COMMUNITY VIEWS

Thank You, Jewish Community

"Accept the things to which fate binds
you, and love the people with whom fate
brings you together, but do so with all
your heart."
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations

no longer in pain allowed us to sleep
at night. To then lose our dad to a
surprise heart attack, which had to
sneak up on him while he was sleep-
ing, left us with a feeling of very little
to believe in.
im°st six
It was tough to
weeks ago, fate
believe that things
claimed the
will get better and
life of our
return to a semi-nor-
father, Mark Michalson.
mal state, but this
He was just 52. He was
community that we
very much alive. Our
live in, and that we
father was one of a kind.
are very proud to be
He watched over us
associated with, has
closely every day, but he
given us back every
BEN AND JEREMY
allowed us the leeway to
reason to believe
make mistakes and learn
MICHALSON
again. Not a day has
from them.
Special to the Jewish News
gone by without
He enjoyed his days at
someone new who
work and then at night,
has called or stopped
when he would come home and play
one of us to say how sorry they are, and
on the computer or relax to a Detroit
to offer their help in any way possible.
Red Wings game. He loved us, he
Not a day goes by that we are not
loved our mother [the late Joan Pen-
amazed by the amount of support that
ner Michalson] and he loved the life
we have received. And not a clay goes by
that he lived, although by no measure
that my brother and I don't look at each
was it an easy one. Losing our mother
other and just say, "Wow"
was hard enough. However, watching
her suffer and fight her disease (multi-
A Heartfelt Response
ple sclerosis) for 20 years was equally
This community has made it clear that
as hard.
it is not going to let us fall. We have
When she passed away, it was as
seen donations of money, food, clothes,
though she had been given a new free-
services, etc. More important than any
dom from the disease that held her
of these things, though, people have
hostage for 20 years. She no longer
donated to us their hearts. For that, we
had to answer to wheelchairs and
can only begin to thank you.
walking canes. As hard as it was to say
To no surprise, our friends have been
goodbye to her, knowing that she was
there in full force every step of the way.

A

Our friends are our family, and to be
associated with such a great group of
people is truly an honor. These friend-
ships we have are second to none. At
times during the years, we have taken
different paths, but we always find our
way back to one another. They say that
good friends are tough to find; well, you
make it look easy. When we have need-
ed you the most, you have all come
through with bright, shining colors and
helped us to believe that things will get
easier. For that, there are no words but
"thank you."
People say that the Hillel Day School
of Metropolitan Detroit family is one of
a kind. They could not be more correct.
Both of us still maintain a number of
friendships that we made in our Hillel
days. Those friendships extend beyond
just our classmates and include teachers
and the administration. These are people
who will be with us our entire lives, still
guiding us along.

A Brighter Light
Debbie and Lou Aaron, Otto and
Patty Dube, Muriel and Seymour Pos-
ner, Richard and Elissa Berg ... you
guys have been the heart and soul of
all of this.
Hearing from you on a daily basis
and having you involved in our lives has
made all the difference in the world. You
have all taken on roles far greater than
ever could have been expected and we
are so grateful to you. You have helped
us to begin to see that light, and it keeps
getting brighter.

To everyone else who has lent us
their hearts in the last six weeks; we
thank you from the bottom of our
hearts. There is a great feeling that
comes along with knowing-that there
are people out there who wonttrlet you
sink. It truly is a tribute to our par-
ents, and we are glad that they were
able to leave such an impression on
this community.
Accepting the events of the last
weeks has not been easy. It may never
be. But loving the people with whom
fate has brought us together has been
very easy. You have all made it that
way. We feel a part of something big-
ger than both of us: it is this one-of-a-
kind community that we belong to.
Jeremy adds: When I close my eyes at
night now, I can see my parents, and
they are walking together, with smiles
on their faces. They know that they did
a good job in surrounding us with the
right people — people who care. Now
this allows me to sleep at night.
We thank you from the bottom of
our hearts.

❑

lc dinner-dance to benefit
eremy Michalson and
War Veterans is 7:30
ay, July 30, at the JWV
16990 W 12 Mile
•thfield. Tickets are $20
available at the door.
on, call Euni
n, (248) 559-5680.

LETTERS

Will Peace
Be Real?

vim

7/28
2000

34

The peace process in the Middle East
must be pursued because it needs to
be tried and because it is the right
thing to do. But here are some of the
factors that make it unlikely to expect
a real peace:
• For Yasser Arafat and his dedicated
followers, all conferences and agree-
ments are only steps to gain more
favorable ground toward the future
battle to destroy Israel. Their recently
expressed change of attitude regarding
the peace process does not convince
[me] of sincerity. One has only to look
at the lack of performance on the pre-
viously negotiated agreements by the
Palestinians.
• Syria is in a very comfortable posi-

tion. Having gained unchallenged
hegemony over Lebanon, it permits
Iran and Iraq to continue their finan-
cial and material support of Hamas
and Hezbollah in their terrorist attacks
on Israel. If Syria is really interested in
peace, it need only stop the flow of
support for these two groups.
• The head Imam for Iran called for the
destruction of Israel as the only way to
solve the problems of the Middle East.
This declaration of war was printed in
the New York Times on Jan. 1, page 125.
It is difficult to imagine how the peace
process could change that.
• The flood of hate propaganda against
Israel in the Arab press and, even worse,
in the Arab schools, continues unabated,
making it unlikely that a real peace can
be established in our time.
Kurt Singer

Southfield .

Jewish Presence
Has Permanancy

In response to the letter from Scott
Gisler ("Israel Is Not Jewish Only,"
July 21, page 32), the Jewish kingdom
lasted 1,300-plus years and was
destroyed by the Roman Empire. One
million Jews died in a bloody battle in
Jerusalem alone. The Emperor Hadri-
an renamed the area "Palestine" in a
deliberate attempt to eradicate the
connection of the Jewish people to the
Land of Israel.
History then shows that the land
was conquered by the Byzantines,
Muslims, Crusaders, Mamelukes,
Turks and the British. None of these
groups ever created an independent
nation on the soil that was Israel.
That's history, not Jewish history.

Yet there was always a Jewish pres-
ence. The Jews who remained either
tilled the soil or were extremely pious
— all were poor. The Arabs had not
lived there from time immemorial.
Mark Twain, who had no political .ax
to grind, said in his 1867 visit to
Israel, "There is not a solitary village
throughout its whole extent — not in
30 miles in either direction. There are
two or three small clusters of Bedouin
tents, but not a single permanent
habitation."
It was only after the Jewish people
returned to reclaim the soil did the
Arabs from the surrounding areas
come to partake of the growing pros-
perity. This is historically documented
by the many British censuses taken
during the mandate over "Palestine."
Harriet Drissman

Farmington Hills

