Letters

Israel's Obligations

Hurricanes' Effect

It may be true that the nations of
the global community are more
interdependent post 9-11 but, to
my knowledge, those nations still
base their policies on their own
national interests.
An Oct. 6 letter writer ("Don't
Give In," page 6) thinks that
Israel has the obligation to base
its policies on other nations'
interests, including America.
Little Israel on a sliver of land the
size of New Jersey, trying to sur-
vive on a mostly hostile conti-
nent, cannot assume obligations
no other nation assumes.
It is the nations of the world
that must finally learn that the
Jewish people are not the sole
victims of evil, only the first vic-
tims.
Seven decades ago, when the
Nazis began with attacks on
Jews, the world was uncaring; but
12 years later, 50 million people
— victims, soldiers, civilians —
were dead.
Likewise with terrorism: Many
nations that assumed Israel
would be the sole victim
indulged in scolding and threat-
ening Israel. But Israel turned
out to be only the first victim of
terrorism.
Nazism was a cancer that
metastasized through the world.
Terrorism is a cancer that is
metastasizing through the world.
The fact that many nations
now turn to Israel to lean how to
combat terrorism proves Israel's
wise policies and courage.
The nations of the world
would do well to remember the
words of John Donne: "Never
send to know for whom the bell
tolls; it tolls for thee."

Since the Katrina and the Rita
hurricanes, the U.S. Senate has
been passing the buck that the
New Orleans mayor and other
officials were the blame for the
slow response. These disasters
would not have happened if
these senators would have lis-
tened to the New Orleans civil
engineers, who had begged the
senators to appropriate money to
beef up the deteriorating levees
for such expected possible hurri-
canes and floods that follow.
The Senate and our president
felt it was more important to
impress the world by spending
that much and more money to fly
a rocket to Mars to see if there is
any water. Now, over half a mil-
lion people_have been left desti z
tute having lost everything that
took them a lifetime to build. -
Irving Handelman

Shoshana Wolok

Oak Park

Oak Park

Memorable Sukkot

Regarding your interesting story
on Temple Kol Ami and spending
Rosh Hashanah at Henry Ford
Hospital in Detroit ("High
Holiday At Hospital:' Oct. 13,
page 13):
In 1984, my mother was terri-
bly ill and dying at Henry Ford
Hospital. On Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur, my husband and I
stayed in an apartment near the
hospital so that we could be with
her. But as Sukkot approached,
my brother, Rabbi Shlomo
Moerman, insisted on coming
from Cleveland to spend the yom
toy [holiday] with her.
As he was going up in the ele-
vator, he started a conversation
with a priest and told him he was
visiting his mother and followed
up with a discussion about
Sukkot. The priest, very kindly,

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asked if there was anything he
could do. My brother then told
him that it really was very
important to him personally to
have a sukkah to eat in while he
was in the hospital. The priest
followed through, went to the
authorities and got permission
for him to put a sukkah on the
roof of Henry Ford Hospital.
My brother was able to get an
empty refrigerator box. He cut
out the top of the box and put
some branches (schach) in its
place. He then cut a small door in
one of the sides and put a small
table and chair inside the
sukkah. He ate his food there and
spent the rest of the time with
our mother.
After the first days of the holi-
day, I was able to get my mother
into hospice, where she passed
away on_the night:-after. Simchat
Torah. A little girl, a grandchild
of my brother, was born the day
my mother passed away and the
child was given the name of my
mother — Rochel Basya. We call
her "the original" Rochel Basya
since so many little girls in our
family have that name now. She
will be married a week after this
Sukkot, and I know my mother is
smiling.

Mary Goldberg

Oak Park

Correction

• In "The Contest:' (Oct. 13, page
28), about an event sponsored by
Hillel of Metro Detroit to rebrand
itself, the Web site address
should have been listed as
www.hillel-detroit.org . The appli-
cation deadline for college-age
students to participate in this
takeoff on The Apprentice has
been extended to Oct. 21.
Applicants also can call (313)
577-3459.

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October 20 . 2005