iiimeolkowviumionowamommilp....
LETTERS
EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
Letters are posted
and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitj ewish news . co m
What's. Best For Detroit Jewry
I) etroit Jewry's memorial to the near-genocide of European Jewry by
Nazi Germany belongs where it is: on a campus owned by the
Detroit Jewish community.
The Holocaust Memorial Center (HMC) has served 2.6 million
visitors since opening in 1984 next to the Jewish Community
Center at Maple and Drake roads in West Bloomfield. Both
centers are part of the 200-acre Eugene and Marcia Applebaum
Jewish Community Campus, which includes senior housing, an
adult day care center and a nursing home.
For 12 years, Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, the scrappy founder
and director, has sought approval from the landowner, the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, to expand the
HMC. The center — dedicated to the memory of the six mil-
ROBERT A. lion Jews killed in Hitler's Final Solution — is a cultural jewel
and a tourist destination.
SKLAR
New priorities and higher costs associated with the JCC's $33
Editor
million capital and endowment campaign sidetracked the
rabbi's expansion plans. These plans included larger exhibit, library and meeting
space as well as adding the Museum of European Jewish Heritage and the
International Institute of the Righteous.
Irked by lack of approVal to expand the current building, and unwilling to
accept conditions under which a new HMC could be built elsewhere on cam-
pus, Rabbi Rosenzveig and his board hope to close in July on 8.5 acres in
Farmington Hills. The site is five miles away, where the now-closed AMC Old
Orchard Tlieatres stand, on Orchard Lake Road, north of 12 Mile. It's suitable
to develop in stages, including a memorial garden. It's also near Interstate 696, a
convenience for the school, civic and religious groups that make up the bulk of
the 160,000 visitors each year. Traffic and security are concerns, however.
Beyond that, the HMC is part of the fabric of Jewish Detroit, a tribute to the
survivors who live here and a centerpiece of our largest campus. Where it is
located matters. Each of us has a stake in it.
Making It Happen
Although most of the visitors aren't Jewish, the HMC does add
value to the Applebaum Campus. The HMC story is better told
in a setting aglow with Jewish identity and that underscores not
only how Jews survived the death camps, but also have flourished
as a people. The wooded, rolling campus says a lot more about
who we are as Jews than does a Holocaust Memorial Center, no
matter how nice it is, along a major commercial road.
It's a campus brimming with Jewish identity. A renovated
JCC, Detroit Jewry's heartbeat for informal Jewish learning and Rabbi
Rosenzveig
camaraderie, has brought the Handleman Hall and
Auditorium, the Pitt Child Development Center and the Inline
Hockey Center, a dream of West Bloomfield's Steven Friedman. The Milk &
Honey kosher dairy restaurant, the Center for Judaic Discovery and the
Michigan ORT Resource Center are coming. The campus also is home to the
Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre and sev-
eral Jewish Home & Aging Services facilities.
Together with the A. Alfred Taubman Jewish Community Campus in Oak
Park, the Applebaum Campus reaffirms Detroit Jewry's spirited sense of com-
munity. For their part, the Federation and its real estate arm, the United Jewish
Foundation, have gingerly walked a tightrope trying to balance construction
cost overruns at the JCC with lost promises they gave to the HMC years ago.
With space, land and time constraints staring at HMC leaders, time is fleeting
for a compromise that would allow Rabbi Rosenzveig to build on 3 acres offered
at no cost near the Meer Jewish Apartments on the Applebaum Campus.
But HMC construction fund-raising isn't complete, so there's a window of
opportunity. For Detroit Jewry's benefit, I urge both sids.s to get together once
more — in hopes that each side will bend a little more.
The Holocaust Memorial Center belongs on the Applebaum Campus.
❑
Related coverage: page 14
Wayne State Story
Brought Pleasure
I read the cover story you wrote about
Wayne State University ("Wayne State
Revisited" June 15, page 14), and I'm
very, very pleased with it
I think you did a wonderful job,
with very comprehensive coverage of
the Jewish presence and Jewish
involvement at WSU. It's very helpful
to bring our program and the univer- .
sity to the attention of the Jewish
community.
Edith Covensky
professor of Hebrew,
Bible and Israeli culture studies
Wayne State University
Detroit
BECAUSE
EVERY
CHILD
IS PART
OF OUR
COMMUNITY
JARC
Merle and Shirley Harris
Children and
Family Division
Services for children with special
needs and their families.
Support Group
Coverage Strong
I just can't thank you enough for your
outstanding article about our new
Michigan Tremor Support Group
("Overcoming Affliction," June 22,
Page 31).
The story was so thorough and
informative. The support group has
. allowed tremor patients,.especially
those suffering from essential tremor
(ET), to meet and support one anoth-
er and to learn everything possible
about our disorder, available therapies
and techniques to cope.
It's such a thrill to be able to hand
write this note to you — a task that
was always difficult and painful. If
other ETers can also know this relief
and joy, my mission will be accom-
plished.
Shari Finsilver
West Bloomfield
Kadima Support
Is Appreciated
I wanted to thank you so much for
the wonderful article about Kadima's
new building and about our executive
director, Janette Shallal CA New
Home," June 1, page 42).
Everyone at the agency [which pro-
vides residential care and support for
adults with psychiatric illness] is very
appreciative.
Richard Zussman
president, Kadima
Southfield
21:e.
✓ Outreach, support,
information, referral and
advocacy for families
✓ Educational and social
programs for families
✓ In-home respite care with a
trained JARC staff person
✓ Case management with a
person-centered focus
✓ Funding for aides so children
with special needs can
participate in recreational
activities with their non-
disabled peers
✓ Comprehensive supports to
help children with special
needs successfully attend
religious schools
Thanks to The Jewish Fund
and Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit for their
support of the Harris Division.
Call JARC at
248-538-6610
4b) 30301 Northwestern Hwy.
•
Suite 100
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
6/29
2001
5