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Publisher's Notebook

Trashing A Resort
And A Fraternity

"It shall be the object of this Fraternity [Sigma
Alpha Mu] to form a close social and frater-
nal union of Jewish students at the various
universities, colleges and professional schools
in America; to foster and maintain among its
sons a spirit of fraternity, a spirit of mutual
moral aid and support; to instill and main-
tain in the hearts of its sons love for and loy-
alty to Alma Mater and its ideals, to inculcate
among its sons such ideals as will result in
actions worthy of the highest precepts of true
manhood, democracy and humanity"

T

he Constitution of
Sigma Alpha Mu has
guided the organiza-
tion and the 92 years of its
University of Michigan chap-
ter through war and peace,
prosperity and Depression,
quotas and affirmative action.
A who's who of leadership
— inside and outside of the
Jewish community — has
embraced Sigma Alpha Mu's
raison d'etre. Many of the most
respected names in Detroit's Jewish com-
munity are among the U-M chapter's more
than 1,000 living alumni.

One of the first stories about U-M
"Sammies" to appear in the Detroit Jewish
News, dating to October 1942, carried
a headline that reflected the stature the
fraternity held on the Ann Arbor campus:
"Scholarship Cup Won By Sigma Alpha Mu"
— the second consecutive year it earned the
highest grade point average among the uni-
versity's 38 fraternities and sororities.
The president of the fraternity that year
was Lansing native Mery Pregulman, a con-
sensus All-American football player for the
Wolverines who went on to a stellar
professional career with the Green
Bay Packers. One of his fiat broth-
ers was Avern Cohn, who contin-
ues as an esteemed federal judge in
Michigan's Eastern District.
Over the years and decades,
Sigma Alpha Mu was the "gold
standard" for academic excellence,
leadership and community service
at the University of Michigan and
among the fraternity's national
chapters. The most recent crop
of Michigan "Sammies" were no
slouches when it came to academic perfor-
mance and community service. In fact, the
chapter earned the Founder's Cup — nation-

Historical photo of Sigma Alpha Mu, 1952-1953: Front Row: George Edelman; Harold
Mallon; Kenneth Cort; Marvin Siegel; Paul Richmond; Kenneth Shevin; Lawrence
Pearlman; Herbert Solomon; Martin Cohen; Stanton Berlin; Ivan Bender; Michael
Lyons. Second Row: Walter Segaloff; Arnold Check; Bruce Rifkin; Arnold Shifman;
Ronald Seltzer; David Levine; William Siegel; Louis Kwicker; Thomas Kovan; Elliot
Klepper; Theodore Kaufman; Donald Mendelssohn; Geoffrey Grossman; Richard
Radway. Third Row: Robert Margolin, David Kaufman; Joseph Berke; Charles Mayer;
Clarence Borns; Stuart Baruch; Robert Gross; Robert Steinberg, president; Alan
Luckoff; Jerome Altman; Nonny Weinstock; Richard Lewis; Morton Friedman;
Murray Yolles. Fourth Row: Erwin Rubinstein; Stuart Orman; Stanley Blumenstein;
Robert Zeff; Paul Groffsky; Marc Jacobson; Stephen Jelin; Allan Schecter; Richard
Meyer; Barton Hamburger; Warren Wertheimer; Basil Nemer; Daniel Fogel; Leonard
Loren. Back Row: Lawrence Shongut; Myron Waxberg; Robert Bergner; Robert
Gantz; Jerome Schostak; Stewert Krakover; Frederick Yaffe; Alfred Wolin; Donald
Rosenberg; Irving Tobocman; Donald Tann; Bertram Shapero; Jerome; William Wise;

Ronald Rosefield; David Bornstein.

al Sigma Alpha Mu's highest award — for
five of the past seven years in competition
with 50 other chapters.
But instead of headlines touting its overall
excellence and fidelity to its fraternal purpose,
today's headlines speak of a chapter that has
been dissolved following a January weekend
of destructive partying at an Up North ski
resort. The chapter's see-hear-say-no-evil
leaders and members chose to kill Sigma
Alpha Mu at Michigan rather than cooper-
ate with the national fraternity, university
officials and police investigators in identifying

those responsible for the destruction.
The front page sub-headline in the March
18 edition of the Detroit Free Press summed
it up: "U-M Sigma Alpha Mu chapter
wrecked resort, didn't own up, now perma-
nently disbanded." The latest headlines have
the chapter's president and treasurer among
those now facing criminal charges.

What Happened?
So how is it possible that some of the most
promising undergraduates on the Ann Arbor
campus — the leaders and best — temporar-

Essay

Beneath The Politicking

Culture change must precede Palestinian statehood.

sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's timing smacked of
political maneuvering for the far-
right vote, but he courageously said
what U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry won't say: That a Palestinian
state isn't possible under the
Palestinians' current leadership and
cultural climate.
Circumstances must take a
sharp turn in the terrorist-laden
Middle East before conditions
are ripe for the long-sought
two-state solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinian Authority
(P.A.), Israel's erstwhile nego-
tiating partner, governs
Palestinian-controlled areas of
the West Bank, but sadly boasts
a terrorist wing, the Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades. P.A. Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas' political party,
Fatah, continues to bash Zionism in
its schoolbooks, music videos, news

I

52

April 2 • 2015

reports, mosques and summer camps.
Fatah also glorifies "martyrdom for
Allah" via terrorism against Israel.
What's more, Abbas last year forged a
unity agreement with Hamas, the ter-
rorist organization that drove the P.A.
from the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Mixed Message

The day before Israel's
parliamentary elections
on March 17, Netanyahu,
in office six years dur-
ing his second stint
as prime minister and
fighting for re-election
against left-leaning
Zionist Union party
leader Isaac Herzog,
declared there would
be no Palestinian state
under his watch. Such a
state is a pillar of U.S. foreign policy in
the roiling region and, given the right
scenario, a position of the JN.

Benjamin Netanyahu's anti-
"Palestine" tactic was politicking at
its worst. But the thrust of his
message wasn't wrong.

Netanyahu's anti-
"Palestine" tactic was
politicking at its worst;
it left the all-impor-
Benjamin
tant clarification for
Netanyahu
three days later. But
the thrust of the Likud leader's mes-
sage wasn't wrong.
"I think anyone who is going to
establish a Palestinian state and to
evacuate territory is giving radical
Islam a staging ground against the
State of Israel," Netanyahu told the
Israeli website NRG. "This is the reality
that has been created here in recent
years. Anyone who ignores it has his
head in the sand."
Islamist forces indeed invade
vacated territory – for example, ISIS
in Iraq and Syria, Iran-backed proxies
in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, Al

Qaida in Syria and Yemen, and Muslim
Brotherhood- and Iran-backed Hamas
in Gaza. This must be stopped before
Israel vacates the West Bank beyond
its major settlements and risks seeing
it armed by Iran or other jihadists.
In his first major post-election inter-
view, Netanyahu told MSNBC on March
19 he wasn't abandoning the idea of
a Jewish state and a demilitarized
Palestinian state side by side, coexist-
ing in peace. A key to that prospect is
Palestinian recognition of the Jewish
state.
"I don't want a one-state solution,"
said Netanyahu, who alters his politi-
cal stripes to fit the situation, but who
ultimately is politically pragmatic. "I
want a sustainable, peaceful two-state
solution; but for that, circumstances
have to change."