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Akiva's Holocaust Program
Was A Moving Experience
Yashar Koach to Yeshivat Akiva and
Charley Silow and his Holocaust
Survivor Program for their cooperative
and successful pairing of students and
those who lived the stories (Editorial:
"Survivors Help Akiva Frame The
Holocaust:' Dec. 12, page 37).
As a survivor, I attended the opening of
Year 2 for the "Voices: The Past is Always
Present" program. A sheet of questions
about our early years was a great conver-
sation starter between the generations.
When Jonah Peterson and Jordan
Weil asked me, "Who was your best
friend?" I was stumped for a second.
Then, I remembered Susanna, my best
friend before the war. There were stories
about the day we decided to skip school
and wandered the streets of occupied
Amsterdam. When some German sol-
diers tried to play with us, we ran home
in a panic.
Her mother had been a well-known
German-Jewish movie star. When I
spelled out her name, one of the stu-
dents checked her out on his smart
phone. We all looked at the list of mov-
ies she had been in.
There was no generation gap as they
asked me what the house had looked
like and what toys were in the children's
play room.
Thanks to the JN and the editor for
bringing this experience to the attention
of the public. It is my hope that this pro-
gram will be expanded to other Jewish
schools in our community.
Esther M. Posner
Southfield
Abortion Insurance Law
Must Be Overturned
The Republican-dominated Michigan leg-
islature's recent passage of the "rape insur-
ance" law speaks volumes about where the
Republican Party's allegiance lies.
GOP legislators joined forces with
special interest groups, in particular,
Right to Life of Michigan, whose stated
goal is to ban abortions without excep-
tion. This extremist group wants to
eliminate birth control as well.
Right to Life of Michigan gathered
a little more than 315,000 signatures,
had them certified by the Board of
Canvassers and then forwarded the
initiative to the legislature where it was
suddenly passed into law. The signa-
tures represented a mere 4 percent of
Michigan voters.
This law bans insurance plans in
Michigan from covering abortion,
forcing women to purchase a separate
rider, or in other words "plan ahead for
your rape!" However, the rider system
is unworkable because insurance com-
panies and employers won't necessarily
provide riders, due to the expense and
complications.
Republican Senate Majority Leader
Randy Richardville and House Speaker
Jose Bolger could have opted to send
this proposal to Michigan's citizens to be
voted on in November 2014, but instead
they rammed through a legislative vote.
This newly passed "rape insurance" law
exemplifies the Republicans' reckless
disregard for women's health.
Within the next 90 days,
Michiganders will be asked to col-
lect 161,000 signatures to place this
Draconian law on the ballot for consid-
eration. It's imperative that we do every-
thing in our power to overturn this anti-
women law. Let's make this happen!
Jill Farber-Bramson
West Bloomfield
Iran Agreement Won't
Stop Its Nuclear Designs
It could have been a major disappoint-
ment when Zionist Organization of
America's National President Mort Klein
got snowed in at Philadelphia on Dec.
9 and couldn't attend his scheduled
appearance at Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills.
However, it turned into a great event
as the issue of Iran was discussed using
the movie Iranium to provide the back-
ground for a discussion on the recent
Iran nuclear agreement.
Iranium documents the development
of Iran's nuclear threat, beginning with
the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the
ideology installed by the late Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
The film tracks Iran's use of terror
as a tool of policy, beginning with the
444-day seizure of the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran, through Iran's insurgent actions
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iranium details
the brutal nature of the Iranian regime
toward its own citizens and the Iranian
people's desire to rejoin the international
community.
Although the film is several years old,
its portrayal of the various scenarios the
greater Middle East and the Western
world may face should Iran cross the
nuclear threshold is still valid. ZOA-MI
Region President Dr. Eugene Greenstein
connected the points made in the film to
the fact that the new six-month agree-
ment does not stop Iran's efforts to devel-
op the technology required to construct
an operational nuclear weapon.
It neither stopped Iran's ICBM devel-
opment program with North Korea, nor
got U.S. hostages released, nor impacted
Yiddish Limerick
Happy New Year!
On Rosh Hashanah a gut yohr* we
will say
A Happy New Year, New Year's Eve,
also Day.
So Yidn** be thankful, zay
frailach*** and cheer
for we have Rosh Hashanah
tzvey mohl**** every year.
Far undz***** tayere breeder,******
dos is mer******* than OK.
* a gut yohr — a good year
** Yidn — Jews
*** zay frailakh — be happy
**** tzvey mohl — twice
***** Far undz — for us
****** tayere breeder — dear
brothers
******* dos is mer — it is more
-
Rachel Kapen
Iranian-sponsored global terror.
Given Iran's history, all of our allies in
the region (including the Saudis) are very
on edge as their faith in the United States
is lacking and their fear grows that Iran
will have a nuclear bomb.
The recent comments by President
Obama that Iran may be allowed to
enrich uranium, contrary to many U.N.
resolutions, is troubling given Secretary
of State John Kerry's remarks that this
agreement does not address the enrich-
ment of uranium beyond the six-month
window.
The proposed agreement does noth-
ing to remove the 20 percent enriched
uranium Iran already has that is easily
enriched to the 90-plus percent required
for a nuclear weapon.
Time will tell and we all must be
vigilant and make clear to our elected
representatives that it is unacceptable for
Iran to have the possibility of a nuclear
breakout.
Irving Ginsberg, Ph.D.
Farmington Hills
JN
December 26 • 2013
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