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Keeping The Public Informed

T

he announcement that Temple
Emanu-El will take over the infant
care program at the Jewish Commu-
,
nity Center in Oak Park is a wel-
come development.
The most immediate beneficiaries are the
families of the 10 infants now in the program,
who were facing a somewhat frantic search for
an alternative nursery after the JCC said it
would have to close the day-care operations in
July to save $40,000 a year. Some may choose
to move their children after all, but it is good
that they still have an option for care in a Jew-
ish environment.
But over the coming months, as it starts its
bricks-and-mortar construction and continues its
$25-million campaign for building improve-
ments and a Jewish programming endowment,
the JCC must recommit itself to speaking can-
didly and completely with its members and the
general community about its problems.
Among our community enterprises, the JCC
is one of the more laudably forthcoming about
policies and budgets. That's a healthy practice,
given that it receives an annual communal sub-
sidy and each of its members have a direct stake
in the operation. But, as we noted two weeks
ago, the JCC erred in not advising the Jimmy
Prentis Morris Building parents well in advance
that the day-care program was in jeopardy.
We also believe the Center should publicly
detail what other program cuts, beyond tele-
phone and advertising savings, it wants to
make to reduce losses by $200,000 a year.
Waiting till after JCC officials and their coun-
terparts at the Jewish Federation of Metropoli-
tan Detroit reach agreement about them some
time in May doesn't give users and other fund-
ing stakeholders any opportunity to share their
thoughts about cost reduction.

IN FOCUS

Federation had agreed to give the JCC a one-
time $3.2 million grant to cover cash-flow needs
during the years membership and activity rev-
enues will fall because parts of the D. Dan &
Betty Kahn Building in West Bloomfield will be
closed for renovation. That grant, over and above
its annual $1.5 million communal subsidy, was
to carry the Center until June 2003.
But the JCC will have spent $2 million by
June 1 of this year, well before any construc-
tion begins other than the renovation of Shiff-
man Hall in the Kahn building. The JCC
apparently is planning to ask Federation to add
an unspecified amount to the $3.2 million.
The only way for stakeholders to be sure if
another subvention is appropriate is for the
JCC to be more specific publicly about its loss-
es and how it plans to cope with them, before
it asks Federation to step in with another
round of communal support.
Federation and the Center, representing the
repository for and a beneficiary of the Allied
Jewish Campaign, clearly have a joint obliga-
tion to keep the public abreast of how much
money will be needed to sustain the Center
during the transition period. That's crucial to
building public confidence.
As construction proceeds and plans change,
the burden will fall on Federation to keep the
community informed of how much it is pro-
viding — and how much it ultimately is will-
ing to provide — to keep Center operations
afloat till renovations are far enough along to
revive membership and revenue.
The Detroit Jewish community is enriched by
having a vibrant Jewish Community Center. But
because communal dollars subsidize it, JCC lead-
ers must be unabashedly open about its budget
to avoid the appearance that Federation is writing
it a blank check with your money. E

0
O

Fight For Freedom

Ben-Zion Cohen, one of the Jewish state's founders, spoke
April 15 at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit, in collaboration with the Zionist Organization of
America/Michigan Region. The program was held in honor of
Israel Independence Day (Yom HaAtmaut on April 21). Cohen
recounted guarding the early pre-state Jewish settlements
against Arab intruders in the `40s, then lying to join the British
Navy Commandos and fight against Germany in World War
IL He later became part of the underground force, Irgun, dedi-
cated to liberating Israel from the British Mandate. After state-
hood, the Israeli officer and his men took Dir Yassin, an Arab
village with a strategic Jerusalem overlook. In the PBS docu-
mentary, "The 50 Year War — Arabs and Jews," Cohen and
Arab villagers dispelled Arab propaganda calling the Dir Yassin
battle a massacre. After Israel's independence, Cohen helped
thousands of Jews trapped in Arab countries to sanctuary in
Israel.

Making A Difference For Kosovar Refugees

lot of us in metro Detroit
want to do something about
the Kosovo refugees. Two of
us did. They deserve our
respect, and then some action.
The two are Sheri Fink and Nora
Barron. The former is currently in a
refugee camp in Macedonia, working
as a volunteer for Physicians for
Human Rights. The latter is a former
social worker active with the Jewish
Agency for Israel who was hurriedly
tapped by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit to escort 104
Kosovar refugees to safety in Israel last
week.
For at least five years, Dr. Fink has
been involved in the plight of refugees

from Bosnia and Croatia. She founded
a group called Students Against Geno-
cide to document and to protest
human rights violations. When the
Milosevic government in Belgrade
stepped up its campaign to rid Kosovo
of ethnic Albanians, she caught the
next plane to the Balkans — even
through it meant breaking her
promise to spend Passover with her
family here.
Barron, who sits on the Federa-
tion board, was one of five American
Jews who flew to Israel, helped fly
emergency supplies to Macedonia
and then shepherd the ethnic Alba-
nians onto the plane where she
handed out toys that had been col-

lected in Detroit. The plane touched
down in Israel — where the refugees
got a six-month visa and a living

The UJA Federations of North
America has established a Kosovo
Refugee Fund to help the Ameri-
can Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee and the Jewish Agency
for Israel provide food, shelter,
medicine and clothing. Checks
should be made out to the "JDC
Kosovo Mailbox" and sent to Jew-
ish Federation, PO Box 2030,
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-2030.

stipend — then turned around to
take Barron and the others to
Budapest for a meeting to discuss
the needs of the Jews who had left
Yugoslavia. She got back to her
Bloomfield Hills home with barely
enough time for a ceremony at
which President Clinton recognized
her and other local volunteers who
have made the exceptional efforts on
behalf of Milosevic's victims. Then
she left for Israel again, as part of
the Miracle Mission.
Most of us can't do what Fink and
Barron did. But we can do something
to put our money where our emotions
are. It's as simple as writing a check —
and as necessary. ❑

4/23
1999

Detroit Jewish News

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