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Gallery Of Enlightenment
T
yet. It runs through Oct. 17.
he Janice Charach Epstein Muse-
In a multimedia presentation stitched together
um/Gallery is one of the Detroit
by
Ann Arbor's Cynthia Phillips, the gallery
- Jewish community's cultural sign-
expands
the role of fine art in our lives. It does so
posts. Over the years the exhibits
via a traveling art exhibit, documen-
have raised our awareness of, - and
tary video, companion book and
deepened our appreciation for, the
The
CD-ROM. Key are video discussions
cultural arts.
Way,
with
27 Jewish, Arab. and Druze
We
But the 8-year-old gallery, inside
artists who live and work in Israel.
the Jewish Community Center in
The hope is to educate Americans
West Bloomfield, remains largely
about Israelis whose heritages are dif-
unheralded.
ferent and whose ideas may clash.
We're all the poorer for that.
Another
goal
is to provide a glimpse into art's
That's because the two-level gallery, and the
effects on community building and peace making
niche it has created on the local art scene, con-
in our ancient homeland.
tinues to open windows into the vigor, sweep
"Identity, Thought and Vision" is especially
and beauty of Jewish-oriented artistry. Sculp-
appealing because of its potential to teach us
ture, photography, brushwork — the range of
about relationships through the lens of art as
what makes its way into this gallery of enlight-
dialogue.
enment is ever expanding.
Alas, the arts represent one of the great under-
The latest show, "Identity, Thought and
tapped
resources for Jewish education. II
Vision," is one of the gallery's most ambitious
IN FOCUS
0
0
0
Learn
A Lesson From Granada Hills
I
n our communities this past Shabbat,
and perhaps for many more to come, a
fear has surfaced. It is seen
in the increased security at
Jewish institutions, in the extra
glances when walkina b out of
synagogue. We are privately and
publicly again forced to contem-
plate whether something is awry
within the tolerant nature of
American society.
In a few brief months, two
teens — one whose grandfa-
ther was a Jewish leader —
chose Adolf Hitler's birthday
to massacre their schoolmates; Jews were
purposely shot at while walking home from
synagogue; three synagogues were fire-
bombed in Sacramento, Calif., and now
Jewish children at a Jewish Community
Center summer day camp in Granada Hills,
Calif., were the target of a gunman wanting
to send a "wake up call" to non-Jews about
the need to follow his actions.
This is not the Holocaust or even the
beginning of one. State-nurtured anti-Semi-
tism is non-existent here. That message
comes from the top in last week's rapid
White House denunciations and on the
local level in the immediate response of Los
Angeles law enforcement authorities. The
tremendous outpouring of affection from
non-Jewish individuals and groups — mod-
ern versions of righteous gentiles — helps
soothe our anxiety.
And yet, something is obviously wrong with_
a radically dangerous, very small minority
within this great nation. It is foolish to think
others will not take aim at Jews and that we
don't have to take some steps to protect our-
selves. We need to make sure
our camps, schools, agencies
and houses of worship have
security committees that meet
regularly. Security must be a
budget item for every Jewish
agency. The Anti-Defamation
League/Michigan Region, in
collaboration with the Jewish
Community Council of Metro-
politan Detroit and Jewish Fed-
eration of Metropolitan
Detroit, are on the right track
in arranging a forum of communal and law
enforcement leaders, as they did during the
Gulf War eight years ago. We need not be
paranoid. Nor need we be fools.
But the deeper question remains. Our
history has taught us that we may face
hatred simply because we insist on being
who we are, the covenanted people charged
with understanding eternal commandments.
We cannot deny the feeling of vulnerability
that has appeared again, much closer to the
surface than we as Americans had suspected
it lay.
We will each deal with it on our own terms,
of course, but the message we like best comes
from the place that awoke those fears — the
North Valley Jewish Community Center in
Granada Hills. On Monday, six days after the
five were shot there, the JCC reopened its
doors. In the face of hatred, courage is still the
best example.
It t akes
cou rage
to be
who y ou are.
In Tune
Southfield pianist Neill Eisenstein performed July 29 in a free
concert for seniors at the Jimmy Prentis Morris Building of the
Jewish Community Center in Oak Park. He studied with
famed Detroit pianist Mischa Kottler. Eisenstein, a teacher and
performer in West Germany, is on the faculty of Detroit's Cen-
ter for Creative Studies.
LETTERS
Congress Needs
To Act On Guns
.
Once more we have the sight of
worrying parents, wounded
children and general chaos. All
of this brought about by the
continued easy access to guns.
It would seem that these
events all share that common
denominator. But, once again,
there will be anger, calls for
more control and defeat of
any legislation in the Republi-
can-controlled Congress.
Events such as the
Columbine High School shoot-
ings in Littleton, Colo., and the
shootings in Atlanta and at the
North Valley Jewish Commu-
nity Center in Los Angeles
("Wake Up Call To America,"
Aug. 13) gave birth to strong
and immediate action in the
United Kingdom.
I guess our representatives
don't have the courage to
defeat the National Rifle
Association. As a conse-
quence, we will see continued
proliferation of firearms and
more stories about mass
killings in the press.
Richard J. Hendin
West Bloomfield
Must We Arm
To Protect?
Last week, a terrorist, this
time in America, shot at six
children in a Los Angeles Jew-
ish community center, and
still heads of Jewish organiza-
tions say, No guns. Depend
on the police."
While police raced to the
scene, the killer could have
shot more Jewish kids! He did
not even ask whether they
were secular or religious, left
or right, young or old. They
were Jews, open for assassina-
tion. It is long overdue that
8/20
1999
Detroit Jewish News
29