Education
Confronting The Issue
From AIDS to s
spouse abuse:
LESLEY PEARL STAFF WRITER
DAN LIPPITT PHOTOGRAPHY
Project STaR
students
address the
questions from
religious
and service
perspectives.
U-M Professor Armand Lauffer watches a student presentation.
itting in a semicircle
of rust-colored chairs
and brown couches
in the social work build-
ing at the University of
Michigan, Social Work
645 — Jewish Communal
Services in the United
States and Abroad seems
more like a 3 p.m. rap
session than a class.
There's no podium, no
imposing professor fig-
ure, no chalkboard, no
frantic notetaking.
Instead, the instructor,
Armand Lauffer, takes a
back seat today —
watching the presenta-
tion Dana Rhodes and
Wendy Suchotliff have
put together for the
class.
The women have invit-
ed three guest speakers
to discuss AIDS and
domestic violence from a
halachic (Jewish
law) and a ser-
vice perspective.
Rabbi David Levy
from Temple Beth
Emeth in Ann
Arbor leads off.
Howard Israel,
vice president of
the Michigan Jew-
ish AIDS Coal-
ition, follows up.
After a break,
Rabbi Levy add-
resses spouse
abuse and Elissa
Driker from Jew-
ish Family Ser-
vice discusses
available help.
The students
are working to-
ward master's
degrees in social
work with a cer-
tificate in Jew-
ish communal ser-
vice and Judaic
studies. The pro-
gram is known
as Project STaR
— Service, Train-
ing and Research
in Jewish Com-
munal Service.
The program
was started
three years ago
and boasts 16 students
this year. In addition to
classroom studies, stu-
dents are placed in
internships with various
service centers.
Rabbi Levy began his
halachic interpretation
by stating,"There is no
such thing as honest
halachic work. It's a
judicial process."
He continued, dis-
cussing terms from a
pamphlet "AIDS: A
Glossary of Jewish
Values," prepared by the
Union of American
Hebrew Congregations.
The concepts of tikun
olam, repairing the
world, kol Yisrael arevim
zeh bazeh, each Jew
being responsible for
every Jew, pikuach
nefesh, saving of lives as
unparalleled,
bikur
cholim, visiting the sick,
and chesed ve'emet, com-
passion and truth in
regard to death, were
addressed. Each was dis-
cussed as a way of claim-
ing a Jewish responsibil-
ity in the fight against
AIDS and the treatment
of AIDS patients with
dignity and respect.
"But, do I have to tell
you to visit the ill, or
that each of us is respon-
sible for one another?"
Rabbi Levy asked. "I'm
troubled by having to
rely on authority as to
how to act as a human
being. It seems so obvi-
ous to me. Halachah
should be used not as a
stick, but rather as a
path."
He added that any
rabbi who quotes
Halachah as a way of
avoiding contact with
AIDS patients or as
God's retribution is
merely hiding homopho-
bia or fear behind
Jewish-sounding words.
"It's nonsense," Rabbi
Levy said.
Howard Israel followed
by sharing the story of
the formation of MJAC
— the Detroit Jewish
community's organized
response to AIDS.
MJAC formed more
than one year ago when
a Jewish AIDS patient
died in an inner-city
nursing home with a cru-
cifix over his head.
Jewish Home for Aged
would not accept him
and he was beyond hos-
pital care.
There has not been
another test case to see
how the Jewish commu-
nity in Detroit will
respond, but MJAC is
waiting.
Last December, MJAC
sponsored a section of
panels of the AIDS quilt
at the Maple-Drake
Jewish Community
Center. More than 40
rabbis were invited to
both the opening and
closing service. Three
attended — Arnie Sleut-
elberg of Congregation
Shir Tikvah, Paul
Yedwab of Temple Israel
and Elliot Pachter of
B'nai Moshe, then with
Adat Shalom.
But the main thrust of
the organization remains
education. MJAC is
developing workshops for
parents and their chil-
dren about AIDS and
how to talk openly on the
subject.
"AIDS doesn't know
about religion. It only
knows about warm bod-
ies. That's what I tell
people who are reluctant
to talk about it," Mr.
Israel said. "We feel it's
very important for rabbis
and administrators to
talk about this publicly
— to let people know
there is a safe environ-
ment to discuss this
within."
Ms. Rhodes introduced
the topic of domestic vio-
lence from the stance
that spousal abuse, like
AIDS, is also difficult to
talk about and difficult
to admit to.
THE ISSUE page 38