OPPOSITE PAGE: A hug goodbye
for the Teen Mission.
BELOW:
David Hermelin, a Butzel
Award winner.
RIGHT:
Benjamin Netanyahu pays a
visit to Detroit.
BOTTOM: Anne Frank Remembered
opens at the Detroit Film Theatre.
ig stories?
A year in review?
Why do we look back when
at this time we are taught
to look ahead?
Last year, as we started think-
ing about 5756, nobody knew that a
pivotal event — the assassination of
the prime minister of Israel — would
occur. For Detroiters, much of what
happens in Israel and around the
world dictates the moods in homes
from Oak Park to Farmington Hills.
Detroiters overcome their differ-
ences when large community events
are sponsored. Sometimes those
events are for positive reasons, such
as the building of the Weinberg Bib-
lical Playground three summers ago
or the record-setting Miracle Missions.
Those are times when ifs easy to feel
proud, to feel together. That togeth-
erness is felt when we congregate for
tragedy, as well. Many remember the
unity felt in 1991 at a Shaarey Zedek-
hosted rally during the Gulf War.
This year we congregated at Adat
Shalom Synagogue to mourrithe loss
of Prime Minister Rabin. Seven
months later, we would send 240 of
our teens on a five-week mission to
Israel, making it one of the largest
and most successful endeavors of its
type.
These are the grand-scale stories.
They hold their place in time, in his-
tory.
But it's the day-to-day events, the
discussions that take place among
Jewish Detroiters, that make a year
worth reviewing.
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