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'Unwanted' Is Offensive
Term For Adopted Child
As an adoptive father, I appreci-
ated Barbara Lewis' article ("Forever
Families:' Nov. 13, page 1) and the way
she showed the variety of ways adoptive
families can be created. The American
Jewish community has been deeply
impacted by adoption, and it is nice to
see an article on the topic.
Language related to adoption has
changed quite a bit over the years
— mostly for the positive. So, I was
saddened to see that the end of the
first paragraph of the article refers
to adopted children as "previously
unwanted children:' To refer to our
children in this way is both inaccurate
and hurtful.
Inaccurate in that some families don't
fully know the background of their
child. Just as adoptive parents have a
variety of stories, so do birth parents.
The author isn't aware of the many rea-
sons that birth parents choose to place
their child for adoption. The language is
hurtful in that it misrepresents the way
we think about our children. We don't
think of ourselves as having done our
child a favor because they were unwant-
ed. We think of them as our children, as
the children who helped us create our
family.
A suggestion — perhaps the Jewish
News would like to include an adden-
dum with each wedding announce-
ment: "So-and So, who was previously
unwanted, has finally found someone
to marry:' Just as this term seems out of
place in a wedding announcement, so
too is it out of place in an article about
adoption.
Steven Rubenstein
West Bloomfield
Dershowitz's Statements
Were Counterproductive
After hearing Professor Alan
Dershowitz's speech at the recent
Holocaust Memorial Center dinner, I
cannot allow some of his statements to
go by with no response.
As a Zionist who supports a two-
state solution and the Palestinian aspi-
ration for statehood, I found some of
the professor's statements to be coun-
terproductive to the cause of peace.
In the process of making an oth-
erwise eloquent statement regarding
the tremendous respect he has for
Holocaust survivors who built produc-
tive and meaningful lives following
the tragedies of the Shoah, Professor
Dershowitz contrasted them to the
Palestinians and told the crowd of
1,200 that the Palestinian people need
to "get a life:'
He also denied that the Palestinians
are even a people, and then abruptly
declared that the statute of limitations
on the nakba [Arabic term for the
"catastrophic" settling of Palestine by
Jews] was over.
But how many generations of Jews
longed to return to Zion, to Eretz
Yisrael? As a proud member of our
people who, throughout history, have
been denied civil rights, human rights,
statehood and peoplehood, how can the
professor disregard the Palestinians the
very right to self-define themselves as
a people?
Just as the Jews have the right to self-
determination, so do the Palestinians.
There is no other solution than for
these peoples to live side-by-side in
two independent states. Leaders of the
American Jewish community, such as
Professor Dershowitz (who believes in
the two-state solution) need to encour-
age productive discourse rather than
resorting to explosive rhetoric.
As an advocate and litigator, he
understandably treats the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict as an argument to
be won. But, this conflict is not about
articulating the winning narrative or
crushing our "opponent" through rhe-
torical discourse. Peace will only come
when we honor the aspirations of the
Palestinian people and they honor
ours.
Alicia Blumenfeld Chandler
Harvard Law School Class of 2004
Birmingham
Dershowitz: We Must Not Be
Bystanders To Anti-Semitism
I wholeheartedly agree with the letter
writer's statement, "If we Jews are too
timid to stand up for ourselves and for
the Jews of Israel, how can we expect any-
one else to?" ("Don't Criticize Israel For
Exercising Freedom:' Nov 13, page 5)
Professor Alan Dershowitz gave
a similar message on the 76th
anniversary of Kristallnacht at the
Holocaust Memorial Dinner on Nov.
9, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield.
I couldn't help but think of the simi-
larities of "the Night of Broken Glass"
to the wave of anti-Semitic violence
now spreading from the Middle East to
Europe as my wife and I sat and enjoyed
dinner at a table with two Holocaust
survivors among 1,200 other attendees.
Dershowitz, a self-proclaimed "liberal
Democrat:' was passionate and powerful
in his pleas for Jews not to be specta-
tors to this powerful new wave of anti-
Semitism.
He also lambasted J Street, "pro-
Israel professors" afraid to stand up for
Israel, and the State Department and its
spokesperson Jen Pzaki for saying that
Israel could have done more to prevent
civilian casualties, completely negating
U.S. Chief of Staff Martin Dempsey's
praise of the Israeli military.
Dershowitz was also furious with the
Obama administration for its blatant
criticisms of Netanyahu and desire to
make a deal with Iran, whose ayatollah
had just released (on the same day) a
nine-point program for the destruction
of the Jewish state.
"We Jews need more power, not less:'
the professor testified, and it is impera-
tive for Jews to come to the defense of
Israel, as Dershowitz does in his lat-
est book, Terror Tunnels: The Case for
Israel's Just War Against Hamas.
"We must not be bystanders:'
Dershowitz asserted, and let hatred and
genocide go unanswered. We can all do
Letters on page 6
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