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To Our Readers, Our Friends:

It's a sound that penetrates the thickest of skins
and sends a message to the soul of the world and
the heart of the individual.
The cadence of the shofar makes us tremble
with hope, fear the unknown, and feel the joy of
a new beginning.
Will the year 5755 take the Jewish people to
a new stage where generations of Israelis will
learn to live in peace instead of fear disaster?
When Tishrei 5754 entered the annals of time,
we were unaware of the history we'd be wit-
nessing. There, in the pages of The Jewish News,
were photos of enemies shaking hands, of Is-
raelis, Palestinians and Jordanians plying peace
instead of forging war.
There was still a huge price to pay, a massacre
in Hebron, a bombing in Argentina, mounting
Jewish lives lost in Gaza. Yet there was a per-
sistence, a desire to know that the Middle East
had to be understood regionally. Words like
"economy" and "high-tech" and "water rights"
replaced shell and shrapnel.
Here we have, in the middle of the process, Is-
raeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin addressing
North American Jews in Montreal, expressing
his concern that more American dollars stay in
this country to help guarantee a continuance of
Judaism and love of Israel for the next genera-
tions.
Detroit's dynamic Jewish community did its
share to forge this continuity as it remained
among the nation's leaders in family education.
The Jewish News will continue to chronicle our
Jewish family, knowing full well that the single-
parent families, blended families, empty nested
families, single Jews and others all are vital
members of our newspaper's extended family,
our readers.
We are pleased to be part of projects as far-
reaching as Miracle Mission II, and as local as
the sponsorship of several new American chil-
dren at the Lyric Chamber Ensemble's summer
music camp. We also are proud of our Mitzvah
Heroes and all of our friends and neighbors who
make this Jewish community so special, be it
volunteering hours packing groceries at Yad
Ezra or spending time at a JARC home.

Letters

Is Remaining Open
So Important?

Is the decision that the Southfield
schools are to remain open on the
Jewish High Holidays really so
important?
So important that your paper
devoted a I/4-page story, and an
editorial to the decision? So im-
portant that your editorial writer
bemoaned the future of South-
field's synagogues, and the deci-
sion's impact on Jewish home
buyers looking at Southfield (as
if prospective Jewish home buy-
ers in Farmington Hills are sim-

As our readers, you should know your input
to The Jewish News, your letters to the editor,
your wedding and birth announcements, your
patronage of our advertisers and your purchase
of space in our publications is always cherished.
We fully understand that while we own and op-
erate this newspaper, we are really only the
guardians of The Jewish News. That from gen-
eration to generation, for 53 years now, it's been
the paper of record of Jewish Detroit. It's been
your newspaper.
At this time of rejuvenation and renewal, you
have my pledge that this will be a newspaper
that you can be proud of. The alliance of our sis-
ter papers, the Baltimore Jewish Times, and the
Atlanta Jewish Times makes The Jewish News
part of the nation's strongest and most respect-
ed chain of Jewish newspapers. It's with pride,
excitement and anticipation that we announce
the November opening of the Palm Beach Jew-
ish Times, Florida's newest Jewish newspaper,
and a publication that will make our team even
more complete.
Think again of that piercing shofar we will
hear this upcoming holiday. It reminds us of a
year of accomplishments as well as what might
have been. Yet, the shofar blast also causes us
to look ahead at what can be for the year 5755.
We'll carry the continuity of the shofar sounds
through the fall, winter and into the spring and
summer of our new year. As every great news-
paper understands, it will travel those days, not
just as a chronicler of events, but as an active
partner in the community.
May this be a year of continuing acts of peace
in this world and personal growth for all of us
as a people.

