points of view >> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com Contributing Editor Editorial Summer To Remember Refugee Claims Not Overriding Priority Cour tesy Mag en Dav id Adorn Local teen helps save Israeli lives while giving back to Jewish state. tArD DriN 1 1 ,9i7) - B4474.4 -"stet .;PN,4,m, Ktzd - i &WV ... 07t, 4 .1.e.", PIK a XtVA14 r ( 4.01041 9( (Mir, MrtillgArt 04,041- 4 COM, e# Cā€œX Stit soal AUX GOECM ep FONCV ..4 it/W*1v- iimga 1.111.4 4.a.drisbo as V3104,1 444 44444.1 fiO31.011, 44.1tACIL OO( .1.4 Ant MIltfl 1,0 O....A.0, VI Eden Adler cried when she first saw the Israel ambulance donated by family members in 2009 in memory of her zaydie, Lawrence Newman. E den Adler's first shift as a student volunteer aboard an Israeli ambulance this past summer proved beshert. The experience as a certified first responder truly was "meant to be" for the University of Michigan sophomore, who plans to go into medicine. After rushing a woman in labor from her apartment to the hospi- tal, the Tel Aviv-based ambulance team she was assigned to by Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national medical, disaster relief, ambulance and blood services agency, got its second call of the day. The emergency: An elderly woman had suffered a stroke. As the woman and her daughter-in- law were taken to the hospital, Eden, 19, took the woman's vital signs; the assistant medic went through routine stroke checks. When the ambulance driver noticed the younger woman was speaking to her mother- in-law in a different language, he asked where they were from. "She proceeded to tell us, in Hebrew, that she is from Sighet, Romania:' Eden related. "I couldn't believe it. And I chimed in to tell her 48 September 27 ā€¢ 2012 iN that my grandpa is from Sighet also." When the woman learned that Eden's last name was Adler, she said her maiden name was Adler, too. She asked if Eden's grandpa, Sandor Adler (now of Walled Lake), was mar- ried to Elana and if they had two sons and a daughter. "I was shocked; that was exactly right:' Eden said. "When I told her I belonged to the younger son, Jeff, she laughed and said she has a pic- ture of me in her house The woman turned out to be Sandor's first cousin. After the Holocaust, her family was the only family he was able to find that had survived Hitler's fury. "Now, many years later, we were reunited in the Holy Land:' said Eden about this emotionally charged fourth trip to Israel. "After we dropped them off at the hospital, I was still stunned about the whole incident, but it also gave me faith that this was only the start to an incredible sum- mer." On The Edge The middle child of three children of Nancy and Jeffrey Adler of Farmington Hills, Eden Remember on page 49 he Palestinians have made resettlement and compensa- tion on behalf of refugees or their descendants a core issue of the seemingly dead peace talks with Israel. Today, the number of Arabs considered refugees of Israel or descendants stands between 500,000 and 1 million, depending on the source. In reality, while Jewish fighting forces drove out some Arabs, most Arabs were told to leave Palestine by their leaders in advance of Arab armies invading the newly declared Jewish state. Almost lost in the fiery Palestinian Authority rhetoric about addressing refugee claims as part of a final-status deal in any future Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is the push to recognize Jewish refugees from Arab lands as a counterbalance. More than 800,000 Jews lived in Arab lands at the time of Israel's founding. Most left, fled or were compelled to leave their homes after Israel achieved statehood; 75 percent of these Mizrahim (Hebrew for Easterners) settled in the fledgling state and haven for endangered Jews everywhere. The Arab world's violent response to Israel's creation dramati- cally shrunk or virtually wiped out the once-thriving Jewish com- munities of Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia. The expelling authorities assumed a chunk of the property once Jewish owned. It's not like the Jews were nicely asked to leave; persecution was a hallmark. More times than not, they were harassed, robbed, humiliated or even killed. The World Jewish Congress, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Israeli Foreign Ministry are among the Jewish organizations driving the cam- paign to win world recognition for Jewish refugees or their descendants as well as compensation for their lost property. It's a noble campaign: There is a Jewish parallel to Palestinian refu- gee claims from Israel's War for Independence. World Jewish Congress Secretary General Dan Diker put it well: "It restores parity to Arab-Israeli diplomacy." Certainly, Jews lived under Muslim rule for centuries though with limited rights. The dan- ger level rose as talk of an ancestral Jewish homeland gained traction. Israeli statehood stripped Jews of more rights in Arab lands, Dan Diker including citizenship. Consequently, Jewish expulsion gained steam. "The claim that Jews left on their own is not reflecting the truth of history because the true history shows that Jews could no longer continue living there without having their lives threat- ened," Ben-Gurion University Professor Maurice Roumani, told JTA. "Jews from Arab countries had been living in continuous insecurity for generations. If their lives had not been so inse- cure, few co them would have left." Still, some Jews in Arab lands left their homes to fulfill the Zionist dream once immigration became legal. Diker suggests the respective refugee claims could be resolved separate from the critical negotiation questions between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That makes a lot of sense. The refugee matter won't go away without serious debate, but it has no place commanding the negotiating spotlight ā€” should that ever shine again. Borders, security, water rights and Jerusalem are more pivotal issues, and they shouldn't be held hostage by wrangling over refugees. Let's be candid: Giving the Palestinians what they want, full right of return for refugees or their descendants, would obliterate Israel's Jewish majority. ā‘