Responding To The Need
Jane Sherman spearheads Israel volunteer program for locatcol ge- students.
HARRY KIRS BAUM
StaffWriter
ane Sherman has worn her
passion for Israel on her
sleeve since her first visit
there at age 21.
So it should come as no surprise
that she would spearhead "Volunteers
For Israel," an effort to send up to
100 students on a very inexpensive
two-week program to volunteer on
three army bases near Beersheba.
"They're doing menial tasks for the
army, but the soldiers will be the
same age as the students," said
Sherman of Franklin. "It should be a
great bonding experience."
For a $100 donation to the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
Israel Emergency Fund, the cost of
from New York
transportation to
City and-any incidentals, a student
from Hillel organizations in metro-
politan Detroit, Michigan State
University or the University of
Michigan can do more than to
about Israel.
and
Israel about five times a year. She
spent summers there between 1977
and 1985.
Sherman was fired up about the
volunteer idea. Two days after she
started dialing her cell phone, the
program was funded.
At present, 25 students have com-
mitted to the program and as many
as 50 additional students have
expressed an interest, Starkman said.
Miriam Gormazano, 23, of West
Bloomfield was one of the first stu-
dents to sign up.
"Israel needs our support," she said
matter-of-factly. "I don't look at this
as a free trip to Israel, I look at it as a
way to support the country. I feel this
with everything I have; it's so impor-
tant. My parents are supportive, but
nervous — they're parents." ❑
Israel needs volunteers right now,
The rest of the tab, estimated at
especially when they bring in 20,000
$1,200 per person, will be picked up
reservists, she said. "This program
by the Sherman Family Israel
could be a model for other cities."
Experience Fund, the Blumenstein
The idea came from the students
Family Young Adult Mission Fund
themselves,
said Miriam Starkman,
and the Irwin and Bethea Green
executive
director
of Hillel of Metro
College Life Fund, all part of the
Detroit.
Millennium Campaign for
"Kids came up to me in
Detroit's Jewish Future
March to ask what they
sponsored by Federation
could do for Israel, and I
and its finance arm, the
asked Federation," she said.
United Jewish Foundation.
"After the Passover bomb-
- The volunteer program
ing [in Netanya], I got an
will run May 19-31, and
answer from Federation."
include educational and
Starkman put together a
social programs. At the end
proposal for the army base
of their stay, the Michigan
visit and Federation Chief
group,-will join an
Executive Officer Robert
International Hillel group
Aronson
contacted
of 400 students there on a
Sherman.
ane She rman
four-day advocacy trip,
Sherman — a Federation
,Sherman said.
board
of governors member,
"We want them to come
co-founder
of Federation's
back and be advocates for
first Miracle Mission in 1993, and a
Israel, [and to know] how to do
member of the finance, administra-
something to counteract some of the
tion and budget committee of the
anti-Israel demonstrations o n cam-
Jewish Agency for Israel — visits
pus," she said.
For more information, call
- Miriam Starkman at (313) 577-
3459, or e-mail hillel@wayne.edu
or visit www.hillel-detroit.org
_
the Detroit community. "Let's all come together, rise
up and not waste any more time in our community
and start our future four, or eight, or 12 years from
now," he said. "We need to come together at this •
point, at this critical juncture in our history, to start
our future right here and right now."
The mayor will head to Detroit's sister city of
Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, this week to
seek increased trade and investment opportunities.
But he spoke of his Jewish Community Council-
section at a time, and
sponsored
trip to Israel in 1999 for 13 state lawmak-
hiring a strict police chief
ers.
who goes by the book as
"It was a fantastic trip, it's a fantastic country," he
a start in the right direc-
said,
"I would love to go again."
tion.
Allan Becker of Southfield called Mayor Kilpatrick
"Many think of
personable and intelligent. "He's got the right idea,
world-class cities as
and he certainly deserves the support of people from
cities that have vibrant
the suburbs," Becker said after Kilpatrick's speech.
restaurants, thriving
"It will take a marked improvement in the educa- •
retail downtown and
tional system to see people return from the suburbs,
huge buildings that you
and
some sense that law enforcement is in better
can see from miles
shape. He knows where the priorities should be."
Kwame Kilpatrick
away," he said. "But
Nathan Roth of Oak Park called the speech
really, global cities that
you mention all over the impressive. "He doesn't commit word pollution,"
said Roth, after he hugged Kilpatrick with whom he
world are cities where families feel safe and secure
traveled to Israel. "The man'has determination," said
with their children and they're clean and the world
Roth. "He's got the intelligence, he's got the stick-to-
knows it."
He said that metro Detroiters should speak well of it-tivness, and he's an all around type of a guy."
A World-Class City
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick envisions the future.
HARRY KIRS BAUM
StaffWriter
T
o Detroit's new mayor, thinking in
terms of the central city versus its sub-
urbs is old school.
"If we are the global community that
we purport to be, it's Detroit and the region versus
the rest of the world. And we really need that men- ...
talky if we want to compete for our children today,"
Kwame Kilpatrick told a packed house at the
Excalibur Banquet Center in Southfield on May 7.
Speaking to 300 members of a Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit luncheon co-sponsored by
the Comerica Charitable Foundation, the first-year
mayor laid out the three top priorities to get the city
back on track: kids, cops and clean.
He spoke of his after-school program for kids, the
"Motor City Makeover," to clean up the city one
5/10
2002
14
.
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