LETTERS
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Set Good Example
Well, you've managed to get much
attention. Local news stations and news-
papers find it very newsworthy that the
Jewish News publication is to announce
unions of same-sex couples. By making
this an accepted trend, don't you think
that this will be the beginning of a "slip-
pery slope" that will encourage more
such Torah-forbidding unions?
This is the time of year to review and
correct our ways. I hope that the JN-will
reconsider publication of unworthy
news that can only cast a bad light on
the Jewish nation. We, the Jewish peo-
ple, must set a good example and be the .
(good) guiding light for all the nations.
A. S. Mandelbaum
Oak Park
Inclusivity Welcomed
I applaud the recent decision of the
Jewish News to allow publication of
same-sex lifecycle announcements.
The Jewish community must not only
be tolerant, but also accepting and
inclusive of all its members. Gay, les-
bian, bisexual and transgendered Jews
make up a significant and important
part of our community. We serve as
educators, cantors, rabbis, lay members,
temple presidents, teachers and congre-
gants. We are your neighbors, children,
parents, relatives and friends.
We, too, carry the burdens of our
people's past, the struggles of the present
and the dreams of the future. The Torah
teaches that all people are created
btzelem elohim, in the image of God.
The decision of the Jewish News is one
that reflects that teaching.
Adam Rosenwasser
The Ann Arbor writer is a
first-year rabbinical student at
Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion in Jerusalem
Hear Our Enemies
I read with interest your Editor's Note-
book concerning, among other things,
by what authority the Jewish people
have a right to the Land of Israel ("Be In
The Know," Sept. 10, page 5). You cite
two rationales: It was given to them by
God (Deuteronomy 34:4), and the
United Nations approved the creation of
Israel in 1946. Both of these explana-
tions will fail to answer Israel's critics.
Certainly, the Muslim world gives no
credence to a biblical account that they
fail to accept as the word of God. Their
interpretation of the Koran would like-
wise do little to convince Jews to leave
9/17
2004
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the Land of Israel.
Second, it seems a bit bemusing to
base Israel's legitimacy on one U.N. res-
olution while rejecting so many others
that Israel finds unacceptable.
The establishment and continued
existence of the State of Israel rather fol-
lows the historical pattern of peoples
over the millennia to create or re-create
their historic homelands. Poles have
struggled, sometimes with success,
sometimes unsuccessfully to have an
independent Poland. Muslims in India
were successful in establishing an inde-
pendent Pakistan. Today, from
Chechnya to Sri Lanka, the world is full
of struggles by ethnic groups to assert
their independence.
Unfortunately, the success of the vic-
tors all too often involves the suffering
of others. Yet, it is no more sensible to
ask that the United States return our
entire country to the Indians than it is
to try to undo the reality of Israel in the
world today.
What is important is that even in the
face of terrorism, it is critical to see our
enemies as human beings who deserve
to be heard and to have their legitimate
grievances addressed.
Henry Pinkney
Farmington Hills
Filling The Void
I was surprised when I read in your
Editor's Notebook that Jews for Jesus
had raised a whopping $22 million for
its Behold Your God recruitment efforts
on college campuses and elsewhere
("Jesus Not Our Messiah," Aug. 27,
page 5). I've attended seven different
universities and it seems that the most
significant effort to reach out to students
who want to get into something that
calls itself Jewish must be that of the
aforementioned group.
The only exception I've seen is the
Oak Park-based Machon ETorah pro-
gram called Jewish Awareness AMerica
(JAAM.net). I attended the
Maimonides program through JAAM,
and, I have to admit, I sure learned a lot
more than I ever did as a kid in Hebrew
school. As with many of my friends,
JAAM helped me to develop a deeper
level of Jewish knowledge and commit-
ment. I'm now writing you this letter
from a yeshivah in Israel.
I think the problem that Jewish reli-
gious organizations face is twofold. First,
outreach (kiruv) has usually been con-
ducted by groups that are perceived as
not being mainstream or that otherwise
broke off from mainstream Judaism at
one time or another. Of course, Jews for
Jesus would be among the most extreme
examples of this.
