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Ann Arbor residents Babara Stahler-Sholk and Michael Appel take part in a small
group discussion on - Israel.

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6/11
2004

18

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wwwjewish.com

Gerzon, who also has worked with
Congress, had the volunteers display
the spectrum of beliefs as part of a
"mapping" exercise designed to show
multiple perspectives that exist so close
to home.
Some community members, howev-
er, questioned the portrait painted by
the varied beliefs.
"It may have catalogued a range of
opinions that exist among Jews in Ann
Arbor, but it didn't give a very good
read of where opinion of the commu-
nity lies as a whole," said Dan Cutler
of Ann Arbor. "By giving equal
weight, by delivering all the opinions,
it didn't show that some were outliers
,statistically and some were well with in
the mean," he said.
As a whole, the event did bring
together people from a broad range of
viewpoints, though, said Ann Arbor
resident Michael Appel.
"I'm more or less on the left and
friends I know sitting here are signifi-
cantly more conservative than I am,"
he said.
He said he valued the discussion
because of the significance of the
issues at hand and because he thinks it
is important for the community to
discuss an issue so central to its identi-
ty — a conversation that does not
often happen at the institutional level.
"I think it's great if the Jewish com-
munity acknowledges, encourages and
recognizes the diversity and that the
broader community also understands
the diversity in Jewish views on the •
subject," he said. "I think the goal was

to set standards for the ability of our
community to acknowledge and han-
dle the diversity of views."

Sharing Opinions

Under the leadership of 37 volunteer
facilitators trained earlier in the day,
participants sat in groups of six to 10
talking about how living in a commu-
nity with such diverse viewpoints on
Israel makes them feel.
Group members leaned in, talking
softly and listening carefully to experi-
ences ranging from difficulties with
being respected for supporting Israel
to reflections on instances when peo-
ple felt pressured or made to feel anti-
Semitic for not supporting Israel in
certain ways. One participant suggest-
ed that Israel should be supported in
the same way one would support a rel-
ative, no matter what his or her condi-
tion.
Some voiced concerns about local
tensions, especially relating to the
Jewish Witnesses for Peace, a pro-
Palestinian group that has held a vigil
outside Beth Israel Congregation every
Shabbat since Sept. 13. Participants
expressed anger and hurt at what sev-
eral called "antagonism." In one circle,
the heated discussion between a Jewish
Witness member and another partici-
pant led to a confrontation, threaten-
ing, as one man involved said, the
atmosphere of a "safe, family" conver-
sation he had hoped for.
Gerzon invited participants to
transform conflict" by finding what

"

