LETTERS

We prefer letters that relate to artides in the Jewish News. We reserve the right to edit or reject letters.
Brevity is encouraged. Letter writers generally are limited to one letter per 4-6 week period, space
permitting.
Letters must contain the name, address and title of the writer, and a daytime telephone number.
Original copies must be hand signed. Mail to the Jewish News at 29200 Northwestern Hwy., Suite
110, Southfield, MI 48034; fax to (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to: rsklarCzthejewishnews.com
We prefer letters to be e-mailed.
More original letters are posted at www.detroitjewishnews.com

Equal Rights, Equal Access

We, the undersigned rabbis, applaud
your recent decision to publish
same-gender union ceremony •
announcements.
Gay and lesbian couples ought to
have equal rights and equal access. It
is not the responsibility of the Jewish
News to make the news; it is the
responsibility of the Jewish News to
report the news.
Further, we oppose Proposal 2 on
the November ballot. Proposal 2 is -a
bigoted, hateful attempt to perma-
nently enshrine discrimination in
the Michigan Constitution, forever
making it illegal to provide domestic
partnership benefits (including
health insurance) for same-gender
committed life partners and their
children.
Justice demands that we use our
voices of reason and charity and
implores us to act vociferously
against discrimination of any kind.

Rabbi Joshua Bennett
Rabbi Jonathan Berkun
Rabbi Lauren Berkun
Rabbi David Castiglione
Rabbi Ernst Conrad
Rabbi Robert D-obrusion
Rabbi Marla Hornsten
Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris
Rabbi Joseph Klein
Rabbi Joseph Krakoff
Rabbi Jennifer Kroll
Rabbi Robert Levy
Rabbi Harold Loss
Rabbi Jason Miller
Rabbi Michael Moskowitz
Rabbi David Nelson
Rabbi Daniel Nevins
Rabbi Norman Roman
Rabbi Dannel Schwartz
Rabbi Rachel Shere
Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg
Rabbi Aaron Starr
Rabbi Daniel B. Syme
Rabbi Eric Yanoff
Rabbi Paul Yedwab

Evacuation Is Worrisome

Joseph Farah, an Arab-American
writer, writes that when Palestine
was "under the control of the
Islamic Ottoman Empire, the Jews
flocked to Jerusalem when to do so
meant certain persecution. Jews con-
stituted two-thirds of the population
of the holy city — those population
statistics remained throughout the
early part of the 20th century."
These Jews were the settlers.

10/15

2004

6

Because of them, we can now say
there was always a Jewish presence
in that land since Abraham.
When Palestine was under the
control of the Romans, the settlers
were the Jews on Masada. They
chose death instead of evacuation.
Now part of the Holy Land is again
Israel, under Jewish control.
However, the prime minister intends
to evacuate some settlers. How they
will respond is yet to unfold.
Hopefully, the evacuation will not
further divide the- Israelis.

Dr. Sidney Leitson
West Bloomfield

Tough To Decide

It is very difficult for the Jewish
public to decide which candidate to
vote for.
President Bush has made a com-
mitment to agree that the building
of a fence along Israel's West Bank
border is an understandable measure
for the protection of the civilians
from terrorists and that the
Palestinian refugees should not be
forced back upon Israel, but be
absorbed by Arab countries.
On the other hand, Sen. John
Kerry as president may follow the
same thinking as President Bush,
but we don't know for sure. With
cost of living skyrocketing and peo-
ple losing their jobs and those that
get hired back going to lesser paying
jobs, overtime has been taken away
from many.
Other important issues are causing
people to think a new administra-
tion is the answer. In November, we
will know who won.

,

Irving Handelman
Oak Park

Bush Is Workers' Enemy

President George W. Bush is an
"enemy of working people" for the
following reasons:
• The regulation as to who is eligi-
ble for time-and-a-half after working
more than eight hours in one day or
40 hours in one week has been in
effect since the days of President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
President Bush's administration, at
his direction, has changed the regu-
lations so that approximately 6 mil-
lion people who were within the
scope of the law are now not enti-
tled to the benefits of the law. This

will be of great benefit to individu-
als who are the largest contributors
to President Bush's campaign.
Congress is attempting to void the
new regulation but President Bush
has threatened to veto any law that
voids the new regulations.
• All of our presidents, either
Republican or Democrats, have,
together with Congress, extended
unemployment compensation for
laid-off workers from six to nine
months during periods of economic
recessions. President Bush and the
Republican Congress is the first
administration to oppose this exten-
sion of unemployment compensa-
tion during this recession, which has
resulted in the failure of Congress to
pass the extension of the period that
a person can receive unemployment
compensation.
• The Minimum Wage Law has
not been changed for seven years,
although during that period there
has been an inflationary increase in
prices and cost of living. The mil-
lions of persons who are paid the
minimum wage have begged
Congress and this administration to
increase the minimum wage but this
administration together with their
majority in Congress have refused to
do this.

Eli Friedman
West Bloomfield

Kerry's Record Questioned

Sen. John Kerry was ever so eager to
assail the failings of the intelligence
community under President George
W. Bush and for Bush's reliance on
faulty information which precipitat-
ed America's entry into Iraq; never
did he acquit himself of arriving at
the same conclusion to authorize
force in Iraq based on the same
information.
But what really takes chutzpah is
for Kerry to criticize U.S: intelli-
gence-gathering. Shortly after the
first World Trade Center bombing
in 1993, Kerry proposed $7.5 bil-
lion in across-the-board intelligence
cuts, including a proposal to rescind
$1 billion in the 1994 fiscal year
budget for intelligence and freezing
the budget at that level through at
least 1998, totaling a $5 billion
reduction in intelligence funding for
that period. The Senate resounding-
ly defeated Kerry's proposal, with
even Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-

Mass., opposing the measure. Then
in 1995, Kerry proposed a bill to
cut the intelligence budget in each
of the five years leading up the
attacks of 9-11. Not one of his -
Senate colleagues would co-sponsor
the bill and it died a proper death.
Kerry served on the intelligence
committee from 1993 to 2000, and
according to official records, he
missed 76 percent of the public
hearings during that time.
How frightening the specter of
Kerry in the Oval Office with a
mentality that is sure to undermine
the effectiveness of our intelligence
in battling the war against terrorism.

,

Jodi Millman
Troy

Not Behind Bush

In the debate on Iraq, President
Bush maintained that he will stay
the course in Iraq because to do oth-
erwise will send the wrong message
to our soldiers, our friends and our
enemies.
His argument is not sufficient to
justify the loss of our soldiers' lives
or the lives of innocent Iraqi civil-
ians.
There were no weapons of mass
destruction, and there are none now.
Sen. John Kerry has a plan to secure
Iraq and begin withdrawal of U.S.
troops in six months.
It is not true that there is a con-
nection between 9-11 and Saddam
Hussein, but the president keeps
implying that there is.
The president dodged Kerry's
question about nuclear proliferation,
preferring not to answer to prolifera-
tion by the United States, which
owns 10,000 nuclear weapons and is
engaged in research for more, specif-
ically the "bunker buster."
The president lauded the missile
defense system and the dollars spent
to reduce nuclear material in the
world. He did not apologize for the
U.S. defecting from treaties that
would help secure the world from
covert nuclear weapon system devel-
opment.
The missile defense system, nick-
named "Star Wars," is a system that
does not work and will not work. It
is a Maginot Line in Alaska that has
already cost billions. Kerry says he
will put a stop to this program and
he will work with other countries to
secure the world from nuclear disas-
ter.

Fern Katz
Southfield

