Letters

Gaining Young Families
Arthur Horwitz's Publisher Notebook
"The Elephant In The Room: Our
Dwindling Demographics" highlights
the differences in two congregations in
Metro Detroit (July 29, page 5).
In the same week that his corn-
ments were printed, the front page
of the Detroit News presented an
article detailing how Young Israel of
Southfield is building up its commu-
nity and not running away. The demo-
graphics do speak for themselves; but
if we, as a community, do not provide
schools, shuts and diverse com-
munities for young married couples
to return to, we will have "a Detroit
Jewish community that is slowly dying
in front of our eyes:'
If our synagogues do not have the
moral leadership that is needed to
guide its members to do the right
thing, we'll all be doomed. We must
attract and retain the talented young
Jewish families by our actions and
commitments to our communities.

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Answering
Israel's Critics

The Charge
Some critics of Israel unfairly
paint the Jewish state in absolute
terms, such as "an evil wrongdoer."
Conversely, the Palestinians are
painted as "innocent victims."

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The Answer
Andrew Silow-Carroll, editor of the
New Jersey Jewish News, says the
above are two examples of when
anti-Israel charges become anti-
Semitic by ignoring any evidence
or perspective that suggests empa-
thy for Israel's motivations and by
absolving the Palestinians of any
responsibility for the conflict.

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LIVING

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© Jewish Renaissance Media • August 12, 2010

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Correction
• "United By Cancer" (July 29, page
39) should have stated that the Suz
Cruise team raised $13,000 in 2008
from wedding gifts.

- Allan Gale

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J Street's Narrative
According to their special corn-
mentary, "Denial In Israel Advocacy"
(Aug. 5, page 32) by Jeremy Ben-Ami
and Debra DeLee, we who advocate
for Israel are living in denial because
we do not put the entire onus for
peace on Israel. We have been deceiv-
ing ourselves by reciting a "comfort-
able narrative" in which Israeli peace
offers are consistently rebuffed by the
Palestinians.
Actually, they don't put all the onus
on Israel. There is a sentence in their
piece (and a lengthy sentence at that)
suggesting that "Palestinians and the
broader Arab world" do bear a tiny
bit of responsibility for "the present
state of affairs:' Even so, according
to the writers, with their list of anti-
Israel generalities, I'm still using a
psychological defense mechanism to
avoid facing their reality.
In my own defense, some of what
has been feeding my "narrative"
in the years since 1967 are things
I've picked up from various news
sources. For example, there have
been recent reports of Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
Israel's alleged partner for peace,
who recently lionized Mohammad
Oudeh, mastermind of the massacre
of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich
Olympics, refusing direct talks with
Israel. Abbas has also refused to rec-
ognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Speaking of denial, nowhere in the
commentary is llamas, which rules
Gaza, mentioned. Why? Was painting
llamas as a peace partner too unbe-
lievable for even J Street?

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