Letters

Able Assistance
I am deeply humbled by the story about
my representation of Nathaniel Abraham
("Bagdade's Legal Journey:' Feb. 15, page
15). Special Writer
Judith Doner Berne
did a marvelous job of
explaining the many
complexities this case
presented. I can never
properly express my
gratitude for her kind
words.
Dan Bagdade
Because of an
oversight on my part,
there was one omission in the story that
I would like to correct. During the first
few years of the case, I was assisted by
attorney William Lansat of Birmingham.
Bill did the legal research and writing. His
contributions were immense. He handled
the briefs and arguments in the Michigan
Court of Appeals. He is a wonderfully
skilled attorney and I could not have
handled the case without him.

Ford Friendship
We were troubled to see the criti-
cism of Mitt Romney for launching his
presidential campaign at the Henry Ford
Museum in Dearborn
("Romney Eyes
Presidency," Feb. 15,
page 10).
The Ford family
has long renounced
Henry Ford's anti-
Semitism and pro-
Nazi sentiments. The
family and the Ford
Motor Company have
proven themselves friends of the Detroit
Jewish community through their philan-
thropy and their support of Israel. And
the Henry Ford, one of Detroit's leading
cultural institutions, in no way deserved
this indirect slap by the National Jewish
Democratic Council.
Metro Detroit's Jewish community is
immeasurably strengthened by its rela-
tionship with "the Fords!'

Dan Baqdade

Robert Cohen, executive director

West Bloomfield

Jewish Community Relations Council

What A Mentsh
Thank you so much for the beautifully
written and sensitive article concerning
Nathaniel Abraham and his attorney, Dan
Bagdade ("Bagdade's Legal Journey," Feb.
15, page 15). Though I know both Dan and
his wife, Serita, casually, your story told of
what a true mentsh Dan is.
Those of us who have to form our
opinions on a case like this rely on the
news media reporting. Special Writer
Judith Doner Berne presented the story as
none of us have seen it before. It is heart
wrenching, but how lucky for Nathaniel
that he has Dan as his friend.
How nice it would be if we could see a
follow-up story on this young man in five
years to see that he has been able to put
all of his horrific experiences behind him
and become a mentsh like his mentor.
Thank you again for telling us "the rest
of the story."

Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit

Elaine Greenberg

Farmington Hills

Robert Aronson, chief executive officer

Bloomfield Township

Price Of Failure
Columnist George Cantor gives good argu-
ments in "The Price Of Failure" (Feb. 8,
page 27) — that our withdrawal from Iraq
would make things worse. But our present
tactics clearly are not working, and we are
losing ground and lives daily. More of the
same is not the answer.
When we defeated Japan in World War
II, we took captive Japan's spiritual leader
rather than killing him so that we could
use his voice to change the minds of the
people. In the war on terror, we are so fear-
ful of offending just one Muslim that we
have failed to fight the battle for the hearts
and minds of the people.
Hezbollah and Hamas have won the
battle for control of the Arabic news media
and have been using it for decades to
breed a generation that values death over
life based on the Koran's saying: "And kill

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them wherever you find them, and drive
them out from whence they drove you out,
and persecution is severer than slaughter."
Sunnis and Shias apply this to each
other as much as they do to Jews in Israel.
The military will have an endless supply
of enemy fighters to kill as long as we
ignore the queen bees in the mosques
breeding new fighters who believe Jihad is
the only answer.
George Cantor is wrong; our critical
mistake is to ignore the war of words
because we will never have enough troops
to kill every Muslim taught to hate us.

Dennis L. Green

Farmington Hills

Odd Equation
I have always understood (and correctly
so) the references to the Chosen People
in Hebrew Scripture as meaning "chosen
to be a light unto other nations:' to show
and teach by example compassion, charity,
helping the helpless and downtrodden.
If anyone, I would expect Rabbi Joseph
Klein to understand the phrase correctly
(Editor's Letter, "Making Dialogue Matter,"
Feb. 15, page 5). I think it is beholden
upon us to make the distinction clear to
all.
Despite this, how could one equate even
a misinterpretation of the Chosen People
in the Hebrew Scriptures to Jesus calling
the Jews "children of Satan" or the Koranic
curses on the Jewish People?

Seymour V. Gordon, M.D.

Southfield

Fighting Genocide
Laura Nicole Walker's efforts to re-ener-
gize our community's commitment to help
bring an end to the genocide in Darfur
(Editor's Letter, "Coming Of Age," Feb. 8,
page 5) were worthy of
recognition. Her Feb.
26 "Raise Your Glass to
Freedom!" fundraiser at
the Townsend Hotel in
Birmingham exemplifies
the type of grassroots
action that can inspire
and engage citizens to
Nicole Walker

TM.

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numEr 'cha Don't Know

Can you name the only Jews who have Super Bowl rings from their playing
time in the National Football League?

—Goldfein

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QCopyright 2007, Jewish Renaissance Media

6

February 22 2007

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bring about change.
We hope others will follow her lead and
visit the Jewish Community Relations
Council's Detroit2Darfur blog. To learn
more about what each of us can do to aid
the people of Darfur and to stop the geno-
cide in Sudan, please visit:
www.Detroit2Darfur.blogspot.com .

P.J. Cherrin

community relations associate

Jewish Community Relations Council

Bloomfield Township

Inclusion, Acceptance
How nice it was to see the "Inclusion
And Acceptance" article (Feb. 8, page 36).
What has been particularly gratifying is
how the Jewish Gay Network of Michigan
committee, made up of both straight and
gay women, has come together to create a
dynamic series of educational programs.
Even though the Jewish Women's
Foundation provided the seed money for
a series for Jewish lesbians, the programs
will be varied and appeal to a broader
base of people.
As Special Writer Annie Adelson men-
tioned in her Around Town article, "inclu-
sion, diversity and equality captured the
spirit of the evening." It is our goal to
capture this feeling for the remaining pro-
grams (www.jgnmi.org).

Linda Lee

West Bloomfield

Slice of Life

Jerusalem/JTA – An alcohol-free
bar opened in Jerusalem with
municipal funding. Lugar opened
in central Jerusalem on Monday
with a teetotaling format geared to
minors. The initiative was conceived
by Mayor Uri Lupolianski following
growing evidence that youths in
Jerusalem, including many foreign-
ers on study visits, were increas-
ingly abusing lax controls on alco-
hol consumption in public places.
Lupolianski said he hoped other
cities in Israel would emulate the
Lugar pilot.

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