Outreach and Ne'ila
Across the wide expanse ofJewish America, there
are doors awaiting a knock from us.
Who is inside those homes? Some 1 million in-
terfaith households — a reality that reflects
decades of declining rates of Jews marrying Jews.
In contemporary life, for every wedding in which
two Jews unite, there is another ceremony across
town in which a Jewish partner unites with
someone of another faith. Little that we have
done as a community has stemmed this tide. But
worse is the pittance that we have done to reach
these interfaith couples after the wedding day.
Seventy-two percent of mixed-married couples
are unaware of outreach efforts and only 4 per-
cent of such couples have participated in Jewish
outreach programs, according to the New York-
based Jewish Outreach Institute. But equally
shocking, and cautiously encouraging, is that
more than a third of intermarried couples, or
some 350,000 U.S. households, have expressed
an interest in outreach from the Jewish com-
munity, according to a report by the Institute at
the Council ofJewish Federation's annual meet-
ing in Boston.
"We're like ships passing in the night, not see-
ing each other's lights," reported Dr. Egon May-
er, who heads the Institute. Still, he warns that
the opportunity to send a life ring out to the in-
termarried is finite. 'We have but one genera-
tion's time to make an impact. It's Ne'ila time,"
he said, likening this moment in Jewish history
to the late-afternoon, last-chance hour of the Yom
Kippur service. "If we don't respond, that seg-
ment of the community will drift away. It's time
to open the gates."
His research shows that these people are will-
ing to pay a 'reasonable price' for outreach ser-
vices. They define that, he says, as less than $300
per year. While they are not yet prepared to con-
tribute large congregational building funds or
hefty annual membership fees, they are will-
ing to expose their minds to Judaism. We earnest-
ly hope that this begins their path toward
conversion. That's because while intermarriage
is a reality that we don't like, we don't need to
grapple with what it presents. There must be
space in a Jewish community committed to plu-
ralism to finding ways to make non-Jews — and
Jews — more Jewish. That is at the heart of the
Reform movement's aggressive outreach cam-
paign, which will be analyzed anew next week
in Atlanta during the Union of American He-
brew Congregation's biennial.
This is the most sensitive area in Jewish life
today. Those who do not accept non-Jewish part-
ners as members of the Jewish community need
not snub them in the process. Rather, we should
entice them with the depth and glory that we cR11
Jewish living. The challenge is to create brief-
but-meaningful encounters between interfaith
families and the Jewish community that are af-
fordable and pleasurable.
Developing Leadership
Continues Mr. Simons' Legacy
The death of community leader Leonard Simons
leaves us with a huge question to which we must
find answers.
Mr. Simons' passing is a trauma to the founda-
tion ofJewish Detroit. Here was a man who helped
in so many ways with so many causes.
The foundation of our community is held up
by many men and women from Mr. Simons' gen-
eration. These are people who grew up in Detroit,
were typically educated in Michigan and who
have lived the origins of our community.
Our question is, who will begin taking over
where the Leonard Simons of the world leave off?
We encourage young men and women to learn
from the greats like Mr. Simon who are alive and
active within our community. There are so many.
FoR MOVING
THE U. S.
EMBASSc TO
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It's past the time where we can wait to take in
their knowledge, their high level of participation.
And that's the key word: participation.
It is time for our younger generation, be it in
Federation leadership or elsewhere around our
community, to step forward. It's time to take
risks; it's time to identify yourselves. Leadership
is why Detroit is known as one of North Ameri-
ca's leading Jewish communities.
The leaders we have counted on for so long
were at a position at one time where they had to
take those risks, where they had to be account-
able. That time is now for all of us. Leonard Si-
mons should be an example for all of us: to take
part not later, but now.
He WANTIS To
DOITON
Letters
Truth Must
Precede All Else
fully aware of Farrakhan's de-
spicable doctrine. Wake up May-
or Archer. The support and
confidence given to you from the
The PLO covenant still calls for Jewish community has been
the destruction of the Jewish na- shaken. We hope that you will
tion while the covenant of the soon recognize Louis Farrakhan
Jewish people calls for main- as a man of hate. We know that
taining the existence of the Jew- when you do, this issue will ap-
ish nation Alas, reconciling these pear as clear to you as it does to
two divergent covenants is the us.
struggle for accommodation be-
Raymond Dubin
tween Israel and the Arab com-
Farmington Hills
munity. If the voices for unity,
pluralism and the Jewish
covenant had been listened to Trying To Find
over the past two decades, we A Positive
would not find ourselves in this
difficult situation.
If anything positive can come out
The unity and consequence of of the assassination of Prime
the Jewish people must be a pri- Minister Rabin, something most
ority and be rebuilt in the face of of us in Israel and abroad find
deep fissures in our community. very hard to come to terms with,
These fissures are ultimately a it is the sad realization that as
result of the Oslo process.
our sages maintained: Hachay-
A dialogue about strongly held im V'hamavet b'yad Halashon —
positions will in itself be a model life and death are in the hands of
for a renewal of the process of the tongue.
Jews uniting with each other. Re-
The labeling of the prime min-
connecting ourselves to plural- ister as "traitor," "murderer" or
ism, unity and the covenant will his depiction as a Nazi, the worst
enable us to rise above the anger insult to any human being — let
that wracks us. Truth, justice and alone a Jew — made him fair
peace among the Jewish people game to a fanatic who saw him-
must precede all else.
self as the messenger of God,
Morris D. Baker who, by murdering the leader
Farmington Hills with whose politics he disagrees,
saves his country.
For Prime Minister Rabin, it
Ignoring
is too late — but not for the act-
The Messenger
ing Prime Minister, Shimon
Peres, and other future leaders
Mayor Archer implicitly endorsed who will have to lead in a dia-
Louis Farrakhan's hateful agen- metrically different State of Is-
da by attending and speaking at rael, in an Israel where Arab
the Million Man March. How terrorists are not the only enemy
dare anyone attempt to separate to fear, but also Jews.
the message of the march from
Even more than mourning the
the messenger. The messenger is assassination of a great leader, a
evil. He preaches anti-Semitism, hero in war and in peace, Israelis
racism and separatism. He has and lovers of Israel mourn the un-
labeled the white man "the dev- precedented act of a Jew mur-
il" and branded Judaism as a gut- dering another Jew for political
ter religion.
reasons — something we didn't
Would historians attempt to think possible.
separate the message of Nazi
Rachel Kapen
Germany from that of Adolf
West Bloomfield
Hitler? Do African Americans
separate David Duke from his
message? Did our government
separate David Koresh from the
message brought forth by the
In the Nova 10 edition, it was
Branch Davidians?
incorrectly reported that the
The backbone of leadership lies
Clarkston Cafe on Main in
within the message that its lead-
Clarkston had been closed. The
ers promulgate. It is deplorable
Clarkston Cafe has never
that Mayor Archer could justify
closed and is open for business.
his presence at the march while
Correction
THE 3,000Iu
ANNIVERSARY
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