Nothing less than
THE BEST
The Jewish Community Center
offers over 500 classes,
all taught by highly-qualified instructors.
We invite you to meet some of them:
Mark Disento, Program Coordinator, - JPM
Building: Mark received his bachelor's degree
in Parks and Recreation Administration from
Wayne State University and has worked in
the recreation field since 1992. He has also
coordinated programs for people with
special needs, older adults and children.
Sandie Landau, instructor of various children's
classes: Sandie has taught at both the Oak
Park and West Bloomfield location for over 25
years. 5he received her degree in Early
Childhood Education from Ryerson University
in Toronto and is currently teaching
enrichment classes in cooking,
woodworking, science, parent/toddler and
playgroup for children 17 months to 8 years old.
EDITOR'S WATCH
TRAVELERS
from page 31
Holiday services each fall. This sum-
mer, Student Rabbi Holly Cohen is
serving full time, so Shabbat services
are held weekly. For a schedule of
services and programs at Congrega-
tion Beth El, please call (616) 946-
1913.
Fivenson, retired from the restau-
rant equipment business, is sure Jew-
ish travelers would enjoy Shabbat at
Congregation Beth El — if they
knew it existed. "We've had difficulty
making connections with Detroiters
when they travel up north, and they
have had difficulty finding us," he
said.
For him, the synagogue has been a
spiritual godsend. "A small group
tends to draw you closer to your
spirituality and to force you to
become more involved Jewishly," he
said.
He and his wife, Sally, keep
kosher. "And that's very hard in Tra-
verse City," Fivenson said, "because
there's no kosher meat source."
Over the years, they and their four
children have improvised. "We tend
to be vegetarian," Fivenson said.
"But it has the same effect — of
reinforcing our Jewish identity."
As part of its outreach, the con-
gregation hosts Lubavitchers from
Grand Rapids, 150 miles away, at a
monthly Torah study.
Congregation President Terry
Tarnow said the Shabbat services,
typically informal, appeal to vaca-
tioners, especially those with kids.
"People like the warmth and friend-
,—/
ship we offer, and we always extend
an invitation for them to come
back," said Tarnow, who grew up at
Temple Beth El in Detroit before
getting married and moving with her
husband, Michael, to Traverse City
in 1971. They now have two sons.
An Oneg follows Friday-night ser-
vices at Congregation Beth El. Con-
gregants take turns hosting them.
"It's not like we can go to a Jewish
bakery and just pick up something
— they don't exist up here," Tarnow
said.
"Because we're small," she added,
every person counts in keeping us
going. It's very easy to get involved
and be involved. We know everyone
else and are like an extended family." _/
Continuity in rabbinic leadership L \
would be nice, but each of the stu-
dent rabbis has brought a fresh per-
spective, Tarnow said.
One student rabbi introduced the
idea of "challah electricity." Tarnow
explained it this way: "The rabbi
puts his or her hands on the challah,
and so do a couple of the kids. Some
of the congregants touch the shoul-
ders of the rabbi and the kids. Oth-
ers join in by touching shoulders or
holding hands until everyone is con-
nected to, and feels the Jewish elec-
tricity radiating from, the challah.
"It's truly something to see." ❑
"
T o leave a voice mail message for
Robert Sklar, please call (248) 354-
6060, ext. 25$
u
LITTERS
Craig Daniels, Physical Education Instructor,
Kahn Building: Craig received his Bachelor of
Arts degree in Recreation Leadership and
Management and his secondary education
from Ferris State University in May 1997.
Craig's previous work experience includes
assistant intramural director and assistant
program director.
To receive your copy of the JCC
Fall Class Catalogue listing all programs,
please call (248) 661-7600 in West Bloomfield
or (248) 967-4030 in Oak Park.
8/7
1998
JC C
32 Detroit Jewish News
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
D. Dan 8 Betty Kahn Building
6600 West Maple Road • West Bloomfield, Mr. t483.22
Jimmy Prentis Morris Building
15110 West ten Mile Road, Oak Park, MI. L48237
ing Fire: Encounters with Elie Wiesel and
Approaches to Auschwitz). He co-edited
four collections of other people's articles
about the Holocaust. He has written 20
other books on subjects related to phi-
losophy and philosophers.
5. Bolkosky wrote that aside from
Roth's Los Angeles Times article, "The
ZOA had staff members scour Roth's work
and they found several brief reviews by
him in Continuum but did not refer to
any of his substantive books or articles."
The ZOA read Roth's books con-
cerning the Holocaust, as well as hun-
dreds of Roth's articles and book
reviews. In its public statements, the
ZOA cited many of Roth's "substantive
works":
• The Continuum articles by Roth,
which were not "brief reviews," but
rather "review essays."
• Current, fall 1980 (in which Roth
compared the rise of Ronald Reagan to
the rise of Hitler).
• USA Today, Oct. 11, 1988 (in
which Roth compared attitudes toward
poor Americans to attitudes toward the CJ
Jews in Nazi Germany).
• Current, winter 1983 (in which
Roth compared PLO terrorism to Israeli
self-defense, saying that both were "evil
for the sake of good").
• Roth's book Approaches to
Auschwitz, in which Roth compared
the Holocaust victims to the Viet-
namese boat people (pp. 121-122,
193) and the refugees from the
–N
Caribbean nations (pp.121-122) and
used the Nazi term lebensraum to
characterize America's westward
expansion (p. 17).
Morton Klein
.
National president
Zionist Organization of America