This Week

,,,,,
0

.. \711r.,,,,,,,,ISO

k.,,,,, .,.

Continuing The Fight

. . .‘" . ..•,.."```. , ' , ' ,,,,, `,,,,,,,,,.

SUNDAY, MAY 21

1 - 4 PM

Grounds of Temple Emanu-El*, 14450 W. Ten Mile, Oak Park

Featurin g

Israeli folk dances and son gs performed by

THE SHAGIAR NNE
fROM KIfV

and

RON OEN

This is your chance to "visit" the major cities of Israel.

Enjoy activities at each station and g et your passport stamped.

All completed passports will receive a prize.

iXPERING 1H1 UST Of ISRAR
IN ONE AfiRNOON.

FUN FOR THE ME FAMILY:

• Hands-on craft activities • Storytellin g in a Bedouin tent

• Wall climbin g in "the Golan • Yemenite jewelry makin g

• Biblical animals • Israeli snacks & refreshments for purchase

Due to construction on I-696, please seek alternate route to 10 Mile.

* If it rains, IsraelFest will be held in the Jimmy Prentis Morris Building of the Jewish
Community Center. Thanks to Temple Emanu-El for the use of its grounds for this event.

Jewish moms: Gun control
is a moral and a Jewish issue.

SHARON •SAMBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

hen Elaine Bayer heard
about the Million Mom
March for gun control,
she thought of two fam-
ilies — her Hadassah family and her
own extended family.
Bayer, of the Chicago suburb of
Homewood, Ill., called march organiz-
er Donna Dees-Thomases in New
Jersey and told her to get in touch
with the national office of Hadassah,
the Women's Zionist Organization of
America.
Then Bayer decided she would
organize her own family.
"I'm going to bring everybody to
Washington," Bayer said to herself and
her family.
So on Sunday, Mother's Day, Bayer
— surrounded by seven family mem-
bers, including one grandchild in a
stroller — joined Jewish mothers and
others from across the country to give
Congress an earful in support of gun
control and safety legislation.
Standing on the National Mall
within view of Capitol Hill, thousands
of members of synagogues and
Hadassah chapters stood with hun-
dreds of thousands of Americans, call-
ing on Congress to enact "sensible gun
control laws."
Marchers voiced support for back-
ground checks at gun shows, registra-
tion of firearms and licensing of gun
owners, as well as safety locks on
handguns. Congress' inaction on the
issue is unacceptable, they said, pledg-
ing to make gun policy an issue in the
November elections.
"Make this moral issue political,"
Rosanne Selfon, vice president of
Women of Reform Judaism, urged at a
pre-march event. "We have a moral
obligation that emanates from Torah
and God. Today is the day to make
our legislators listen."

L.A. Shootings

Sponsored

by

N EIGHBORHOOD

PR OJECT

MEDICS

IQ—

5/19
2000

T his is .ecieration

18

Visit us on the Web: www.tkisisfederation.or g /MIC

In conjunction with

EWER:94, CF

•413 -SMS?4 NittES

The Jewish community appears galva-
nized and mobilized around gun con-
trol, perhaps in part because of last
August's shooting at the North Valley

Jewish Community Center in
Granada Hills, Calif
That incident, with the nationally
televised images of a daisy chain of
children being led away from the cen-
ter by policemen, actually gave Dees-
Thomases the idea for the Million
Mom March.
Legislators in Washington, however,
are unlikely to do more than listen to
the demands of the marchers, as the
chance of any gun control legislation
passing this session is minimal. A
major bill on gun control has been
languishing in Congress for more than
nine months.
Nevertheless, people like Gail
Powers of Los Angeles believe the issue
will be a decisive one in congressional
races.
Powers, Whose son was in a class-
room at the North Valley JCC during
the shooting, got involved because she
didn't want another parent to experi-
ence the fear she did. She said she is
"amazed and astonished" at the unity
of the different Jewish movements on
this issue.
Powers started out as an "e-mail
person" for the march. She later got
more involved, becoming the
California coordinator and the
Western region -coordinator, and
helped bring more than a thousand
people to Washington.
The North Valley JCC shooting
also brought the issue home for Bayer.
"This is not just something that hap-
pens to other people," she learned.
Small groups representing syna-
gogues or Jewish organizations from
around the country came with ban-
ners and signs, dotting the mall
grounds.
Members of Temple Sholom in
Broomall, Pa., clustered around their
sign: "Whoever saves one life, it is as if
he saved the entire world. Control
guns, save the world!"
Most Jewish marchers proudly sport-
ed "Million Mom March" pins and T-
shirts, which show pink flowers wrapped
around and shooting out of a gun.

"Criminals' Lobby"

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the

CONTINUING THE FIGHT on

page

20