Jewish Advocacy
In Lansing
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
I
t was business as usual in
Lansing last week. The House
and Senate held sessions, com-
mittees met and schoolchild-
ren toured the domed Capitol.
In Lansing's day-to-day work-
ings, more than 100 Michigan
Jews descended on the state cap-
ital to participate in Jewish Com-
munity Advocacy Day and the
official State of Michigan Holo-
caust Commemoration.
Participants began the April
26 event by gathering in the ro-
tunda of the Capitol Building for
the hour-long Holocaust com-
memoration.
Later, a roomful of constituents
sat in Sen. David Honigman's of-
fice voicing their opinion on school
prayer.
A few floors above, four agency
representatives packed into the
office of a legislative assistant to
Sen. John Schwarz.
Similar scenes were duplicat-
ed in legislators' offices as each
participant was given two ap-
pointments with lawmakers, usu-
ally their own.
Marc Speiser, a legislative as-
sistant to Sen. Schwarz, a Battle
Creek Republican, sat with the
group that discussed AIDS edu-
cation, aging and welfare. He
praised the lobbying efforts.
"Days like this are effective," he
said. "The Jewish community
needs to make its presence
known in Lansing. It will see a
difference in the long run."
"The Jewish
community needs to
make their presence
known in Lansing."
— Marc Speiser
Sharona Shapiro, the Michi-
gan area director of the Ameri-
can Jewish Committee, agrees
the Jewish community needs to
be physically present in Lansing.
She tries to go at least six times
a year, representing the AJC.
"I think this event was suc-
cessful because it brought to-
gether a range of individuals and
organizations from across the
state who expressed a variety of
viewpoints," she said.
During lunch, Dennis Much-
more, the lobbyist for the Detroit
Jewish community, gave partic-
ipants a crash course on advoca-
cy. He talked about setting an
agenda for the meeting and stick-
ing to it.
After lunch, Audrey Sobel,
Edythe Shevitz and Harry Gold-
stein were among the group to
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