'EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

waiting room to the conveyor line
where meetnadeveem (volunteers) help
them fill their shopping list. Donated
shopping carts ease the trip back to
the parking lot. Packages are cus-
— songwriter Julie Silver
tomized to meet family size. Partici-
pating synagogues provide volunteer
ucked among warehouses
drivers who make Sunday deliveries
on a dead-end street in
for those unable to come in.
north Oak Park, in the
Amazingly, the $680,000 annual
midst of Detroit's Jewish
operating budget is generated mostly
community, is a building nondescript
through private donations — from $5
on the outside but an eye-
to $5,000.
opener once you walk in.
"We're grass-roots and
To some, Yad Ezra is a
that has its appeal," says
worthy cause to support
West Bloomfield resident
because of its history of help-
Lea Luger, co-director with
ing feed needy Jews through-
Troy resident Elaine Ryke.
out the year. To others, it's a
They work alongside three
rewarding charity to give
part-timers.
time to because of the grate-
Over the course of a year,
ful people you meet and the
there's at least 200 volun-
tingling warmth you feel.
teers. "It's a mitzvah to
ROB ERT A.
To many, the supplemen-
help," said David Novak of
SKL AR
tal kosher food pantry is a
Southfield, a volunteer two
Ed itor
God-inspired lifeline. It
days a week for the past six
assures they don't have to go
months.
to bed hungry,because their food
One of the newest volunteer
stamps have run out, their next Social
,incentives is the Yad Ezra candle,
Security check is a week away and
which goes to bar and bat ,mitzvah
their rent is falling due.
candidates who fulfill six hours of
Yad Ezra in Hebrew means helping
service. The candle can be used at a
hand.
future celebration to remember those
Every month, the staff digs deep
in need.
into its collective neshama (soul) to
Yad E,zra's biggest cost is the whole-
dispense free food packages with a
sale purchase of nutritious kosher food
smile to 1,800 people otherwise des-
— 500,000 pounds worth each year.
tined for despair. Client income is ver- "Our costs are higher because we're a
ified but kept confidential.
kosher pantry with a nutritionist.
Clients make their way from the
Needy families who keep kosher

Photo by Bi ll Hanse n

Yad Ezra Stands Sentry For Jews
With No Other Place To Turn

God of heaven, God of earth,
How did we come to be?
God of death and God of birth,
Open up our eyes.

T

articulated at other times and other
places, could have saved the lives of
millions of Jews. And now, when such
touching remarks are made, they are
ignored by the Jewish media and are
met with callous indifference by pub-
lic opinion. I'm certain that many oth-
ers reacted the same way as Mr.
Lukacs. •
First of all, we did not "give Jesus
to all mankind." The early church
fathers took him by themselves and
declared him divine. We don't even
know who he was or whether there
ever was such a person as Jesus of
Nazareth. In the absence of historical
evidence of such a man, he remains
for us a matter of Christian faith.
Since we recognize a Jew by his father
and, according to their belief, Jesus
had no human father, we cannot iden-
tify him.

.

As for the alleged
compliment that the
pope calls us "Chris-
tianity's elder brother,"
we are inclined to
reject that as a histori-
cal inaccuracy. We are
the seed of Jacob, the
younger son of Isaac
and Rebecca; the
Christian church is
the spiritual heir of
Rome, which is recog-
nized by the world as
the descendant of
Esau. If anything,
Christians are the
"elder brother," not the Jews.
What the pope has in mind is quite
clear. When Rebecca was in labor with
her twin sons, a prophecy was revealed
to her by the Almighty (Genesis

Bob Gunsberg of Southfield and Sam Seltzer of Huntington Woods load onions tear-
lessly for distribution at Yad Ezra. They're among the faithful volunteers.

would have no place to go if it weren't
for Yad Ezra," Ryke said.
The donations of a large cooler and
freezer allow clients to receive perish-
ables like fruit, vegetables, eggs, mar-
garine and chicken.
Yad Ezra is the brainchild of
founders Howard Zoller and Gary
Dembs of Huntington Woods, James
Macy and Rabbi A. Irving Schnipper
of West Bloomfield and Michael Eizel-
man of Oak Park. The client bise in
1990, its first year, was 609.
Current clients include the elderly,
single mothers, the unemployed, the
working poor, the disabled, single par-
ents and children. Others include

newcomers who speak only Russian
and native Detroiters left in the inner
city when their children moved to the
suburbs. A West Bloomfield man who
had given to Yad Ezra is now a client,
a victim of corporate downsizing.
Yad Ezra feeds any needy person
who walks in. Those who aren't Jewish
are referred to other agencies like
Focus:HOPE for followup help.
Yad Ezra is one of the first pantries
in the nation to develop a plan to
serve Russian Jewish refugees whose
food stamps run out because of wel-
fare reform. "We've partnered with
the Jewish Federation of Metropoli-

• 25:23). She was told,
"Two nations are in
thy womb ... the one
nation shall be
mightier than the
other, but (in the
end of time) the
elder shall serve the
younger." Now you
know why the pope
would like to think
that we are the "elder
brother," so that the
Jews would ultimate-
ly suffer the crushing
spiritual defeat; but
it's not destined to

the Almighty himself (Genesis 28:1-4
and Genesis 28:13-15).
Esau, the elder brother, received
only one blessing: "Thou shalt live by
the sword" (Genesis 27:40), and we
know how true that is, for we have
felt the point of that sword through-
out our history by suffering, torture,
exile, humiliation, pogroms — all the
nuances of global anti-Semitism —
and, finally by the Holocaust. And
now the pope wants to be the
younger brother? Too late! The die is
cast.
As Jews we welcome overtures of
peace.and brotherhood, but not
when they are couched in phraseolo-
gy which we have heard since time
immemorial.
Rabbi Jack Goldman
Administrator, Metropolitan Kashruth
Council

take place.
It's true that Jacob received the
blessings of Isaac by artifice; but when
it was discovered, his rightful heritage
was corroborated by his father and by

YAD EZRA on page 29

3/13
1998

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