LETTERS

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What Chutzpah!

I could not believe what I was read-
ing! Editor Robert Sklar should try
his hand at writing fiction, since he
shows an active imagination and an
aptitude for making things up as he
goes along! ("Tempered Hope,"
March 3, page 5).
Mr. Sklar knows no limits to the
unabashed propaganda and misinfor-
mation in his piece about Israel.
I realize that when one tries to
defend what is indefensible, as Mr.
Sklar does in his piece, one must
"exaggerate, inflate, and outright lie"
to his readers in the hope that they,
too, will be swayed and blindly sup-
port the racist and inhumane policies
of the State of Israel!
I would also like to point out to
Mr. Sklar that it was Jewish religious
and political leaders in Israel that
have and continue to dehumanize
the brutalized Palestinians by refer-
ring to them as "vermin, cockroach-
es, a cancer, grasshoppers that must
be squashed," and just recently, on
the floor of the Knesset, as "worms"!
Also, I must point out that Israel
continues to murder, occupy,
oppress, demolish homes, confiscate
lands and is now in the process of
imprisoning Palestinians in ghettos
that are eerily reminiscent of the
ghettos of Europe in the 1930s!
Criticizing Israel's nefarious occu-
pation and oppressive policies is not
"anti-Semitism"! In fact, people like
Mr. Sklar, who blindly support Israel,
right or wrong, are the ones that help
fan the flames of anti-Semitism!
It is high time that the silent
majority of Jews stand up and shout,
loud and clear, "Not in our Name!"
Mike Odetalla

Westland

Bias, At What Price?

In the Editor's Notebook of March 3
("Tempered Hope," page 5), Robert
Sklar thoughtfully discusses the trou-
bling presence of anti-Semitism on
the college campus. On too many
campuses, academic freedom presents
a biased scholar an opportunity to
articulate his views on the Arab-
Israeli conflict in the classroom
where they acquire a degree of
respectability and legitimacy.
To give credibility to his views, the
biased professor picks and chooses
those historical events that support
his thesis while omitting from serious
consideration those that do not. In a

classroom setting, the student may
challenge those views but at a price.
Consider, for example, how a
biased scholar may deal with the
Holocaust as justification for the
creation of Israel. He can point out
that the Holocaust was carried out
by Europeans on European soil, not
by Arabs. And he can then ask,
"Why should Arabs be expected to
pay the price for a European crime?"
Left out of this argument, howev-
er, is the fact that, in the 1930s,
Arab leaders refused to permit
Jewish refugees who were fleeing
Europe sanctuary in Palestine. This
refusal led to violence, which, in
turn, persuaded the British to issue
the infamous 1939 White paper,
severely limiting Jewish emigration.
No one can say with certainty how
many thousands of lives could have
been saved had Arab leaders decided
otherwise.
There is another tactic the biased
scholar employs to support an anti-
Israeli position. And that is to artic-
ulate a new reality, one that is popu-
lar in the European news media.
This is to label Israelis as Nazis and
Palestinians, including terrorists, as
the helpless European Jews of the
Hitler years.
How, one may ask, should a
Jewish student respond in a class-
room setting to a professor who
articulates such an interpretation of
reality? Also, one may ask, what has
such a scholar learned from a study
of the Holocaust; sadly, not enough
to prevent a second Holocaust.
Fortunately in the United States,
unlike Europe, anti-Israel-inspired
anti-Semitism represents a minority
viewpoint, largely confined to the
left wing of the 'political spectrum.
In Europe, much to its shame,
anti-Semitism, in contrast, is on the
rise.
Irving Warshawsky

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Sixty years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Oakland University pays tribute to
the survivors and heroes of the Holocaust through a series of special events.

SONGS REMEMBERED: ROBYN HELZNER IN CONCERT

A frequent performer at the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, D.C., Robyn Helzner
presents a moving and uplifting
presentation of Holocaust-related
songs in Yiddish, Ladino, Hebrew
and English. Her unique blend of
song, story and lively audience
participation reveals the essence of
each song and makes them
accessible to today's audiences.

West Bloomfield

Correction

• In the letter 'Project Lifeline,"
(March 10, page 5), the wrong
phone number was given for the
American Red Magen David for
Israel's Project Lifeline. The phone
number to donate to ARMDI's
Project Lifeline is (248) 353-0434.

To purchase tickets,
call (248) 370-3013

For more information,
call (248) 370-2650 or visit
www.oakland.edu/remembering

Join Ms. Helzner on Thursday,
March 31 to celebrate life and pay
tribute to those voices lost in the
Holocaust.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

7:30 p.m.
Varner Recital Hall, Oakland University

Children under 18 and students
$8 in advance
$10 at the door

Adults

Oak and

UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences
Rochester, Michigan 48309 - 4401

J

$15 in advance
$20 at the door

942620

3/17
2005

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