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July 29, 1988 - Image 78

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1988-07-29

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

I ANN ARBOR I

NEW
FALL FASHIONS
ARRIVING DAILY

Project PRIDE:

COMPLAISANT

a resource for the entire communi-
ty provides free information and
pamphlets, loans video tapes as
well as gives free consultations in
drug prevention.

855-6566

O RCHARD LAKE & 14 .•)
AT HUNTER'S SQUARE

...

Hillel Student Center
Established At EMU

SUSAN LUDMER-GLIEBE

Special to The Jewish News

7,3

If you want more information about
drugs, drug addiction and alternatives, or
if you need help yourself or for a loved
one, call 855-2910. Our professionals
are available on a regular basis every
Tuesday and Thursday night at 7-9 PM at
32000 Middlebelt, corner of Olde
Franklin Drive, in Farmington Hills.

M

Together,
there's so much
good we can do.



This men's group serves as an important link between the Jewish Home for Aged and the local community to better promote and
advance the services we provide to our Jewish elderly. Membership in The Benefactors of the JHA is an opportunity to network,
enjoy social activities, learn of committee and Board opportunities, as well as to provide financial support and assistance while the
Home prepares to expand the scope and complexity of its services. Additional information can be received by contacting Alan Funk
at 532-7112.

78

FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1988

ichelle Blumenberg
is program director
at the B'nai B'rith
Hillel Foundation at the
University of Michigan. But
U-M students aren't the only
ones to call her with ques-
tions. She often gets requests
from men and women atten-
ding Eastern Michigan
University in Ypsilanti. In
the past, she says some of
these students have asked a
singularly pointed question.
"People said, 'Is there
another Jewish student
here?' "
The question in itself says
a lot. Though EMU has
always had Jewish students
and faculty, in some ways
.they've been less visible than
one would expect given their
not-insubstantial numbers.
"It's a quiet population," says
Debra Gantz, an education
major from West Bloomfield.
In large part that's because
EMU's students don't fit the
university norm — or what we
tend to think of as the norm.
Fifty percent of EMU's
students are part-timers;
many are commuters; and a
substantial number are older
than the average student. A
good number are women go-
ing back to school after hav-
ing raised a family — so-
called "retreads." These fac-
tors alone have mitigated
against the development of
identifiable Jewish organiza-
tions on campus.
But that's begun to change.
In the past year, a number of
concerned faculty, ad-
ministrators and students
have begun formally to
organize themselves into a
recognizable Jewish universi-
ty community. The result?
Beginning this September,
EMU will have its own Hillel
extension chapter, charter
and all.
"The time is right," says
Jay Weinstein, professor of
sociology at EMU, who has
been working with others in
getting the new organization
into place and who serves on
the newly-established Hillel
board.
Why now? For one thing,
EMU has been growing at a
phenomenal rate. With an
enrollment of around 25,000,
it's now the third largest
undergraduate institution in
the state.
And as EMU has grown, it's
changed as well. "For years it
lived in the shadow of U-M,"
says Weinstein.

But EMU has begun to
forge its own identity and
part of that identity mirrors
basic demographic changes.
As Weinstein, a demographer,
explains, EMU is beginning
to function as the
metropolitan Detroit univer-
sity, in some respects replac-
ing Wayne State University's
role. "We're picking up the
student that used to go to
Wayne State and Oakland
University," says Ronald
Goldenberg, dean of the
graduate school.
As Detroit moves westward,
so does its Jewish population
and, in some respects, EMU is
reflecting those changes, too.
Many students from the
larger metro Detroit Jewish
community are coming to
EMU, and that's made a dif-
ference. "Naturally we're get-

Eastern Michigan
University is
beginning to
function as the
metropolitan
Detroit University.

ting more Jewish students
than ever before," says Weins-
tein who thinks that there
are at least 1,000 Jewish
students on campus, possibly
as many as 1,200.
Gantz, 19, is one of those
students and she helped get
the Ypsilanti Hillel off the
ground. In fact, as EMU
faculty members point out,
the idea of beginning the
Hillel really was expressed
from the ground up. "It was
the students who presented
the idea," says Goldenberg.
"They were very en-
thusiastic."
For Gantz, the establish-
ment of the Hillel chapter
was done for relatively simple
reasons: "We all just wanted
a place where we felt we could
go to meet other Jewish
students," she explains.
Marc Cohen, 20, from
Southfield, also expressed the
need to have a way of socializ-
ing with other Jews on cam-
pus. "I knew they were out
there," he says. "We thought
having a Hilel would be the
only way to locate other
Jewish students."
A number of faculty and
students also point out that
Hillel can reach out to the
wider non-Jewish community.
"We can bring attention to
others that we exist," says
Goldenberg.
Last Passover, for example,

N

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