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Organizers
expect thousands
at Sunday rally in
Oak Park.
Oak Park Blvd.
E
fift lit rA S UPP OR T
HARRY KIRSBAUM
StaffWriter
.
B
aced on overwhelming
turnouts at recent local pro-
grams supporting Israel, the
Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit has planned a
"Michigan Stands with Israel Rally" for 4
p.m. Sunday, April 28.
The 90-minute rally will be held, rain
or shine, outside of Temple Emanu-El on
10 Mile between Greenfield and
Coolidge in Oak Park.
Feedback from the community helped
Federation organize the event, which
coincides with the end of its Annual
Campaign and Israel Emergency
Campaign, said Lawrence Jackier,
Federation president.
"There was great and consistent senti-
ment for the need for everybody to come
together-in support of Israel in the form
of a rally," he said.
The program will include.speeches by
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and U.S.
Reps. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, Joe
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4/26
2002
14
Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills and
Michigan Attorney General Jennifer
Granholm. David Blewett, president of
the National Christian Leadership
Conference for Israel and the Ecumenical
Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies,
both based in Oakland County, also will
speak.
Kol Zimra, an all-male Jewish a cap-
pella choir, also will perform.
"This is a tremendously important
way of getting a message across to the
Jewish community that there are people
in the non-Jewish community who are
very supportive and that you aren't out
there all alone, although many times you
feel that way," Jackier said.
According to .Mark Schlussel, program
chair, the intent of the rally is to organize
a visible and meaningful event" for the
community and to provide an opportu-
nity for people to "connect and stand
together in•-solidarity with Israel."
The Federation is planning for thou-
sands of people, not only from Oakland
County, but also from Ann Arbor, Flint,
Grand Rapids, Windsor and Toledo.
"
He said the local outpouring of sup-
port for Israel "replicates actions taken
when Israel's existence was threatened in
1948, 1967 and 1973."
Schlussel will speak on Federation's
behalf, as will Nancy Grand, co-chair of
Federation's Annual Campaign.
Referring to the April pro-Israel:rally in
Washington, D.C., which nearly 500
Detroiters attended, Jackier said: "There,
we stood in solidarity at the nation's capi-
tal, 100,000 people strong. This coming
Sunday, it's-our turn to show the world
just where Michigan stands."
To accommodate traffic, special park-
ing arrangements have been made. Park
and walk is available at the Jewish
Community Center, Young Israel of Oak
Park, Beth Jacob School for Girls,
Congregation Beth Shalom, Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah, Congregation B'nai Israel-Beth
Yehudah, Congregation Dovid Ben
Nuchum, Machon ETorah, Norup
Middle School and Pepper Elementary
School.
Shuttle bus service will be available at
Lincoln Center on the northeast corner
of Greenfield and Lincoln in Oak Park as
well as at Sherwood Square, at the inter-
section's northwest corner in Southfield.
As planned, a scheduled choir concert
by Spring, a Jewish Community Center
choir, will go on at 4 p.m. Sunday at
Temple Emanu-El. Tickets were sold out
two months ago, said Rivka Latins
director of the Russian acculturation pro-
gram at the JCC's Jimmy Morris Prentis
Building in Oak Park. About 200 are
expected to attend the concert, she said.
Israel's "Thirty Days of Solidarity Israel
Ethergency Campaign" of one-time gifts
has raised $1.3 million so far; that lifts
the yearlong Campaign total to $5.3 mil-
lion toward a goal of $6.4 million for
Israel social service projects. Thirty-day
countdown receipts are earmarked for
Israelis victimized by terror.
The sum of $27.2 million has been
raised so far for the 2002 Annual
Campaign, bringing the total amount
raised to $32.5 million. El