Staff Notebook
Interfaith Prayer Service
ith a focus on prayer as the foundation for
healing, the Metropolitan Detroit Circle of
Prayer will hold its annual Interfaith
.
National Day of Prayer in Detroit.
At noon Thursday, May 1, local leaders of many
religious faiths will gather at the Spirit of Detroit
statue at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center,
1 Woodward Avenue (corner of Woodward and
Jefferson) in Detroit, to offer formal prayers.
Rabbi Elliot Pachter of Congregation B'nai
Moshe, who participated in last year's event on
behalf of the Michigan
Board of Rabbis, described it
as a nice and moving pro-
gram.
The National Day of
Prayer is an annual event
established by an act of
Congress that encourages
Americans to pray for our
nation, its people and its
leaders.
For information on the
service, call (313) 962-0340.
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3 x
MJAC Appreciates Help
im Roth, program director of the Michigan
Jewish AIDS -Coalition, reports that the
financially troubled organization has received
some calls of financial support and assistance follow-
ing last week's story on MJAC.
The story did not include a contact number or
address for those wishing to inquire about helping
the organization, or who want more information on
MJAC programs.
For information, call (248) 594-6522.
Contributions can be sent to: MJAC, 30161
Southfield Road, #102, Southfield, MI 48076.
— Keri Guten Cohen
Iv] c
WSU Divestment Issue
Introducing Camp Keshet
n April 17, the Wayne State University
Student Council voted 9-7 to approve a
resolution calling on the urn-
strongly
versity to divest itself of all investments in compa-
nies or funds doing business with Israel. There was
no official Jewish pro-Israel representation at the
meeting, held during the second night of Passover.
Requests to postpone the meeting to accommodate
Jewish students were rejected.
The student council vote has no authority, but
will be submitted to WSU President Irvin Reid and
the WSU board of governors. Reid has previously
said the university has no intention of using any
other criteria than financial to guide university
investments, and will not divest from Israel.
Nonetheless, supporters of the resolution have
claimed victory.
Shemon Salam of the Student Movement for
Justice, which introduced the resolution, charged
that "Zionists" used tricks to try to defeat the resolu-
tion. In an e-mail he sent to pro-divestment groups
across the nation on April 18, he wrote, "All sorts of
strings were pulled and interesting tactics were
applied, yet they could not withstand our anti-racist
arguments. This is proof that Zionists can be beat."
In an April 22 column, South End's Ali Moosavi,
who regularly writes against Israel and its supporters,
suggested "the work of silencing the Jewish state's
critics will occur behind closed doors using tried and
true methods of applying pressure where it truly
hurts."
Allan Gale, associate director of the JCCouncil,
says, "The issue of divestment has been discredited
by a number of sources, including Alan Dershowitz
and Zvi Gitelman of the University of Michigan. It's
embers of North America's growing Jewish
Humanist community now have a summer
camp to call their own.
Camp Keshet (Rainbow), designed for young peo-
ple ages 8-15, opens this summer on the shores of
Lake Huron. The inaugural season runs July 3-12.
The camp is an affiliate of the Society for
Humanistic Judaism and the Association of
Humanistic Rabbis. Rabbi Tamara Kolton of the
Birmingham Temple will serve as director.
"Somewhere around 80 percent of the rabbis in
other movements went to their movement's summer
camp," Rabbi Kolton said. "Last June, at a meeting
of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis, we decided
we should have a camp, too."
So far, 27 young people have signed up for the
camp, which will be held at a YMCA campground
in Lexington, Mich., near Port Huron, Rabbi
Kolton said. Twenty are Birmingham Temple mem-
bers.
Activities at Camp Keshet will include horseback
riding, swimming, hiking, kayaking, arts and crafts,
technical tree climbing, and Hebrew language and
songs. The camp also will feature a Humanistic
Shabbat celebration.
In addition to Rabbi Kolton, the staff consists of
11 adults from the Humanistic community plus cer-
tified lifeguard, horseback riding and tree-climbing
instructors from the YMCA camp staff.
Among those on the committee planning the
camp is Larry Stevens, owner of Camp Walden.
For more information, contact SHJ at
info@shj.org or call (248) 478-7610.
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12
—Don Cohen
— Shelli Liebman DO1finall
Rabbi Pachter
4/25
2003
just a subterfuge for attacking Israel. It's unfortunate
the council voted that way, particularly without
Jewish input because of Passover."
Miriam Starkman, director of Hillel of
Metropolitan Detroit, who says students are weigh-
ing responses and consulting with the JCCouncil,
urges community members to "encourage President
Reid to make a strong unambiguous statement put-
ting to rest the issue of divestment."
,
— Diana Lieberman
Environmental Ideas
he Coalition on the Environment and Jewish
Life (COEJL) is launching an interactive,
user-friendly online program bank:
www.coejl.org/programs The Web site consists of
more than 120 Jewish environmental program ideas.
Visitors to the site can download how-to resources
for educational activities, sermons, outdoor games,
hikes and holiday celebrations. The site is easily nav-
igated, with users able to search for program ideas
by environmental issue, Jewish holiday, target audi-
ence and keyword. Visitors are encouraged -to add
comments and suggestions for each program and
their own program ideas to the site.
T
— Keri Guten Cohen
Online emories
cracked passport photo is all Judit Kinszki
has left of her father.
"My father was taken from me when I was
just a child, so when I talk about him, I feel that I
somehow get closer to him," says Kinszki, 68. "My
father, Imre, was born in 1901."
These words about Jewish life in prewar Central
Europe are not being spoken in a living room in
Hungary, Kinszki's home country, but have been
recorded on the Internet. A visit to Centropa.org , a
Web site established seven months ago, lets people
explore the histories of Jewish families before, dur-
ing and after the outbreak of World War II.
"Witness to a Jewish
Century," one of the site's
sections, is a searchable
online database of family
photos. It is accompanied
by oral histories collected
by more than 80 Centropa
researchers workincr b in .a
dozen countries, including
those in Central and
Eastern Europe. The site,
which ultimately hopes to
post 1,500 family stories
and more than 65,000 pho- Miraniatearna
tographs, appears to be res-
A childhood photo of
onating with Internet
Kinszki's father, Imre
surfers: It received more
than 30,000 hits in the
month after it debuted Sept. 15. The site is funded by
donors and private foundations.
The project is the brainchild of writer, photogra-
pher and filmmaker Edward Serotta, who since
1985 has specialized in Jewish life in the region.
"What I find so exciting is to look at a picture of a
12-year-old girl dressed up in a silly costume, and
next to it hear her tell me, in her own words, when
the picture was taken, why she was wearing the cos-
tume and what happened to the other children in
who will speak at 7:30
s
that picture," say
p.m. ThUrsday, May 1, at the Jewish Community
Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Drive in Ann Arbor. For
information, call (734) 677-0100.
A
— Mica Rosenberg, JTA