frontlines >> letters

}low to Send Letters

We prefer letters relating to JN articles. We reserve the right to edit or reject letters. Letters of 225 words or less are considered first. Longer ones will
be subject to trimming. Letter writers are limited in frequency of publication. Letters must be original and contain the name, address and title of the
writer and a day phone number. Non-electronic copies must be hand signed. Send letters to the JN: 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110, Southfield,
MI 48034; fax (248) 304-8885; e-mail, letters®the jewishnews.com . We prefer email.

'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

You Pick The Best

IN

Ask Attorney
Ken Gross
about...

Your Legal
Issues

Q•

.

Yes, you guessed it, -rock."
That was easy. Let's try another
one. If you have $30,000 of
Credit Card debt at 20%
interest, how much interest will

you pay per year on the debt? The Answer
is $6,000. If you are in a 30% tax bracket,
do you know how much you need to make
to pay your taxes and net $6,000 to pay
the taxes? The Answer is $8,571. If you
are making $85,710 per year, do you know
how much of your income you are wasting
on the interest? The Answer is 10%. Next
Question - If you have credit card debt
like this, do you know what you should
do? The Answer is YOU NEED TO TAKE
ACTION to get rid of the debt, so the
$8,571 goes to pre-tax retirement savings
instead. If you earn 7% on your money in
an IRA or 401(k), do you know how much
the $8,571 will be in 15 years? The Answer
is $226,405. If you would rather have the
$226,405 than pay the credit card debt, do
you know what to do? The Answer - Call
Thav Gross - we do many things - but
there is nothing better than what we do
with credit card debt!

L

Chanukah Art

THAV GROSS has been solving

V

problems since 1982. Be sure to tune
in to the new Law and Reality -
Saturday mornings 8:30 to 10 AM on
WDFN 1130 AM Radio and Sunday's
at 11 AM on TV20.

oting is off and running to
select online winners of the JN's
Chanukah Art Contest.
Local children sent in entries by Nov.
5. All the entries are now online, and
you can pick the online winner in each
of three categories: age 6 and below,
ages 7-9 and ages 10-12.
The artwork of and photo of the top
online vote-getter in each age group will
appear inside the Dec. 11 JN along
with other winners selected separately by judges at the JN.
To cast your vote by Dec. 1, go to the JN website, wwwthejewishnews.com .

—

its clients' business, tax and financial

0 THAV GROSS

888.235.4357 (HELP) or
248.645.1700

For information, visit us online at
thavgross.com • www.lawandreality.com

30150 Telegraph, Suite 444
Bingham Farms, MI 48025

Were a premier debt relief agency helping people file for Bankruptcy Protection.

November 20 • 2014

5