Taking Education Seriously

Detroit's Agency For Jewish Education
acted quickly and thoroughly in its selec-
tion of Howard Gelberd from San Francisco
to lead our local AJE.
Mr. Gelberd comes to Detroit at a time
when the Federation is prepared to make
significant changes in the way Jewish
children receive their afternoon and Sun-
day school education. Among these
changes are the shifting of the United Heb-
rew School elementary branches to con-
gregational control, higher funding of Jew-
ish education and more emphasis on in-
volving the entire family in Jewish edu-
cation. This is known locally and now na-
tionally as the JEFF model, or the path
that Jewish Experiences For Families has
successfully nurtured.
In interviews, Mr. Gelberd and the local
educational leadership sensed each other's
commitment level and concern. The word
"serious" was said frequently. It should be.
Federation is taking a serious look at what
has happened here in Detroit. Professional
and lay leadership understand fully that
the system needed changing for many
reasons.
How many times have responsible Jew-
ish parents, working hard for a living,
found themselves using afternoon or Sun-
day religious schools as a sort of drop-in
program? How many times have we heard
ourselves say that we are proud of our chil-

dren because they know more Hebrew or
Bible than we do? This is nothing to be
proud of.
Federation's point and now Mr. Gelberd's
mandate are to make Jewish education a
liveable part of our personal experiences.
What our children learn at religious school
should be shared in our homes. What
adults learn should be translated in terms
of parenting and leading. When a child
sees an adult giving money to charity, he
learns to put coins in a pushke. But when a
child sees that Mom and Dad are learning
like he is, and that afternoon religious
school is not seen by parents as a waste of
time and energy, that's when the greatest
impression will be made.
We welcome Mr. Gelberd to Detroit. We
understand his and the Federation's con-
cern and goals. The goals need to be met
because, at this rate, many of our children
won't know why- it's important to give
money to Israel. They won't be sensitive to
the history of our people. As the assimila-
tion rate becomes astronomical, the life of
the Jewish family needs more than an
afternoon drop-in center with a Jewish
theme. Jewish education at school and at
home involving parents and children is the
breath that keeps Jewish life going.
It's no wonder that Federation now uses
the word "serious." We all need to be using
it as well.

The Slomovitz and Michlin
families have been close
friends for 70-80 years, so it's
very difficult for me to com-
pose an answer to Phil
Slomovitz's May 29 article,
"How Nice Must Jews
Remember To Be?"
My father sat me down each
Sunday afternoon to listen to
Father Coughlin's vitriolic at-
tack — on me — week after
week, year after year.
Perhaps a little current
history will help put the re-
cent Ecumenical Institute
event at the Shrine of the Lit-
tle Flower into better perspec-
tive. The Rev. Alex Brunett
has been the ecumenical of-
ficer of the Archdiocese for
many years and highly
respected for similar in-
fluences on the national
scene. Archbishop Maida
plucked him out of his comfor-
table post at Saint Alden's
parish in Livonia and
reassigned him to this largest
and most difficult problem,
the Shrine of the Little
Flower. It was such a big job
that his ecumenical duties
were assigned to Monsignor
Leonard Blair, recently

6

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1992

returned from five years at
the Vatican.
Monsignor Brunett has
been at the Shrine for a year
now. He has confronted "the
hard liners" and won them
over. His sincere message of
love and friendship enabled
him to offer his personal liv-
ing quarters to host the an-
nual fund-raising event for
the Ecumenical Institute for
Jewish and Christian
Studies. His parishioners per-
sonally welcomed us and
guided us through the church
— to show what progress has
been made in Catholic-Jewish
relations in Father Coughlin's
own church!
Mr. Slomovitz's use of words
like "exoneration" and "vin-
dication" are not in any way
appropriate to what was said
that evening. Father
Coughlin was not white-
washed. No one "flattered"
this anti-Semite. None of the
speakers suggested that we
"forget."
This was a gathering of
Jews and Christians, all sup-
porting the work of the In-
stitute to learn the truth
about each other's beliefs and
practices — and history.
Father Coughlin is part of
that history.

1 LETTERS

passengers aboard the St.
Louis in 1939.
Let us seek together a
prompt and necessary rever-
sal of the current heartless
and immoral United States
policy with respect to a group
of people fleeing for their lives
from a brutal regime, as did
so many members of our own
extended family 63 years
earlier.

Rudy Simons
Oak Park

Rabbi's Departure
From WSU Hillel

LETTERS

Father Coughlin
And New Relations

--

I wish Mr. Slomovitz had
dwelt more on the positive
significance of the event —
maybe • see it as a reenact-
ment of Purim.
Of course we must be
vigilant. Our 4,000 years as a
people has taught us to never
be complacent. There is so
much more to do. Anti-
Semitism continues to raise
its ugly head. We must be on
guard every moment of every
day to combat this evil.
I believe the proper way is
by personal contact, con-
tinuous communication,
striving to build bridges of
understanding and friend-
ship.

Arnold Michlin
Farmington Hills

Refugee Parallels,
1939 And Today

My thanks and apprecia-
tion to Gary Rosenblatt for
his timely and thoughtful
piece in the May 29 issue,
"Striking Parallels, 1939 and
Today."
The plight of Haitian
refugees in 1992 should touch
the heart of every Jew who
recalls — or has simply been
told about — the fate of the

A front-page article in the
May 22 Jewish News is
devoted to changes in the pro-
fessional leadership of the
B'nai B'rith Hillel Founda-
tions of Metropolitan Detroit,
an organization which is very
dear to me. From my vantage
point, I can provide a little
further clarification about
these developments.
As the demographic struc--
ture of the Jewish student
population has changed,
Hillel has always had to alter
its services and programs.
The Jewish student popula-
tion in Metropolitan Detroit
is distributed in a very dif-
ferent pattern from the way it
was only a few years ago.
Under these circumstances,
the international director of
B'nai B'rith Hillel, Richard
Joel, in consultation with
David Bittker, the chairman
of the lay Hillel Commission,
and with me, has determined
that the position of director
will be restructured as part of
a general restructuring of the
local Hillel operation.
I was fully consulted in the
process, and my personal deci-
sions about my own career
evolved hand-in-hand with
Richard Joel's decisions about
the professional structure of
MetroDetroit Hillel.
The local board of Hillel is

now faced with the task of
developing a job description
for the new professional.*
leadership which will watch
the new, and changin*
Jewish presence on the cam-
puses in Metropolitan'
Detroit. In this effort, the
board will be guided by the 1
National Hillel Center, the_m
local Federation, and
students, faculty, and alumni
of Detroit's Hillel Founda-
tion. - '4
The board's other major
task, only tangentially4
related to the restructuring, 4
is to raise the funds to replace
the money cut by National_
Hillel. This task can be ac-
complished. There are cei;
tainly enough members of the
Detroit Jewish community
who harbor affection for, and
interest in, this institution, to
insure that it thrive financial-
ly and that it adapt creative-
ly to its changing en.viroT
ment.

Rabbi Louis Finkelma
Metro Hillel

Religious Life
Will Continue

a

The May 22 article entitled
"A Secular-Humanist Look
at Tradition and Authentici-
ty" makes the daily religious
Jewish life appear as if it is a
thing of the past.
Please remind Mr. Harwoo4
that being Jewish is a call to
action. From the time that-
the Jewish people stood at
Har Sinai and spoke the
words "Naaseh v'neshma"
(we will do and we will listen)
we have been performing the
mitzvot as part of our every
. .
day . . .
It will continue as a moral
and proper active way of life
as long as there are Jews liv-
ing on the earth.

Vivienne S. Feigelman
Southfield