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Support ZOA Efforts
At Its Balfour Dinner
The Zionist Organization of America
(ZOA) is the oldest pro-Israel group in
the United States. It has been educating
the public, elected officials and college
students about the relentless Arab war
against Israel for more than 100 years.
ZOA works to promote strong U.S.-
Israel relations, helps protect Jewish
high school and college students from
intimidation, harassment and dis-
crimination and fights anti-Semitism in
general.
On Nov. 23, the Michigan chapter
will hold its 80th Annual Balfour
Celebration at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield. All Detroit area
Jews are urged to attend to help support
this venerable organization and to show
that they, too, stand with Israel.

Sy Freilich
White Lak

Stop Using U.N.
As A Scapegoat
Again, as criticisms of Israel must
always be deflected, the Detroit Jewish
News decides to make the United
Nations the demon for investigating the
shelling of its own charitable facilities
("U.N.'s Israel Probe Seems Predestined:'
Editorial, Oct. 30, page 49).
What is a "proportionality card?"
Facts are facts and should be investi-
gated and revealed.
Apparently the JN's beliefs come out
of thin air. You said: "Yet the United
Nations believes the Jewish State is

Human Rights Rabbi
To Visit Temple Israel
Rabbi Arik Ascherman, president and
senior rabbi of
Rabbis for Human
Rights (RHR), will
speak at Temple
Israel in West
Bloomfield at 7:30
p.m. Friday, Nov.
21. His topic will be
"Recent Issues and
Rabbi Arik
Challenges of
Ascherman
Human Rights
Work in Israel"
He will also speak at the Temple
Israel rabbi's tisch at 9:30 a.m.
Saturday, Nov. 22, on "Human
Rights through the Lens of Israel's
Declaration of Independence."
A native of Erie, Pa., and a Harvard
alumnus, Ascherman was ordained

inherently
This is a self-serving,
inflammatory statement with absolutely
no basis. By "Jewish State" do you mean
the government, the Israeli citizens,
both Jewish and Arab?
Who exactly made this "evil" state-
ment? Do you mean the Secretariat,
the 193-member General Assembly,
the Security Council, UNICEF, the
88,500 brave men and women from 119
countries who carry out peacekeeping
operations around the world, including
in Israel for decades?
The U.N. is by its charter a neutral
entity — feeding 60 percent of the
world's children, vaccinating 80 per-
cent, fighting poverty and conflicts
where no one else will go.
The Detroit Jewish News needs to edi-
torialize about important relevant items
to help the dwindling Detroit Jewish
community instead of using the United
Nations as a scapegoat.

David C. Sloan
Huntington Woods

Don't Criticize Israel
For Exercising Freedom
It's a capital crime under the Palestinian
Authority to sell land to a Jew. Any
other group facing that kind of hatred
and discrimination would be cheered
and their cleverness applauded, not
condemned, for beating the hate-
mongers, even in the middle of the
night ("Israel's Higher Level Of Ethics:'
Editorial, Oct. 30, page 48).
Jews moving into Arab neighbor-
hoods in Jerusalem isn't incitement.

by Hebrew Union College in 1989.
For more than a quarter century, the
rabbi, a recipient of several peace
prizes, has led RHR in organizing its
work in Israel and the West Bank.
Rabbis for Human Rights' purpose
is to give expression to the traditional
Jewish responsibility for the safety
and welfare of the stranger, the dif-
ferent and the weak, the convert, the
widow and the orphan. The group is
not aligned with any specific political
party.
Earlier on Friday, Nov. 22,
Ascherman will meet with the
Michigan Board of Rabbis.
In addition, Ascherman will speak
at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 20, at the
Jewish Community Center of Greater
Ann Arbor, 2935 Birch Hollow Drive.
His topic will be "Current Challenges
for and Successes in Human Rights
Work in Israel: RHR Beyond the

It's the same freedom we, as Jews and
Americans, demand for all other eth-
nic, religious and cultural groups.
Palestinian Jew-hatred is the impedi-
ment to peace, that and their demand
of all the land "from the river to the
sea" with an undivided Jerusalem as
their capital. Had they truly sought
to share, they wouldn't have rejected
the many opportunities they've been
offered over the past 60-plus years.
Peace will never come by giving in to
Palestinian demands, which constantly
increase with each concession and
"goodwill gesture" by the Israeli govern-
ment. Peace will come by standing up
to the Jew-hating bullies and refusing
to be bullied.
Rather than wringing our hands
over a Jewish group's wish for a Jewish
majority in Jerusalem, the capital of the
Jewish nation, we should support them
and demand that Jews be accorded
equal rights to live anywhere they
please. We should also remember that
the only Middle Eastern country where
diverse groups do get along is that
Jewish nation.
It's important to note that no matter
how much we Jews try to "play nice"
and let the Jew-haters tell us where
(and if) we're allowed to live, as long as
we and Israel are Jewish, they will still
hate us.
If we Jews are too timid to stand up
for ourselves and for the Jews of Israel,
how can we expect anyone else to?

Harry Onickel
Ferndale

first 25 Years:' Sharing insights will
be Rabbis Robert Dobrusin of Beth
Israel Congregation, Michal Woll of
the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist
Congregation and Robert Levy of
Temple Beth Emeth.
On Wednesday, Nov. 19,
Ascherman will meet with
University of Michigan Hillel, Jewish
Community Leadership Program
participants and other students of
diverse viewpoints. On Thursday,
Nov. 20, at 11 a.m. he will speak
at Congregation Kehillat Israel in
Lansing, hosted by Rabbi Michael
Zimmerman.
For details about the rabbi's
Michigan visit, contact Martha
Kransdorf at mkransdo@umich.edu
or call (734) 663-7933. For details
about specific events, contact the host
organization. For information about
RHR, visit the website rhr.org.il/eng.

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November 13 • 2014

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