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Mazel
Toy!
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Voyage To Bharat
Seventh gradersexplore other cultures through JCCouncil's Religious Diversity Journeys.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
StafrWriter
ack in the less-sophisticated
days when baby-boomers
went to Norup School in Oak
Park, a line of middle-school-
ers dancing through the gym would have
been meant one of two things — the
Hokey-Pokey or the Duck Dance.
Not today. Fast forward 30 or 35
years to Norup School on Dec. 11,
2003, and the seventh-graders on the
gym floor are trying out the steps to a
Giddha, a traditional Sikh dance, under
the careful eye of Isha Singh of West
Bloomfield.
The occasion was the third Religious
Diversity Journey, a program of ethnic
and religious discovery for 125 Oakland
County seventh-graders sponsored by
the Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit.
The program — including not only
the student component but also events
for educators and parents — is co-spon-
sored by the Oakland County
Superintendents Association and the
National Council for Community and
Justice, and funded by a grant from the
Community Foundation for
Southeastern Michigan.
"The idea is to introduce public
school students to many of the religious
persuasions in Oakland County, to bet-
ter understand the other students they
go to school with," said Eric Adelman,
JCCouncil community associate. "Along
the way, we may be able to dispel some
stereotypes."
After the session at Norup School, the
students — 25 each from the Berkley,
Bloomfield Hills, Clarkston, Walled
Lake and West Bloomfield school dis-
tricts — were bused to the Bharatiya
Temple in Troy. There, they had more
detailed sessions on elementary
VOYAGE on page 42
Left:. Sonal Wagh, a student at Walled Lake Central High Schooh demonstrates Indian
dance.
Below: Practicing their Sikh dance skills are Jenica Dabrowski, 12,
of Clarkston, Abby Wagner, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, and Joanne George, 11,
of West Bloomfield.
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12/26
2003
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