Holocaust. Each stone
has the name of a shred whose residents
were unloaded from the cattle cars in
that barren place, shot and left to die.
Before the HolOcaust, Vilna had
boasted dozens of synagogues on the
city's west side. Only one remains. A
plaque memorializes the site where the
Gaon of Vilna, the sage who embodied
the glory of Lithuanian Jewish erudi-
tion, built his synagogue in the 18th
century. On the plot of land today is a
restaurant.
"When I visited Vilna, when I visited
Bialystok, I had no Ashkenazic nation
to look at," Rabbi Wine said from B'nai
Moshe bimah. "When I stand here, I'm
looking at the faces of the people of
Ashkenaz.
"We are the living survivors of that
nation. We are a sign that there's not
only a past; there's a future." ❑

Israel Insimfatt

THE ISSUE

There are reports of much upheaval
in the Palestinian Authority in
recent weeks, including the resigna-
tion of a prime minister, the threat-
ened resignation of his successor
and an unconfirmed diagnosis of
terminal illness for Yasser Arafat.
What role Israel takes as all of this
plays out may be key to the peace
process.

SEED THE ISSUE

If the Palestinian Authority remains
weak and divided, and Yasser Arafat
becomes incapacitated or dies, the
terrorist organizations may try to
seize control, perhaps leading to a
civil war. Just as in 1970 in Jordan,
when Israel saved King Hussein's
regime from a civil war situation
and an Arafat-Syria coalition, Israel
may seek to act. This time, thou
in support of Palestinian moderates.

----- Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Council of ltletropolitan Detroit

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A

ccording to Yehuda Bauer,
it's erroneous to interpret
Jewish history as a history
of persecution.
"For most of the time and most of
the places, Jews were not persecut-
ed," said Bauer, 77, professor emeri-
tus of Hebrew University in
Jerusalem,
where he
taught for
40 years.
Bauer
also said
the Romans
never exiled
the Jews
from
Palestine,
except for
about
Bauer
25,000
Jewish
slaves they
took with them.
He knows his views on Jewish
persecution are somewhat controver-
sial to the general public, "but what
can I do?" he said. "Occasionally
I've been criticized, but not by my
colleagues."
Bauer, also a noted Holocaust
scholar, will discuss Jewish history
and the roots of anti-Semitism as
the keynote speaker at "Colloquium
'03: Jews and Non-Jews — The
Love-Hate Relationship" at the
Birmingham Temple's International
Institute for Secular Humanistic
Judaism in Farmington Hills on
Thursday, Oct. 23.
The Colloquium will take place
Oct. 23-26, covering panel discus-
sions on a wide range of topics from
intermarriage and assimilation to
Christian fundamentalism and the
Middle East conflict.
Bauer's keynote address is free and
open to the public. For more infor-
mation, call (248) 476-9532. ❑

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762640

10/17

2003

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