EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
The Breeze Of Unity
AN AMAZING
EVENT TO HELP
CHILDREN WITH
SPECIAL NEEDS!
Hills, sporting a "United Against Terror" T-shirt after spend-
ing the day at a massive pro-Israel rally in Washington,
D.C., declared: "We will be strong, we will be united and we
will prevail!"
In a dynamic speech, the Michigan Board of Rabbis presi-
dent then reminded us what Yom HaZikaron is really all
about. "May God protect the precious souls of all Israeli sol-
diers and civilians who lost their lives establishing and pro-
tecting the state of Israel for all of us," he said.
Jeannie Wiener, co-chair of Federation's Israel events com-
mittee, set the stage for the evening when she said: "Our
strength is in our unity"
Her message stirred memories of my visit to Israel on
Federation's last miracle mission, which encompassed Yom
HaZikaron. We were on a chartered bus to pay our respects
at the Wall of Remembrance at Latrun, now a
memorial to fallen soldiers, but in 1948, the site of
fierce fighting in the War of Independence. We
were nearly there when the Yom HaZikaron siren
blared. People, wherever they were, stood, including
by their vehicles as traffic came to a halt. No one
spoke during those two minutes of remembrance.
ith the wail of an air raid siren piercing the
moments of silence in the sanctuary of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, we stood shoul-
IVIIT der-to-shoulder to commemorate Israel's fallen
soldiers and terror victims.
It was a warm Monday night inside the cavernous sanctu-
ary of the landmark Southfield synagogue, thanks to sum-
mer-like heat outside and the lack of air conditioning inside.
But even as I, like many others, used the evening program as
a fan, I found myself refreshed by the rock-hard solidarity .
connecting the 3,000 people gathered to pay homage this
Yom HaZikaron.
The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit sponsored the Israel
Memorial Day event, which was pre-
ceded by a Southfield police sweep
of the grounds to assure our safety
Held against the backdrop of
Israel's war against terrorists, espe-
cially disciples of Palestinian
ROBERT A. Authority leader Yasser Arafat, the
Spreading Our Message
SKLAR
90-minute event also celebrated
At
our Yom HaZikaron event on Monday, Ze'ev
Editor
Sara Eb er
American Jewry's enduring bond
Snir,
a -retired colonel in the Israel Defense Forces
with the Jewish state. Israel became
(IDF),
gave The keynote address. "You can support
an independent state in 1948, in the aftermath of the
us,"
he
exclaimed, "by explaining our cause to your
Holocaust, but has had to defend itself from aggres-
neighbors and friends, by bringing the truth about
sors in every decade.
our struggle to your community and by supporting
As we entered the sanctuary, each of us was handed
our
soldiers in any way you can."
a card listing names of some of Israel's fallen soldiers
Federation
President Lawrence Jackier elicited
or terror victims over the past 54 years. We then
rousing
applause
when he said to the aeronautics
posted the cards on two panel boards. By the end of
specialist:
"The
Jewish
people are with you and the
evening, we had posted 6,000 names. An Israel
Detroit
Jewish
community
is with you."
Rabbi
Nevins
Emergency Solidarity Fund poster displayed nearby
We
are
with
you,
Jackier
told the colonel, because
showed the pictures of 363 Israelis who have been
"we understand that the dimensions of what is hap-
murdered in the Palestinian intifada (uprising) since
pening today in the world goes far beyond a simple
last Rosh Hashanah.
regional dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
"It was a very awe-inspiring night," said West
What
we are experiencing is no less than an assault
Bloomfield High senior Sara Eber, 17, who took part
on
the
Jewish people."
in the reading of the biblical verse, David's Lament.
He's
right. I'm convinced that Arafat, ironically a
She represented the teen committee that works with
Nobel
Peace
Prize winner, would take infinitely
Partnership 2000, an economic, educational and
more
delight
in destroying Israel, the soul of Jews
human service partnership between Michigan Jewry
everywhere, than having it as a neighbor.
and Israel's Central Galilee.
In the afterglow of the soul-searching event, I
"We generate so much more power when we unite
sought
out Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld of the Southfield-
behind Israel as a community," Eber said. "I've been
based
Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah. He echoed-Col. Snir in
devastated by what's going in the Middle East. So being part
describing
what
we
need
to do to better tell Israel's belea-
of this program was really important to me."
guered story.
She and her parents, Debbi and Jonathan Eber, are mem-
"Somehow," he said, "we'vegot to relay our message to the
bers of Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield. Taking part
non-Jewish
community — to help them understand why, as
in Federation's 2000 Teen Mission to Israel "shaped who I am
Americans,
we
all have to support Israel against acts of ter-
as a Jew," the BBYO Michigan Region board member said.
ror. Well-publicized events like this hopefully will have an
"I get really sad knowing I can't be there now," she added.
impact in that way. It's a given that Jews 'get it.' But we can't
`But I know that being part of the Jewish community, and
assume that others do."
coming together on a night as special as this, can be a pow-
We can showcase our solidarity by financially, emotionally
erful expression of support."
and
spiritually supporting the Jewish homeland, so distant in
And it was.
miles, so dear to our hearts.
From the opening flag processional to the moving candle-
"We cannot go to Israel and pick up arms and fight along-
ighting ceremony in memory of fallen soldiers and terror
side our brothers and sisters in the IDF. We can only do
victims to the closing national anthems of the United States
what we can do," Federation's Jackier said.
and Israel, I felt a vein of building energy running row by
What we can do, he said, includes easing "the pain and
row through the sanctuary.
suffering" of those who risk their lives, soldiers and civilians
alike, to keep Israel going.
Focused On Uni t y
Simply, we can give a piece of ourselves so the world
The energy level brought a standing ovation when Rabbi
knoWs, "We're with you, Israel!"
Daniel Nevins of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington
The Merle and Shirley
Harris Children and
Family Division
.
❑
WI)
4/19
2002
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