Camp Maplehurst
1455 Quarton Road
Birmingham, MI 48009
(248) 647-2646
FAX (248) 647-6716
Website: www. campmaplehurst.corn
Our 44th year, located onTorch Lake and
Lake Maplehurst. Campers develop
responsibility and decision-making skills
by choosing daily and weekly from a
variety of organized activities.
Camp Ramah
491 Lawrence Ave. W., Suite 400
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5M 1C7
(416) 789-2193 Office
(705) 769-3601 Summer
FAX (416) 789-3970
Conservative Movement overnight
camp for boys and girls.There are two
sessions that last four weeks each.
Camp Young Judaea
2727 Kenwood Blvd.
Toledo, OH 43606
(419) 537-7171
FAX: (419) 537-7177
Email: cyjmid@aol.com
Website: wwwcyjmid.org
Contact Person: Abby Levine
Overnight camp for children 2nd-10th
grade. Activities include nature, sports,
educational and Jewish programs,
extensive water front, Israeli song and
dance, arts and crafts.
Habonim Camp Tavor
25900 Greenfield Road, Suite 205A
Oak Park, MI 48237
(248) 355-4939
(734) 971-1147 Ron Sussman
(800) 55-TAVOR
Website: www.habonimdror.org
Contact Person: Bat-Ami Abas, shalicha;
Ron Sussman
One of six U.S. Habonim Camps. A
unique camping experience in a kibbutz
atmosphere. On 68 scenic acres near
Three Rivers, MI. Offered fun, safe
Jewish camping for 55-plus years.
JNSourceBook
J
ay was raised
in an unob-
"I know I was
servant Jewish
put here for a
home. His wife
Paula was raised
reason."
Orthodox. They
compromised and
found a home at Temple Israel. Though he
didn't know Hebrew or much about the
prayers, he felt comfortable there.
He was shaken from his comfort zone 10 years
ago by the late Rev. James R. Lyons, founder of
the Ecumenical Institute for Jewish - Christian
Studies.
"He was talking to Paula about volunteer
Honorable Menschen
work, when I got dizzy," Jay recalls. "Boom! I
couldn't speak. I thought, 'I'm a schmuck. What
am I doing for those who need help?' I went
home and vowed I'd do something. I saw
Farmington Hills
something about Hospice in the paper and signed
up for training."
That was the beginning a longstanding volunteer relationship with
Hospice of Southeast Michigan that now has grown to include weekly visits
and Friday evening candlelighting, Kiddish and Ha Motzi.
Rev. Lyons also helped move Jay closer to Judaism.
"He questioned me, he spurred me on," says Jay, who learned Hebrew
and the prayers as an adult. "Everything — all I do today — sprang from
that moment I was caught in a wedge between my wife and Jim. A lot I
do is in his memory."
Now Jay considers himself "Reformodox." He keeps kosher, is working
toward being shomer Shabbat. He has a strong belief in God, continues
to study and is devoted to doing mitzvot.
Every Saturday he reads Torah and conducts a Shabbat morning service
at Danto Health Care Center. Soon he'll become service leader on Friday
afternoons at Menorah House. He already ushers in Shabbat on late Friday
afternoons at Hospice Home. For three years, he's been a devoted member
of the Temple Israel minyan corps, leading services at shiva houses and
helping mourners to better understand the service. Two years ago he helped
Rabbi Harold Loss begin Temple's Jewish Personal Trainers program, which
sends volunteers into people's homes to teach prayers, hang mezzuzot, build
sukkot and otherwise help them become more comfortable with Judaism.
And he maintains a special friendship with an ill elderly man from Jamaica,
who now lives in the Arnold Home in Detroit. Also, he's devoted to his two
grandchildren, whose names are plastered on the back of his "sabamobile."
It's a lot to do and still run his hardware store in Warren. Yet he finds time
and still wants to do more.
"There's a bit of guilt," he says. "I can't always do everything I want to
do. But you can push; you can give more. Look around. People are in need."
KOInTZ
Keri tauten Cohen
103