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Staff Writer

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or 18 years, the Detroit
Women's Forum has
been waiting for 1992.
"This year, being the year
of the woman, is the tip of
the iceberg," says Detroit
Women's Forum founder
and director Ruth Driker
Kroll of Southfield. "This is
our Chai year. It is what we
have been building toward."
It was 18 years ago that
Ms. Driker Kroll, then
employed by the American
Jewish Committee, came up
with the idea for the forum.
Her aim: to build a coalition
representing ethnic, racial
and religious diversity
among women.
The AJC bought into the
concept that would bring
these women together once a
month, without exception.
Today, the group of 200
members meets in Detroit
for educational luncheons.
"The forum is one of the
longest continuing projects
of AJC," Ms. Driker Kroll
says. "And it continues to be
a potent force in Detroit's
women's movement."
Ms. Driker Kroll is retired
from the AJC, but she loves
the work so much she is a
volunteer director of the
forum. "It's my baby."
Topics covered have been
women and political action,
domestic violence in the
home, coping as working
mothers, wives, mothers and
volunteers and women's
rites for women of all faiths.
"Women have always been
survivors," Ms. Driker Kroll
says. "We still have issues to
address: reproductive choice
for women, pay equity.
America is still not ready for
a lot of things.
"That is why we need the
forum," she says. "I can't
think of anything that
happens with women that is
not a political issue. And
there is nothing that isn't a
women's issue."
This month, Oakland
County Commission can-
didate, Shelley Goodman
Taub, Detroit School Board
candidate, Ida Short, and co-
founder of the National
Women's Political Caucus,
Mildred Jeffrey, presented
an overview of the women
candidates in the 1992 elec-
tion.
"There is no place in the
city of Detroit where such a
cross section of women can
be found as at the Forum's
meetings," Ms. Jeffrey says.

Ruth Driker Kroll

In the past year, the forum
has hosted state Sen. Debbie
Stabenow, D-Lansing, and
state Rep. Lyn Banks, R-
Livonia, who discussed fami-
ly issues in the state
legislature.
And each year, the forum
holds a feminist seder. This
past year, organizers wrote
their own Haggadah.
The forum has ventureL
into other areas. In the late
1970s, when several mem-
bers felt the Detroit Neu' '
was treating women's issues
unfairly, the forum de-
veloped a media coalition to
do a study.
News coverage improved
significantly after the study
was unveiled, Ms. Driker
Kroll says.
Meetings were once held at
the Jewish Federation's
Butzel building. But the
move to Bloomfield Hills
forced the group to find an-
other location. The Forum
agreed to stay in Detroit,
and now it meets at the
International Institute on
Kirby at John R.
"We do not want to leave
Detroit," Ms. Driker Kroll
says. "Where else would we
get such diversity?"

.

❑

Sholem Aleichem
Sets Reunion

Former students of Sholem
Aleichem, Workmen's Circle,c:
Farband, and Y.L. Peretz
Shules are invited to attend a
Chanukah cocktail party 7
p.m. Dec. 19 at the Franklin,
Pointe
clubhouse
in
c:
Southfield.
For information about the
party, call Bette Schein,
355-1657; or Alva Dworkin,
557-8599.

