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Letters

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Council Set Visit

Thank you to Editor Robert Sklar for
reporting on Israeli Deputy Consul
General Andy David's visit to Detroit
in early August ("The Fallout Of
Disengagement," Aug. 11, page 5).
Bringing Israeli officials to Detroit to
meet directly with our community is an
ongoing objective for the Jewish
Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit. As the primary link in Detroit's
Jewish community to Israel's Chicago-
based consulate to the midwestern
United States, we were pleased to be able
to facilitate Mr. David's visit to discuss
Israel's disengagement plan by arranging
meetings with the news media, commu-
nity members and other organizations.

Barbara Cook
chair, Israel Advocacy Committee
JCCouncil
Bloomfield Township

Our Wakeup Call

The editorial "When Leadership Fails"
(July 28, page 52) was excellent —
calling the London Mayor Ken
Livingston "Ken the Red" a European
leftist, anti-Israeli demagogue.
When the Soviet Union failed in
1991, Communists all over the world
lost their patron saint. They (and that
includes in the U.S.A.) vilify Israel and
Zionism to camouflage their anti-
Semitism. They, too, have become
admirers and apologists of the "poor"
Palestinians and the Arab terrorists. Yet
the naive U.S. Jewry still sticks devot-
edly to a self-delusional fantasy. They
think about the party of Franklin D.
Roosevelt that no longer exists; 78 per-
cent still vote for the Democratic Party.
Even in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s,
this stance was of dubious benefit to
the loyal Jews. The turning away of the
steamship St. Louis, the prevailing anti-
Semitism in the U.S. Department of
State, the concealment of the
Holocaust and the refutation by the
New York Times of the Holocaust were
all part of Roosevelt's politics. The
Democratic Party at that time had a

Jewish.com

Repairing The Rift
A New York University law professor
believes Maimonides may hold the
key to defusing the growing rift
between evangelicals and secularists in
the United States.
Read about it on Jewish.com.

very liberal wing, but also an extreme-
ly reactionary part in the South. The
Republicans were no better.
But all this has changed: Israel has
no better friend and protector than
President Bush. I believe in what the
administration is trying to accomplish
in the Middle East.
The radical Muslims have been at
war against the United States and
freedom for quite some time: 9-11
was this generation's Pearl Harbor.
Will another calling card like 9-11 on
our soil be necessary to wake us up?

Henry Gleisner
Oxford

No Discrimination

I want to thank Staff Writer Harry
Kirsbaum for both his heartfelt col-
umn ("Take The Help," page 6) and
in-depth article ("Need Work!" page
19) that ran on Aug. 4 on the issue of
unemployment in Michigan.
Each personal story shared made
the impact of job loss and the difficul-
ties of finding another decent job all
the more real and meaningful.
I do wish to make it clear that JVS
does not track people by religion, race,
creed or physical disability. Collecting
data based on any of these factors
could be construed as discrimination
in employment and would be against
the law. Speaking of my caseload only,
I have the impression that several hun-
dred are Jewish, based upon their
comments and stated preferences for
employment that would allow them to
take days off for Jewish holidays, etc.
As a result of the article, I have
begun to receive calls from members
of the community who are having a
hard time getting suitable employ-
ment. One person who found my
number in the article had just lost his
job that very day.
The problem of high unemploy-
ment in the community continues
and JVS is always ready to help.

Walt Tarrow
JVS
Southfield

dotCOM SURVEY

Did Israel's withdrawal from Gaza go
as you expected?

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JNOnline.com .

Citing Good Works

Thank you for your article on Huron
Valley-Sinai Hospital ("Huron Valley-
Sinai Keeping Pace," July 28, page 62).
This community hospital has been
reaching out to families in the
Commerce/West Bloomfield area for
almost 20 years. How wonderful to see
that the "good works" of physicians,
staff; donors and friends are being rec-
ognized.

Cheryl Purdie Youd
director of development
Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital
Commerce Township

Illegals Affect Joblessness

A factor that has to be seriously con-
sidered regarding high unemployment
impacting Jews in Michigan is the
decades long lax policy toward illegal
immigration. ("Need Work!" Aug. 4,
page 19)
How is that so? Amazingly, illegals
are counted right along with legal
inhabitants at each national census.
That census determines the number of
congressional representatives each state
is apportioned for the following 10
years! As a result after the 2000 cen-
sus, the many millions of illegals living
in California gave that state three
additional representatives it other wise
would not have been awarded.
Since the number of representatives
in Congress is constant at 435, the
representatives gained by California
had to be taken from other states.
Michigan was one of the states that
had to give up a representative.
Michigan now has only 15 representa-
tives; California has 53. (Research by
Center for Immigration Studies).
This is how the connection between
illegal immigration and congressional
representation works. Having fewer
representatives means that on any
given House of Representatives vote,
Michigan is weaker regarding reversing
the loss of good Jobs, in addition to
being weaker in getting a fairer share
of highway funds, in protecting the

Last Week's Results

Do you think Israel's Aug. 15 with-
drawal from the Gaza Strip will ulti-
mately help or hurt the Jewish state?

37% said help
63% said hurt

water of the Great Lakes, etc.
U.S. Reps. Joe Knollenberg and
Sander Levin, elected from districts
with high numbers of Michigan Jews,
and Senators Carl Levin and Debbie
Stabenow have mixed records, some
worse than others, regarding border
controls or benefits to illegals. None
of these elected officials have been
proactive in fighting the illegal immi-
gration problem. Meanwhile,
California gained power at Michigan's
expense after the 2000 census, and the
stage could be set for additional
Michigan loss after the 2010 census,
just five years away.
Unless these elected officials start
now to become and remain proactive
by their words and actions, support
for them in future elections should be
problematic.
For those whose major interest is
support for Israel, rest assured that
Congress (including those mentioned
above) supports Israel. What we need,
however are candidates in future elec-
tions who can at least do both: Fight
illegal immigration, thereby improving
Michigan's position to help our econo-
my and Jewish unemployment, as well
as support Israel.

Dr. Herbert D. Sherbin
Farmington Hills

Correction

In "The Disengagement
Summer" (Aug. 11, page 54), a
quote by Avi Dichter, the recent-
ly retired director of Israel's Shin
Bet security service, should have
read: "We're not ruling out a
Jewish suicide bomber who
might use `tamot nafihi im pilish-
tim' as his rationale." Dichter was
referring to Samson's words in
the Bible as he brought down the
Philistine temple around himself:
"Let me die with the Philistines."

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8/18

2005

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