Letters
Ophthalmolo
nsures his patients
seeing clearly
,
Letters from page 8
Rousing Activism
I read your Editor's Letter
("Reinforcing Black-Jewish Bonds,"
Aug. 10, page 5) online as part of
the Union for Reform Judaism's "Ten
Minutes of Torah." It and similar sen-
timents published elsewhere disturb
me a lot.
The emphasis is on what Jews
should be doing. Spending effort on
trying to make others do what one
wants is a sure recipe for wasting
time! The questions you are not ask-
ing are the really important ones:
• Why are Jews less involved?
• \\That really matters to them?
• Why does this picture of decreas-
ing Jewish involvement seem so con-
sistent across the country?
I spend a good deal of time think-
ing about these kinds of questions. I
have a lot of trouble answering them
and the ones that follow, e.g.:
• What should our emphasis be?
• What can we do to improve things?
However, at least I'm troubled about
the questions that matter.
Dave Mollen
Union, N.J.
For Bush Or Not
After reading Berl Falbaum's
Community View ("The Case For
Bush," Aug. 31, page 39), and both the
supportive and vilifying responses, I
find myself sympathetic to both sides.
Though I agree that President Bush
favors Israel and believes it should
defend itself from terrorists, I wonder
if this "friendship" will eventually
damage Israel.
I believe that one of the reasons
Bush allowed Israel to fight back
against Hezbollah in Lebanon was
that it took some heat off the quag-
mire of "Operation Iraqi Freedom." As
Washington Post's senior Pentagon
correspondent, Thomas E. Ricks,
writes in Fiasco: The American
Military Adventure in Iraq,
"President George W. Bush's decision
to invade Iraq in 2003 ultimately may
come to be seen as one of the most
profligate actions in the history of
American foreign policy."
The cost of the war in American
blood and dollars and Iraqi death and
destruction has been astronomical.
The war has stirred anger and vio-
lence in millions of people worldwide
and accelerated even more intense
hatred of Americans, Israelis and Jews
everywhere, a legacy that will last for
years.
I wonder what kind of friend that
makes Bush. Israel needs friends
who don't incite Israel's neighbors to
despise them more than they already
do. Israel needs a better friend than
Bush.
Arnie Goldman
Farmington Hills
No Party Allegiance
Thank you for printing Berl Falbaum's
Community View "The Case For
George Bush" (Aug. 31, page 39),
which outlined just a few of the rea-
sons why Jews who love Israel ought
to support the president.
In discussing the longstanding
Jewish attachment to the Democratic
Party, Mr. Falbaum might have added
some interesting findings from a
recent LA Times-Bloomberg News
study. Their survey asked whether
the U.S. ought to continue to align
itself with Israel or tilt toward a more
"neutral" position in the Middle East.
It will surprise many people to learn
that only 39 percent of all Dei-nocrats
said that the U.S. should maintain
its support for Israel. In contrast, 64
percent of all Republicans favor the
current U.S.-Israel policy
Mr. Falbaum wrote, "One thing is
clear: Jews should begin to question
their automatic alliance with any par-
ticular party" He is absolutely correct.
Kerry Greenhut
West Bloomfield
A Bush Defender
Recent letter writers opposed to
President Bush are entitled to their
own opinions about him and domes-
tic policy; but when it comes to Israel,
no American president has stood by
Israel like George W. Bush.
I am sure that the American Jews
who watched Israel's latest war with
Lebanon appreciated Bush's support
for Israel, regardless of what was
happening domestically The entire
world was ready to censure Israel but
President Bush stood by Israel and
ordered the shipments of all the weap-
ons Israel needed to defend itself.
If we would have had a president
like Bush during the Holocaust and
Israel had existed, perhaps millions of
Jews could have been saved.
Israel is a refuge for persecuted Jews
all over the world. That is why it is our
unconditional duty to support Israel
regardless of domestic politics.
Meet one of the faces of success
Howard Neff, M.D., the division
head of ophthalmology at Henry
Ford Medical Center —
Farmington Road, is board
certified in ophthalmology and a
member of the Henry Ford
Medical Group. He talks about
developments in eye surgery.
It's hard to believe, but cataract
surgery has been performed for
thousands of years. Ancient
Egyptian murals show people_hav-
ing what appears to be eye surgery.
It was very primitive, and they
could not implant lenses to replace
the cloudy ones that they cleared
away, but improvement in vision
was'possible.
Today, cataracts are the most com-
mon cause of vision loss in the U.S.
Fortunately, they are the easiest to
treat.
Part of the reason I chose ophthal-
mology as a specialty was due to
the success rates of this type of sur-
gery. Patients recover quickly, and
often see an immediate improve-
ment. Many of them don't realize
how much of a problem they were
having with their vision until they
see what they were missing.
The majority of my work is in
cataract and LASIK surgery, as well
as teaching residents at Henry
Ford Hospital in Detroit to per-
form these procedures.
A new development in the last
couple of years has been bifocal
implants for cataract surgery
patients. These are useful for
patients who don't want to wear
glasses after cataract surgery. They
can also be used for some patients
without cataracts.
Another option is an artificial iris
implant. Very few physicians in the
country do this rare, experimental
procedure. The iris is a thin film
that regulates the amount of light
entering the eye. When it is dam-
aged by trauma, the eye receives
excessive light at all times, which
affects vision. It's like having your
pupils dilated for an eye exam all
the time, only much worse.
Middle East
whose eye had
been injured in
an explosion in
his youth. He
is in his late
6os now. The
day after his
iris implant, he
told me that he
could now see
better than he
had in the last
50 years.
In a non-medical capacity, I partic-
ipate several times a year as a vol-
unteer Angel Flight pilot. We shut-
tle patients that cannot afford
transportation to their destinations
for medical purposes. Most of
these people go back and forth for
treatment several times, such as a
monthly trip for chemotherapy.
They really appreciate the service,
and it is very gratifying to be able
to provide it.
I'm not the only physician at home.
My wife, Beth Bayer-Neff, is a
pediatrician, and the oldest of our
three children is a pre-med student
at Michigan State University. We
live in Orchard Lake, and are affili-
ated with Congregation B'Nai
Moshe. .
Ophthalmology and OptimEyes has
recently moved from the West
Bloomfield medical center on
Maple to 6530 Farmington Road
(on the southwest corner of Maple
and Farmington Roads, in West
Bloomfield). This relocation will
imprrove'convenience for patients
during construction of our new
hospital adjacent to the West
Bloomfield medical center, as well
as providing space for these servic-
es to grow. For further informa-
tion, call (248) 661-5200.
Years ago, I had a patient from the
David Kahan
Bloomfield Hills
For more information or to make an
appointment call 1 800 HENRYFORD or
visit our Web site www.henryford.com
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