COMMUNITY
Racism To Be Topic
Of Oakland U. Talk
Grant To Yad Ezra
Will Help Emigres
The Jewish Students
Organization/Hillel at
Oakland University, along
with the Jewish Community
Council, the NAACP-Detroit
Chapter and 20 other
organizations and academic
departments at O.U. will
sponsor the appearance of
Daniel Levitas, executive
director of the Center for
Democratic Renewal, in
Atlanta, Ga., noon April 8 in
the West Crockery, Oakland
Center. The program will
feature Mr. Levitas speaking
on "Responses to Hate
Crimes and Bigoted Violence:
Challenging Racism and
Anti-Semitism?'
Mr. Levitas is a graduate of
the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor. He has worked
with the American Jewish
Committee and the American
Jewish Congress, assisting
those agencies as well as the
National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council in
the development of ap-
propriate responses to anti-
Semitism in the farmbelt.
Before joining the Center
for Democratic Renewal, Mr.
A $15,000 grant from the
Lilly Endowment Inc. will
enable Yad Ezra to assist new
Americans who have recent-
ly arrived in Detroit from the
Soviet Union.
The money will be used to
purchase 28,500 pounds of
non-perishable kosher food
items for local new
Americans.
Yad Ezra, the Detroit area's
only food pantry targeted ex-
clusively to the Jewish com-
munity, is receiving the funds
as part of a larger grant ap-
portioned by the national
Council of Jewish Federations
Bonds Dinner Cites
Bernice Gershenson
Metro Detroit Women's
Division of State of Israel
Bonds will pay tribute to Ber-
nice Gershenson at a Dia-
mond Trustee/Prime Minis-
ter's Club dinner April
18 in the Franklin home of
Jane and Larry Sherman.
Dinner chair is Nancy
Jacobson.
The goal of the dinner is to
gain 1991 Israel Bond in-
vestments of $10,000 or more
to provide housing and
employment for immigrants
to Israel.
Mrs. Gershenson is a resi-
dent of Bloomfield Hills and
president of A & W Gershen-
son Properties.
A communal leader and ex-
perienced fund-raiser, Mrs.
Gershenson is active on
behalf of Harper Hospital and
serves on its board of trustees.
She also serves on the board
and executive board of Temple
Beth El; the boards of the
Jewish Welfare Federation
Women's Division, the
Michigan Opera Theatre, the
Community Music School,
the Detroit Symphony Or-
chestra, the Children's Center
and Merrill Palmer Institute;
and the executive board of
United Way.
Daniel Levitas
white supremacist organizing
efforts.
The program is free and
open to the public. For infor-
mation, call Sandy Loeffler,
370-4257; or 443-0424.
Holocaust Guide
Part Of Network
The Center for the Study of
the Child of Farmington Hills
has been notified that Life
Unworthy of Life, the secon-
dary school Holocaust cur-
riculum it publishes, was ap-
proved by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education's Program
Effectiveness Panel.
As a result, the curriculum
becomes a member of the U.S.
Department of Education's
National Diffusion Network
and will be included in the
annual list of exemplary cur-
ricula published by the U.S.
Department of Education.
Israeli Artist
At Peleg Gallery
Bernice Gershenson
During her years of com-
munity involvement she has
been the recipient of the In-
ternational Institute Award,
the Bethel A.M.E. Church
Brotherhood Award and the
Crystal Rose Award from the
Hospice Society of South-
eastern Michigan.
At the dinner, Mrs. Ger-
shenson, a member of the
Israel Bond Prime Minister's
Club, will be presented with
a special award from the
State of Israel.
For dinner information, call
Israel Bonds, 352-6555.
Caiman Shemi, Israeli ar-
tist, will be at the Danielle
Peleg Gallery in West Bloom-
field 1-6 p.m. April 14 for his
one-man show.
Mr. Shemi works in
acrylics, lithographs, et-
chings, sculpture, furniture,
ceramics and jewelry. His soft
paintings are created by a
procedure he invented. He
uses hand-cut, hand-dyed
fabrics and fibers which are
collaged by hand onto a
canvas.
Mr. Shemi's art is in Israeli
museums, in the Aume City
Museum in Tokyo, and in
private collections. Born in
Argentina in 1939, the artist
came to Israel in 1961 and liv-
ed on a kibbutz. Landscapes
figure in his work. He now
lives in Jerusalem.
At 3 p.m. Mr. Shemi will lec-
ture in the gallery on his art.
from Lilly Endowment Inc., a
private, charitable foundation
based in Indianapolis.
Detroit is one of 12 com-
munities that will receive
funds for programs giving
food, clothing and housing aid
to new Americans, often on
an emergency basis.
The initial proposal was
made by the national Council
of Jewish Federations to the
Endowment at the suggestion
of the Jewish Federation of
Greater Indianapolis. The
Detroit Jewish Welfare
Federation facilitated Yad
Ezra's application.
Neighborhood Project
Baseball Bonanza
Don Shane, WXYZ-TV 7
sportscaster, and Willie Hor-
ton, formerly of the Detroit
Tigers, will highlight the
Neighborhood Project's
Baseball Bonanza 1-4 p.m.
April 14 at the Jimmy Pren-
tis Morris Jewish Communi-
ty Center.
Co-sponsored by the Jewish
Community Center and The
Jewish News, the event will
feature a baseball clinic for
boys and girls in grades 1-6
and an opportunity to buy,
sell or trade baseball cards. In
addition, winners of a
baseball trivia contest will
receive Tigers' game tickets.
There are two sessions for
the baseball clinic. Pre-
registration is required, and
there is a charge.
Launched four years ago by
the Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion with the assistance of the
Hebrew Free Loan Associa-
tion, the Neighborhood Pro-
ject was created to enhance
the Jewish neighborhoods in
Southfield and Oak Park. It
OMM N IT
Levitas served as the
Research Director of
Prairiefire Rural Action, a
Des Moines, Iowa-based rural
advocacy organization, where
he focused on developing com-
munity responses to the Posse
Comitatus, the Christian
Identity Movement, Lyndon
LaRouche and other groups
and individuals attempting to
recruit farmers into the
radical right.
He also was on the board of
directors of the Jewish Com-
munity Relations Commis-
sion of Greater Des Moines.
Since 1989, Mr. Levitas has
served as executive director of
the CDR, which was founded
10 years ago as the National
Anti-Klan Network. It is a
major national civil rights
organization and acts as a
clearinghouse for efforts to
counter hate group activity
and bigoted violence. The
CDR works with individuals
and groups throughout the
nation to promote a multi-
faceted strategy that brings
together different — and often
differing — constituencies, to
end bigoted violence and
Don Shane
provides loans to Jewish
families moving into
designated neighborhoods,
drawing on a revolving fund
that contains more than $1.8
million.
For information about the
Baseball Bonanza, call
the Neighborhood Project,
967-1112.
Bar-Ilan University
Names Chairmen
Barbara Stollman and Neal
Zalenko have been appointed
general chairmen of Bar-Ilan
University's Detroit cam-
paign. This position will en-
tail the creation, organiza-
tion, and overseeing of the
University's local activities,
as well as co-chairing the
Detroit Friends' annual din-
ner Sept. 4.
Barbara Stollman has been
involved both in Bar-Ilan and
general Jewish community
activities for many years. She
is on the university's na-
Stollman
Zalenko
tional board of trustees, as
well as on its global board.
Mr. Zalenko has been active
on behalf of Bar-Ilan since a
visit to campus in 1981.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
45