•

•

•

use that to put themselves into
power."
Friday and Saturday are packed
with lectures, luncheons and discus-
sions, and the program closes mid-
afternoon Sunday. The Max M.
Fisher Jewish Community
Foundation of the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit has allocated
$20,000 to the event — the first time
Federation monies have gone to a
Humanistic program locally, accord-
ing to Randie Levin, assistant direc-
tor, planning and agency relations at
the Federation.

Historians will
focus scholarship
on the stories in
the Bible.

"The Fisher Foundation gives
money for innovative and creative
programs, and their feeling was this is
an innovative and creative program,"
Levin says.
•
Rabbi Sherwin Wine is thrilled to
receive the money and the recogni-
tion that goes with it.
"The Federation grant was given
to us ... in order to support a major
intellectual event, and quite frankly it
is my feeling that this is the most
important intellectual event in terms
of its scale that has taken place in the
Jewish community in many, many
a years.

"The overarching purpose of the
colloquium is to deal with one of the
most important issues in terms of
understanding Judaism, and that is
what is the real history of the Jews?
... 11 of the most famous Jewish his-
torians [will] come to discuss the
issue of what really happened because
the stories of tradition and the stories
revealed by the discoveries of modern
science aren't always compatible,"
Rabbi Wine says.
"In order for us to be intelligent
Jews, we have to understand what
really happened, use all the new
scholarship over the past century to
take a new and fresh look at Jewish
history for the general Jewish public."
Program planners expect more
than 500 people. The conference
costs $250, including meals; $170
without meals. Students receive a 15-
percent discount, and it is possible to
attend individual days or programs.
"It really isn't anti-anything," says
Grossman. "It's just from a historical
perspective what really happened. I
don't think we're trying to convert
anybody. Its sort of like comparing
Adam and Eve and Darwinism, and
saying, 'Okay, we all can accept
Darwinism and yet if you believe in
God and want to believe in creation,
that God created man, that's okay.
"We know maybe it didn't quite
happen the way it says in the Bible,
but if one wants to believe still in
that sort of philosophy, you can
accept the two' things without feeling
you're in conflict," Grossman says. ❑

1241 1 1

„,

Co

Osi`

ps

KITCHENS • BATHROOMS
ENTERTAINMENT CENTERS
HOME OFFICES • CLOSETS

32445 Schoolcraft • Livonia, MI •

313-261-5230

C reative Jewelers Master Goldsmiths

40W

'9WMR111,11E.

ON:

6231 Orchard Lake Road • West Bloomfield
Phone 248-539-2211

W v.iz a z-- 1

utrid the

iteV MtV4 HaittOtV

Caffitig APk Padg

GUM

out
THE JEWISH NEWS
CELEBRATION CONNECTION
DIRECTORY

check

In The Market Place
For Your Entertaining Needs!

1 0/ 1 7
1997

31