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MISSION page 25

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Hughey, in an interview. "It was
clear to me at [Thursday's] meet-
ing when I heard 200-300 people
speak about it, that these words
could be seriously taken out of
context, and separation of church
and state could be threatened."
Rep. Sikkema disagreed with
concerns that the mission's lan-
guage could lead to infringe-
ments upon the rights of
religious minorities. "The lan-
guage in the mission statement
... is taken directly from the state
constitution. Are they saying
that the state constitution is of-
fensive to religious minorities?"
he said.
Opponents of the statement
complained that Republicans
had framed the debate in such a
way that anyone against the
mission appeared to be against
God.
An editorial printed in the
Wall Street Journal last week ac-
cused the state board of "ex-
pelling God" from the schools
and stated, "Our schools need all
the help they can get — includ-
ing God's."
Don Cohen, director of the
Michigan Anti-Defamation
League, said he opposed the

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statement and found it "incred-
ibly divisive.
"The controversy that I'm
most concerned about is
siveness: the false polarization
of Christian Coalition people be-
ing for God and everyone else be-
ing against God," said Mr.
Cohen.groups against each oth-
er."
Robert Brown, chair of the
Jewish Community Council's
task force on public education,
said the statement was not in
the interest of the Jewish com-.
munity. "From a substantive
point of view, does it affect the
life of the average Jewish stu-
dent?" he said. "Not much by it-
self, but ... it creates a tenor. The
more it goes in that direction, the
less favorable it will be for the
Jewish community and other re-
ligious minorities."
Although he is pleased the__/
mission statement has now been
rescinded, Mr. Brown expressed
concern that the ensuing con-
troversy took leadership re-
sources away from substantive
issues of education. "Hopefully
[the state board] can go back to
doing what they're supposed to
be doing now," he said. ❑

Federation and Yad Ezra have plans in place if the
welfare reform law is not changed.

hen Yad Ezra was
formed some seven
years ago, it's mission
was to provide supple-
mental foods to those families
who had used up their monthly
allocation of food stamps and oth-
er federal benefits. In short, it
provided enough food to get a
family through the rest of the
month, usually for a week.
Now, that mission could be
dramatically changed. Yad Ezra
has readied itself, because when
it comes to feeding Jews, the play-
ing field has changed drastically.
Instead of supplemental food dis-
tributions, Yad Ezra could be the
only source of food for a small
number of refugees, almost ex-
clusively former Soviet families.
The impact of welfare reform
isn't exclusive to Yad Ezra, how-
ever. On Tuesday evening, the
Jewish Federation of Metropoli-
tan Detroit's board of governors
voted to set aside up to $500,000
in funds from its reserve fund to
help bolster the safety net for De-
troit's refugee community, should
the federal government pull back
on its support.
Welfare reform, also known as
the Personal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Act of 1996,
bars non-naturalized refugees re-
settled more than five years ago
and legal immigrants from re-

ceiving federal benefits such as
food stamps and SupplementaL/
Security Income (SSI). The ben-
efits were originally scheduled to
dry up on Aug. 23.
There is legislation that passed
recently that would delay the SSI
ban until Oct. 1. There is also leg-
islation in Congress that would
extend individual SSI benefits to
seven years after arrival instead
of the current five-year limit.
Federation's plan is to set up;'
if necessary, an intake worker
who would interview and help set
in motion local benefits when ap-
plicable for anyone who would
lose federal benefits.
"We're prepared for anything
that might happen," said Feder-
ation's senior planning associate
Judah Isaacs. A strong example
of how Federation support would
be put in place can be seem'
through the Yad Ezra effort. Yad
Ezra figures it would need
$100,000 for starters to fund the
supplementary effort. Federation
would provide 80 percent of that
funding, if necessary. Instead of
coming to Yad Ezra once a month
for supplemental aid, certain
qualified families would receive
what Yad Ezra calls a "three-
week package." This would in:'
elude enough food to get the
family through three weeks of the
month.