Michigan Surgical
Associates, P.C.
Specializing in General and
Laparoscopic Surgery
• Breast and Colon Cancer Screening
• Conveniently Located
• Variety of Office Hours
WEST BLOOMFIELD
In The Beaumont Building
6900 Orchard Lake Road
Suite 211
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 539-3027
Fax: (248) 539-9267
TROY
At Beaumont Hospital
44199 Dequindre Road
Suite 615
Troy, MI 48098
(248) 879-3208
Fax: (248) 828-8482
CLINTON TOWNSHIP
39200 Garfield Road
Suite C
Clinton Twp., MI 48038
(810) 228-9191
Fax: (810) 228-3990
5/1
1998
158
ST. CLAIR SHORES
21000 Twelve Mile Road
Suite 112
St. Clair Shores, MI 48081
(810) 771-8900
Fax: (810) 771-8901
Standing left to right Michael G. Taylor, M.D., F.A.C.S., Akash R. Sheth, M.D.
Seated left to right William L. Kestenberg, M.D., F.A.C.S.,
Joseph V. Rizzo, M.D., F.A.C.S., Eric A. Brown, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Affiliated With Many Local Hospitals:
• Huron Valley-Sinai • Sinai • Troy Beaumont
• St. John Hospital And Medical Center
• St. John Macomb • Bon Secours
• Providence • Macomb Hospital Center
• St. John Oakland Hospital
Most Major Insurance Plans Accepted:
• Medicaid/Medicare
• Blue Cross/Blue Shield
• Blue Care Network • Omnicare
• HAP • Selectcare • M Care • PPOM
• Wellness Plan • Aetna • Blue Cross PPO
• Smart Care • First Care • Cigna • PHCS
• Plus Many Others. Call For Details.
ravel
Sea! Being in Israel was a very emo-
tional experience for us all and we
want to wish Israel a very happy and
peaceful 50th birthday
Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, executive
director of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah;
Southfield and Oak Park
My most unforgettable visit to
Israel was during the 1991 Gulf War.
I hope there is never an opportunity
for anyone to repeat my experience,
but nevertheless, it stands out as the
most meaningful and memorable
time I have ever spent in Israel.
I was visiting my brother and his
family in Ra'anana (a suburb of Tel
Aviv) the night of the first Scud
attack. We stayed indoors for a cou-
ple of days, "holding our breath"
through those first few attacks. When
I finally did leave the house and took
my gas mask with me for a trip to
Jerusalem, I was unprepared for the
mood on the street. The drivers did-
n't honk, the taxis weren't as fierce,
strangers were friendly. As life got
back to semi-normal, there was a sort
of camaraderie and kinship. It ,.
reminded me how inexorably we are
tied to each other as a people, united
in all circumstances. It took the pres-
sure of being under attack to bring it
to the surface, but ever since then, I
have felt a difference in my relation-
ship to each Jew I meet.
Tamara Kolton, assistant rabbi at
Birmingham Temple: Narrow out-
door markets overflowing with the
smell of freshly baked pita and the
sound of deals being made, the view
from a hilltop set amongst the green
of an ancient valley, aged faces where
each wrinkle has a story to tell of a
far-off place and a home left behind:
These images of Israel continue to
flood my mind and define my Jewish
consciousness.
When I was 16 years old, my
plane landed at Ben-Gurion Airport.
I had come to Israel as part of a teen
summer trip. I came expecting very
little. What I found profoundly
changed my life.
In the midst of my own youthful
search for identity, for my place in
the world, I discovered Israel, a
young nation that was also defining
its identity. Almost immediately, I
felt connected to the Jewish state.
In Israel, I came to understand the
power of legacy. I understood that I
was a living link in the chain of Jew-
ish history. I thought down the gen-
erations of Jewish people, their
courage, their strivings. All came to
define who I was and what I wanted
to do with my life.
At times, while hiking in the
Judean Desert, the sense of history
was so powerful that it seemed to
come out of the desert sand and seep
into my hiking boots. Six weeks later,
I returned to the United States alive
with the flow of history in my veins.
My late teens and early 20s were
spent at Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. I studied Jewish history,
literature and politics, but more
importantly, I studied Israel. I
watched intently. I admired the pas-
sion with which the Israelis approach
the world. I was attracted to the
energetic pace of life in the Middle
East where things felt urgent and
alive.
I loved living at the crossroads of
the different cultures that Jews had
imported to Israel from all over the
world. My friends were an exotic
mixture of Yemenites, Russians,
Iraqis and New Yorkers.
Over a long period of time, yearn-
ings to return to my family became
overwhelming. I discovered that the
passion and energy of Israel could
have a flip side that expressed itself in
hostility and intolerance. -
I now knew that I wanted to be a
rabbi. As a woman, I was aware that
if I did this in Israel I would spend
my life in an aggressive and painful
battle for feminism that would keep
me far away from my real love,
which was congregational life. Ulti-
mately, I chose to return to the
United States and enter rabbinical
school.
Today, my relationship. with Israel
continues to evolve. Although I have
chosen to live many miles away,
Israel remains an integral part of who
I am and how I choose to live my
life.
In many ways, my relationship
with Israel can be compared to a love
affair. At first, I fell hard and fast. I
was consumed with its beauty and its
passion. I celebrated' this new con-
nection and felt alive with possibility.
But all love affairs must in time be
tempered by the reality of imperfec-
tion. If the love is to last, we must
come to accept imperfection and rec-
oncile harsher realities with our ini-
tial vision.
This is the road of mature love and
the real test of devotion. It is true
what the poet says: "One does not
travel to Jerusalem, one returns." And
we return, over and over again. ❑