Letters

Dave Honigman:
Influential

numerous awards and recogni-
tions.

Jane Trunsky

Vice President, Crown Steel
Company

It's not something a newspaper would typically
write an editorial about.
Yet we think that something needs to be said
about a very important person and her role in
our community.
Nira Lev has been enriching the lives of De-
troit's extended Jewish neighborhood for some
20 years. She is a neighbor among neighbors who
teaches us Hebrew.
No, it's not the Hebrew school style we feigned
illness over while we were children. It's a method
that Nira uses that contemporizes Hebrew, and
takes it out of the category "foreign" language.
Nira, through Federation's Agency For Jewish
Education's Midrasha program, is a jewel for the

unaffiliated as well as the affiliated Jew.
There are simply no requirements other than
a willingness to learn Hebrew, not just the Aleph
Beis, but as an important component of one's life.
As staff writer Julie Weiner writes in her article
this week, Nira Lev can take a holiday such as
Shavuot and through the instruction of the lan-
guage, bring that day into a person's life. Maybe
for the first time.
Nira also helped prepare the curriculum for
this community's first-ever Teen Mission to Is-
rael. There is so much about her that is impor-
tant for all ofJewish Detroit. We're glad she's
here, and we hope for another 20 years of suc-
cess.

Mars And The Jews

THE PROMISED LAND

1:!) BE.

BEDI
r.

CONIINVING STORY Of JEWISH Lift IN THE DIASPORA

by Jordan B. Gorfinkel

JEW. NEWS GROU P. 01 957 BY ..O RDAN B. GO IIFOKEL ALL NOBS RESERVE D.

THE DETROIT JEWIS H NEWS

The heralded Pathfinder mission to Mars, with
Yet, the overwhelming American response to
its remarkably crisp landscape images, has Pathfinder reveals once again our human dri-
touched the American psyche. The photographs ve to get to the bottom of things, to learn the
of the barren Martian landscape appeal to our bigger truths. That strikes us as a very Jewish
intrinsically Jewish sense of wonder about a impulse.
universe too vast and too complex to understand
Space missions and other scientific explo-
except in the smallest increments. Indeed, tra- rations do not solve all belief that human log-
ditionarJewish study, which evolves over the ic can't provide all the answers. But that drive
years for individuals and successive genera- to take on the vastness of existence is an inte-
tions, is a pursuit of cos-
gral part ofJewish cul-
mic proportions.
ture that we have
With Pathfinder,
pursued through
the sense that we
both science and
have once again
the study of reli-
touched another
gious texts.
planet suggests
Many mistaken-
something illim-
ly believe science
itable about hu-
and spirituality are
man capabilities,
mutually exclusive,
despite the mad-
but we think the
dening problems
wonders of the Mars
that plague our
mission show the op-
lives here. Bringing
posite: The Martian
us back to earthly mat-
landscape, and the awesome
ters, and reflecting the limita-
scientific achievements that brought it into
tions of human abilities, are the problems of the our homes with such power and clarity, are
joint Russian-American experiments on the Mir spurs to both scientific knowledge and the self-
Space Station.
knowledge of Jewish spirituality and study.

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Rem

UNPARENTED CHILDREN
AT THE SYNAGOGUE

I am glad that your paper has
opened the topic of our elderly liv-
ing in non-Jewish Detroit-area
nursing homes (What Do You
Think, July 4: "Do you think it's
a shame there are Jews living in
non-Jewish nursing homes?') Yes,
I agree it is a shame this is hap-
pening.
When it became apparent that
my mother could no longer main-
tain her apartment at the Feder-
David Honigman
ation Apartments in Oak Park,
my husband and I chose Meno-
The well-deserved article about rah House for her. This was be-
Dave Honigman ("Nine Lives" cause my mother had always kept
June 27) was especially gratify- kosher and because the facility
ing to all music teachers and tu- was.near our home. Now, two
tors throughout the state of years later, the only positive thing
Michigan.
I can say about it is that it is near
We will always remember the our home.
dedication with which he pursued
The only other facility is Dan-
the passage of the "music bills." to, which is too expensive and too
These bills, which took seven far away.
years and three attempts to pass,
The only Jewish identification
allow music teaching and tutor- in Menorah House is the name-
ing in the home without having sake. The Jewish community has
the teacher receive a violation a history of tzedekah. What hap-
from local governments for run- pened to it? Where are our Allied
ning a business.
Jewish Campaign contributions
going? What about my mother
Betty Kowalsky Stasson and others like her who con-
Jerome Stasson tributed years ago and are now
West Bloomfield abandoned by their own Jewish
community?
My mother was taken out of
Menorah House and into a non-
Jewish facility for her own good
and for the family's peace of mind.
With respect to your article "A I feel sad that it has had to come
Steady Niche" in the June 20 edi- to this. I especially feel sad for the
tion: Crown Steel Co., a Michigan Jewish community that there is
corporation in West Bloomfield no viable Jewish nursing home
and commonly known as "Crown for the Jewish elderly and infirm.
Steel," is not affiliated with
Sybil Steinberger
Crown Steel Rail Co. Your re-
Southfield
peated references to the second
company as "Crown
Steel" does a disser-
vice to our company
and your readers.
In addition, Crown
Steel Rail Co. was
founded by a $30,000
equity contribution
from my husband,
Larry Trunsky, pres-
ident of Crown Steel
Co., equal to the equi-
ty contribution of
Leonard Trunsky.
However, Larry Trun-
sky's equity contribu-
tion in Crown Steel
Rail Co. ended some
years ago.
Finally, your un-
necessary and un-
called for reference to
Harold Trunsky as
"callous"- belies his
many charitable ac-
tivities and contribu-
tions for which he was
also well known and
for which he received Senior residents in nursing homes.

Disservice
To A Company

PHOTO BY GLENN TRI EST

Teaching This Community
Hebrew For 20 Years And More

Our Elderly
Are Forgotten

