W vt American Heart Association ;.••• Fighting Heart Disease and Stroke YOU BEING STALKED BY ARE 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 Save 23%-25% on add-ons & accessories* *with purchase of any fort with swings at regular price by Swingsets Inc. Save Up To $900' Special Offer Runs Thru May! Add-ons include: slides, ramps, multiple forts or decks, sandbox, firepole, picnic table, climbing wall, roof, awning & more! Order Now for Healthy Play all Summer Long. TOY= 3947 W 12 Mile Berkley (248) 543-3115 www.dollhospitalcom , Models on Display Mon-Sat. 10-5:39 • Fri 10-8 " 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