Community Views Editor's Notebook New Gathering Points To Promote Judaism Knowing Continuity At Akiva, Hillel LAURENCE !MERMAN SPEC AL TO THE JEWISH NEWS PHIL JACOBS ED TOR I encountered my Chaverim in western Wayne old college room County. mate, Marc, the Two strategies are represent- other day after a ed among the three groups. The lapse of two Grosse Pointe Jewish Council de- decades. Marc, veloped from a group of families from a Reform who wanted to communally cel- Jewish back- ebrate Jewish holidays. The or- ground, grew up ganization grew through an ever- in Chicago's expanding network. Only later North Shore. Dining our college did the group consider holding years in St. Louis, Judaism and formal religious services. Jewish student organizations By contrast, Shir Tikvah and were peripheral for both of us. Beith Chaverim evolved from Marc's employer recently trans- groups who wanted a vibrant re- ferred him to this area, and he ligious community near them. now lives in northern Oakland The unifying force initially draw- County. Over cups of coffee, we ing the goups' participants to- filled in the missing 20 years. gether was the desire for a Marc told me of marrying shared religious experience. Julie, a non-practicing Protes- The three groups offered dif- tant. They have one child, Beth, ferent answers to Marc's problem. who is about to enter kinder- garten. Marc remarked that he and Julie had decided to raise Beth as a Jew. The IAIUe"..1.1 *14 problem, Marc dis- -4" covered, is their • choice of resi- dence meant . • f e w Jews in the immedi- ate area — let alone being miles from the nearest synagogue. Marc's predicament is one that is increasingly com- mon. The dispersion of the Jew- ish community throughout the metropolitan region means few- er Jewish institutions in close proximity and a greater effort re- quired to create the feeling of a Jewish identity. When confronted with a sim- ilar dilemma, local Jews sought grass-roots solutions to the prob- lem. The answers which emerged are typified by the for- mation of Congregation Shir Tik- vah in Troy, the Grosse Pointe Jewish Council and Beith Laurence !merman is a Birm- ingham attorney. The organized Jewish communi- ty could provide yet another. A friend active with the Ten Mile Jewish Center described the institution as a "gathering place" -- for Russian immigrants, for the Orthodox, for the elderly. The Center functions as might a vil- lage square by supplying a loca- tion where people can meet and interact. I experienced the same feel- ing when I attended a Friday evening service in a small Re- form congregation in Petoskey years ago. At the Oneg following the liturgy, it seemed as though every Jew for miles around had come to celebrate the Sabbath. Everyone was "meeting and greeting." The occasion provided a chance for Jews scattered across many square miles of the north- ern Lower Peninsula, and whom some might consider as on the edge of assimilation, to gather with their fellow Jews and feel Jewish. Without the existence of the synagogue, the clustering of Jews might not have happened. We need, as a community, to create geographically accessible satellite mini-centers — gather- ing points offering family ori- ented programming, experts on community building and reli- gious education for children and adults taught by a variety of groups. Instead, we have taken the opposite tack by con- centrating resources at specific sites and in the hands of a few agencies. This strafe- gy may be logical when serv- ing the core populations. However, the ap- proach does not ade- . quately serve those living outside the core like Marc, Julie and Beth. A new tactic means the Jew- ish Center and Jewish agencies would become essentially mary centers. The trained per- sonnel and resources would support the satellites serving the dispersed population as well as the concentrated Jewish pop- ulation in the core areas. The goal is a simple one: to establish as many "village squares" as possible with the aim of strengthening Jewish identity among those who visit the gath- ering points. CI Two events, two Johnny Carson monologue joke, important m e s- the situation of the 22 families sages. was the loudest, most important So many times comment some heard. we go back to the The money was quietly raised. words we heard, This is (F1 key). Robert the directions we Schostak, a Hillel graduate, was recorded at the announced as the new president. November Coun- We don't need a conference in cil of Jewish Fed- Montreal to understand this. It's erations General Assembly in (F1 key again). Montreal. There, as at other lo- On Sunday, Akiva will cele- cations and in other years, the brate its 30th anniversary with message was basically the same: a banquet at Congregation Continuity is the answer. Shaarey Zedek. Flo Ziffer, tru- We're so numb about this ly one of the best-ever teachers word continuity. We wonder how to serve Akiva and the entire De- it will take us into the next gen- troit Jewish community, will be eration and how we will redefine honored along with her husband it as more and more young Jews Larry, Federation's highly re- choose an assimilated lifestyle, garded planning director, with as fewer and fewer Jewish fam- the school's Community Chesed ilies are defined in terms of two live-at-home parents, two chil- dren you know the rest. Maynard I. Wishner, CJF president, in town several weeks ago, said that continuity would go a long way if more and more children received day- school ed- ucations and if more and more children had an Israel experience. Continuity. Not a new word, certainly something we repeat over and over again. My com- puter should have a function key that when pressed would auto- matically type the word. In fact, let's program this computer and Award. The Ziffers are prepar- hit the Fl key when we want to ing to move to Baltimore where write continuity. Rabbi Ziffer will be taking over Something jumps out though, as vice president for community at least in Detroit, while keep- development at the Associated ing Mr. Wishner's words in Jewish Community Federation. mind. Equally important will be the Last week at the home of honoring of Dr. Allen Platt. Here, Lazar and Jenny Dorfman, over again, the "C" word comes in. Dr. 200 Hillel Day School support- Platt is a 1976 Akiva graduate ers came to hear Wolf Blitzer, in a graduation class comprised CNN's senior White House cor- of six students. The Alumnus of respondent, speak. Mr. Blitzer, the Year Award will be present- the former Washington corre- ed by two of the school's spondent for the Jerusalem Post founders, Fayga Dombey and and contributor to this newspa- Ithamar Koenigsberg. per, had the audience riveted Arleen and Dr. Allen Platt with stories of his Persian Gulf have two daughters, Danielle and War experiences. Hallie, who attend the schooL Dr. Then there was the hard news Platt, who is probably more com- to deal with. Outgoing Hillel fortable being just "Al" to his President Marty Gene talked friends on the hockey rink, has from the podium about Hillel's been known to talk openly of the need to raise its tuition to main- feelings he gets walking into Aki- tain its quality of education. As va with his girls in hand. Again, part of that, Mr. Gene said there the F 1 key please. Not the kind were some 22 Hillel families who we hear in speeches or theory, but might not be able to afford the real (hit the Fl key). When Allen minimum $1,000 necessary to Platt approaches the podium on send their children to Hillel. Sunday, he'll see his parents, his That was all that was said. friends, maybe his mentors and But there was this word — I teachers. But most importantly, almost forgot — hit the Fl key. he'll see Danielle and Halite, an- This time it went unsaid. Yet, by other Akiva generation. Can the end of the evening, individ- there be a greater message of (hit uals stepped forward without Fl)? Wait a minute. Let's un- hearing it. Because even with program our computer and spell all the talk of what life was like it out one more time — continu- covering the White House and ity. the laughter about Mr. Blitzer's Now, let's program our- hearing himself the focus of a selves. My computer should have a function key that would type the word continuity.