EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
LETTERS
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A Place For All Jews
"Once, JCCs were places where Jews could gather to rehearse how to be Americans.
Now, however, with America so accommodating ... and with a renewed American
appreciation of ethnicity, JCCs in the early 21st century are places where Jews come
to associate with, and learn how to be, Jews."
— Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
C onstruction dust hasn't obscured the richer opportu-
nities for learning and mingling Jewishly at Detroit
Jewry's central address.
That's the legacy of Larry Wolfe, outgoing presi-
dent of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
It's also the backdrop for Sharon Hart, the engaging, enthusias-
tic incoming president.
Wolfe served three years instead of the customary two because
ROBERT A.
his
term kicked off the JCC's $25 million capital and endow-
SKLAR
ment
campaign, in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of
Editor
Metropolitan Detroit and its real estate arm, the United Jewish
Foundation.
The campaign has grown to $33 million, in part because of escalating con-
struction costs. The net result is a wealth of improvements to both the D. Dan
and Betty Kahn Building in West Bloomfield and the Jimmy Prentis Morris
Building in Oak Park during this 75th anniversary year for the JCC.
Wolfe and Federation leaders have ridden a financial riptide as needs (a new
heating and cooling system) and priorities (a first-class banquet and meeting
hall) drove up the costs of upgrading the 26-year-old Kahn Building.
Rooms and what is in them are important. But Wolfe knows that the quality
of the programming ultimately will shape the JCC.
Shortly after becoming president three years ago, he said: "The Center needs
to become more Jewish, more spiritually functional, by offering more Judaic
programming and enrichment opportunities."
He wasn't saying the JCC wasn't Jewish enough. The JCC is Jewish Detroit's
heartbeat for informal learning and camaraderie. The planned Center for Judaic
Discovery and Michigan ORT Resource Center at Kahn will underscore that.
Rather, Wolfe was challenging himself to secure the future of
the JCC as a place where Jews "can feel Jewish, while learning
about being Jewish in any manner they choose."
That was a worthy goal. You may have been born Jewish, or
you may have converted to Judaism, but that doesn't mean you
feel Jewish or live Jewishly.
On Her Own
Hart and Wolfe are friends as well as colleagues. And she has
Sharon Hart
no intention of drastically shifting course -- a wise move, given
all the Construction dust that still must fly.
But she stands in no one's shadow. A proven leader and tire-
less worker, she really cares about us as a Jewish community.
A native Detroiter, I've followed the fortunes of the JCC for more than half of
its 75 years. I've seen hopes dimmed by disharmony and lack of funding. And
I've seen dreams fulfilled thanks to teamwork and generous donors. Clearly, we
have a penchant for rebuilding, even reinventing, the Jewish Community
Center — and not letting it wither.
Over the years, the JCC has had crowning moments and slippery climbs, but
in the end, we're a better community because it has graced our lives.
Key challenges for Hart include reining in construction costs, endowing pro-
grams, returning the Midrasha Center for Adult Jewish Learning's library
archives to public use, reviewing the JCC's breadth of social services, and sus-
taining relationships with the Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, Jewish
Ensemble Theatre and Holocaust Memorial Center.
Keeping the two-campus JCC the heart of our Jewish neighborhood — and
accessible to all — is another of Hart's key challenges.
As Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of the Jewish Community Center of Greater
Baltimore put it at Hart's installation on June 21: "JCCs are the great uniters —
the place where all Jews are equal citizens. Just as in a neighborhood, you
become embraced simply because you are there." ❑
One Size
Does Not
Fit All
Keep Shoah Center
On Jewish Campus
I think that the Holocaust Memorial
Center should be on the Applebaum
Campus ("Different Directions," June
29, page 14).
The land around the Center where
it now is has a different meaning to
the Jewish community than land on
Orchard Lake Road. Has anyone
watched the traffic on Orchard Lake
and 12 Mile roads from 7 a.m. to 7
p.m. each day? How do you think
buses and cars going north are going
to turn in and out into heavy traffic?
Phyllis Grossman
Southfield
HMC Needs Space
To Serve Public
When the Holocaust Memorial
Center ("Different Directions," June
29, page 14) was built in 1984, the
first of its kind in the nation, no one
dreamed that it would instruct and
inspire more than 4,000 groups a
year. As a docent, I am thrilled by the
volume of interest in the history and
lessons of the Holocaust, but am also
frustrated by the constraints of our
existing facility.
For example, when two school
buses arrive packed with 110 students
and 12 chaperones, the HMC is faced
with the daunting challenge of pro-
viding each individual with a two-
hour program that includes an intro-
duction, a comprehensive tour of
exhibits, a film, and a half-hour meet-
ing with the survivor-speaker.
Since we cannot address 110-plus
students at once, we divide them into
four groups and then stagger each
one's entry into the museum, so that
we don't bump into the group ahead
of us or obstruct the group behind us.
Keep in mind, other visitors may
already be in the building or due to
arrive shortly.
We have no central meeting room
and no place for guests to leave their
coats. Exhibit halls are too narrow for
large numbers of people. The modest-
sized conference room, where history
comes alive when the survivor person-
ally addresses our visitors, is often
stacked with boxes and supplies
because it doubles as a workroom.
With doors closed; it becomes stu
and overheated. At times, there aren't
enough seats.
LETTERS on page 6
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