Letters

amazes me, that in spite of your
denials that you find it necessary
to periodically refer to what you
perceive as the decline and fall of
the Jewish community in South-
field.
Like Jewish communities
across the U.S., our community
has become dispersed. We are for
better or worse, no longer a ghet-
to. While it is true that Southfield
has a lower percentage of Jews
than it used to, the percent is
comparable to Oak Park and to
West Bloomfield, and it is high-
er than any other Michigan corn-
munity.
In truth, Southfield is the cen-
ter of the Jewish community. It
houses four Orthodox syna-
gogues including Young Israel of
Southfield, which has continued
to grow for 25 years as well as a
Sephardic Minyan.
Southfield's two Conservative
synagogues include Beth Achim
with its new rabbi and aggres-
sive marketing program. Many
former B'nai David members are
affiliating with Beth Achim.
Shaarey Zedek is one of the na-
tion's largest Jewish houses of
worship. Southfield aLso is home
to many other, important Jewish
organizations such as Hebrew
Free Loan, Darchei Torah, the
American Zionist Movement of
L'shana tova,
Michigan, Ohr Somayach, Pren-
tis Manor, the Michigan Jewish
Aids Coalition and others.
a vit ivA,
Southfield continues to offer
Michigan's largest Jewish popu-
Charles A. Buerger
lation, a ffordable housing, a good
school system and is an easy dri-
Publisher
ve to almost anything one could
want including Jewish day
schools, kosher shopping, col-
leges, amusements and shopping
centers. It also offers the highest
level of public service in the area.
ilarly dissuaded by that school in this city, and in the region as
These editorials, no mater how
district's remaining open on the a whole.
many times The Jewish News
The
schools
being
open
on
Jewish holidays)?
denies it, only contribute to Jew-
I agree that Southfield is no Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ish flight.
in
Southfield
is
noteworthy,
but
longer the demographic power-
house of the Detroit area's Jewish neither of tremendous import nor
community. But the 20,000-plus impact on its Jewish present or
Harvey Bronstein
Jews who call Southfield home, future.
Southfield
Alan
Gale
the many thousand more who
Southfield
work here, or worship here at the
multitude of synagogues, and
those who pursue Jewish orga-
nizational life at the Jewish Vo-
cational Service, Agency for
Jewish Education, Jewish War
In response to your call for Jew-
Veterans building, Jewish Fam- I was incensed to again read of ish education during the coming
ily Service, National Council of your negative editorial, "Rosh year, I began to dream...
Jewish Women/SPACE, etc., Hashanah No Holiday For
make a significant Jewish impact Southfield Schools" (Aug. 26). It What if..?

A

Southfield Still
Central For Jews

A Rabbi Wonders

What If...

1. Volunteers would vigorously
canvas the more than 20,000
Jewish families in the state to
sign up all the unaffiliated chil-
dren in Jewish schools?

2. All Jewish schools gave a free
half year of Jewish education to
every previously unaffiliated
child?

3. Federation would support each
child enrolled in any recognized
Jewish education program on a
per hour of instruction basis?

4. The community would insure
that no Jewish child would miss
a Jewish education for lack of
funding?

5. New innovative programs with
excellent and varied levels of in-
struction that would use cable
TV or a central computer net-
work for children not enrolled in
regular programs were used?

6. Jewish learning could be made
fun and challenging?

7. Students excelling would be
rewarded with gifts, trips, schol-
arships and fame?

8. A goal of all parents would be
to have children who are well
read in Torah, Mishna and Tal-
mud, and who practice what they
study?

9. State-wide contests would dou-
ble the number of students and
raise the level of knowledge ten-
fold?

10. Parents would study the cur-
ricula of their children and par-
ticipate in discussions geared for
their levels?

11. Annually, the "young" and
younger leadership of communal
programs would participate for
at least a week in a Yarchei
Kallah (study for the layman)
program?

12. All of our children would be-
come enthused with their Jew-
ish studies?

13. Jewish education would be
expected for a lifetime of study,
not just for bar and bat mitzvah?

Would we then have the problem
of assimilation or continuity?

Rabbi Chaim Moshe Bergstein

Farmington Hills

