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DETROIT -
JEWISH NEWS

5 /15
1998

34

CLASSIFIEDS
GET
RESULTS!

Call

(248)354-5959

COMMUNITY VIEWS

INVOLVEMENT

from page 32

weekly Sunday English discussion pro-
gram open to all who wish to partici-
pate.
The AJCommittee and the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
leadership were very interested in all
these efforts and also recognized what I
was most concerned about — the miss'-
ing young leaders of the community
from this immigrant population.
Where were the 20-to-30-year-olds?
Why did we see so few at community
events or in the synagogues and tem-
ples? What could we do about identi-
fying these young Jews and encourag-
ing them to stay linked to the corn- .
munity that had welcomed them upon
their arrival? How do we convince
those in their early 20s that connect-
ing with the Jewish community is a
positive activity?
Thus, two programs were developed.
AJCommittee's local leadership devel-
oped the first program. They under-
wrote a six-part seminar for Jewish
young people interested in the following
four goals: (a) learning about their Jew-
ish heritage and American Jewry, (b)
becoming linked to the community; (c)
being partnered with a mentor in their
future professional field; and (d) receiv-
ing $300 in scholarship funds to help
pay for their studies, a trip to Israel, or a
Hillel program or conference.
The students' studies have included
sessions on the "American Jewish immi-
gration experience," "31 Flavors of
American Judaism," and an overview of
how people identify as Jews and with
Israel.

They visited the Holocaust Memorial
Center, discussed HIAS efforts with
Rachel Yoskowitz, director of Jewish
Family Service's Immigration and Citi-
zenship Services (formerly known as
Resettlement Service), toured and vol-
unteered at Yad Ezra, the kosher food
pantry housed in Oak Park, and
enjoyed a traditional kosher Shabbat
dinner together.

Friends ofRefugees From Eastern
Europe (FREE) holds an annual seder
for New American children.

The second project is just in the
planning stage. In an effort to reach
out to middle-aged Jewish New Amer-
icans, Federation staff has started to
collect names of individuals for a
steering committee and hopes to begin
appropriate programming in the near
future. This effort is to be designed
and implemented by Jews from the
former Soviet Union. Volunteers from
that community are encouraged to
contact the Jewish Federation, (248)
642-4260, and ask for Marc Berke or

to call the AJCommittee office.
Now we are back to the questions,
"Why this particular program?
Why is the AJCommittee involved?"
The American Jewish Committee
was founded in 1906 in response to the
pogroms in Russia. The agency's
founders hoped to utilize their resources
and contacts to influence U.S. public
and foreign policies.
Today's AJCommittee leaders hope
to achieve their goals, not only by influ-
encing public policy through legislative
advocacy, but also by hosting programs
that promote-tnderstanding and toler-
ance among disparate groups of all reli-
gions and races and that encourage all
Jews to identify with the Jewish com-
munity. The AJCommittee takes the
second word in its name very seriously
and includes as part of its mission "to
enhance the creative vitality of the Jew-
ish people."
It is our hope that in 20 years' time,
young people like the American Jewish
Committee's seminar students, Katerina,
Edward, Grigoriy, Alex, Ernest, Daniel,
Roman, Asya, and Igor, will be among
those listed on our community's boards
— serving the Jewish community as
leaders.
And, I think they are off to a really
great start. ❑

LETTERS

Israelis at the grassroots level.
It is not hard to understand why
Palestinians back Oslo since they can
continue their hostility to Israel and
gain more and more territory at the
same time. The more perplexing issue
is why Israel continues to pretend the
Palestinians are viable peace partners.
The fact of the matter is that many
Jews in Israel and the Diaspora believe
that creating a Palestinian state will .
prove once and for all that many Jews
are unworthy of hatred.
A vestige of the Haskalah (age of
enlightenment) is the self-destructive
view that there is something funda-
mentally wrong with Jews and
Judaism and only repentance will
absolve the guilt due to Israel's cre-
ation. According to this self-hating
post-Zionist view, settlements and the
Jewish religion are obstacles to Israel's

acceptance by the international com-
munity.
This is the real reason Israel contin-
ues to make "confidence-building
measures" while the Arabs continue to
violate the accords.
In addition, the elevation of the
kabbalistic principle of tikkun (repair-
ing the world) as the primary Jewish
truth has mandated that Israel will
continue to participate in the accords
until Shimon Peres' "New Middle
East" materializes. Thus Israel requires
repairing, and the creation of the
Palestinian state, despite all the evi-
dence that Arafat and company are
undeserving of statehood, will usher in
the Herzlian utopian fantasy of inter-
national peace and brotherhood.
The Jewish world is setting itself up
for a disappointment on par with the
destruction of the second temple and

the 15th century Spanish expulsion.
Only a rejection of all religious and
secular forms of mysticism in favor of
a reappraisal of what-is rationally pos-
sible to achieve on an individual as
well as on a national level will save
Jews from assimilation and save Israel
from further weakening its own strate-
gic position.

Marc Baker
Birmingham

Old Friends
Are Sought

I am searching for men who attended
Surprise Lake Winter Camp of the
Educational Alliance and 92nd St. Y
(the Eddie Cantor Camp) in the
1930s and 1940s.
The camp was for poor boys from