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Repairing State
Federation reaches out to MSU's Hillel and begins to bridge
the distance between Detroit and East Lansing.
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
F
A
Light
In ~ te
ast
Despite small numbers, members of
Macomb County's only Jewish congregation
hold onto their roots.
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
Story on page 33
Woman To Woman:
Arabs And Jews
Multicultural "institute" to discuss
peaceful coexistence.
I
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
Lana Felsenthal, a
teachers," she says.
teacher at the He-
"And it's proven to be
brew University,
quite successful."
has spent more
Ms. Felsenthal will
than a decade bring-
talk about her democ-
ing "Rules Of the
racy project at the
Game" to high-school
first Women's Joint
classrooms in Israel.
Institute Day, 9 a.m.
The game is called
Thursday, Oct. 19, at
democracy, and the
Adat Shalom Syna-
rules are based on hu-
gogue.
man rights and plu-
The daylong event
ralism. The
will feature a panel of
curriculum, which
Penny Blumenstein
two Jewish Israelis,
Ms. Felsenthal creat-
Ms. Felsenthal and
ed with 19 other Jewish and Arab Josie Mendelson, and two Arab
educators, aims to help Israeli Israelis, Maysoon Nasser and
youth peacefully coexist in a land Aida Touma-Soliman. Each
that has known little tranquili- woman has been active with iiial-
ty.
ticultural groups for peace and
"We wanted to start with the WOMAN TO WOMAN page 10
or a long time, MSU Hillel wants to get involved, and we're
supporters have felt like hopeful a combined board (for
an unwanted child.
the first time consisting of East
Aside from feeling in- Lansing and Detroit-area resi-
ferior to the University of Michi- dents) will be more effective."
gan's Hillel, often mentioned as
Federation has formed a tran-
one of the best in the country, sition committee comprising a
those involved felt slighted by small group of individuals from
the Jewish Federation of Met- Detroit and Lansing, with input
ropolitan Detroit.
from Hillel's national office, who
While the Michigan State will find an executive director,
University student organization keep the agency functioning and
always has secured Allied Jew- consider ways of providing fu-
ish Campaign funding, that's ture stability.
about all it got.
To provide temporary profes-
"In terms of input from De- sional leadership, Miriam Stark-
troit, we had zilch," said Joan- man, executive director of Hillel
na Stark, a former MSU Hillel of Metro Detroit, has agreed to
president and current pro-
fessor now helping to map
the organization's future.
"We felt we simply couldn't
get people in Detroit in-
terested."
Recent incidents have
changed all that.
MSU Hillel's misfor-
tunes began last spring
when the executive direc-
tor, Mark Finkelstein, left.
Shortly after his depar-
ture, a majority of the
board members, including
the president, resigned.
The MSU situation was
further complicated by an
Aug. 22 fire which caused MS U students
work with MSU's
atte nd a Hillel
thousands of dollars' worth
staff: While the scope
f unction.
of damage to the building.
of Ms. Starkman's
Hillel is still waiting for its
role is being defined,
insurance claim to be processed. she assists with programming
"Sometimes a crisis brings at- and currently supervises the
tention to certain situations," staff professionals, including the
said Howard Neistein, Federa- newly hired program director,
tion's director of planning and Aaron Goldsmith.
agency relations. "Federation
Officials are not certain when
has an investment in annual a new executive director will be
dollars there and, even more so, hired and acknowledged the dif-
an increasingly large number of ficulty of finding someone dur-
Jewish college students attend ing the school year. Mr. Neistein
MSU. The physical distance expects the salary for the posi-
from Lansing often overshad- tion to be upgraded from what
ows any real contact and aware- was originally offered, but would
ness of how things really exist not provide a figure.
on campus."
Together, MSU Hillel and
Mr. Neistein said Federation's Federation will seek contribu-
endeavor was further augment- tions from metropolitan Detroit
ed by an increased emphasis on donors, an arena in which
Hillels from federations nation- MSU's Hillel hasn't been as suc-
ally.
cessful as U-M's Hillel, which re-
"I don't care what it was that ceives more than $60,000 in
captured Federation's atten- Detroit-area contributions.
tion," Ms. Stark said. "Now that
However, U-M Hillel Execu-
we have it, we're picking up the tive Director Michael Brooks
ball and running with it. We are doesn't think the two Hillels
encouraged that Federation should be compared.
"It's counterproductive," he
said. "The two institutions have
different histories and con-
stituencies and they attract dif-
ferent populations of Jewish
students.
"Our admissions office tells
us Jewish students apply to U-
M because it has a strong Hil-
lel."
Michigan State on the oth-
er hand, has a much smaller
Jewish student population
(about one-third as many as U-
M). Those who attend MSU
don't go there for its Jewish
presence on campus, Mr.
Brooks said.
MSU students, who were out-
raged by the lack of initial sup-
port from the Detroit Jewish
community, also praised Feder-
ation's actions.
"We were apprehensive about
this year because we'd be on our
own," said Marci Block, a senior
from Farmington Hills and the
head of MSU's Reform chavu-
rah.
"We weren't sure of the di-
rection we'd end up in without
an executive director. Now, we
feel comfortable knowing Fed-
eration is behind us."
Added Jason Zaks, a Farm-
ington Hills senior, "For a few
months it was annoying Feder-
ation wasn't here. We were like
lost sheep without a shepherd.
Most of us are from the Detroit
area and are glad Federation
has taken an interest. Now,
things are starting to happen,
and I feel like we're going in the
right direction. It was hard for
students here to sit back and
watch these groups send mem-
os to each other." 0