ontents
DETIWIT
JEWISH NEWS
Winner of eight 2003 MPA writing,
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LOOKING FOR A GIFT
www. etroitjewishnews.com
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COVER STORY
ARTS & LIFE
23 Keeping Memory Alive
37 In The Glow
New Holocaust Memorial Center
embraces first student visitors.
Current and former Detroiters
navigate celebrity world.
OPINION
ANN ARBOR
29 The New Arik
63 Learning Together
Sharon's settlements flip-flop
has world watching, waiting.
Hebrew Day School students
share experiences with seniors.
THE SCENE
ON THE COVER
35 Where Harry Met Sally
Michael Bassin, 18,
of Cincinnati
Photography, Angie Baan
Page design, Kellie Johnson
Adat Shalom program attracts a
wide range of young adults.
FRIDAY, FEB. 6, 2004 •
Vol.. CXXIV, No. 26
Alefbet'cha
AppleTree
B'nai Mitzvah
Calendar
Candlelighting
Community
Crossword
Engagements
For Openers
Letters
COLUMNISTS
Robert Sklar
George Cantor
Danny Raskin
Harry Kirsbaum
12
32
58
14
10
62
85
- 57
10
6
SHEVAT
Ass° 0*
14, 5764
Marketplace
Mazel Toy
New Arrivals
Out & About
.
Russian Roots
Something Extra
Spirituality
Sports
.
Synagogues
Torah Portion
69
57
57
38
26
12
51
48
55
56
2 LB. BOX
OBITUARIES
5 Rabbi Joseph Gutmann ...89
89
10 Seymour Podolsky
46
68
The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Friday with additional supplements in January, March, May, August, September, November and December at
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News Digest:
Vote Proposed
On Settlements
Mars Hills Land
Columbia Names
Jerusalem/JTA — Ariel Sharon said a
referendum should be held on his plan
to withdraw from the Gala Strip.
"That sounds like a good idea, which
would make clear what the public
thinks," the Israeli prime minister told
reporters in response to a suggestion
from members of his Likud Party.
Sharon's right-wing coalition allies
have threatened to bring down his gov-
ernment over a current plan to remove
most Jewish settlements in the Gaza
Strip. Polls show 60 percent of the Israeli
public favors the plan. Analysts believe
Sharon would have little trouble passing
a referendum on unilateral disengage-
ment from the Palestinians.
Washington/JTA — The late Col. Ilan
Ramon will have a hill named for him
on Mars.
Seven hills on Mars were named after
the crew of the ill-fated Columbia Space
Shuttle, which included Ramon, Israel's
first astronaut.
The names for the hills, located east of
the landing site of the Mars rover Spirit,
will go before the International
Astronomical Union that approves
names for celestial bodies. The Columbia
crew died in February 2003 when the
shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry to
earth's atmosphere.
Israelis Check
Bombing Film
Jerusalem/JTA — Footage of a suicide
bombing posted online by the Israeli
government has had more than a mil-
lion viewings. A Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman said the videotape of the
Jan. 29 attack, which killed 11 people
aboard a Jerusalem bus, had received 1.1
million hits. According to Israeli ana-
lysts, the decision to go public with the
gory images went a long way toward
countering international sympathy for
the Palestinians and reinforcing the need
for Israel's West Bank security fence.
The bomber was described as a 24-
year-old Palestinian policeman sent by
the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is
aligned with Yasser Arafat.
Gibson To Cut
Blame Scene?
New York/JTA — Mel Gibson reported-
ly will delete a scene from his movie that
echoes the charge of blaming the Jews
for Jesus' crucifixion.
A spokesman said Gibson is still edit-
ing the final cut of The Passion of the
Christ, due for release on Feb. 25, Ash
Wednesday.
The New York Times reported that he
agreed to delete a controversial scene. An
unnamed associate told the paper that
the actor-director will remove a scene in
which the Jewish high priest Caiaphas
invokes a curse on the Jews by saying,
"His blood be on us and on our chil-
dren," which appears in the New
Testament book of Matthew.
The line, which has appeared in pas-
sion plays over the centuries, has sparked
anti-Semitic violence, but the Vatican
issued a ruling 40 years ago that con-
temporary Jews could not be blamed for
Jesus' death.
WAS $49"
Detroit Tigers
Hebrew Baseball Ca
Health Excuses
Accused Nazi
Berlin/JTA — A former SS man will not
have to stand trial for murdering a
member of the Dutch Resistance in
1944.
. Dutch-born Herbitus Bikker — one
of the last alleged Nazi war criminals to
stand trial in Germany — reportedly is
unable to concentrate on the proceed-
ings, and the case is to be dropped. The
state prosecutor expressed disappoint-
ment with the decision.
Bikker, 88, had been charged with
murdering Jan Houtmann without
cause in a labor camp in Holland.
Bikker was convicted of murder and
sentenced to death in Holland in 1949,
but the sentence later was commuted to
life in prison. He escaped from jail in
1952 and found a haven in Germany,
where, as an ex-soldier in the German
army, he was safe from extradition.
tar of David Penholde
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New York Jewish
Poverty Deepens
If Only Moses Knew...'
A
New York/JTA — Jewish poverty has
worsened in New York over the past
decade. The number of poor Jewish
households has grown by 5 percent to
244,000, or 15 percent of the 1.66 mil-
lion people in Jewish households in
greater New York, according to the 2004
Report on Jewish Poverty, produced by
the Metropolitan Council on Jewish
Poverty and UJA-Federation of New
York.
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2/6
2004
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