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What a year!
• 4,000 Detroiters took a walk for Israel on her
40th anniversary of statehood.
• 1,000 of us stood alongside 200,000 Americans
in Washington, D.C. in an expression of solidarity
with Soviet Jewry.
• 2,000 shared friendship (and food) at two
Neighborhood Project fairs.
• 18,000 contributors enabled the Allied Jewish
Campaign to set a new record for philanthropy.
• $22.9 million was allocated from the Campaign
to sustain and improve Jewish lives at home and
overseas.
Surely the numbers are something to be proud
of. They are a bottom-line indication why Detroit
stands second to none among the large Jewish
communities of America.
But there's another side to the numbers. The
human side. The couple who traveled thousands
of miles to find a new home in freedom. The
elderly widow who found companionship in an
adult day care program. The young camper who
experienced the joy of being a Jew. Those are the
real achievements of this past year. And through-
out this annual report you will see that piece of
the Federation story. Working together, our
community made it happen.
Neither of us is a native Detroiter. Years apart,
we came to this Jewish community with a sense
of awe for its tradition of commitment. As each
year goes by, we are even more astounded at
what Detroit accomplishes. At the same time, we
are painfully aware of the unmet needs that our
community must address.
Some of these needs were revealed by the
Commission on Identity and Affiliation, whose
proposals challenge us to enhance the quality of
Jewish life for all our citizens. Along with those
priorities, we must consider the problems of the
aged and the disabled, as well as the special re-
quirements of single-parent families and other
groups yet to be defined in a demographic study.
At the same time, we will not abandon our pro-
mise to the people of Israel.
As they continue to build on the dreams of a
pioneer generation, we will be partners in that up-
building: helping rehabilitate the lives of immi-
grants from lands of oppression, planting gardens
in the desert, joining with the citizens of Yavneh
in a new Project Renewal undertaking.
There appears to be no danger that we will run
out of projects to fill our already-full communal
plate!
This has been a year of memory, of meaning
and of hope. In the year ahead, we hope to fortify
those aspects of our communal life as we go from
strength to strength...together.
(VAL,
Conrad L. Giles, M.D.
02-0-.U7-- Martin S. Kraar