Friends At The End
r.
JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer
or over 50 years, the
- American Zionist
Movement-Michigan Region
was a place where Detroit's
Labor Party supporters could sit across
the table from diehard opponents of
the peace process and be friends, albeit
friends who yell at each other.
Last week, in a clamorous two-hour
meeting filled with avid Zionists, the
organization — which has hosted pro-
Israel demonstrations, community
events and forums since the 1940s —
formally dissolved by a vote of 10 to
4, with about 15 abstaining.
It was a larger attendance than the
AZM, formerly the Detroit Zionist
Federation, had seen in years. The
group, an umbrella for 21 local syna-
gogues and Israel-related organizations
like Hadassah and the Committee for
a Safe Israel, has been short on mem-
bers and funds for years. The last
straw came in January when the
national AZM cut off its $500-a-
month subsidy to the Southfield-based
group. Nonetheless, thanks to some
programmatic help and rent forgive-
ness from its landlord, the Agency for
Jewish Education of Metropolitan
Detroit, the AZM still hung on long
enough to stage its third annual Jewish
Heritage Week this spring.
With members seated around the
AJE's boardroom tables, last week's final
meeting was part memorial service, part
autopsy and part last-ditch resurrection
attempt. The evening was punctuated
with some politicking for the Israeli
elections ("I'm from Likud and we run
the country," said one member, as he
introduced himself), warmly greeted
latecomers, a little laughter, sighs of "do
you remember when...?" and, of course,
some quarreling.
One member, Steve Goldin, bris-
tled every time Jewish Heritage Week
was mentioned, blaming the celebra-
tion of Jewish contributions to
America for the organization's demise.
"Jewish Heritage Week was wasted
money!" he called out.
Left-winger Ken Knoppow and
right-winger Mike Dallon sparred over
whether the AZM is tilted too much to
one side politically (both claimed to be
in the lonely minority, but other mem-
5/14
1999
10
.
Detroit Jewish News
Local Labor Zionist group meets
for the last cantankerous time.
•
Top: Leon Mir3-hay and
Milton Steinhardt listen.
Above: Elaine Medwed listens
to the discussion.
Left: Max Sti:yer sits pensively
during the meeting.
bers said the organization has shifted
back and forth throughout its history).
In informal speeches, past presi-
dents reviewed the highlights of their
terms, recalling programs like the
Israeli scholar-in-residence (dropped
in the mid-1990s), contacts with
Zionist student groups (which trailed
off in 1992), the Zionist of the Year
luncheon (held in the early 1990s),
the Sunday morning seminars during
the Gulf War, Israel Memorial Day
and Israel Independence Day celebra-
tions (taken over by the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit in
the late 1980s), Jerusalem Day cele-
brations, Jewish Heritage Week and a
recent forum on the peace process.
Sheila Lambert recalled her some-
what tumultuous presidency, during
Israel's invasion of Lebanon. "I was bet-
ter known in the Arab community than
the Jewish community," she laughed,
noting that while most Jews were apa-
thetic about the Lebanon war, she was
constantly being invited to participate
in local Arab forums on the topic.
Zvi Strom sadly said his presidency
from 1994-96 had been ineffective
and contributed to the AZM's decline.
Other members pooh-poohed him,
saying multiple factors, such as the
fact that most of the organizations
that comprise AZM have been delin-
quent in their dues payments, led to
the vote to dissolve.
Shoshana Wolok attributed the
decline to changing times: "We're liv-
ing in a different world. Husbands
and wives both work and are too tired
in the evening to go to meetings."
Its a different generation," said
Helen Naimark. "They don't remem-
ber when Israel became a state and
what that was like.
AZM President Ann Barnett agreed:
"The sad thing is that the young peo-
FRIENDS on page 12
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