Letters
Orthodox Expression
Orthodoxy always seemed alien to me.
Having non-observant parents and living
in Bad Axe probably contributed to that
belief.
So it was with consternation that I
accepted my son Doron's decision to live
an Orthodox life in Israel. The ideology
still puzzles me yet I am amazed and very
touched by some of the customs. One in
particular unfolded during my last trip in
February.
While my daughter-in-law Sarah was
preparing for Shabbat, cooking cholent,
chicken, fish and many side dishes, the call
came. The goal was to enlist 40 women
to bake challah. The task was performed
with love and hope for an ill child in the
neighborhood who developed epilepsy at
age 8. No medication seemed to help him.
I asked myself, "What good could bak-
ing challah do for this child?" Prayers are
always said over the challah as it is being
prepared, yet this time, as the dough was
kneaded, as it rose and baked, I found
myself intensely focused on this child's
plight. Multiply my thoughts by at least 40
more. Mental and physical energy evolved
into a phenomenon of forceful, power-
ful prayer. On Shabbat as we consumed
the challah, the child's quest for healing
became an integral part of our family.
This whole experience was highly
enlightening to me as an example of the
devotion within this community to help-
ing those in need. That commitment is not
unusual in the Orthodox community in
Israel.
Geraldine Spilman
Orchard Lake
Arab Propaganda
The thinking of groups like Combatants
for Peace is dangerous and uninformed
("Blaming The Occupation," Feb. 1, page
23). The "blame Israel" for everything is
good public relations for the Arabs, but it
doesn't make sense historically.
Perhaps the leaders of that Palestinian/
Israeli dialogue and anti-occupation
activist group Sulaiman Al Hamri and
Elik Elhanan would like to explain why
Arabs were rioting and trying to kill Jews
sto
in 1919, 1921, 1929 and 1936-1939, long
before there was an Israel?
Also, the Arab states will not accept the
"Palestinians" into their country but want
to keep them as victims so they can be used
as pawns against Israel.
More Jews have been disenfranchised
and driven out of Arab states without com-
pensation than "Palestinians" who have had
to leave Israel, but little is mentioned about
them. The Arabs have better PR than Israel.
The bottom line is that the Arab states want
Israel to disappear. Ending the occupation
will do nothing but contribute to that end.
S. Freeman
Novi
More About Crohn's
As a specialist in inflammatory bowel
diseases (IBDs), I read with great interest
your article "Living With Crohn's" (Feb. 8,
page 13). I am heartened to see that your
community has worked so tirelessly and
successfully to combat these illnesses.
However, perhaps it is also time to combat
some falsities.
IBD is not associated with personal-
ity type. Patients with IBD may very well
have more anxiety or depression when
their disease is active, but in no way is
an IBD patient's personality the cause of
the illness. IBD is not the result of diet.
In essence, diets and personalities may
change as a result of having a chronic ill-
ness, but do not cause chronic illness.
Moreover, surgery for ulcerative colitis
is not a panacea. A study from my alma
mater, the Sackler School of Medicine in
Tel Aviv, reveals that 5 percent of patients
who undergo removal of their entire
colon for UC will develop Crohn's of the
small intestine. Moreover, 35 percent of
the patients who undergo an internalized
pouch procedure will have nocturnal soil-
ing.
The goal of therapy for IBD is to
allow the patient to have a normal life.
Remicade, by far the most effective of all
the biologic drugs on the market, has rev-
olutionized how we approach IBD. More
biologic drugs are on the way. Our patients
with IBD actually have an IMID (Immune
Mediated Inflammatory Disorder). These
Which household items, which may contain chometz (leavening),
may remain in the house during Passover?
—Goldfein
•qs!iod ainpuini pue lu!ed Ixem nog se yens 'salq!peui :JeMsuy
6 March 8 . 2007
This Month In History: Jewish Civil Rights
March 3, 1812: A progressive edict concerning the civil status of the Jews
is enacted in Prussia on the strength of the chancellor, Karl August von
Hardenberg, who stated that he was not prepared to approve any law which
was based on more than four words: equal rights, equal duties.
March 4, 1849: Centuries-old residency restrictions are abolished in the Czech
region of Moravia. On March 17, another law organized Moravian Jews into 27
autonomous political communities.
March 17, 1808: Napoleon Bonaparte signed an edict attempting to force the
Jews of France to integrate with civil society. The so-called "infamous decree"
followed the French Sanhedrin, a congress of Jewish notables convened by the
emperor to construe government policies as binding religious doctrine.
Through coercive tactics such as deferring debts owed to Jews by Christian
peasants, heavily regulating trade, and restricting Jewish exemptions from mili-
tary service, the reformist government pushed Jews, particularly in the Alsace-
Lorraine region, to adopt family names and submit to a special religious author-
ity that enforced the general legal and economic structure of the country.
March 20, 1911: The mutilated body of a 12-year-old boy was discovered in a
cave on the outskirts of Kiev. The right-wing press and anti-Semitic groups
immediately launched a vicious campaign accusing the Jews of using the mur-
dering of the boy for ritual purposes, the so-called "blood libel" that had been
the pretext for persecutions of Jews for centuries.
Obligingly, the chief district attorney of Kiev disregarded police information
pointing to a gang of local criminals and instead looked for a Jew on whom
to blame the crime, through whom the entire Jewish people could be publicly
indicted. Mendel Beilis, the Jewish superintendent of a local brick kiln, was
soon arrested and sent to prison, where he remained for more than two years.
The trial of Beilis took place in Kiev in 1913, resulting in his acquittal. Bernard
Malamud's 1966 novel The Fixer is based on the Beilis case.
Indeed, the weeks before the Passover celebration were frequent occasions
for blood libels against Jews. After the grotesque murder of four citizens
of Endingen, Germany, in March 1331, Rabbi Elias and his two brothers were
accused of ritual murder, tortured, put on trial, and burned at the stake. Soon
after, all of Baden's Jews were expelled.
Taken from: Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd Edition, (c) 2007, www.encyclopaediajudaica.com , © 2007, Thomson Gale
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IlLEMET 'cha Don't Know
it ,Copyright 2007, Jewish Renaissance Media
disorders include psoriasis and rheuma-
patient is not to blame. It's in their
toid arthritis.
immune system. Never give up hope.
The days of our children needing to
These drugs are miracles and more drugs
take 14 pills a day is coming to an end. We are on the way. As Abba Eban said, "As a
can now offer our patients more effective
Jew, if you don't believe in miracles, you're
therapy in the form of Remicade when
not being realistic."
given for 12 hours over an entire year as
Mark Fleisher, M.D.
opposed to ineffective pills taken four
Borland-Groover Clinic
times a day.
Crohn's and Colitis Foundation
If only we can remember that the
Jacksonville, Fla.
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