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. •