Editorials

Allied Jewish Campaign:
Part Of Our Community Fabric

It's about people helping people.
The most widely recognized annual event in
the Detroit Jewish community, the Allied Jew-
ish Campaign is a pivotal source of funding on
behalf of Jews locally and around the world.
Starting with Super Sunday last fall and
closing with the Days of Decision, March 22
to April 6, the 1998 Campaign will prove a
godsend for human-service agencies. It gives
donors a golden opportunity to fulfill the char-
itable tradition of tzedakah. Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit's divisional leaders
allocate Campaign dollars each spring based on
agency requests. Proceeds are evenly divided
between Detroit and Israel, with less than 6
percent going toward administrative costs,
according to Federation.
For its part, Federation must step up and be
very open about how allocations are decided,
why percentages go up or down and why some
programs receive funding and others don't.
Otherwise, it can't reasonably expect to attract
new donors — who are crucial to the Cam-
paign's continued success.
Targeted for special emphasis this year are
support programs for older adults, tuition
scholarships for Jewish day schools, Hebrew
school programs for children with disabilities,
and financial help for low-income renters and
homeowners.
Senior adult programs that typically draw
funding include home care for the frail, a
chaplaincy program for those in skilled nursing

homes or assisted living facilities, hot kosher
meals for residents on modest incomes at Jew-
ish Federation Apartments, and workshop and
recreational programs geared to tuning mind
and body.
The chesed (acts of kindness) resulting from
the Campaign touches other lives, too —
through sports activities for adults with physi-
cal disabilities at the Jewish Community Cen-
ter, through interest-free loans from Hebrew
Free Loan Association so new Americans can
buy a used car to find a job and become self-
sufficient, and through cultural and education-
al programs for Jewish students on college
campuses.
Overseas, the Campaign supports eye care
for elderly Romanian Jews, summer camp for
Jewish children in the former Soviet Union,
Judaic studies for Israeli Jews who are hearing
impaired, and ritual items for Cuban Jews try-
ing to become more observant.
New requests include a year of Jewish voca-
tional services and programming for a senior
adult with mental illness, a Fresh Air Society
family camp scholarship for a single mother
and her children, more beds at Jewish Home
and Aging Services' Fleischman Residence and
an Israeli center to prevent family violence.
Since 1926, the year Federation was found-
ed in Detroit, Jews have given generously to
the less fortunate through the Campaign — a
tribute to the solidarity of the Detroit Jewish
community. ❑

Rabbi Enriched Our Community

Metro Detroit Jews are blessed for Rabbi Ben-
jamin Gorrelick having walked among us. By
all accounts, he was a gentle, sweet man and
an eternal optimist who loved all Jews, regard-
less of affiliation.
Born in Russian-dominated Poland, Gorre-
lick died Feb. 16 at age 91. He was revered as
much for his compassion as his scholarship. A
community service in his memory will be held
at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 22, at Congrega-
tion Beth Achim in Southfield.
Keeping our faith in God vibrant and our
ties to Israel strong were especially important
to Rabbi Gorrelick. He spoke of the oneness of
the Jewish community, not just the Conserva-
tive community he grew up in. He quoted the
Talmud and could speak in Hebrew but was
engaging and endearing to whomever he met.
He made strangers feel as if they were talking
to a special friend.
As Beth Achim Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz
put it: "He had a great love of people typified
by these words in the Books of Psalms —

Hinei matov uma naim shevet achim gam

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yachad. Behold, how good it is, how pleasant it

is, for brothers (and sisters) to sit together."
During World War II, the Jewish Theologi-
cal Seminary graduate served heroically as an
army chaplain. While in Belgium, he helped
care for Jewish orphans who had survived the
Holocaust.
Arriving in Detroit in 1949, Gorrelick
assumed the pulpit at Congregation Beth
Aaron, which merged with Congregation
Ahavas Achim to form Congregation Beth
Achim. He was a founder of Hillel Day School.
Yoskowitz will give the eulogy at Sunday's
service, which marks yom ha-shloshim, the
end of the month-long mourning period.
Gorrelick's pulpit chair will be draped with a
black sash. His tallit, tefillin and siddur will
rest on the chair. "In a sense, the chair will
signify our own sense of how much we'll
miss the man who used to sit in it,"
Yoskowitz said.
Rabbi Gorrelick's memory will live on in
the wisdom he shared, the kindness he exuded
and the spiritual bridges he built. ❑

IN FOCUS

Arts Activist

Emma Lazaroff Schaver of Southfield, arts patron and former
soprano soloist, receives a Wayne State University Arts Achieve-
ment Award from Dennis Tini, music department chairman.
She has founded and supported many local, national and inter-
national arts and charitable organizations. She's founder of the
American Israel Cultural Foundation and a major donor to
WSU's music department.

LETTERS

When Fun
Gets Insulting

I am a longtime subscriber to
The Detroit Jewish News and
am writing for the first time
regarding the cover on the
March 13 issue.
Although I appreciate Jew-
ish humor, and have for many
of my 84 years, this particular
cover offended me greatly in
spite of the fact that it was
titled "It's Purim ... Time to
Spoof!"
Fun may be fun, but
insulting the president of the
United States in such a man-
ner is despicable and going
too far!
We as Jews have much to
appreciate in President Clin-
ton's tenure in office, during
which he has been most
respectful of us and aided
monetarily, especially in
Israel. That you should print
such a cover in this troubled
personal time for him is an
affront to all American Jews.

Although the situation is not
the most pleasant one, it still
was not your right or privilege
to smear him in this manner.

Sarah Kaminsky

Oak Park

Taste Lacking
In Cover Picture

I am outraged by your cover
on last week's Jewish News. I
fail to see the connection

3/20

1998

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