This
at
Temple support for gays;
a comment on
squabbling;
Israel s Miss World;
Nobel for Hussein?
As a way of reaching out to gay
members and their families, Parents,
Families and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays/Detroit (PFLAG) will
hold support group sessions at Tem-
ple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills,
starting in January.
Karen Fenwick, PFLAG's presi-
dent, who has been working on this
issue since 1991, called it "a break-
through" in this area.
"We've lost too many Jewish gay
teens to suicide," she said. "Had the
child known there was support, and
the parents known that they weren't
alone, it could have been prevent-
ed."
Temple Beth El recently formed
an Inclusivity Task Force to study
and discuss ways to make the con-
gregation more welcoming and com-
fortable for their members and
friends.
Rabbi David Castiglione, who will
address the first session, said, As peo-
ple who have known the hardship of
being different and of being discrimi-
nated [against], we have the impera-
tive to be accepting."
The program's success will be based
on the number of new people who
show up at Temple Beth El, who are
not already known from PFLAG's reg-
ular monthly meetings at the Luther-
an Church of the
Master in Troy.
The PFLAG sup-
port group will hold
sessions at Temple
Beth El on Sunday,
Jan. 17, Feb. 21 and
March 21, from 2
to 5 p.m. For more
information, call
(248) 851-1100.
The hotline for
PFLAG/Detroit is
(248) 656-2875.
Here she comes. The new Miss World,
crowned last week, is Linor Abargil,
an 18-year-old Israeli who defeated 83
other contestants in the pageant held
in the Seychelles, an island nation off
the coast of eastern Africa.
Abargil, who lives in Netanya, says
she wants a future in communica-
tions. In return for the $80,000 prize,
she is supposed to put in a year
of public appearances and work
for charitable causes. However,
her availability may be restricted
by the fact that she has to register
for compulsory military service.
Jordan's King Hussein generated
widespread admiration when he
rose from his sickbed in October
to answer President Bill Clinton's
call for help at the Wye River peace
talks. Now a Jewish group wants
some official recognition for the
king, who has been battling cancer
Miss World: Israel's
at
the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
One of the more
Linor Abargil
B'nai B'rith president Richard Hei-
pressing issues that
deman recently wrote to the committee
surfaced this week at the national
that awards the Nobel Peace Prize sug-
Holocaust conference in Washington
gesting King Hussein for the honor.
was the bitter competition between
"B'nai B'rith was invited by the
various Jewish organizations for Swiss
king to Jordan some years ago, and
bank settlement money.
we've always had a high regard for his
The clamor left Rabbi Charles
commitment to peace and regional
Rosenzveig, director of the Holocaust
economic development," said Heide-
Memorial Center in West Bloomfield,
man, a former Detroiter who practices
unimpressed. Rosenzveig, who was in
law
in Washington, D.C. when he
Washington for the conference, took
isn't
attending to B'nai B'rith affairs.
the opportunity to repeat what he's
"We were very complimentary
said all along:
about his handling of the peace agree-
"If the American Jewish organiza-
ment with Israel, and we were
tions that are now clamoring for the
impressed with his important role and
funds had been one-hundredth as
physical presence at Wye during what
active during the Holocaust as they
seemed to be a very difficult period in
are now to get the funds, the Holo-
his life. So I was privileged to submit
caust would have been much less
his name for the Nobel Peace Prize."
severe than it was."
2
Remember
When • • •
From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
1988
Marilyn Millstone, administrator of
the Jewish Folk Arts Society in
Washington, embarks on a crusade
to persuade the United States Postal
Service to issue a stamp that corn-
memorates Chanukah.
1978
In the forum of the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations of
America national convention,
Orthodox leaders discuss the sug-
gestion of establishing a self-polic-
ing mechanism to enforce ethics
within the Orthodox community.
Themed "Jewish Priorities for the
80s: Towards an Orthodox Renais-
sance," the plan is to develop a
method to "prevent those who are
proven of civil and moral crimes
from holding positions of trust in
the community," said Rabbi Mau-
rice Lamm of Cong. Beth Jacob in
Beverly Hills, Calif.
1968
Secretary of State Dean Rusk meets
with Pennsylvania Gov. William
Scranton, who is about to tour six
Middle East states, relating that
president-elect Richard Nixon just
named a Middle East fact-finding
envoy to support the peace-seeking
mission of the United Nations.
1958
. 011gtalM
FaRIP%.r.w ,t
Marking
100-Years
Of Detroit Jewry
Sam Landau, eighth from left, is
shown with employees outside Landau's
Department Store on Michigan
Avenue, between Junction and 31st in
Detroit, circa 1927. The store sold
standard department store fare,
including clothing and household
items.
Photo courtesy Jean Landau Rosen
of Farmington Hills.
The Detroit Council of Pioneer
Women and its 17 constituent
chapters announces its goal of rais-
ing $75,000 for Israeli newcomers.
Syria begins new skirmishes with
Israel along their mutual border.
Artillery emplacements shell Israeli
settlements resulting in one death
and three injuries.
1948
The British Foreign Office has pro-
posed to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps, that
he seize the whole remaining balance
of Israel's sterling deposits in the
United Kingdom — an estimated
$140-$160 million — as security for
reparations to be paid by Israel to
the Palestinian Arab refugees.
12/4
1998
Detroit Jewish News
23