OTHER VIEWS AeCA115,57721417° BANK Freedom of Choice Classic Checking Convenient with tiered interest rates. Homebuyers Checking Flagstar 55 Checking Convenient free checking account for homeowners. Convenient free checking exclusively for customers over age 55. Star Checking Smart Checking Convenient Online banking. Open and maintain your checking account exclusively Online. Convenience that gives you more than you'd expect (i.e. travel services, discounts & much more). Introducing... the NEW Flagstar Premier Business Checking Accounts! Flagstar Premier Business: Flagstar Premier Incorporated: DBAs, Non-Profit Organizations, .Sole-Proprietors or Husband/Wife Partnership, Public Entities. Incorporated business and LLCs. Ari Lowell and Shana Schochet, on their wedding day. SCHOCHET from page 28 ireA557721R® BAN K r Convenience You Can Count On. Ann Arbor Detroit Rochester 734-663-9699 734-994-7800 734-214-2265 734-528-2685 313-832-7971 248-652-9792 Farmington Hills Roseville 248-324-0013 586-778-8043 Fenton Belleville Sterling Heights 810-714-2734 734-699-6639 Bloomfield Hills 248-988-8613 586-803-1180 586-268-3230 Howell 517-552-9655 Taylor Livonia 313-299-0186 734-953-6890 Canton Troy 734-981-4942 Madison Heights 586-421-0388 248-588-6777 248-543-1817 248-312-5400 248-288-6559 248-435-0059 Clinton Township Pontiac Waterford 586-263-4971 248-475-0696 248-674-1380 Chesterfield MEMBER FDIC many of our Israeli friends thanked us for having the wedding in Israel, in Jerusalem. They feel very stressed, very pressured and very alone. Having a simchah there, being able to relax and enjoy the fun, was worth a great deal to them. We were able, in some small way, to support them and strengthen their resolve. They know. that Jews out- side of Israel support them financially. But they need emotional support, too, and that cannot be given at a distance. Jews in the Detroit area send mil- lions of dollars each year to Israel. Excellent! We send additional millions of dollars in years of strife and special difficulty there. Great! We must also send ourselves. We must go visit Israel. We must continue to send our children to study in Israel. (Another daughter of ours is studying VVWw.f in MARKS from page 29 LEND. FLAGSTAR CHECKING ACCOUNTS: A minimum deposit is required to open a new checking account. Restrictions apply. We'll meet you anywhere, anytime for a home loan. Call 888-LOAN-FSB CPILTOOMFOR A SUBSCRIPTION 8/ 2 2002 30 in Safed this summer.) If you feel that Israel is important, that Jews should continue to live in Israel in freedom, that American Jews need Israel, then you must vote with your feet. Sometimes, it is necessary in life to simply show up. Now is one of those times. Cancel your trip to Europe; put off buying your new SUV for a year; don't remodel your kitchen. Go. Go by yourself; go with a group; go on Birthright Israel. Go to study. Go to tour. Go on the Aug. 11-14 Israel Rally http://vvww.rallyinisrael.org Go to have your own family simchah — a wedding or your child's bar or bat mitzvah. Go to lie on the beach and to scuba dive in the Red Sea. Go to drink coffee, eat a falafel or have a steak in a town with dozens of kosher restaurants. Go to become an oleh chadash, a new immigrant. Go to shop. Buy books. Buy silver. Buy an apartment. Just go! ❑ 248.539.3001 tamer" when all other explanations fail. Lacking all other reasons, we fall back to a punitive concept, that we deserve punishment; that perhaps God never liked us to begin with. But ill- ness has shown me another God, one of comfort. The "loathsome trickster God" offers nothing, not even to say, "I don't know." There is no reason why this has hap- pened. Life is inherently unpredictable. Diseases, like lung cancer, have more ups and downs than a soap opera. Like Tolstoy's Anna Karenina you laugh or cry, and sometimes both. It's funny, at least to me, that since losing my voice, I can't interrupt any- one, not even to tell a joke. I have learned to listen to news reports rather than comment on the haircut of the newscaster. Now that I listen to con- versation, I'm no longer the smartest person in any room, so far as you could tell. The condition won't last forever. Soon, I'll have a silicon implant that has nothing to do with breast enhancement. I'm told it will smooth out my vocal cord and restore my voice to normal. I'm saving my best repartee until then. "Man plans and God laughs," is what we say in difficult times, as if God were Henny Youngman. If so, God can find me right here. ❑