inion Editorials are posted and archived on JN Online: www.detroitjewishnews.com Dry Bones The Right Move If ... jr ewish Family Service's plan to build an $8 million new headquarters in West Bloomfield seems odd at first blush. After all, where is the clientele of the social and behavioral health service agency? JFS' own statistics would seem to indi- cate that the move makes no sense. Of its 10,000 cur- rent clients: • 45 percent live in southeast Oakland County: Southfield, Oak Park, Royal Oak, Huntington Woods, Ferndale, Berkley. • 20 percent live in West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Hills, Commerce, Walled Lake. • 15 percent live in Farmington, Farmington Hills, Livonia, Northville, Plymouth. • 20 percent live elsewhere in the metro- politan area, including Rochester, Troy, Birmingham, Detroit and Grosse Pointe. But an analysis of the agency's services shows a different pattern. Adoption services (mostly home studies for other agencies): 50 percent of the clients are Jewish and 50 percent are non-Jews. The Jewish clients are over- whelmingly young and living in the outer suburbs. The same is true for JFS' addiction recovery services. Children of divorce: services are offered through the Southfield office on Greenfield Road and the agency's leased office on Orchard Lake Road north of 14 Mile in West Bloomfield. These services include individual counseling, support at the Jewish day schools and a contracted social worker for Bloomfield Hills Schools. Services that have similar needs in all areas include crisis support (domestic violence, counseling, emer- gency financial assistance), volunteer services (mentor- ing), senior services (counseling, care management, home care, Meals on Wheels) and transportation serv- ices (taking clients to health appointments, grocery shopping or visiting a spouse in a nursing home). According to David Moss, Jewish Family Service director of marketing and development, the number of home care cases in Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield is increasing. And the JFS transportation vans are serving 38 com- munities. The key here is service. JFS, like many other social service agencies, is caught in a web of governmental control: It accepts state and federal funding to better serve . its client base but, in doing so, must broaden that client base to the general community. But it is critical that Jewish agencies remember their core con- stituencies, their core funding source and what the "J" stands for in their names. For years, the Jewish Community Center's Jimmy Prentis Morris Building in Oak Park was a stepchild of much larg- er JCCs — first Meyers-Curtis in Detroit, then Maple-Drake in West Bloomfield. It took a concerted effort by area residents — lobbying and fund-raising — to turn JPM into a full-service JCC. Now JFS, with very generous help from Sally A. and Graham A. Orley and Suzanne E. and Joseph H. Orley, plans to replace an aging Southfield facility with a modern headquarters in West Bloomfield, across Maple from the JCC. A satellite office will remain in the Oak Park-Southfield area. If the JPM model is followed, and full services are maintained in that still-vibrant and important Jewish area, the proposed Orley JFS Building will be a mas- sive boost for the entire Jewish community. 11 Solidarity With Israel with principles, although this time the movement will be in a different direction. It will not be easy, for example, to watch Israeli troops move out of the West Bank and Gaza cities that have for so long served as bases for terrorists. The Israel Defense Forces fought hard to bring these areas under a semblance of control that has con- tributed importantly to slowing the suicide bombers. Moving out may simply encourage some of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists to launch new attacks, so we can't let down our guard entirely. Even more difficult will be to support the promised release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The first group will be people with no demonstrated links to terror, but pressure could grow to free some who may have incidental ties to the masterminds of violence. Unlike the withdrawal of armed forces, prisoner release is not mandated by the U.S.-backed road map to Mideast stability. Remembering the photos from Ramallah where, at the start of the latest intifada (uprising), a mob killed two reservists — the photos where blood was quite literally on the hands of the murderers — it is hard to think about releasing Palestinians who would agitate again. But it has become a preoccupation for the extremist groups that effectively rule the Palestinians and may well become a bargaining chip that Israel will have to pay to pro- long their cease-fire. Nor can we be terribly optimistic when the long- term incitement to violence continues. For example, it was disgusting last week to see the Palestinian Authority name a kids' summer camp for Wafa Idris, the first female suicide bomber. It was equally repel- lant when the P.A. failed to stop a mob that tried to suppress a Palestinian professor whose research showed the majority of Palestinians favoring an end to the violence. But American Jews as well as Israelis are going to have to swallow that kind of abhorrent behavior for a while. The likeliest avenue to continuing this fragile eas- ing of tensions after nearly three years of destruction will be intelligent concessions — including an aware- ness of the Palestinian political realities that make the posture of belligerence a necessity even for peace seekers in the West Bank and Gaza. Just as we defended Israel's stern actions when they were need- ed, American Jews must now support specific, limited steps toward a more relaxed and open approach. ❑ EDI TORIAL in ore than a year ago, when the Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis were being launched at the rate of one an hour, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began a counterattack with few holds barred. The actions included targeted killings of terrorist master- minds and the destruction of the homes of terrorists' families as well as stringent securi- ty checkpoints that necessarily disrupted the lives of innocent Palestinians. At the time, many American Jews were very uneasy about these defensive tactics, feeling the reprisals and preemptive strikes were not in keeping with the Jewish character or history or even Israel's short-term interest. But we understood the need for solidarity in the face of a concerted onslaught by radical Arabs and Muslims. Also, the Jewish community did an admirable job of explaining to other Americans — even before 9-11 — why existential threats demand- ed a firm response. Now we must adapt to a different reality, again one that may involve some very painful compromises EDIT ORIAL 7/25 2003 27