1UP FRONT
Adult Education Retreats
To Stress Nature, Judaism
DAVID HOLZEL
Staff Writer
T
Joshua Berg
Huntington Woods Teen
Will Spend Year In Japan
HEIDI PRESS
News Editor
oshua Berg will soon be saying
"sayonara" to his Michigan
friends and hello to Japan,
when he embarks on a one-year
journey as a participant in the Youth
for Understanding program.
A student at Berkley High School,
Berg, 16, is one of five U.S. teenagers
who will leave in March for a one-year
student exchange study program.
While he is in Japan he will under-
take a typical high school curriculum.
Even though this is not his first
sip
trip to Japan — he went on a summer
Youth for Understanding trip three
years ago — he still finds the ex-
perience stimulating. "It's (Japan)
kind of mysterious to me," Berg said.
"It's exciting to speak a language
other people don't know"
In preparation, he has been
reading books and pamphlets about
the country and is brushing up on his
Japanese. It's no fluke that Berg was
chosen for the program. At age 13, he
was accepted - to the University of
Detroit's advanced placement pro-
gram, and his curriculum included a
Continued on Page 14
he Fresh Air Society hopes to
take Judaism out of the sub-
urbs and into the woods and
simultaneously turn its Butzel Con-
ference Center in Ortonville into a
year-round regional center for Judaic
training and studies.
Two new FAS programs are aim-
ed at achieving these goals. The first
is a Jewish "Elderhostel," which
would bring Jews over age 55 to a
country setting for three days of
seminars and recreation. The second
is the establishment of a Judaic train-
ing program for communal leaders.
At present, the latter program ap-
pears to be only a glimmer in the eyes
of the Fresh Air Society and its part-
ners in the project, CLAL, the New
York-based Jewish communal train-
ing organization. But the "Universi-
ty in the Woods" series for older
adults, planned together with
Midrasha College of Jewish Studies,
is taking concrete form. The first
retreat, set for April 18-20, will focus
on Jewish humor.
"Jewish experiences at camp are
not just for children, but also for
adults," noted Elliot Sorkin, FAS
development director. The University
in the Woods will combine educa-
tional and recreational activities —
including horseback riding, tennis
and physical fitness workouts — at
the FAS facility at Camp Maas in
Ortonville.
Two other retreats have been
planned in addition to the April
event. A retreat slated for May 16-18
will have as its theme "Arts: Window
to the Jewish Sour No topic has been
chosen for the Oct. 10-12 retreat, ac-
cording to Sorkin.
These initial offerings will deter-
mine the extent of the demand for a
Jewish Elderhostel, he said. If the
program proves popular, "eventually
we would like to do it once a month."
Jewish humor was chosen as the
topic for the first retreat "because we
wanted something that was a sure
winner," explained Dr. Lewis Ham-
burger, FAS associate director. The
aim is to "approach an entertaining
topic in an intellectual manner?'
Speakers at the program will be
Drs. Alan Gould and Sheila
Feigelson. Gould, who has authored
two humorous books, "is a funny man
and a scholar on the subject of Jewish
humor," according to Dr. Hamburger.
Feigelson, with a doctorate in educa-
tion, "runs workshops on the role
humor can play in making life more
liveable?'
The University in the Woods pro-
ject was developed aver the last cou-
ple months, Dr. Hamburger said.
Fresh Air Society will charge $195
per person for the three-day retreat.
The envisioned increase in the
number of visitors to the Butzel Con-
ference Center as a result of the pro-
gram will introduce FAS camps to a
wider circle of people, an opportunity
to, increase camp membership that is
not lost on FAS executives. In another
calculated move, the retreats have
been scheduled on weekdays to more
fully utilize the conference center,
which stands virtually vacant bet-
ween weekends. The proposed train-
ing seminars for Jewish communal
professionals and lay people would
also use the facility during the week.
Continued on Page 14
ROUND UP
Mecham Stance
Causes Dismay
Phoenix (JTA) — A local
coalition of mainstream
Christian denominations has
joined Arizona Jews in ex-
pressing dismay over Gov.
Evan Mecham's remarks to a
Jewish audience Dec. 13 that
"Jesus Christ is the God of
the Land."
A public protest is planned
by the Bishops' Executive
Round Table, which includes
American Baptists,
Episcopalians, Lutherans,
Methodists, Presbyterians,
Roman Catholics, Society of
Friends, Unitarians, United
Church of Christ members
and Universalists.
Mecham, who is facing a
vigorous recall campaign, is a
Mormon. He astonished and
offended Jews recently when
he spoke at the monthly
men's club breakfast at
Ahavat Torah Congregation.
Mecham's strongly implied
rejection of religious
pluralism in the United
States reportedly came when
he was asked by a congregant
to explain a story in the
Arizona Daily Star about his
recent speech at the National
Center for Constitutional
Studies banquet in Salt Lake
City. -
"I want you to recognize
tonight — on this 200th an-
niversary (of the U.S. Con-
stitution) that this is a great
Christian nation that
recognizes Jesus Christ as the
,
God of the land;' he was
quoted as saying.
Asked if he indeed said
that, Mecham replied, "From
my standpoint, Jesus Christ
is the God of the land. I said
it — and I probably will say it
again. If that is a problem for
anyone, then it is their
problem."
Protests Force
Bias Probe
New York (JTA) — New
York Police have assigned a
detective from the bias crimes
unit to the investigation of
the murder Dec. 25 of a
39-year-old Orthodox Jewish
postal worker in the Borough
Park section of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Police announced the
assignment following a Sun-
day afternoon rally in which
300 Chasidic Jews gathered
in front of the offices of the
Council of Jewish Organiza-
tions in Borough Park to voice
their concern that the attack
on Eli Wald was anti-Semitic.
"If enough people feel that
there is a basis to calling a
crime racially motivated, we
will look into it," said Inspec-
tor Michael Markman.
In an interview Monday,
Captain Michael Scagnelli,
commander of the 66th
precinct, said that the bias
unit would confer with
homicide detectives despite
"every indication" that the
stabbing death of Wald was
the result of "an attempted
robbery that went bad."
Mass Trials
Raise Debate
Jerusalem (JTA) — The
dozens of Palestinians being
brought before military
courts in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, on charges of
rioting and other acts of
violence, cannot possibly have
"fair and just" trials, in the
opinion of an Israeli lawyer
with experience in the
military courts.
Yaron Rabinowitz, a former
military prosecutor in Gaza,
said in an interview publish-
ed Monday in Haaretz that
when large numbers of defen-
dants are made to appear in
court at the same time, there
is no way the judges can give
their attention to each case.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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