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If You Can't Beat Them,
Then Let Them Join
As Jewish Community Center President Dou-
glas Bloom said, answers are hard to come by.
Whether or not opening the JCC to the general
public is good or not so good remains to be seen.
According to Sol Greenfield, head of the Jewish
Community Centers Association, the number of
gentiles who have joined other JCCs is very
small.
Whether or not the general non-Jewish pub-
lic comes in droves or at a trickle to the JCC is
not the real issue here. Detroit's JCC was the
last holdout nationally in this regard. And if the
opening of its doors in this way came at a time
when the JCC was fiscally strong and had a real,
planned direction, the impact would be seen as
nothing more than a step toward the reality of
the times.
This JCC, however, announced a $450,000
deficit projection. It's no secret that the health
club, an anchor for the JCC's enterprising efforts,
is threatened by direct and less expensive com-
petition. The question is not really about whether
or not the JCC should open to gentiles. The is-
sue is how this fits into a workable plan that will
keep the JCC here in Detroit viable for the years
to come. There has got to be a plan intact.
Whether it involves privatizing certain aspects
of the JCC or closing parts of the facility, it is ab-
solutely fair for JCC members and those who do-
nate time and money to the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit to ask what is going to
happen next, and then after that.
Are there expectations that more money will
be gleaned from opening the JCC's doors? If not,
then why not? If so, where will that money go?
Should the JCC remain totally open on Shab-
bat? Is that the next step? How will the JCC mar-
ket itself, now that it's been through more
marketing directors than the New York Yankees
have managers. Should parts of its physical plant
be rented out to other Jewish organizations? Has
the JCC asked its members outside of the board
room what they think?
The memories of what happened to Borman
Hall are still too fresh for us to forget. Here was
a nursing home with a $1 million budget that
needed an extra $800,000 annually for years to
make ends meet. It took crisis management to
plug that leak in the Federation coffers.
We doubt that Federation will find itself in
that situation ever again.
So the question remains: OK, the JCC is now
open to gentiles. Great or not great, where are
we going now, JCC? What's the plan?
Again, A Sense Of Urgency
And A Real Need For Action
It seems as if every year we are writing an edi-
torial discussing the issue of Yad Ezra's forth-
coming banquet (this year Nov. 1 at B'nai Moshe)
or the Jewish Community Council's Social Ac-
tion Day.
It's our hope that no one gets numb to these
issues. In fact, consider this a tap on your shoul-
der. The hunger problem is turning into a crisis.
In five years, Yad Ezra has grown to more than
1,000 client families. Many of these people had
no idea they'd ever find themselves in a situa-
tion asking for help. With government cutbacks
to social services almost a certainty, there will
be more of our friends and neighbors filing into
the warehouse on Harding and 11 Mile.
Maybe if we could grab the community by the
lapels and shout, the severity of the situation
would gain notice. Please, if you can, when you
go grocery shopping each week, try to fill a sep-
arate bag of groceries for Yad Ezra; at least con-
sider buying one extra can of tuna, or some other
staple.
Some food-store chains in other cities have a
unique system for giving. A customer can pull a
bar-coded coupon off a rack for amounts ranging
from $1 to $5 or more. The checkout clerk scans
the code and the money is added to the customer's
bill. The food store then donates the money to
the food charity, and the customer keeps his gro-
cery receipt for tax purposes.
Again, these are innovations organizations
such as Yad Ezra need to explore to increase our
entry points for giving.
Next year, we hope this editorial won't have
to be written. We think it will, though, with even
more urgency.
There are other issues of importance as well.
Jewish Community Council is perhaps the only
local organization that can pull together syna-
gogues and other groups under one roof, which
they will do 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Maple-
Drake JCC. The purpose: not only to explain Ju-
daism's obligation to help one another, but also
to show people how it can be done.
That's always been the stumbling for some
who would like to learn how to volunteer. It can
be done in practical steps. One of the workshops
even involves ways to organize a food drive.
Council's intent is to get people involved. The
day is filled with speakers, booths and workshops
that many of us should attend for the benefit of
our community. Be bold, take time away from
the TV football game, and learn that volun-
teerism, be it for Yad Ezra or any of the groups
assembled by the Council, is not for someone else.
It's for you. Who knows, maybe someday some-
one will have to volunteer to help you.
Then you'll realize Social Action Day is really
for all of us.
OPP
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Letters
Shallow and Trivial
Cantors Article
Finally, The Jewish News has
published an article about can-
tors in our community. What a
shame that the article had to be
as shallow and trivial as to dwell
on the cantors' listening prefer-
ences during their off hours. I
suppose that future articles
might explore the diversions of
rabbis, academics, attorneys and
physicians, and might reveal that
rabbis collect baseball cards, aca-
demics read comic books and God
only knows what attorneys and
physicians do in their spare time
— if they read or listen to any-
thing at all.
I would love to see an article
that would dwell on how indi-
viduals maximize their potential
in their chosen professions and
sacred callings, and how they uti-
lize their God-given talents in a
unique and unusual way. We all
love opera, country western and
show tunes. But that isn't really
newsworthy. What is newswor-
thy is how we try to raise the mu-
sical standards and spirituality
of the bimah and the congrega-
tion. That's our real contribution.
Can we talk about that, please?
Cantor Chaim Najman
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
`I Was Scared'
Did I see Hitler?
Myself a Holocaust survivor, I
watched for two hours the Far-
rakhan speech, and all I could see
was the face of Hitler. He was
also surrounded with his body-
guards dressed as former Brown-
shirts, with the exact "SA" caps
and sporting a Saddam Hussein
moustache. I was scared. Could
it happen again?
William Weiss
West Bloomfield
Tarnished By
Name Calling
Recently, the election for the
Southfield City Council has been
tarnished by accusations of name
calling involving ethnic and reli-
gious stereotypes. This is partic-
ularly distressing to the Jewish
community and the Jewish Corn-
munity Council, which have
worked very diligently to promote
cultural diversity in Southfield.
Sharkey Haddad, a candidate
for City Council, has voiced his
concerns relating to these inci-
dents. Mr. Haddad has been an
active proponent of intergroup re-
lations through his work with the
Southfield/Lathrup Multicultur-
al Coalition, Arab-Jewish Friends
and other organizations seeking
to build bridges among various
ethnic, religious and racial
groups.
We hope the participants in
the Southfield election will refrain
from any further statements
which create or exacerbate reli-
gious and ethnic tensions.
/-/
David Gad-Harf
Executive Director
Jewish Community Council
Downtown Synagogue
Had Open Seats
Your Editor's Notebook in the
Oct. 13 Jewish News suggested
an interesting way to enable in-
dividuals who cannot afford tick-
ets to attend High Holiday
services.
There is a way, and it has been
available for many years: the
Downtown Synagogue, which
holds High Holy Day services in
convenient and accessible areas.
This year and last, the services
were held at the Millennium The-
atre in Southfield, across from
Northland.
The Downtown Synagogue
does not charge for tickets (in fact,
there are no tickets) and never
denies entrance to anyone who
wishes to attend services at any
time, especially on the High Holy
Days. You merely walk in, get
your siddur and tallit, and sit
down — no questions asked.
There are envelopes available
for anyone wishing to donate or
become a member, but it is an in-
dividual's choice to pick one up.
The synagogue must pay for the
rental of the theater, maintenance,
electricity, heat, etc. This year,
new siddurim were purchased
through voluntary donations. The
synagogue could use the revenue,
but will not charge anyone who
wants to attend services.
Louise Applebaum
Farmington Hills
LETTERS page 10
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