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itorials
Editorials and Letters to the Editor are posted and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com
Weaving A Tapestry Of Community
D
ear readers:
While the High Holiday season
reminds us of relationships, past and pre-
sent, with our Creator and each other, it's
also a time of renewal and rebirth. As the gates of
heaven open to our prayers of contrition, they invite
resolutions of new, and enhanced, behavior.
At the Jewish News, the High Holiday season is hec-
tic and allows scant time to be reflective or forward
thinking. Rosh HaShana is early this year, coming on
the heels of a shortened Labor Day weekend (then
again, does Rosh HaShana ever come on time?). Work-
ing in tandem with our affiliated publications in Balti-
more and Atlanta, Editor Robert Sklar and his staff
have been planning today's news package for several
months. Art Director Debbie Schultz and the creative
services department have been designing the accompa-
nying layout and look.
The advertising department, under the direction of
Shari Cimino, has been busy espousing the benefits of
reaching the community with messages of good wishes
for the New Year ... a departure from the week-in,
week-out needs/benefits marketing the staff implements
with its advertising clients. The circulation department,
with Dale Rubin at the helm, has been busy identifying
niches for new subscription opportunities while Mar-
keting Manager Illana Greenberg has been immersed in
product development, community relations and sales
support projects.
Web Producer Josh Cane has been tweaking
www.detroitjewishnews.com on a daily basis, with the
recently published JN SourceBook now online and
equipped with a powerful search engine. Business Man-
ager Brigette Thompson has been directing an overall
technology upgrade to better serve you, our readers and
advertisers, while casting a wary eye toward the so-
called Y2K bug and assembling contingencies.
So, on behalf of a busy staff, I offer the following
accounting for the year 5759 and a glimpse at our
wishes for the year 5760:
Israel remains the spiritual and emotional hub of our
peoplehood, and our coverage is intended to reflect
this. We have been supportive of efforts to achieve rec-
onciliation and peace among Israel and its Middle East
neighbors, despite the many obstacles. We have been
critical of efforts that obstruct religious pluralism. We
have been active supporters of programs, locally and
nationally, that bring Americans — especially teenagers
— to Israel for an opportunity to connect with their
heritage. And we have showcased the Partnership 2000
relationship between Detroit and the Central Galilee
region as a model for future Israel-diaspora interactions.
Our Israel, international and national coverage has
been under review. A team headed by Neil Rubin, the
senior editor of our newspaper group, has finalized a
coverage mission statement and will be refocusing
efforts to provide you with fresh, diverse voices without
diluting our desire to provide distinctive, unsubsti-
tutable information of particular interest to Detroiters.
Locally, we have placed a spotlight on Jewish educa-
tion. It is our top priority, and we have devoted
resources and news hole to it. The recently published
Voices In Jewish Education, the hiring of veteran
newsperson Diana Lieberman as education reporter and
the partnering with various communal organizations
and civic-minded businesses to support educational ini-
tiatives are evidence of this ongoing commitment. We
are pleased that after many years of lip service, the Jew-
ish Federation and its constituent agencies are stepping
up to the plate with vision, leadership and dollars.
The creation and development this year of
www.detroitjewishnews.com recognizes the unique-
ness of the Internet and our role as the primary gath-
erer and disseminator of news and information for
and about the Detroit Jewish community We
encourage you to visit the site daily and to use its JN
Gateway to link with dozens of other local Jewish
Web sites. Our investment in
www.detroitjewishnews.com is ongoing, too.
We recognize that for many readers, the Jewish
News is the common thread that connects them to
their past, to Israel, to each other and to the future.
In that spirit, we have actively sought partnerships
with organizations that span the Jewish spectrum.
For 5759, a sampling of these partnerships included
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and
its Miracle Mission, Teen Mission and Pro-Detroit
programs; Yad Ezra; the Oakland County Food
Bank; Aish HaTorah (which conducts a lunch-and-
learn program in our Southfield offices every Thurs-
day); the Agency for Jewish Education and Jewish
Experiences For Families; the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit; Jewish Ensemble
Theatre; the Zionist Organization of America; the
Jewish Community Council; the B'nai B'rith Youth
Organization; the Michigan Jewish AIDS Coalition;
the Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation; the Neigh-
borhood Project; Jewish Apartments and Services;
Detroit Friends of ALYN Hospital and Workmen's
Circle. We will maintain our commitment to build-
ing community through partnerships in the year
5760, with a particular eye toward those that
enhance Jewish educational opportunities.
To assist in gauging community needs and interests,
we assembled an advisory committee. The participants'
input and ideas have been invaluable. Members include
Gary Torgow, Lila Orbach, David Techner, Steven
Schanes, Mark Bakst, Mindy Soble Kaufman, Marion
Freedman, Dr. Jeff Weingarten and Sally Krugel.
In the course of carrying out our work, we may
have been overzealous, inaccurate or inadvertently
hurtful to you, our valued readers, advertisers and
partners in community building. Please accept our
sincere apologies and know that as we reflect on the
past and present, while anticipating the future, we
are humbled by the responsibility to serve you well.
But we are prepared for the challenging task ahead.
Eshana tova,
Arthur M. Horwitz
Publisher
IN FOCUS
Taste Of The Times
Fleischman Residence seniors in West Bloomfield
prepared a slice of sweetness for Rosh HaShana in
the form of honey cake and new year's greetings for
Jewish residents in non-Jewish nursing homes and
assisted living centers. The sharing program supple-
ments the 100 monthly rabbinical visits offered by
Jewish Home and Aging Services' Jewish Communi-
ty Chaplaincy Program. Chaplaincy program
spokeswoman Sheyna Wexelberg Clouser says Rab-
bis Dovid Polter and A. Irving Schnipper will dis-
tribute the packages. Above, right, Fay J. Margolis
reaches for more honey cake to wrap. Left, Karl
Berg ties a bow around a Rosh HaShana package.
LETTERS
Sinai Hospital
Brings Reflection
As founding director of
Sinai Hospital, having
served from 1952 to
1979, I claim the privi-
lege of expressing my
thoughts regarding its
closing.
The search commit-
tee of the original board
of trustees of Sinai
brought me here from
Mt. Sinai Hospital of
New York, where I had
spent the previous five
years engulfed in the
concept of medical edu-
cation, patient care and
research at the highest
level. It was my under-
standing that this type
of excellence was what
motivated the board and
the local medical leader-
ship.
As the years tolled by,
through the combined
efforts of the adminis-
tiation, the loyalty of
the professional and lay
staffs and the devoted
service of the volunteers,
the following were
achieved: affiliation with
Wayne State University
Medical School, growth
from 200 to 600 beds,
the North End Clinic
moved to Sinai, a med-
ical library, an auditori-
um with classrooms, res-
LETTERS ON PAGE 51