This Week
ALAN MAY from page 12
Religious Delineation
Metro Detroit's Jewish
Assisted Living Community
Of the 63 NCCJ chapters nationwide,
only Detroit and Los Angeles still have
co-chairs delineated by some religious
specificity. "We just think it works,"
May said.
But is it effective? "There are times
that we find it valuable."
May brought up an incident of
"some antisemitic remarks being made
by a Jesuit priest in the northwest area
of Detroit. My way of handling this
was to get Mike Monaghan, the
Catholic co-chair, to go directly to the
[Roman Catholic] Diocese, even
though the Diocese doesn't directly
control Jesuits.
"But it was a very simple matter to
have phone calls made to ask this guy
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to please forbear from his rhetoric.
"That's using religious structure to
solve a human-relations problem. That
doesn't mean that the organization as
itself wouldn't have met with him,"
May explained.
But the NCCJ under May also
takes different approaches to dealing
with bigotry. "An example of what
we're doing in that regard is the
Southern Baptist issue," May said,
referring to the prayer books published
by the conservative Protestant denomi-
nation aimed at the holidays of the
Muslim, Hindu and Jewish religions.
"This is what we're doing locally," he
said. "We've got a coalition of Hindus,
Muslims and myself who are working
together with [Michigan Region NCCJ
Executive Director] Dan Krichbaum as
a Christian. We're going to meet with
the local Southern Baptists out there on
12 Mile, and we're going to have a
direct dialogue. But we're not going to
talk Scripture. We're going to talk
human rights and human failings.
"It is not going to be as if we're
using a religious structure. We're all
members of NCCJ, and we just hap-
pen to be Hindu, Muslim and Jewish.
We feel that any evangelical move-
ment is fine, but it shouldn't be deni-
grating or defaming another religion
by innuendo. Especially by implying
through its prayer that you're less of a
person. It is inquisitional; it is reli-
gious racism," May said.
Some things that NCCJ undertakes
have nothing to do with religion. The
group was given a grant to do
sensitivity and diversity train-
ing for the Detroit Police
Department "because we're
very good at it," May said.
They are working with Detroit
Police Chief Benny Napoleon
down through the ranks.
How large is the Michigan
Region chapter? May said it is
difficult to quantify because,
unlike the American Civil
Liberties Union, nobody carries
a card. Using approximate num-
bers, the NCCJ Michigan
Region has 2,500 contributors, a
board of 100 advisers, an annual
dinner that draws 1,400 people
and an executive board of 25.
According to Crain's Detroit
Business, the local chapter's annu-
al dinner on Nov. 18, 1999,
grossed $375,000 and netted
$277,000. The event was ranked
ninth in the state in terms of the
largest net to charity.
The chapter also provides
docents at the Holocaust
Memorial Center in West Bloomfield
"because we still give tours primarily
to the gentile community," May said.
Nationally, the NCCJ was chosen by
the White House to administer the pres-
ident's program on race and religion.
May acknowledged that honor falls back
upon the group's religious motif
Multi-Religious Orientation
May said the NCCJ membership local-
ly is not predominantly Jewish. "I don't
know that it ever was, but over a period
of time," he said, "the Jewish participa-
tion in the NCCJ has diminished.
"That's been for a variety of rea-
sons. The first is a very positive rea-
son: the growth of Israel. I think that