Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit Women's Campaign and Education Department 2002-2003 SLATE OF OFFICERS Cover Story President Nancy Grosfeld Annie Cohen Education Vice Presidents Barbara Kappy Melinda Soble Kaufman Abbe Binder Sherbin Campaign Vice President Nancy Jacobson Corresponding Secretary Malke Torgow Recording Secretary Baylee Shulman Designates to the Board of Governors Marjorie Krasnick Melba Winer First Term Roselyn Blanck Lori Garon Margaret Gonik Marcy Gottesman Stacy Klein Cheryl Margolis Diane Perlman Judy Rubin Jennifer Silverman Leah Trosch - Jodi Weinfeld , Nominees to the Board Second Term Nancy Gad-Had Nancy Jacobson Sissi Lapides Debbie Levin Lisa Lis Marta Rosenthal Third Term Nancy Grosfeld To Fill Unexpired Term Roberta Madorsky Nominees to the Advisory Service Council Nancy Glass Rose Rita Goldman Nancy Grand Susie Pappas JoAnn Shatanoff Chair, Nominating Committee Beverly Liss Women's Campaign and Education Department Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit BYLAWS In accordance with the Federation's Women's Campaign and_ Education Department Bylaws, Article VII, Section 1: "The call to the Annual Meeting shall include the slate to be presented for election. Additional nominations may be made by petition, signed by twenty-five (25) members of the Women's Campaign and Education Department and submitted at least one (1) week in advance of the Annual Meeting, provided that such nominees have consented to serve if elected." The Women's Campaign and Education Department's Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 30, 2002. If you would like to attend, please call the Women's Campaign and Education Department at: (248) 642-4260, ext. 181. T his is .Pesleration The Alliance of Art and Industry TOLEDO DESIGNS for a Modern America Ideas and products that forever changed American life. Special Programs, - Tickets, and Tours For information about these and other programs for Toledo Designs visit www.toledomuseum.org or call 419.255.8000 or toll-free 800-644-6862. Timed tickets for the exhibition and tour information are available at the Museum box office, by calling 419-243-7000 or toll-free 888-763-7486 or by visiting the website. J.C. Mays Apti128, 2:30 P.M. Ford Motor Company's chief designer, responsible for the redesigned Thunderbird. Constantin Boym June 9, MO P.M. New York-based designer of the exhibition. We Oven and Weed SbpppRacer &meet patented 1933, The American Naticoal Compaq, Frederic W Strobet,Gurdron. Photo creit: Tim Th aye 96 ;CP Community and Justice in Detroit, and then for the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit. At this last job — where she helped devel- op the blueprints for the Jewish Coalition for Literacy — she got to know the MiCOEJL staff people who worked in the same office. "When I left; they said 'Why don't you join the board?' So I did," she remembers. Marcus, whose undergraduate degree is in child development and family and community services, continues to volun- teer with the Coalition for. Literacy tutoring at Orchards Children's Services in Southfield. "There's a real need for tutors, not just in what we think of as deprived areas," she says. "There are children at the bottom of the reading level everywhere." A few weeks ago, Marcus graduated from Wayne State University with a master's degree in library and informa- tion science. She's already -started a two- year job in the children and youth area of the Southfield Public Library, a job she hopes will become permanent when from page 95 already had on them. Nominated for various honors includ- ing the Disney American Educator Award, he has won the Oakland County Technology Teacher of the Year Award. Weisserman didn't even attend a ceremo- ny honoring him as WDIV-Channel 4 Outstanding Teacher because he didn't realize his work with students was unique enough to make him a winner. While future projects are bound to take him deeper into the world of tech- nology, he vows to keep his focus on his students. "I don't program because I like pro- gramming so much," he says. "I program because I like the opportunities it affords kids and schools." His immediate future plan is a project he describes as "the creation of new `global' initiative, which will bring together students from countries around the world." Hoping to pilot the program by the start of the 2003 school year, interest has been expressed by politicians and educa- tors from countries including Russia, Croatia, Thailand, Morocco, South Korea and Israel. In early May, he expects to meet with the Croatian ambassador in Washington, D.C. Reflecting on his teaching methods, he sees his work as a kind of educational reform. "It requires rethinking our basic educa- tional assumptions," he says. 'As a teacher, for instance, it requires thinking less about 'material to be covered' and more about 'engaging in meaningful, thoughtful activity' That's scary because you may not know in advance what your students are going to learn on a given day, but energizing, too — because what the kids learn ends up being so much more valuable." As rewarding as his in-class time is, Weisserman also says he appreciates that on-going relationship I get to have with my students isn't just that I stand at the head of a class and lecture." Teaching at .both WBHS and U-M brings a special long-term connection with students. "The best thing about my job is that I tend to have the same kids for three or four years in high school, and then get the kids again in college," he says. He and his wife, Dr. Dolly Kerin Weisserman,- with whom he is expect- ing his first child in September, are known to show up on the doorsteps of former students now at insisting they join them for a very early morn- ing breakfast. "In many instances, they become my extended family members," he says of students who have joined him for Passover and Chanukah celebrations. "It means a lot to be able to watch them go from very young adolescents to full-fledged adults, and to have helped them, in some small way, become whom they've become." ❑ WEISSERMAN Visit us online: www.thisisfederation.org 4/26 2002 from page 95 the city completes its new and expanded library building. "I would also like to get involved in child advocacy" she says, "and possibly to do research on maternal and child issues." For now, the children in her Sunday School class give her plenty of experi- - ence with the kids-eye view. "If you go to Israel, be careful," one little girl said to her solemnly. "There are bombs there and you could get killed." Marcus, who spent the summer of 1988 in Israel and went on the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's young adult mission to Israel in 2000, says she is sorry the children are forced to grapple with the idea of bombs and of death. "It's a concept they can't quite grasp," she says. "My chief reaction to the situation in Israel is sadness," Marcus says. She's written letters to members of Congress and to the White House, as well as attending local pro-Israel rallies. Her wish for the region is deceptively simple: "I want there to be peace so all people, of whatever faith, can live there and visit there without fear." ❑ MARCUS THE AGINCV tWr FFFFFF MANIC FROGMAN{ IN TIC AM Additional support provided by the Clement 0. Miniger Memorial Foundation, The Stranahan Foundation, and the Members of the Centennial Society of the Totals Museum of ArL Addlional suppod for the catabeue is provided by The Andrew W. Welbn Foundation