LETTERS
ADVENTURE
Our circulation department
can't wait to hear about
your exciting plans for the
summer and we would be
more than happy to stop
delivery of your papers until
you get back. If you are
planning an extended stay -
talk to us about receiving
12/ 3
2004
6
We prefer letters that relate to articles 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: rsklar@thejewishnews.com We
prefer letters to be e-mailed.
More original letters are posted at www.detroitjewishnews.com
Libraries Lacking
Detroit Has Positives
The Abyss Of Abbas
If Columnist George Cantor was
shocked to learn that his former
Detroit elementary schools no
longer have libraries, I'd hate to see
his reaction when he learns the sta-
tus of libraries in schools across
Michigan and the United States
("The Missing Parents," Nov. 19,
page 39).
Libraries are "the essential build-
ing block of learning" as he writes,
yet district after district has had to
close libraries due to budget issues.
A study in Colorado, which has
been replicated in Michigan and 12
other states, found that in schools
with libraries staffed by certified
media specialists, there was an iden-
tifiable rise in reading achievement
even when taking into account
income or education levels of fami-
lies.
Our community has been very
generous by donating books to
Detroit's students, but donating
books isn't the answer. To maximize
learning, students should be reading
books that correlate to the curricu-
lum and that are appropriate to their
readina and interest level. A media
b is trained to make these
specialist
decisions and to collaborate with the
staff to introduce resources and
technology to support classroom
learning and information literacy.
Further, a strong media program
instills in children a love a reading,
which is a lifelong gift.
I am fortunate to work as a media
specialist in a district (Farmington
Public Schools) that is committed to
a strong library/media program,
staffed in all schools by master's
degree holding media specialists. All
children should be so fortunate, but
in this age of "No Child Left
Behind," school monies must be
spent on the endless testing mandat-
ed by the state and federal govern-
ments, but without accompanying
funding for districts to improve
reading or math literacy.
Mr. Cantor ended his column by
stating "It isn't all bleak" — yet I'm
afraid it really might just be that
bleak after all.
Susan Goren Kalisky
West Bloomfield
George Cantor has exposed a fright-
ening bias of the citizens of Detroit
in his column "The Missing Parents"
(Nov. 19, page 39). In this as in so
many columns that he has dedicated
to laying bare the many problems of
our city, he discussed the problems,
but not the solutions.
He pointed blame but did no
work to find those who are getting it
right; he pointed to the symptoms,
but made no effort to expose the
underlying problems. In a word, Mr.
Cantor, you seem to do no primary
research into the city of Detroit, yet
act as an educated critic of a very
complex situation.
The crisis in education in Detroit
as in many urban areas is multi-lev-
eled. It began with the mass exodus
of the middle class from our own
Jewish community in the 1970s and
1980s throughout various white
middle- and working-class commu-
nities, ending with the recent flight
of the African American middle class
in the 1990s and today.
This has left a school system built
for 240,000 with 140,000 students,
overwhelmingly from families living
in poverty. You state that the certain
indicator of student performance is
the income level of their families,"
yet then go on to blame the parents
lack of involvement for the deterio-
rating school system.
You state that nothing can take the
place of direct contact. How about
books, a library, an athletic program
or foreign language instruction — or
that parents would not have to work
two jobs and travel hours to get to
their work with no safe childcare?
By laying blame to the serious
structural problems of the Detroit
school system upon the very people
who have suffered from it, you do
nothing to help and everything to
hurt future prospects.
Moreover, you reinforce the racial
prejudices of our community that
those children left in the city's public
school suffer because their parents
are merely lazy, ignorant or unin-
volved.
Mr. Cantor, I challenge you to
spend the considerable energy that
you dedicate to writing about
Detroit's very-obvious shortcomings
to researching and exposing the
much-less heralded accomplishments
of our city and solutions-in-the-mak-
ing.
Jackie Victor
Detroit
Mahmoud Abbas, who has succeed-
ed Yasser Arafat chairman of the
PLO, is no moderate. As co-founder
with Arafat of the terrorist Fatah
group and as Arafat's number-two
man in the PLO for more than 40
years, Abbas was the architect of
numerous mass-murder terrorist
attacks against Jews.
As prime minister of the
Palestinian Authority from April
through September 2003, Abbas
presided over the P.A.'s ongoing ter-
rorist war against Israel. During that
period, 78 Israelis were murdered
and 489 wounded by Palestinian
Arab terrorists.
Abbas told the Arab newspaper
Asharq Al-Awsat on March 3, 2003,
that when he met with Hamas terror
leaders, "We didn't talk about a
break in the armed struggle ... It is
our right to resist. The intifada must
continue, and it is the right of the
Palestinian People to resist and use
all possible means in order to defend
its presence and existence."
Abbas said in Cairo on July 23,
2003, that "cracking down on
Hamas, Jihad and the Palestinian
organizations is not an option at
all;" offered cabinet positions to
leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad
(NY Times, March 31, 2003; Israel
Radio, March 31, 2003); praised the
Arab terrorists imprisoned by Israel
as "political prisoners" and "heroes";
and authored a book denying that
the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews.
Abbas' attitude toward terrorist
groups such as Hamas and Islamic
Jihad — which are on the U.S. ter-
ror list because they have murdered
hundreds of Israelis and Americans
— is already clear. Recently, he met
with their leaders and invited them
to take part in upcoming Palestinian
Arab elections. Instead of disman-
ding and outlawing these terrorists,
he is offering them a chance to gain
power.
President Bush, in his June 24,
2002, speech about the Middle East,
said that the Palestinian Arabs must
"elect new leaders, leaders not com-
promised by terror." Mahmoud
Abbas is not such a leader.
Morton A. Klein
national president, Zionist
Organization of America
Philadelphia