The point is that traditional and
mainstream Jewish outreach is largely
absent from college campuses. Indeed,
despite having lived in many college
towns, I have never seen any significant
effort to recruit Jews for any of the
Hillels' Reform, Conservative or
Orthodox minyanim.
One thing is certain. If mainstream
and traditionally oriented Jews do not
provide the financial resources necessary
to make opportunities available for cam-
pus Jews who want to do Jewish things,
then groups like Jews for Jesus are clear-
ly well placed to do it for them.
Jonathan Shill
Jerusalem
Saving Human Souls
I was very pleased you printed in the
Jewish News and published on JN
Online the four articles on the Jews for
Jesus-Behold Your God campaign
(`Aiming For Detroit," Aug. 27, page
16).
My wife and I are gentile Christians
and have been attending Congregation
Shema Yisrael in Bloomfield Township
since 1998. We have had a heart for the
Jewish people and Israel since our child-
hood. My wife's father was a prisoner of
war in Germany in World War II; he
raised her also to have a heart for Israel,
as he did.
Loren Jacobs (he is truly a rabbi in
every sense of the word) has stressed
repeatedly that Jewish people who
embraCe Jesus also are to embrace their
Jewish heritage. We do not want mes-
sianic Jews o _ r their descendants to
assimilate.
I would like to see Jews for Judaism
correct their misleading statements. For
instance, Jews for Jesus do not ambush
people. They all wear some kind of easi-
ly identifiable logo on the outside of
their clothing. Their literature is clear
about who is distributing it and what
the organization believes. . They purpose-
ly do not hold any significant conversa-
tion with minors.
Rabbi Elliot Pachter of the Michigan
Board of Rabbis states that "an individ-
ual who accepts Jesus as the Messiah is a
Christian." The term "Christian" simply
means a follower of the Jewish Messiah.
Europeans who believe Jesus is the
Jewish Messiah are still Europeans and
Africans who believe in Him are still
Africans, just as Jewish people who
believe that Jesus is the king of the Jews
are still Jews.
The amount of money used by the
Behold Your God campaign to reach the
Jewish people through the world on a
per-capita basis is minimal. I would
think that far more is spent on Jewish
education each year. What Jews for Jesus
is doing is a kind of Jewish education!
But money is not the issue — truth and
saving human souls from spiritual death
is, and if just a few respond to the truth,
all the money is worth it.
Kim Glander
Clawson
Combining Forces
Your Editor's Notebook "Jesus Not Our
Messiah" (Aug. 27, page 5) recognizes
the danger to all Jews from Jews for
Jesus and its huge, well-financed drive to
convert Jews based on the disproved
claim that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.
I have been deeply involved for most
of my adult years in making friends
with Christians of all stripes, sometimes
defensively disproving their conversion
attempts or just in conversation showing
them in their religious books (and ours)
that Jesus Christ has not fulfilled even
one claim specified as proof that Jesus is
the Jewish Messiah.
Jews for Judaism has been working
hard all over the U.S. to help reclaim
Jews who have bought into Jews for
Jesus and messianic Jews. The organiza-
tion has been very successful for years.
Its newest challenge is to help Jewish
communities oppose the kind of pro-
gram we are now the target of.
I am delighted to see the Jewish
Community Council openly state its
objections and organize resistance by
combining efforts with the Ecumenical
Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies in
Southfield, NCCJ in Detroit and
NCLCI, a national organization headed
by David Blewett, director of the
Ecumenical Institute. The work is excit-
ing, especially when we find friendly
Christians who support our basic tenets,
denouncing all and any attempts at con-
version.
Every Jew needs to know the basic
background about Christianity and how
to respond to Christian messianic claims
and why they are not valid. The only
solution to this growing threat to our
security is through education between
friends. It is being done. More needs to
be done and now!
Leonard Michlin
Waterford
Setting Moore Straight
I wish to respond to [filmmaker]
Michael Moore's documented com-
ments concerning Israel and the