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A Jewish-Chaldean Plea
To Rescue Iraq Minorities
Metro Detroit's Jewish community joins
with our Chaldean neighbors calling
upon the Obama administration and
Congress to take immediate, concrete,
forceful action to rescue, protect and
provide desperately needed humanitar-
ian aid to Christians and other minori-
ties in Iraq.
Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq have
been targeted for their Christian faith
by ISIS and others in an unabashed
ethnic-cleansing campaign. Thousands
have lost their lives, hundreds of thou-
sands have lost their homes and pos-
sessions, and the list of victims grows
literally by the hour.
The world is aware of this genocidal
devastation, but it has failed to take
definitive steps necessary to end the
imminent threat against these innocent
victims. Congress passed nonbind-
ing resolutions in 2010 (S. Res. 322
and H. Res 944) calling on the Obama
administration to work toward ending
the marginalization and persecution of
ethnic minorities in Iraq.
Last month, the U.N. Security
Council unanimously passed Resolution
2170 condemning gross, widespread
abuse of human rights by extremist
groups in Iraq and Syria, and demand-
ing that U.N. member states impose
sanctions on the funding and shipment
of arms from their citizens to ISIS.
While such measures are impor-
tant, they are woefully insufficient to
meet and deflect the threat faced by
Iraqi Christians. The White House and
Congress must come together immedi-
ately to do the following:
• Lead a coalition of willing govern-
ments, NGOs and other groups to
provide direct military protection for
Christian and other minority com-
munities threatened by ISIS and other
terrorist groups. With innocent lives on
the line, this is not the time to be timid
in the use of protective military force.
• Liberate the 250,000 residents
trapped in Christian and other minority
villages in the Nineveh Plains, and find
a long-term plan to safely resettle them
elsewhere in Iraq.
Work with the Iraqi and Kurdish gov-
ernments and others, as called for in H.
Res. 683, to establish corridors of safe
passage for embattled civilians to reach
secure interim humanitarian sites for
their respite and recovery.
• Provide sufficient direct humani-
tarian aid and compensation to the
threatened and displaced.
• Determine durable solutions for the

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repatriation of displaced persons when
possible and for their resettlement in
third-party countries.
• Pass the Nineveh Plain Refugee Act
(H.R. 5430), a bipartisan measure to
swiftly and significantly increase the
issuance of refugee visas by the United
States.
• Encourage third-party countries to
increase the number of refugee visas
they issue to Iraqi refugees.
At a time when hundreds of thou-
sands of lives hang precariously in the
balance, the U.S. must not just join
coalition efforts. It must convene and
take the lead in such efforts.

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Mrs x

Dr. Richard Krugel, president

Jewish Community Relations Council

of Metropolitan Detroit

Yom Kippur

Alex Stotland, chair, advisory board

Anti-Defamation League-Michigan Region

Obama Does Understand
The War On Terrorism
I am responding to the letter criticiz-
ing the speech President Obama gave
regarding the actions against terrorists
and specifically ISIL ("A World War III
With Terrorism? Sept. 25, page 5).
While I agree with many of the
points in the letter regarding the
Koran and violence, does anyone really
think it would be constructive for the
president to frame this conflict as a war
against Muslims? The consequences of
that would be disastrous and a major
victory for the terrorists.
The problem is not the Koran, but
that a growing group of ignorant,
murderous extremists are using this to
justify their inhumanity. Obama fully
understands this and the importance
of marginalizing these extremists from
more moderate Muslims. This is really
our only hope.
I am not equating the Bible with
the Koran; however, there are many
instances in the Bible that prescribe
violence and even murder against those
that break God's law. The difference is
virtually all Jews, including the most
religious, totally reject these practices
today.
Despite what one hears on conserva-
tive media, there is no easy or quick
answer to this crisis. I have not heard a
better solution than what is being done
now, which is going after them wher-
ever they are and forming a coalition
of other nations, including Muslim,
to join the fight against these vicious
extremists.

Robert Harrison

West Bloomfield

Ehr hot gedavnt un gefast* with awe
and fear
Dos hartz hot ehr geshlogn, ** vey iz
mir***
Confessed to each and every
crime.
`Al Chet" gezogt**** time after
time.
But soon, Neiila kumt,***** and he'll
be out of there.

* Ehr hot gedavnt un gefast — He
prayed and fasted
** Dos hartz hot ehr geshlogn —
The heart he beat
*** vey iz mir — (an exclamation of
grief)
****Al Chet gezogt — a Yom Kippur
confessional said
***** Neiila kumt — the concluding
prayer comes

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— Rachel Kapen

'History On Headstones'
Topic Of Beth El Lecture
On Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m., the
Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives
of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield
Township will present its annual
Jewish History Detectives Lecture,
"History on the Headstones."
Archivist Jan Durecki has combined
the latest digital research technology
with the headstone inscriptions at
Temple Beth El's Lafayette Cemetery
to discover the life stories of Detroit's
early Jewish community.
The lecture, sponsored by Dr.
Robert and Joan M. Jampel and co-
sponsored by the Jewish Historical
Society of Michigan, is open to all. A
$5 donation will support the archives.
For reservations, call (248) 865-0628
or visit franldinarchives@tbeonline.org.

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October 2 • 2014

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