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Continued from Page 28
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24 HOUR
EMERGENCY SERVICE
THE COLLEGE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND THE ARTS
at the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
invites the public to attend
THE SHANIK-FLEISCHER FORUM FOR 1987
THE QUEST FOR UTOPIA
Jews in the Political World
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
❑
7:30 PM ❑ RACKHAM LECTURE HALL ❑ ANN ARBOR
ED KOCH
MAYOR OF NEW YORK
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 ❑ RACKHAM ASSEMBLY HALL ❑ ANN ARBOR ❑ A SYMPOSIUM ON
JEWISH POLITICAL IDEAS & INSTITUTIONS
3:30 PM
9:00 AM
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
10:30 AM
IN ANTIQUITY
.43 ./
,Olentena
2:00 PM
EAST EUROPEAN POLITICS WEST EUROPEAN POLITICS
eatkrama.,a4~,erm.a ■ -adomitintinelkw ilfor, , witbrIVAKErkinalMtakftsfeffo
7:30 PM ❑ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 ❑ RACKHAM AMPHITHEATER
JEWS IN AMERICAN POLITICS
A COLLOQUIUM OF
Practitioners & Theorists
■ Daniel Elazar
■ David Garth
And others
Co-sponsored by The Program in Judaic Studies at The University
of Michigan and The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
ow,
30
FRIDAY, SEPT. 11, 1987
There are many sides to Tom Whitehead.
accept about Christianity,"
she explains, "especially not
accepting others' beliefs as
just and valid. Also, I never
believed in intermediaries to
God. I always talked directly
to God. I never went through
Jesus when I was
Episcopalian."
Clermont went to Roeper
City and Country School as a
child and had many Jewish
classmates. Because of this
contact, she knew a lot about
Jewish holidays and was us-
ed to celebrating them. "And
I went to a lot of bar and bat
mitzvahs," she says laughing.
The hardest part of the con-
version process for Clermont
was getting outside of herself
and acknowledging her deci-
sion to become Jewish. She
also found it very hard to ap-
proach a rabbi. "Luckily, I
found Rabbi Steinger."
"It is a serious oddity to be
a black Jew," she affirms. "It
is even harder being a single-
black-Jewish-female." She
says that blacks can be just as
intolerant and just as bigoted
as others when it comes to
religion. "Blacks take
religion very seriously. And
blacks have all the prejudices
against Jews that other
Christians have. A lot of
young blacks are becoming
born-again Christians, and a
part of it is converting others.
People have been beating me
on the head constantly. They
say, 'When judgment day
comes are you ready to be on
the wrong side?' And I say,
`How do you know who's on
the wrong side?' "
While her siblings know
she is Jewish, Clermont says
she hasn't told her parents.
"And with my grandmother I
just leave it alone. If she ever
asked me point blank, I'd tell
her. I think my mother knows,
but there is a fear parents
have that if you change your
religion you are cutting off
from them. I keep waiting for
the right time to tell them,
but I guess there will never be
a right time."
Clermont attended church
services with her family last
Christmas and Easter, but did
not participate. "I look on the
Christian holidays now in the
same way I looked on the
Jewish holidays as a kid.
There are very few family
celebrations I could share
with my family — my sister
and brother come back to
town for the holidays — and I
would miss being with them.
"It's not easy being a con-
vert," she muses. "I don't
think it ever gets easier, you
just learn to deal with it."
Until she became a Jew,
Clermont says she never
realized how much. religion
affects a person's life. "At
work (she is an engineer at
General Motors) I hear things
differently now. People
automatically assume if
you're black you're a Chris-
tian, a Baptist.
"But my biggest problem is
feeling comfortable among
other Jews. Some people go
out of their way to be friend-
ly, which is nice. Others look
at you like, 'What are you do-
ing here?'
"In a lot of ways I am left
out. For the last two Passovers
I was invited to the home of
a woman in my conversion
class with whom I became
friendly. For Chanukah it was
just me and my candles in my
house. You feel like an out-
sider in both worlds. You don't
fit. But inside me I know I did
the right thing. Inside me I
see no wavering on my com-
mitment."
While she intends to raise
any children she might have
as Jews, Clermont doesn't see
herself marrying a Jew. She
dates blacks and has talked