In Gratitude

It is not given to all of us to make history —
but it is given to each and every one of us
to be part of history.

- Elie Wiesel

W

ho of us can forget the images? The exhausted, frightened faces of
Holocaust survivors emerging from decrepit boats in the '40s. The
Yemenite Jews airlifted "on eagles' wings." The Jews of Romania and Poland,
Iraq and Morocco. Those whose struggle defied the Soviet Union and those
who braved the Ethiopian desert to fulfill their dreams of Zion.

Who of us could remain untouched by the sight of men and
women, some still in their teens, defending the infant state
again and again? Creating brave new worlds of agriculture and
medicine and microchips?

We committed ourselves and our resources to bring them
home, to build a nation that would offer sanctuary to those
whom no other country wanted. Two and a half million Jewish
immigrants in the blink of an eye.

Their courage and their creativity inspired us. And we respond-
ed, people to people, heart to heart. Airlifting them, resettling
them, finding them homes and jobs. Educating their children.
Slowly, sometimes painfully, absorbing them into the main-
stream of Israeli society.

And, now, designing with them an extraordinary new kind of
partnership — Partnership 2000 — that addresses not the past, but the future.

It could not have been done alone. But they were not alone.

No other community in the world has given with greater generosity than the
Jewish community of Detroit. People of all ages and all means have con-
tributed throughout a half century of war and peace. Quiet heroes whose
reward is the privilege of helping write history.

Every contributor to the 1998 Allied Jewish Campaign is one of those heroes.

This scroll of honor is dedicated to them. To you.

