Physically Challenged "F.U.N." Group
Let's Get Together For F.U.N."
at
Temple Israel
OPINION
Community Values
Are Revealed
5725 Walnut Lake Road • West Bloomfield, Michigan 48324
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April 14
April 30**
May 7
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June 4**
June 18
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Don't Miss Out On The 'F.U.N."!!!
For more information and to register, please call
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NOW IS THE TIME TO JOIN
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IN AZA & BBG (GRADES 9-12), YOU WILL MEET
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LEADERSHIP TRAINING
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8TH GRADERS ARE NOW ELIGIBLE!
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TEEN CONNECTION (GRADES 7-8), YOU WILL
MEET TEENS FROM ALLOVER METRO DETROIT
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6TH GRADERS ARE NOW ELIGIBLE!
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4/3
1998
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FOR MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION,
CALL B'NAI B'RITH YOUTH ORGANIZATION AT(248)788-0700
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dollars spent on Holocaust memorials
ccasionally it is possible to
across the nation, after the phenome-
peel away artifice and pene-
nal success of the Holocaust Museum
trate to the core. The juxta-
in Washington, D.C., after creating an
position of two articles in
outstanding vehicle for Holocaust
the March 6 issue of The Jewish News
education
in our own back yard, do
revealed such a clear view of our com-
we need to engage in another compet-
munity's values.
itive round of Holocaust
We learned that $25 mil-
building? Is this the legacy •
lion is to be raised in an
that those who perished
effort to upgrade the West
would have wanted?
Bloomfield Jewish Commu-
No one need abjectly
nity Center. Additionally, a
oppose
JCCs or Holocaust
sidebar reported that the
memorials.
They deserve
Holocaust Memorial Center
everyone's support. They
also is planning a $5 million
need to be maintained as
renovation. One page later,
sophisticated institutions that
we were told that $750,000
are part of a balanced com-
has been approved as start-
ISAAC
munal structure. The ques-
up funds for a new Jewish
LAKRI TZ"
tion is one of degree: $25
high school.
Special to
million
or $5 million as com-
Have we forgotten that
The Jewish News
pared with a mere $750,000.
Jewish continuity is the No.
Even if the latter are start-up
1 priority of North Ameri-
funds, does anyone really believe that
can Jewry? Do we not know that edu-
cation and learning are Judaism's para- we will allocate millions of dollars for
intensive Jewish education to the same
mount values? Notwithstanding that
degree
that we spend money for rac-
ours is the leadership community of
quetball
courts and treadmills?
North America, does the process that
In
this
respect, our Jewish commu-
culminated in these decisions truly
nity mirrors our general society. Cities
represent our community's desires?
throughout the nation (including
Do we really want to spend mil-
Detroit) are much more eager to find
lions so that people have less distance
the means to build sports stadiums
to traverse in the JCC parking lot, or
than to invest in our children. We do
would we rather spend those funds so
not want rigorous study. We want to
that our educational institutions (for-
play
and have fun.
mal and informal, day school as well
Central
planning and allocating
as supplementary programs) no longer
organizations should not merely
need to struggle?
choose the path of least resistance to
The vast majority of Jews every-
maximize fund raising. They must
where (including Detroit) never set
critically assess communal needs and
foot in any Jewish institution. These
act
to address them. To lead is not just
individuals will never be reached by
to
measure
consensus. It is to chart a
investing in new building programs.
course
with
creativity and vision,
As an individual who has worked
defining priorities which may not
for nearly two decades in organized
always be popular but which convey
Jewish life, many of those years devel-
passion for Judaism and its ideals.
oping informal education programs
Jewish nostalgia need not extend to
that attracted national recognition, I
outdated funding patterns. Do the •
do not need to be convinced of the
efficacy of Center programming. JCCs communal agendas of past generations
still apply? Should we continue to
have an important and unique mis-
allocate
millions of communal dollars
sion to provide multi-faceted pro-
for
purposes
that are no longer critical
gramming that presents Jewish values
while ignoring needs that are? Should
in casual settings.
the Jewish community compete with
As someone whose family was
health and sports facilities (many with
directly affected by the Shoah and
substantially Jewish clientele) just
who was among the first to organize
because such facilities were closed to
educational youth programs to
Jews
50 years ago?
Poland, I am well aware of the impor-
Can
we not learn from the private
tance of recounting and bearing wit-
ness to that tragic epoch in Jewish his- sector (where many of our lay leaders are
tory. But after hundreds of millions of so extraordinarily successful) to reduce
costs by outsourcing services or by
investing in virtual environments that
Isaac Lakritz, now in business in West
reach many more people at a fraction of
Bloomfield, worked for two decades in
the cost of elaborate physical plants?
Jewish communal service.