gogues. AJE, under Howard
Gelberd, also spent the year
making changes in personnel
and philosophy, weeding out
much of the older, more tra-
ditional thinking in favor of a
new outlook.
Temple Emanu-El, in con-
junction with AJE and the
Michigan Jewish AIDS
Coalition, implemented its
first-ever AIDS curriculum
for its high school students.
Yad Ezra sponsored its first
youth walk, raising funds for
the Jewish hungry. This was
a record-setting year for the
3A-year-old kosher food
pantry. So far this year, Yad
Ezra has distributed 30,480
pounds of food to 808 families,
numbering 1,611 people.
That's a jump from last year's
figures of 25,339 pounds of
food to 596 families.
"People say that our econ-
omy is getting better, but it's
getting worse," said director
Jeanette Eizelman. "People
say things are better, but we
don't see it here. We're seeing
former donors coming in now
as clients. That's scary."
On the local political front,
Jews divided themselves in
the fall primary in the con-
gressional campaign camps
of Judge Alice Gilbert and
state Sen. David Honigman.
The Jewish candidates pub-
licly waged vitriolic cam-
paigns against one another.
In the meantime, Joe
Knollenberg took advantage
of the split and rode it to vic-
tory in the primary and then
the general election.
Rep. Knollenberg, who had
little or no record on Israel,
has in the year shown him-
self a supporter on issues
important to Israel and the
American Jewish community.

Former Jewish Commu-
nity Council President Paul
D. Borman was nominated to
a federal judgeship of the
Eastern District of Michigan.
There were many deaths
within the community. Each
one represented a tremen-
dous loss to families and
friends and knocked the
breath out of our Jewish fami-
ly.
For The Jewish News,
there was a setback that a
movie character once called
"a loss in the force." This was
the February death of Jewish
News founding editor and
publisher Philip Slomovitz,
96. Mr. Slomovitz had been
named to the Michigan
Journalism Hall of Fame just
weeks prior to his death.
The first issue of The
Jewish News was published
on March 27, 1942. Mr.
Slomovitz publicly took on
the anti-Semitic voice of
Father Coughlin and his
Shrine of the Little Flower
microphone. Mr. Slomovitz
also actively participated in
the formation of the State of
Israel. He took on the
nations of the world, includ-
ing his own, to act against
Hitler and the Holocaust.
Even in his last weeks of life,
even though blind, he kept
writing his column "Purely
Commentary."
Finally, one of the most
important messages received
this year in Detroit came
from Shoshana Cardin, presi-
dent of CLAL, the National
Jewish Center for Learning
and Leadership. Speaking at
the Jewish Theological
Seminary annual dinner, she
warned local and national
figures that . the sum total of
their leadership could not be
based on the checks
they wrote to Jewish
charities any longer.
She called for a nation-
al return to family edu-
catidn, to knowledge of
Hebrew, Bible and
Jewish history.
And she warned
there would be no
Jewish community as
we now know it unless
education became the
number-one priority,
only not just for chil-
dren, but for all of us. ❑

Philip Slomovitz, above, The
Jewish News founder, dies at
age 96.

Temple Emanu-El students,
left, learn about AIDS.

