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Memorial Betters Us
I loved the article on Rabbi Charles
Rosenzveig ("It's My Life," Jan. 20,
page 17). He truly has created, single-
handedly, a magnificent heritage for
our community. The move to the new
Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills is amazing.
I know many in the community
were opposed to the move. While
doing tours, I miss the message of
community that the Jewish
Community Center offered, but I am
delighted by the additional number of
visitors we receive. At times when we
would expect few visitors, like during
winter school vacation, the HMC is
full of adults learning and exploring
the subject of the Holocaust.
Being on Orchard Lake Road has
brought us many visitors from all over
the world; there is an advantage to
being out front. In addition, every
passerby is reminded daily of the evils
of hatred and bigotry as they go by
the building.
The Holocaust Memorial is one
more link in our community's effort
to create a better world. We are so
blessed by Rabbi Rosenzveig's vision
and energy.
Judy Miller
Bloomfield Hills
`No' On Secretary Rice
XX'
2/3
2005
6
The Democrats (with the exception of
Sens. John Kerry and Barbara Boxer
who voted "no"), and indeed some of
the Republicans on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, should
be ashamed of their vote to confirm
Dr. Condoleezza Rice's nomination as
Secretary of State after her testimony
before them.
When asked, she was unwilling to
account for blatantly false statements
about weapons of mass destruction
and mushroom clouds made during
the Bush administration's build-up to
war, and she didn't even attempt to
reconcile the administration's claims
of 120,000 trained Iraqi troops with
Sen. Joe Biden's informed count of
just 4,000..
She refused to acknowledge serious
mistakes, that the administration took
this country to war based on false
premises and without adequate troop
strength or sufficient armor.
Unbelievably, she was unable to
articulate any exit strategy, only reiter-
ating that we will leave Iraq when the
Iraqis can defend themselves. What is
the point of holding confirmation
hearings if the result is a foregone
conclusion?
Based on her performance, and on
her record as adviser to the president
during his disastrous first four years in
office, she should never have been
confirmed.
Katie Jacob
Birmingham
Rice Nomination Backed
Mazel tov to President George W. Bush
for appointing Dr. Condoleezza Rice
the secretary of state. She shares the
basic tenets of the president's philoso-
phy and worldview. This is appropriate,
as he just has been re-elected by the
American people. Is he supposed to
appoint an individual who opposes his
policies? This does not make sense.
Dr. Rice believes that democratic
countries do not make war on each
other, and that it is not acceptable to
assert that people cannot handle free-
dom. Her commitment to fighting ter-
ror, and to protecting Israel, is not a
popular viewpoint at the State
Department, but it is right, neverthe-
less.
If Dr. Rice lied about Iraqi weapons,
then so did former President Bill
Clinton and most major Democratic
officeholders. What if Dr. Rice would
have recommended against the Iraq
invasion and weapons were later used
against our troops? Are we now respon-
sible for documenting fully a monster's
own pronouncements about his
weapons before protecting ourselves?
Should Dr. Rice have read former Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein his Miranda
rights before discussing military action?
This writer thinks not.
Eric J. Rosenberg
Farmington Hills
Seeds Of The Next War
Special Writer Itamar Marcus, in the
commentary "Seeds Of The Next War"
(Jan. 20, page 40), repeats the most
common misconception regarding the
Koran. He said, "... it is tragic that
although the Koran and Islam have
positive traditions regarding Jews, the
Palestine Authority educators have
chosen to incorporate only hateful reli-
gious traditions."
With an accurate understanding of
the Koran and Islam, we should not
expect the P.A. to choose otherwise.
The confusion results from the fact
that the Koran's Surahs (chapters) are
not arranged in chronological order, as
are the books of the prophets in the
Jewish Bible. To correctly interpret the
Koran, it must be read in the context
of the chronology-of the biography of
its author, Mohammed, and one also
must be aware of Islam's principle of
naskh, progressive revelation, to resolve
apparent contradictions.
Mohammed made those positive
statements regarding Jews while he still
had expectations of recruiting Jews
into his new religion.
When Mohammed's claims of
prophecy were rejected, he command-
ed his followers to live peacefully until
they grow strong enough to overthrow
their host governments.
The mission of Islam, stated unam-
biguously in Koran 9:29, is to subju-
gate all non-Muslim people to the
Sharia, Islamic law, which by design,
will lead to their gradual but inevitable
extinction as it has in most Islamic
nations. When Mohammed's army
grew strong and he was raping and pil-
laging Arabia and supervising the
genocide of the Jewish tribe of
Qurayza that foolishly commingled
with Muslims, his rhetoric turned vitri-
olic. He said Muslims are ordained for
warfare (Koran 2:216). He commands
them to attack their neighbors (Koran
9:123), especially Jews (Koran 9:29),
and fight to the death (Koran 8:16).
Mohammed proclaimed that Islam
will not be fulfilled without a slaughter
of the Jewish people (the Hadith, Vol.
4, Book 52, No. 176).
Looking at the age and education of
the terrorists reveals that the newer
generations of Muslims are hearing the
literal war manifesto that is essence of
the Koran.
Mohammed obviates any treaty that
has any unintended results (Koran
2:225), so it's time to stop wasting
time negotiating more worthless peace
agreements and concentrate on security
Dennis L. Green
Detroit
Collective History
The following is a passage from a
speech given by the Republic of
Armenia's Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian before the United Nations'
28th special session in commemora-
tion of the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of the Nazi Germany con-
centration camps. I think the message
is right on and bears publishing for
the world at large.
"After Auschwitz, we are all Jews;
we are all gypsies; we are all unfit,
deviant and undesirable for someone,
somewhere. After Auschwitz, the con-
science of man cannot remain the
same. Man's inhumanity to men,
women, children and the elderly is no
longer a concept in search of a name,
an image, a description. Auschwitz
lends its malefic aura to all the
Auschwitzes of history, our collective
history. Both before and after."
Edgar Hagopian
Bloomfield Hills
Ecology Minded
We would like to commend the Jewish
Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit for its excellent work in partner-
ing with other ethnic communities on a
variety of issues ("Bridging The Great
Divide," Jan. 13, page 5).
For the past few years, the Council
also has supported the work of the
Michigan Coalition on the
Environment and Jewish Life, an organ-
ization that works to integrate environ-
mental and Jewish ideals through action
and education.
MI-COEJL is the only Jewish organi-
zation represented in two major inter-
faith environmental programs, the
Michigan Interfaith Climate and
Energy Campaign (ICEC) and
Michigan Interfaith Power and Light
(MiIPL).
The ICEC is working in several states
to communicate to our nation's policy
makers the support of the faith commu-
nity on moral issues of protecting God's
creation and God's people.
MiIPL is a 2-year-old organization
with 70 member congregations
statewide, representing a variety of
faiths. It assists congregations in protect-
ing creation by saving energy. Just a
handful of the MiIPL members have
already achieved energy efficiencies to
offset 2,270 tons of CO2 being
pumped into our air. This is equivalent
to taking 393 cars off the road for a
year! As an added bonus, these congre-
gations have realized annual savings of
$22,898.
The Jewish Community Council sets
a fine example for organizations like
MI-COEJL mi-coejl@jfmd.org to con-
tinue building bridges to other faith
communities through issues of mutual
interest. Together, we are working to
improve the quality of our air and
water, so we can leave this world a bet-
ter place for our children.
Betsy Winkelman,
MI-COEJL, Michigan Interfaith Power
and Light, West Bloomfield
Sara Bernstein
Michigan Coalition on the Environment
and Jewish Life, Bloomfield Hills