EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

Help Kids Step Up

eaching kids about the underpinning of communal
work and why it matters overwhelms them and so
does little to enrich their understanding of Jewish
values. Leave repair of the world to adults, some say.
I say nonsense.
You can't talk to kids the same way that you would adults
when extolling the virtues of a communal cause. But to dis-
miss kids as too immature to comprehend what you're say-
ing is to not realize that many would like to help make the
world a better place, if given the chance.
I pondered this as a local chapter leader of the U.S. sup-
port arm of Israel's emergency medical,
blood and rescue service described a new
program that inspires kids to raise enough
money over the school year to buy an
ambulance to send to Israel. A basic life
support unit costs $64,900.
Kids will seek donations as part of their
synagogue or communal youth group. The
first 18 groups to raise $3,000 will have
ROBERT A. their name inscribed on an ambulance
donated to Magen David Adorn. MDA
SKLAR
supplies all of the blood required
Editor
by the Israeli army and nearly all
needed by Israeli hospitals. Its ambulances make
1,000 runs every day. Donations cover all costs.
So don't hesitate if kids approach you these next
few months to purchase kosher gummy bear candy
as part of Operation Lifeline. This initiative will
culminate in a dance-a-thon on April 16 at the
Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield.
Rabbi Joey Krakoff of Congregation Shaarey Zedek
sees the dance as an example of a venue that brings
the Jewish community together, which we clearly
don't do enough.

T

Linking Generations

Sheri Levenson Stay delivered an important message as she
spoke to an audience of 355 who paid $90 each to attend
the annual dinner of the Michigan-based Dr. John J.
Mames Chapter of American Red Magen David for Israel
(ARMDI). Gross proceeds topped $31,000.
She talked about how the chapter is working hard to get
more of the younger generation involved in a cause that has
been a tower of strength and a beacon of hope in the Jewish
homeland for 74 years.
"While it is common knowledge that children learn by
the example that we set, the truth is that children really
learn best from hands-on experience," she said on Sept. 12
at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills.
There's certainly an impressive track record.
For the past two years, kids within the Detroit Jewish
community have made stuffed bears and blankets to send to
hospitalized kids in Israel. Each gift has a tag wishing a
refuah sh'lamah — a speedy recovery. More than 2,000 bears
have been sent.
"Children in Michigan helping children in Israel — it
doesn't get much better than that," Stay said. "The children
learned, first hand, how much pleasure there is in giving."
She and her special events committee co-chairs, Nancy
Adler and Jodi Tobin, are banking on kids staying involved
with ARMDI and drawing in their parents.
Consider the backdrop against which I learned about
Project Lifeline.
Young girls are among murder and rape victims of gov-

ernment-backed Arab militias violating African tribes in the
Darfur region of Sudan. Terror has killed 50,000 people
and made 1.2 million homeless. The Janjaweed seek to eth-
nically cleanse Darfur and seize the region rich with vol-
canic soil and wooded river valleys, reports the Sunday
Herald in Glasgow.
When the bullets and bombs stopped flying two days
after Chechniyan rebels took 1,200 people hostage at a
Russian school, 338 people lay dead. Kids made up almost
half of those killed from the Sept. 1 siege by 32 terrorists at
School No. 1 in Beslan.
In the Middle East, Palestinian terrorists deliberately tar-
get Jewish kids not only to ramp up Israeli fear, but also to
impact Jewish child bearing. Annihilating the Jewish people
is the fervent wish of Palestinian religious leaders.

Reality Training

So what a joy it is to hear about a project that puts kids on
a pedestal. Eva Mames of Southfield and her late husband,
both Holocaust survivors, founded the Dr. John J. Mames
Chapter 37 years ago. Prudent, she keeps the cost of opera-
tions at 3 percent.
The chapter funds bulletproof vests, ambu-
lances, paramedic scholarships and other med-
ical equipment for MDA.
Operation Lifeline's planned gift of an
ambulance underscores Detroit Jewry's role to
continue support for MDA in the wake of
Palestinian terror that has left more than 900
Jews and others dead in Israel and another
6,000 wounded.
Natalie and Manny Charach of Bloomfield
Hills have given 29 ambulances. Mames dinner
honorees Gloria and Ed Meer of Bloomfield
Hills have pledged a $79,900 mobile intensive
cardiac care unit. Over the years, 165 MDA
ambulances have had a Detroit tie.
Southfield's Ariella Goldfein, a senior psychology major at
the University of Michigan, volunteered for MDA in
Jerusalem last fall while studying at Hebrew University.
Each week, she'd ride with an ambulance crew, taking
pulses and watching the professionals. Her crew mostly
assisted the elderly. Her 2'/2 months of service certified her
as a first responder.
Volunteering for MDA is a great way to help Israel at this
dire time, whether you serve from Detroit or Jerusalem, the
2001 graduate of Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield said on
Monday.
"Younger kids can't really affect Israel's political system in
any sort of formal way," she said, "so if you can't get to the
source of problems, you still can help fix the reality of the
situation. That's why I got involved with Magen David
Adorn. It was my way of giving to Israeli society."
She didn't have to deal with a suicide bombing, but it was
always a possibility.
She cherished the volunteer opportunity. "I got to go into
Israeli homes and work with Israelis," she said. "It was a
positive experience in terms of its value and reward."
I loved how she thoughtfully summed up why she chose
MDA.
As she put it, "I wanted to make a statement as an
American in Israel. I wanted to take it to the Nth degree
and say, 'I'm here, and I'm going to do everything I can to
help Israel right now with the situation the way it is.'"

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