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BATS CHABAD

Dr. erome and Mindy Kaufman

HONOREE DINNER

WILL EXPRESS

SOLIDARITY

WITH ISRAEL.

SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News

s a demonstration of its steadfast sup-
port, the Sara Tugman Bais Chabad
Torah Center will donate 20 percent
of the proceeds of its annual dinner
to victims of terror in Israel and to members of
the Israel Defense Forces.
"We feel it is important, especially now, to
express our solidarity with Israel," said Elimelech
Silberberg, rabbi of the West Bloomfield syna-
gogue.
Slated for Sunday, March 9, at the Ramada
Inn in Southfield, the dinner will feature a pro-
gram heavy with support for Israel. Guest speak-
ers will be Daniel Pipes, the national columnist
and director of the Middle East Forum, and
Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist
Organization of America.
The Torah Center also will honor congregants
Dr. Lawrence and Natalie Lipnik of West
Bloomfield and Dr. Jerome and Mindy Kaufman
of Bloomfield Hills.
The Lipniks, who will receive the Eitz Chaim
(Tree of Life) Award, actually met at a Bais
Chabad-sponsored Shabbaton. They are both
active members of the synagogue.
Natalie Lipnik, an interior designer, headed
the synagogue's design committee. She created
the sanctuary's ner tamid (eternal light) and
designed the stained glass windows and parochet
(Holy Ark curtain). She also runs Bais Chabad's
biennial Judaica Art Fair, which raises tens of
thousands of dollars to help not only the syna-
gogue, but also the Israeli. artists whose works
are sold.
Dr. Lipnik, an internist, learns regularly with
Rabbi Silberberg and coached the Bais Chabad
baseball team. He also coaches Yeshivat Akiva's

Dr. Lawrence and Natalie Lipnik

Spreading His Message

Columnist Daniel Pipes brings straight talk on Islamists to Chabad dinner.

DON COHEN

Special to the Jewish News

Daniel Pipes

2/28
2003

52

Philadelphia-based Mideast scholar
and author Daniel Pipes will bring to
town his straight-talking criticism of
radical Islamists and the academics,
governments and media who coddle
them.
He'll speak on Sunday, March 9, at
the Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah
Center annual dinner.
Pipes, director of the Middle East
Forum, is a prize-winning columnist for

the New York Post and Jerusalem Post
and a regular contributor to the Jewish
News. He travels widely and appears
regularly as a "talking head" on televi-
sion news programs. He also - maintains
an extensive Web site at
www.danielpipes.com and e-mails out
his writings and those of his critics.
He's been spreading his message, but
lately it has become a lightning rod for
critics. His effort to monitor campus
Middle East studies programs through a
new site
www.campuswatch.org has led to a stu-

dent group at Stanford University can-
celing a talk and a faculty association at
Toronto's York University labeling him
a "racist." But if there is an empty spot
on his schedule, it's not hard to fill.
Self-confident and well informed,
Pipes doesn't shy away from meeting
challenges or debating his views, and he
doesn't let the criticisms get him down.
"Quite simply, I ignore it," he says.
"As my profile is getting larger, the
price is the criticism that comes with
it.
The opposition, he. maintains, is pre-