Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
Your child
deserves the best--
We Provide It!
Way Cool Preschool &Childcare
at the
J CC
...Enroll your child in
Infant/Toddler,
Preschool or
Kindergarten
Enrichment today!
WHAT MAKES OUR PROGRAM SPECIAL
FOR OUR CHILDREN
* Superior 5taff/Child Ratios
* Physical Education
x:x Swimming Lessons
* Music Specialist
* Library & Computers
Judaic Learning
jcc
Jewish Community Center
‘,I" Metropolitan Deinit
* Children's Museum
Safe, Supervised Environment
FOR OUR PARENTS ,
* Before and After-Care
(7 am.-6 pm.)
2 Parent Education Seminars
Parentreacher Committee
* Jewish Holiday Family Programs
Summer Preschool Camp 98
* School Break Programming
For more information or to reserve a spot for your child,
please call the Child Development Center in West Bloomfield
at (248) 661-7605 or in Oak Park at (248) 967-4040.
Tours are available and JCC members receive a significant discount.
8/21
1998
D. Dan a, Betty Kahn Building
6600 W. Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI L43322
72 Detroit Jewish News
Jimmy Prentis Morris Building
A. Alfred Taubman Camptz
15110 W.T en Mile Road • Oak Park. Mt t48237
EdItoR's NoTe
he Gift
about the Holocaust. I sat, unmov-
ing, as though I had suddenly
myself, I know that people
become mute. And to make mat-
are capable of change.
:
tens
worse, no one else said any-
Sometimes these are dramatic: a
1 thing. There were a few uncom-
welfare mother becomes a top-
notch attorney, an atheist finds reli- fortable chuckles, then silence.
By the time I was in my 30s I
gion, a selfish man suddenly finds
was
a charter member of the Cyn-
the generous heart within himself.
ics of America Club. Part of that
Sometimes, though, these
comes with being a
changes are small,
journalist. You meet
subtle and quiet.
up
with so many
This is the story of
boneheads and bums
one such change
—
yes, there are a
within me.
lot of nice people out
Mercifully, I am
there,
but no reporter
not the same person
worth her salt wants
I was 20 years ago,
to write about a
when I was 20. I
bunch of 6-year-olds
thought I knew
rescuing
a drowning
everything, but of
dog when she can
course l•really had
talk about how some
no clue. My whole
politician was caught
focus on life was
With
a
secret
Swiss bank account,
me, me, me. I made fun of a lot
funds from which he was using to
and, above all, I was sarcastic.
pay for his sweetheart's sex-
And why not, I thought: Life is
change operation. These, then,
fierce and bleak. Now I have to
become the kinds of people you
say that I came to this conclusion
spend time with, the kinds of peo-
in part based on actual incidents.
ple you imagine populate the
I've met up with some pretty .
world.
unscrupulous characters. One was
And in truth the world can be a
a woman — I never even learned
terrible place. I am constantly
her name — who was at a party I
astonished at how evil we are to
attended when I was 19. She
one another, and especially chil-
:.wanted everyone to hear this
dren. No matter how many times I
great joke, she said. It went like
hear reports of child abuse, I am
this,
sickened
each time. Once I saw a
"What's the difference between
former army sergeant who had
a pizza and a Jew?
taken charge of a rehabilitation
"A pizza doesn't scream when
center for young boys in trouble.
you put it in an oven."
He told of one child who had
So breathtakingly vivid is this
spent
all his life living in a car,
memory that I can still remember
eating out of the trash, his par-
much about the very moment:
ents, who knows where, most of
I where I was, where she was, the
his life. And this sergeant — a
music playing, the day of the
tough-looking
man with solid
week — and the fact that I said
shoulders — began to cry. He
absolutely nothing. Because I
said: "It's shameful what we do to
couldn't. I simply could not believe
children in this country."
that someone had made a joke
ecause I have seen it in