\*.

itorials

Letters to the Editor are updated daily and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com

Moving Beyond Good Intentions

E

opes are high for the newly formed
Alliance for Jewish Education. But
dies truly going to succeed, it
n-lust be more than just another
well-intentioned communal corn mittee.
It not only must take advantage of the
breadth of knowledge, experience and insight
of its array of members, but also be willing to
seek out diverse views from the larger commu-
nity.
Frankly put, it must have enough confi-
dence in itself to invite input from other stake-
holders in the Detroit Jewish community as
well as from nationally recognized consultants
in Jewish education.
That's especially important in light of the
committee's heavy dose of representatives from
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
and one of its constituent agencies, the Agency
for Jewish Education of Metropolitan Detroit.
At the end of the day, the committee must,
as one member aptly put it, be a working corn-
mittee, not a blue ribbon panel of rubber
stampers. It must reach a broad-based consen-
sus, not wither amid internal turf battles.
For that to happen, the committee must be
sure to solicit local youth group advisors and
members. A just-released independent nation-
wide survey of randomly picked alumni of the
National Conference of Synagogue Youth, an
Orthodox Jewish youth movement, confirmed
what was long suspected — that Jewish
teenagers exposed to religion in their youth
tend to maintain strong religious ties through-
out their lives. In short, that Lilly Endowment

IN FOCUS

study seems to affirm that religious outreach
among youth has a lasting effect on overall
religious observance.
Clearly, an "everything's' fine" Alliance for
Jewish Education isn't what we as a Jewish
community need — nor want. Nor is that
what co-chairs Robert Naftaly and Lynda Giles
had in mind when they enthusiastically
grasped the leadership reins last summer.
The 40-member committee is charged with
developing an innovative, long-range vision for
Jewish education, the bedrock of Federation's
bold new plan for responding to the stinging
results of last summer's JESNA critique.
The Jewish Education Service of North Amer-
ica gave poor grades to some of AJE's largest pro-
grams. At the same time, it found a "fuzziness" in
AJE's overall planning for programs and services.
Only the special-needs education program drew
universally favorable ratings.
The Alliance faces a chalkboard full of
issues, which will require priority ranking if
there's a goal of achieving some early successes
to build momentum. Issues range from help-
ing day schools keep tuition affordable and
helping small congregational schools offer cul-
turally rich classes, to sustaining community
allegiance to lifelong learning.
As the Alliance for Jewish Education meets
for the first time next Tuesday, we urge it to
keep The Jewish News, on behalf of the entire
Detroit Jewish community, posted on its
progress. Just maybe, those progress reports
will spur the kernels of feedback necessary to
propel a stalled project forward. ❑

Upward And Onward, With Thanks

E

ow fitting that an exhibit of photos
and artifacts commemorating the
100th anniversary of organized
Jewish philanthropy in Detroit
. opens this Thanksgiving weekend.
That's because we as American Jews have
much to be thankful for.
In a century that has witnessed the horror
of pogroms, the Holocaust, Scud missiles and
suicide bombings, we Jews in America have
persevered in relative freedom.
We've managed to sur-
vive deplorable anti-Semit-
ic acts like Leo Frank's
hanging, Father Charles
Coughlin's diatribes, syna-
gogue desecrations, chants
of Hymietown and the
stabbing of a Yeshiva Uni-
versity student in Crown
Heights.
Despite our worldwide
travails as a people, we as

11/27
1998

32 Detroit Jewish News

American Jews have stood tall, and together,
this century.
In this spirit, take time to visit "Memory
and Vision — A Celebration of Jewish Com-
munity, 1899-1999."
The exhibit runs through March at the
Kahn Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield.
You'll find it an enlightening treasure trove
filled with faces and signposts of our storied past
— faces and signposts that help give context and
purpose to our lives as a people today. 111

Photo courtesy Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives/Jewkh Feder-

ation of Metropolitan Detroit.

Detroit children
get an early start
at fund-raising
by making con-
tributions for a
new Jewish Cen-
ter building,
circa 1930.

Fighting Hunger

Michigan Board of Rabbis members visited Yad Ezra on Nov.
18 for an up-close look at what happens at the Oak Park-based
kosher food pantry. After a tour, they spent time working in
the warehouse, assisting clients, and sorting and shelving food.
Above, Rabbis Arnie Sleutelberg of Congregation Shir Tikvah
and Rabbi Daniel Nevins of Adat Shalom Synagogue separate
kosher food from non-kosher food. Last week, Yad Ezra donat-
ed 3,000 pounds of non-kosher food to metro Detroit's Hurri-
cane Mitch relief efforts in the Central American country of
Honduras.

LETTERS

JFS Offers
Outreach

I was pleased with the fine

coverage you gave to the
recent first-ever community-
wide symposium on inter-
marriage ("This & That,"
Nov. 6).
I was disheartened,
though, by your failure to
mention Jewish Family Ser-
vice as one of the co-spon-
sors of the symposium. Jew-
ish Family Service, the
Agency for Jewish Education
of Metropolitan Detroit and
the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit are full
partners in our community's
effort to reach out to those
families touched by inter-
marriage. JFS, AJ E and
JFMD worked together to
receive generous grants from
the Jewish Outreach Insti-

tute and the Jewish Federa-
tion for the purpose of pro-
viding interfaith program-
ming to the community,
under the Interfaith Con-
nection banner.
Jewish Family Service
extends a vital link to those
touched by intermarriage, by
providing counseling for indi-
viduals, groups and families,
and educational workshops
on interfaith dating, marriage
and grandparenting children
of interfaith families.
Marilyn Hertzberg

Special Project Counselor
Jewish. Family Service
Southfield

Recognizing A
Great Injustice

On Feb. 2, 1997, your top
story, prominently displayed,

