COMMUNITY VIEWS
Learning From Each Other
JEFFREY FRANK
Special to The Jewish News
L
ast summer, my wife Julie
and I were selected to go on
a very special trip. The Jew-
ish Federation of Metropoli-
tan Detroit sponsored a trip of 30
young couples to tour Prague and
Israel for 10 days in November. The
trip was to consist of young leaders
from the Jewish community and
include 10 Reform couples, 10 Con-
servative couples and 10 Orthodox
couples. A rabbi from each movement
would also lead the trip.
To prepare ourselves for this jour-
ney, there were a number of meetings
scheduled with speakers on the Czech
Republic and Israel. This was done to
foster a sense of community within
the group and for all the participants
to get to know each other.
While the meetings were informa-
tive, they didn't serve their purpose.
Groups tended to keep to themselves
and there wasn't much mixing
between the Reform, Conservative
and Orthodox groups. Each group .
may have been curious about the
other, but no one acted on their
curiosity.
On Nov. 8, we left for New Jersey
and then for Prague. As the trip began
the groups began to mix on the long
Jeffrey Frank of West Bloomfield is a
Temple Beth El member. These are
excerpts from a sermon he delivered to
his fellow congregants on March 12.
There were three separate
flight overseas. Barriers began to
incidents that, to me, elim-
come down. ,
inated any barriers that
When we arrived in Prague, we did
remained between the
a great deal of touring. It was the
Reform, Conservative and
shared experiences on the trip that
Orthodox Jews.
helped bring us together.
On Friday night, we went
We visited Theresienstadt, a town
to the Western Wall to pray.
that had served as a concentration
As most of you know, the
camp during World War II. We placed
Wall is divided into a men's
our hands on the actual crematoriums
section and a women's sec-
in which the bodies of the Jews who
tion. Initially, the Orthodox
died in the village had been burned.
Jews split up by gender to
As we held a memorial service for
pray at the Wall, the Conser-
those Jews, we realized that to the
vative Jews had planned to
Nazis or other outsiders, it didn't mat-
daven together at a distance
ter if a Jew was Reform, Conservative
from the Wall and the
or Orthodox — a Jew was simply
Reform Jews were to have
viewed as a Jew. To me, I believe this
their own service. As the
was a turning point to help many of
Conservative Jews were pray-
us change our perspective.
ing together, a group of
While in Prague, we learned that the
Israeli Chasidim approached
Jewish community was shrinking as
them and initially asked the
more and more Jews assimilated. We
men to join them at the wall
saw the work funded by Federation dol-
and asked the women to go
lars that showed that our donations
to their side. The Chasidim
make a difference. We visited an apart-
were offended by the fact
ment complex for Jewish senior citizens.
that the men and women
We visited the only Jewish day school in
were praying together, even
Prague, which had children bused in
Jeffrey and Julie Frank, near the Knesset in Jerusalem. though they were at a great
from an hour and a half away so that
distance from the Wall.
they could be educated in the Jewish set-
Jerusalem
and
watched
the
sun
rise
When
the
Conservative rabbi
ting. We had dinner with young adults
over
the
city.
explained
in
Hebrew that the group
from the Jewish community who were
After seeing the assimilated and
wished to continue to pray in the
proud to tell us of their Jewish activities.
shrinking community in Prague and
manner in which it had begun, a large
All the people we met were extremely
watching individuals strive to main-
dispute arose. As the screaming esca-
appreciative of the assistance that came
tain a Jewish identity, it was good to
lated and shoving began, the Reform
from overseas.
be
in
the
homeland
of
the
Jews.
members of our group saw what was
After three days in Prague, we
I
believe
that
the
group
became
a
boarded planes for Israel. As we land-
truly cohesive group on Shabbat.
'LEARNING on page 30
ed in Tel Aviv, we took buses to
LETTERS
isfactorily resolve, especially in light of
the day-care alternatives in our area.
Do we look again at the relatively
few day-care/pre-school options that
we rejected before, all of which made
us feel very uneasy? Or, do we go into
debt through the loss of a necessary
second income for our family? Most
important, how do we explain to our
precious daughter why the familiar
loving faces that have cared for her for
so long are gone?
We are heartbroken and feel disen-
franchised by the JCC's decision.
With the JCC's relatively high charges,
it is beyond belief that the Oak Park
program's revenues resulted in a signif-
icant deficit. We also find it hard to
believe that the JCC really expends
$200,000 to operate the Oak Park
program, especially since it has few
employees (only a few are full time)
4/2
1999
28 Detroit Jewish News
and little in the way of other recurring
out-of-pocket costs (mainly for food,
diapers and other personal hygiene-
related expenses). Obviously, in arriv-
ing at its deficit figure, the JCC is
charging the program with overhead
(i.e., non-cash expenses and other
expenses that it would incur with or
without the program). It is an insult
to the Jewish community served by
the Oak Park facility for the JCC to
use its arbitrary bookkeeping as a pre-
text to close the Oak Park program in
order to transfer its teachers to serve
the West Bloomfield program.
Frankly, we feel that the JCC does
not value the Jewish population in our
area of the community, and, by clos-
ing the Oak Park child development
center, the JCC is abandoning the
Jewish community that does not live
in the West Bloomfield/northwest
suburban area. The Jewish population
in the older suburbs (and all Jews in
this community who really care about
a sense of community), should be out-
raged by the JCC's decision.
We feel betrayed by the JCC's deci-
sion and shall not continue our mem-
bership in the JCC.
The JCC should change its name,
as its decision to close the Oak Park
child development center shows that
the JCC has taken the "community"
out of the Jewish Center.
Robert K. Siegel
Huntington Woods
Providence
Health Care
The Jewish News article "Successor
To Sinai, Beaumont Has Become
The De Facto 'Jewish' Hospital"
(March 12) highlights services and
amenities provided by Beaumont
Hospital that help Jewish patients
feel more comfortable during their
hospital visit.
As a longstanding member of the
Southfield community, Providence
Hospital has quietly served our cul-
turally diverse neighbors for more
than three decades. Our mission —
to touch, heal and enrich our
patients and their families — applies
to all who enter our doors. We con- .
tinually seek to increase cultural
awareness and respect for ethnic and
religious differences.
Nearly 25 percent of physicians
and about 10 percent of patients at
Providence are Jewish. Efforts to
welcome and embrace their Jewish
heritage include faxing patient lists