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Opening Another
Wound

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Family hurt by memorial service's
Christian content.

20%

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

s the first strains of a
Christian hymn began
playing at a memorial
service for the families of
victims of Comair Flight 3272,
Allyn ("Ron") Stearn began to
feel uncomfortable.
Told by airline officials that
the service held in the chapel
of a Catholi:&sister house in
Monroe
fnonde-
nominatio4 he hart looked for-
ward to reni bering his
brother, Richard Steam, in the
company of 14 other family
members. The airline also pro-
vided transportation from West
Bloomfield to the service and
roses for surviving family mem-
bers.
"I was looking for it to be a
service for all of the families,"
he said, noting that one other
Jew and a Hindu had also died
on the flight.
Terri Steam, Richard
Stearn's niece by marriage, said
she realized something was
amiss when she saw the cover
of the memorial service guide.
Seeing words to the effect of "I
will rise again," Ms. Steam re-
alized there might be a Christ-
ian tone to the service.
"I guess we weren't counting
on that," she said.
But when references to Jesus
were sung and Gospel selections
were slated to be read, the
Steams felt duped. The entire
family exited the pew in which
they were seated and left the
services.
Richard Hiltz, president of
Mercy Memorial Hospital in
Monroe, said organizers of the
Sunday afternoon memorial

could whip up a poster or deco-
rate a bulletin board in a mo-
ment, Ms. Muskovitz eventually
turned her artistic talent into a
business, creating children's
yarmulkes that were whimsical-
ly decorated with hand-painted
cartoon characters.
"When I saw what she had
done to her son's yarmulke, I sug-
gested she do it as a fund-raiser,"
Ms. Epstein said.
The family later transferred to
Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills, where Ms.
Muskovitz took classes toward
her adult bat mitzvah.
Ms. Muskovitz, who celebrat-
ed her 38th birthday two weeks
ago, was planning to move her

service hastily assembled the
plans for the service late Sat-
urday night. Those involved at-
tempted to contact a rabbi in the
Toledo area but were unsuc-
cessful, he said.
Organizers constructed a 20-
minute service with Gospel
scriptures and Christian
hymns,
"The people who put it to-
gether tried to make it as in-
terdenominational as possible,"
Mr. Hiltz said.
Rabbi David Nelson a vol
unteer clergy who helped coun-
sel families in the Royal Oak
Post Office shooting five years
ago, said those who performed
the service at the very least
should have used a common
language to pray for and re-
member the victims.
"In that situation, you don't
want to step on anyone else's
theological toes," he said.
Cantor Howard Glantz of
Adat Shalom Synagogue was
more angered by the fact that no
Detroit area Jewish clergy were
contacted when none could be
found in the Toledo vicinity.
`The Christian establishment
has to learn some kind of sen-
sitivity in these times of crises
for those who are not Christian,"
he said.
The Rev. Timothy Schabeck,
chaplain operation chief for
Wayne County's Emergency
Management Divi.sion, said vol-
unteer clergy members of the
crisis team do not get involved
with memorial services as a
part of their work with the
Eniergency Management Divi
sion. 0

family from an apartment in
West Bloomfield to a brand-new
house she described to friends as
a "dream home."
As a senior systems analyst in
R.L. Polk's information technol-
ogy department for the past two
years, Ms. Muskovitz may have
been traveling from the compa-
ny's Cincinnati office after a busi-
ness meeting, said Bill Kerans,
director of public relations for the
Detroit office.
Ms. Muskovitz was well
thought of at her job. "Gosh,
everybody I talked to who knew
her had the highest regard for
her both personally and profes-
sionally," Mr. Kerans said. O

See related story on page 19.

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