EDITORIAL
Enrolling
In Community
T
he urgent needs facing the Jewish community are mind-boggling as we
shoulder responsibilities on the domestic and international fronts.
The community is confronting tremendous challenges in resettling
Soviet Jews, in dealing with a changing educational climate and spurring
Jewish identity and communal affiliation against a rising tide of assimilation
and intermarriage. In our broader family, Israel has made dramatic budgetary
cuts in an effort to correct its ailing economy, but is still preparing to receive
thousands of immigrating Soviet Jews.
Even the Jewish Agency, Diaspora Jewry's social welfare arm in Israel, has
been forced by slowing growth in contributions to scale back its efforts in some
areas to accommodate the most pressing needs. With a $2 billion plan envi-
sioned to resettle Soviet Jews in Israel over the next five years, both the
government of Israel and the Jewish Agency will be stretched to the limit to ac-
cept the long-dreamed-of aliyah.
Social needs, both in Detroit and in Israel, are already suffering as limited
resources are stretched and restretched.. Soviet immigrants coming to Detroit
have been given reduced benefits by the Jewish community and over-taxed
communal agencies are straining to help burgeoning caseloads of Detroiters
and new immigrants.
The Jewish community of Detroit this week has an opportunity to assist.
Through the annual Super Sunday solicitation for the Allied Jewish Campaign,
Detroiters can show support for more than 60 Jewish_ causes, agencies both here
and overseas, that aid the Jewish people. The needs are great, and more than
400 volunteers on Sunday will try to reach 10,000 local contributors and enroll
.
them in the community effort.
Major donors will meet next Wednesday to officially open the. 1990 Cam-
paign. Their efforts over the next four months to reach a record achievement —
and balance it against record needs — will be heavily influenced by the support
shown this weekend during the Super Sunday phonathon.
Super Sunday has become an annual opportunity for individuals to re-enroll
in the Detroit Jewish community and to reinvest in the Jewish future.
.
A Gentle Man
Made Contributions
D
r. John Mames was a courtly spokesman for a group of people who had
suffered unprecedented personal tragedy and abuse.
He was an early leader of Detroit's Shaarit Haplaytah - The Sur-
vivors of 1945. A longtime president of the organization, he was in the forefront
of the efforts of the survivors of the Holocaust to return to a normal life, with
dignity, and then to remind the world of their ordeal at the hands of the Nazis.
He was one of the stalwarts encouraging the annual Memorial Academy of
Shaarit Haplaytah, organizing • the program which has'become a community-
wide legacy to the Six Million. He was a leader in the two-decade effort to create
Detroit's Holocaust Memorial Centir, to ensure that future generations will
remember the horrible lessons of the Hitler era. In addition, he and his wife Eva
were tireless workers on behalf of Israel's emergency medical service, the
Magen David Adom. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and scores of ambulances
have been contributed to the people of Israel because of the Mames' decades-
long volunteer efforts.
Dr. Mames' death last Friday leaves a terrible void in the Jewish communi-
ty. He was a gracious spokesman, a man who rose from the ashes of Eastern
Europe to rebuild his own life and help his fellow survivors and his adopted
community.
He was a welcome visitor, a gentle friend, a quiet voice of reason in any
dispute. He will be missed.
.
8
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1989
LETTERS
Bornstein Brothers
At Zeman's Bakery
In The Jewish News of Nov.
24, in the feature article, "A
Whole Loaf," the fine tradi-
tion of baking kosher challah
in Detroit by Zeman's Bakery
is cited.
In the chain of ownership,
mention is made of Joseph
Liss who sold the bakery to
Louis Zeman in 1913, and
Morris Weiss and Morry
Mertz who bought the bakery
from "three brothers" in
1947.
For the information of your
readers and for the sake of
giving proper recognition, it
should be noted that my
grandfather, Oscar Bornstein,
and his two brothers, Berel
and Gilbert, were the "three
brothers." Berel oversaw the
baking; Gilbert managed the
books and Oscar was the
"public face" of Zeman's as he
took orders and made
deliveries.
From 1947 to 1973 the
Bornsteins placed a special
stamp on the bakery that also
deserves notice.
Jeffrey Last
Southfield
Intermarriage
And Outreach
Your Dec. 1 article, "Why
Jews Intermarry," quoted
Egan Mayer as saying that
the Reform movement is the
only Jewish group in this
country to devote "any
resources to counteract the ef-
fects of intermarriage."
Indeed, the Reform move-
ment's Outreach Program,
jointly sponsored by the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations and the Cen-
tral Conference of Reform
Rabbis, was created over 10
years ago to tackle the issues
and challenges presented by
an intermarriage rate of 40
percent.- VVhile we do not con-
done intermarriage, we
recognize its existence as a
function of modern Jewish
American demography.
The purpose of the outreach
effort is to welcome those pe-
ple who want to be part of the
Jewish community, to nur-
ture those who want to in-
clude Judaism in their lives,
and to educate those who
choose to live Jewishly.
We offer Reform congrega-
tions programs for interfaith
couples, Jews by choice,-
Jewish parents of Interfaith
couples, children of interfaith
couples, and Jewish youth. In
addition, we work with
religious school ad-
ministrators and teachers to
give to them the tools to deal
creatively with the many
children who have non-
Jewish extending family
members.
We agree that intermar-
riage is a threat to the sur-
vival of the Jewish communi-
ty. That threat, however, is
compounded when we reject .
those interfaith couples
whose search for spirituality
and identity brings them to
the Jewish community.
Nancy Gad-Harf
Outreach Coordinator,
Northeast Lakes Region, UAHC
West. Bloomfield
,
Let Us Know
Letters must be concise,
typewritten and double-
spaced. Correspondence
must include the signa-
ture, home address and
daytime phone number of
the writer.
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