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 . ❑