FIND YOUR JEWISH SPIRIT
Agency for Jewish Education
Midrasha Center for
Adult Jewish Learning
presents
FINDING JOY: A PRACTICAL
SPIRITUAL GUIDE TO HAPPINESS
Speaker:
RABBI DANNEL SCHWARTZ
Searching for happiness in our modern world of
stress and struggle is common; finding it is
unusual. The very concept of the Jewish mystical
tradition is centered on the belief that if our focus
is spiritual, then true appreciation of our lives,
and true joy, are possible.
Clear, creative, personal and down-to-earth,
Rabbi Schwartz will introduce the insights of the
Jewish mystics, and offer exercises for the soul
which brings them into our daily routines.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7 & 21 7:00-8:30 P.M.
Barnes & Noble
6800 Orchard lake • West Bloomfield
(South of 15 Mile Road)
COMMUNITY INVITED • NO CHARGE
For reservations call Naomi Blumenberg at the Agency for Jewish Education (810) 354-1050
TH E D ET RO
brought him to places like Libya,
Iran and Iraq, and produced from
his lips anti-American rhetoric
that made mainstream black
leaders even more uneasy about
his bid for leadership of their
community.
The mutual admiration soci-
ety he created with Libya's
Moammar el Qaddafi finished off
any lingering possibility that he
would be the next Martin Luther
King Jr.
In 1996, Mr. Farrakhan's ap-
peal in the inner city remains a
concern, but there are fewer
African-American leaders will-
ing to defend him. Mr. Far-
rakhan still has the ability to do
considerable mischief, but it ap-
pears unlikely he will extend his
reach into mainstream Ameri-
can life, black or white.
But if Mr. Farrakhan's at-
tempt to broaden his appeal has
been a miserable allure, it is also
true that the social and econom-
ic ravages that gave him a small
toehold in America's poorest com-
munities remained unchecked.
Despite the warning inherent
in last year's march, the Ameri-
can political establishment —
black and white, Democratic and
Republican — has steadfastly
failed to address the economic
and racial emergency in our
cities, the widening chasm be-
tween rich and poor, the decline
of urban education or the grow-
ing despair of a largely black un-
derclass.
- Indeed, politicians often seem
intent on worsening the griev-
ances that give Mr. Farrakhan
his core appeal. This year's puni-
tive welfare bill, which slashed
benefits without providing new
mechanisms to bring recipients
into the working economy, is only
one example.
In this year's political cam-
paigns, the plight of the inner city
is almost entirely invisible, ex-
cept for vague promises of com-
passion from the Democrats and
a resuscitated supply-side solu-
tion from the GOP.
The sense of ultimate crisis
gripping the inner city will con-
tinue to attract people to Mr. Far-
rakhan's cause, despite the
bigotry inherent in his platform.
If the urban slide continues, we
can expect even worse dema-
gogues to emerge. ❑
The Overlooked
Jewish Voter
JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
A
"
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MARCH page 106
With declining numbers in the population, and at the
voting booth, our political punch is losing its sting.
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funny thing happened on
the way to the 1996 pres-
idential election.
Last year, Bob Dole and
President Clinton were all over
the Jewish community as they
tried to fill their coffers with the
millions of dollars it takes to
mount a successful campaign in
this age of media mega-money.
Mr.,Dole, whose campaign fi-
nance committee is top-
heavy with wealthy
Jews, came to the
American hrael
Public Affairs
Committee pol-
icy conference
bearing a big gift:
a bill to prod the ad-
ministration into
moving the American
Embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem, a turnaround for the
ex-Senate majority leader that
left political observers breathless.
Mr. Clinton, already widely re-
garded as the most overtly pro-
Israel president ever, missed few
opportunities to talk about his
close personal relationships with
Israel's leaders.
But in the weeks and months
before the election, neither cam-
paign has the time of day for Jew-
ish voters.
That's not an insult, but a re-
flection of plain political reality:
More and more, the Jewish vote
in presidential contests is nu-
merically unimportant except in
exceptionally close
races.
The story is
much the same in
House and Senate
contests. This year,
the Jewish vote
could prove piv-
otal in two or
three races — Illi-
nois and New Jer-
sey lead the way — but will likely
prove statistically insignificant
in hundreds of others.
Several factors, including an
apathy epidemic, and the in-
escapable fact that the Jewish
community is shrinking as a pro-
portion of the American popula-