A v 'A „ad Ar- ..11010 Nf E Illaf'%/1 mr' - 1111-ji - 11_411r :10 ■ 11110 , F IRE 41011 ■ IVIII C4011 ► IL- IL- 1 Jr - T tJCD OE Potok Speaks To Hillel SHEILA JELEN, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS 1 Lisa Weinshenker and Scott Weinick, now married, met each other at another hayride sponsored five-and•a-half years ago by Hiliels at Wayne State University and University of Windsor. Photo by Kfistoffer Gillette 'Half YIIII! A straw-tossing, line-dancing, boot scootin' gala was on tap from HMD. Rum LITTMANN, STAFF WRITER \D CO w CO LU - C) CC I-- U-1 CD LL, 86 hoa now! You say them Hillel folks seem kinda different these days? Could be on account of the new programs they've cooked up. Like that October train ride through the wilds of Walled Lake. Or the Billiards Bash at Breakers last week. Or maybe one of the latest: a hayride and hoedown, complete with line dancing and country music. It's all part of Hillel's goal to get hip to the '90s while main- taining its Jewish identity. Hillel of Metro Detroit (HMD) is well on its way to revamping its image. Lest students think it's just an office on Wayne State University's campus — a place where they can eat tasty kosher meals — HMD leaders are spreading the news that Hillel keeps changing. "We're drawing steady crowds and new people to the events — events that are stu- dent-organized," said Program Director Neil Gottheil. "The dif- ference between the Hillel-of- now and the Hillel-of-then is that today's Hillel of Metro Detroit is being turned over to the students. They're taking a much more active role in orga- nizing social and social action events." The Hayride-Hoedown, for in- stance, was planned by mem- bers of HMD's new Metro Council. The event attracted a diverse crowd of 50 people to Sugarbush Farms in Ypsilanti, where participants climbed aboard horse-drawn wagons for a chilly ride in the evening air. The bumpy, straw-tossing ex- cursion was followed by line dancing in Farmer Joe's barn. Dance instructor Bill Dean taught the crowd new country steps, including the all-famous Achy Breaky. The horah, it was not. But judging from the mangled moves of many a dancer, a little Boot Scootin' wasn't all that bad. "I loved it," said an HMD leader, Kevin Elbinger, who kicked up his heels to ditties by country king Billy Ray Cyrus. "After you got it down, it was pretty easy, but getting it down Steve Rosen and Joe Feldman spread the news about HMD. was kind of tough." Outside the barn, partici- pants milked cows in a field and toasted s'mores by the campfire. HMD leaders said they were happy that the event went over well. "It was more than a success," said Julie Galazan. "We got more than we expected for as much work as we put into it." Hillel's Metro Council mem- bers Julie Glazan, Alyssa Katz- man and Steve Rosen contributed to this report. ❑ n a recent lecture at B'nai B'rith Hillel in Ann Arbor, author Chaim Potok pre- sented his views on writing in the modern world. "Nothing is too sacro- sanct to be poked into by the pen of the modern nov- elist," he said. Mr. Potok asserted that "the story is one of the ways we shape the human expe- rience." Storytelling, in the author's opinion, creates a model upon which human beings base their under- standing of the world. Mr. Potok is not only a novelist. He also is a play- wright, rabbi, philosopher and historian. Speaking to an audience Chaim Potok of more than 500 people at to the late 1970s, Mr. Potok was Hillel on November 10, Mr. Po- responsible for The Jewish Cat- tok addressed the issue of "Re- alog, a contemporary manual on bellion and Authority: The Jewish life. Writer Against The World." As a novelist, Mr. Potok has He was speaking from explored cultural confrontation, experience. As a yeshiva stu- as manifested in the lives of dent, Mr. Potok had learned the Jewish characters grappling importance of analyzing with a predominantly Christian existing texts, not necessarily of Western world. creating his own. His teachers, Mr. Potok is best known for as well as his parents, his first novel, The Chosen, considered his penchant for sto- which details the complex lives ry writing "frivolous or a men- of two Jewish young men who ace." journey into each other's reli- gious and social spheres. / Am the Clay, Mr. Potok's most recent novel, transports us to Asia, "a world beautiful be- yond all imagination," he wrote. During the question and an- swer period following the lec- ture, Mr. Potok shed some light on the sheer quantity and di- versity of his interests and edu- cation. He became a rabbi, he said, in order to delve into the core of Judaism. He earned his philosophy degree to under- stand the core elements of West- em culture. When asked why he chose to Nevertheless, Mr. Potok has become known as a "Renais- study philosophy over literature, sance man." He is the author of Mr. Potok answered that he 11 novels, three plays and one didn't want his writing to be work of non-fiction. Raised as "stripped of its intuitive base." an Orthodox Jew in New York, Studying literature, he believed, he graduated from Yeshiva Uni- would make his writing too "self- versity with a bachelor's degree conscious." The audience consisted of in English literature, was or- dained as a rabbi at the Jewish adolescent fans, undergraduates Theological Seminary, earned a taking a break from the doctorate of philosophy from the post-midterm work rush, University of Pennsylvania and graduate students, profession- served as a U.S. Army chaplain als and members of the Ann Arbor and suburban Detroit in Korea. Mr. Potok's diverse back- communities. Sheila E. Jelen is a recent ground is reflected in the range of his literary accomplishments. University of Michigan gradu- As editor in chief of the Jewish ate who works for B'nai B'rith Publication Society from 1966 Hillel in Ann Arbor. 111 His teachers, as well as his parents, considered his penchant for story writing "frivolous or a menace."