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When Mission Ends,
The Miracle Begins

This weekend, about 1,300 of our neighbors,
friends and loved ones are boarding three El
Al jets and flying to a 10-day mission in Is-
rael.
Once there, 30 busses will take them on a
journey that scours Israel.
They'll see its museums; they'll see its ar-
chaeology; they'll taste its foods, and see a
country that is breathtaking in spring. Most
importantly, they'll see and meet its people.
And that is something that these days changes
day by day.
For those of us who have been to Israel be-
fore, who are "experts" at where to go and
what to see, who have been to Israel three
times or five times, this time is different. More
than ever, we'll see the miracle of the big pic-
ture, the big "mission." We'll see Israelis with
black skin; we'll hear Hebrew spoken with a
Russian accent.
Most importantly, we'll see a mirror of our-
selves, be it our first time in Israel or our 10th.
It's that mirror image that will get inside and
place itself as a priority.
For about a year, the pages of this news-
paper have taken on the issue of effective Jew-
ish education and its future funding. At so

many conferences examining Jewish life, the
major theme is assimilation and the survival
of Judaism.
This Michigan Miracle Mission, this rela-
tively inexpensive trip to Israel, isn't only
about ceremonies, tourism and shopping. It's
really about continuity. This is exactly the ed-
ucational dimension that we in American Jew-
ry need to help set our priorities correctly.
Education is not just a case of dragging our
children, largely against their will, to Hebrew
school to learn information we all need to re-
learn. Learning doesn't stop at bar and bat
mitzvah. Learning continues. Part of that
learning for our community will happen dur-
ing the next 10 days in Israel.
We'll be seeing, learning and knowing the
reasons for our survival. When we return to
Detroit on April 28, we need to pledge that the
learning will continue and the word will
spread.
Historians will hopefully say one day that
for Detroit's Jewish community, the "miracle"
of the mission wasn't the large numbers who
attended, but the "miracle" came in the fol-
low-up and change that it created.

Butterflies And Tears

Go to the woods some day
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You'll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.
These lines, written by a child in the con-
centration camp of Terezin, are a fitting bequest
to the United States Holocaust Memorial Mu-
seum, which will be dedicated next Thursday
and open to the public on April 26.
If the museum has been well conceived —
and advance previews indicate it has been —
tears will, indeed, "obscure the way" of many
visitors.
But such emotions can be fleeting. What is
essential is that visitors leave with a new re-
solve to make the world a better place; that,
U , in the future, there be no victims or bystanders
or persecutors; that prejudice and intolerance
— and the ignorances that fester them — be
c t purged from the human soul.
This is
no small obligation for a museum, but
the new institution does not have a "small" pur-
, pose. Congress established the United States
5 Holocaust Memorial Council to create a living
1E memorial to the 6 million Jews and millions
of other victims of the Nazis who perished in
U-1 the Holocaust. While the ability of a museum
— any museum, anywhere — to present the un-
speakable and the unshowable of the Holocaust
is limited, it can allude to how low human de-
pravity can go. This the Washington museum

4

does with grim success.
For more than a decade, there has been crit-
icism that the museum is a well-intentioned,
but misguided part of the Shoah "industry" that
moved the Holocaust to a hallowed primacy
in American Jewish life. Some of this effort to
so highlight the Holocaust was probably driven
by survivors' fears that memories of the Holo-
caust would die with them. But now that the
museum is finished, the American Jewish com-
munity's impressive fund-raising capabilities
should focus on other issues, especially Jewish
education. Jewish continuity only has a fight-
ing chance if it is rooted in the richness of tra-
dition, the full breadth of Jewish history and
the joyfulness of true worship. Otherwise, the
community turns inward and backward; it be-
comes, much as Pavel Friedmann wrote at
Terezin, unable to see ...

... another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
in the ghetto.
Communities need to see the "butterflies,"
just as they need to know their past, however
sorrowful it may be. Otherwise, their vision is
"obscured by tears," and their history becomes
one-dimensional. The new museum will elicit
tears; the lessons we draw from them will de-
termine whether we live in the past — or the
present.

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Letters

A Miracle
Investment

A number of your readers
have raised the question:
Why is the Federation spend-
ing "community dollars" on
the Miracle Mission? Aren't
there other more deserving
needs right now?
These are legitimate ques-
tions which deserve a serious
answer, as we embark on this
historic mission which will
bring the largest-ever com-
munity contingent to Israel.
1. Why is Federation sub-
sidizing a vacation?
The Miracle Mission is not
a vacation. It is an intensive
learning experience, focusing
on the needs, problems and
challenges facing the people
of Israel. The Federation is
not raising funds on this mis-
sion, but we have developed
a plan to involve our mission-
goers in the work of the com-
munity when they return.
This is important for the
Detroit community's future,
so important that the nation-
al United Jewish Appeal has
invested $50,000 in the Mir-
acle Mission to help Federa-
tion reach out to the Mission
returnees. Of the 1,300 par-
ticipants in the mission, more
than 800 are experiencing Is-
rael for the first time.
It's important to point out
that another purpose of this
mission is solidarity with the
people of Israel. All of Israel
is talking about the Miracle
Mission. Prime Minister Ra-
bin has written to congratu-
late us and will speak to us in
Israel. The people of Israel
need our support in large
numbers, and we expect the
Miracle Mission will be a
model for other communities
as well.
2.Why can't people pay the
full fare?
Every person is paying the
full fare. There are many 10-
day visits to Israel available
for less than $1,993 per per-
son. The magnitude of the
mission required the hiring of
a full-time mission director,
promotional materials, mail-
ing costs, etc. A portion is re-
quired for post-mission
follow-up programs involving
the participants.
The Federation is not in-
terested in a one-time expe-

rience; we are planning fc r
ongoing support by all th
people who join in this wor
derful event.
3. Aren't we short-chan€ -
ing our own local agencies?.
The answer is no. Ever
year, the Federation allocate
"seed money" for special com •
munity projects. These ar
not dollars that come from th
Allied Jewish Campaign, bu ,
from endowment income
the United Jewish Founda
tion. Each year, the Founda•
tion allocates funds for
innovative programs at agen-
cies, synagogues and organi-
zations, both at home and
overseas.
We expect the seed money
invested to make this pro-
gram possible to contribute
toward the strengthening of
our community, both near )
and long term. In my entire -\
professional career, I have
never seen such widespread
and broad-based community
excitement as I have with this
mission. Those who view Fed-
eration as a "closed circle"
should know that this mission
is a concerted effort to open
the doors of community in-
volvement and experience.
The Michigan Miracle Mis-
sion is truly a miracle of or-
ganization, planning and
community-building. Much of
the work has been carried out
by dedicated volunteers like
Jane Sherman, who have giv-
en of their time and energy to
re-energize the Israel-Dias-
pora relationship at a time
when our communities need
to come together.
The Jewish community of
Detroit has a right to feel
proud of this great undertak-
ing and the positive ripple ef-
fects the Michigan Miracle
Mission will have within our
community and with the peo-
ple of Israel for many years to
come.
Robert P. Aronson,

Executive vice president,
Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit

Gains From
The Mission

After becoming aware of your
publication of the Miracle
Mission subsidy a few weeks

GAINS page 20

