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American Heart
Association

;.•••

Fighting Heart Disease
and Stroke

YOU BEING
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WOMEN'S

•

No. l KILLER?

Two Cultures
Under One Flag

American Arab and Jewish teens work together toward a common goal.

SHELLI DORFMAN
Editorial Assistant

when Lauren Abro met
Beth Kander and Amanda
Yousif at an American
Arab and Jewish Friends
contest registration, none of the teens
could foresee the relationship they
would form. All they knew was that
they were randomly teamed to write an
essay that could win them each a $1,500
college scholarship.
For 17 years, the AAJF has been con-
necting Arab and Jewish high school
students. In recent years, to learn about
one another's religion, culture and fami-
ly life, the students collaborate on a sin-
gle entry.
AAJF board member Monica Cheick
said an annual awards dinner "recognizes
the student winners and also honors two
leaders in the community, one Jew and
one Arab, who uphold the mission of
promoting understanding and friend-
ship between Arabs and Jews."
This year's honorees are AAJF execu-
tive board co-chair Tarik Daoud, and
Alan A. May, local co-chair and national
vice chair of the National Conference
for Community and Justice, a human-
relations organization comprised of
Christians and Jews.
This year, 29 Detroit area high school
students entered the essay contest, publi-

Tarik Daoud is the president and
owner of Al Long Ford Inc. in
Warren and the owner of Shamrock
Ford-Lincoln Mercury in Clinton.
Born in Iraq, he came to the U.S.
in 1956 to attend the Detroit
Institute of Technology. Working his
way up from the sales floor at an area
Ford dealership, he became the
owner of two auto dealerships.
With his wife Helen, he instituted
several school scholarship and
endowment funds totaling in excess
of $500,000.
Daoud co-chairs the American
Arab and Jewish Friends. He was
named one of the 1998 Michiganians
of the Year by the Detroit News.

cized through public, private and reli-
gious schools.
The dinner is Sunday, May 16, at the
Ritz-Carleton Hotel in Dearborn, begin-
ning with a recption at 5 p.m. and din-
ner at 6. The event and associated ad
book are the sole fund-raisers for the
scholarships. Tickets are $100 per per-
son or $175 per couple. They are avail-
able at the door.
With $100,000 awarded to contes-
tants since 1981, this year's first-place
winners of $1,500 scholarships included
Abro, Yousif and Kander, whose group
tied with the team of Nadia Khoury and
Alyana Traison. Two groups tied for sec-
ond place and won $1,000 scholarships.
Scholarships of $750 and $500 were
awarded to members of the third- and
fourth-place teams.
Abro, 17, is a Farmington Hills
Mercy High School senior.
She described herself as "Chaldean
by heritage, with a very
Americanized family." She learned
not only about the religion of Jewish
teammate Kander, but also about her
own culture from Yousif, who lives in
a home where "being Chaldean is
more a part of her everyday life."
Abro said the contest taught her "not
to make assumptions about who people
are. You don't know about someone else
until you get to know them and what
things mean to them."

The Honorees

Tarik Daoud

Alan A. May

Alan A. May is the president of May
& May, PC. He was born in Detroit in
1942. May received his bachelor of arts
and law degrees from the University of
Michigan. He has practiced law in the
metropolitan Detroit area.
His career highlights include

Teammate Beth Kander, 17, of Holly,
a Clonlara High School senior in Ann
Arbor, became aware of the contest from
a poster in her synagogue, Temple Beth
El in Flint. She is "used to being the
token Jew" in her school, finding she
must "make a constant effort" to convey
her religious beliefs to others.
She believes she would never have
crossed paths with her teammates if it
weren't for the contest. She is certain
that they will stay friends.
The three girls visited one another's
homes and places of worship, including
a Shabbat dinner at the Kander home.
She found the program "a very posi-
tive experience, not overly competitive,"
with "a focus on team-building and not
on winning." She learned about other
cultures and was "opened up to worlds
that are so closely linked." She added,
"Building ties close to home makes peo-
ple seem more human, where everything
seems less global, more personal."
The dinner honorees were delighted
to hear her comments. May found this
to be the goal of the contest, to "take
people, sit them down on a common
project, to learn from one another."
Daoud explained that the AAJF
"works for betterment and commonality,
to make sure there is compassion here in
the United States. We all have ideas on
the Middle East, but here, we live
together — under one flag.

Reducing
your risk
factors for
heart disease
and stroke is
good self defense

©1997, American Heart Association

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appointment as special assistant
attorney general for Michigan, He
has been Wayne County public
administrator and chair of the
Federal Judicial Evaluations
Committee.
May served on the Michjigan Civil
Rights Commission and the Michigan
Civil Services Commission.
May is a life-long member of
Temple Beth El in Birmingham,
serving as first vice-president. He is
a past president of Franklin Hills
Country Club, member of the
board of directors of ADL, life
member of the NAACP and serves
as president of the May Family
Foundation. LI

5/14
1999