OTHER VIEWS

The Meaning Of Community

E

very year as the holiday of
Passover approaches, there is a
palpable energy at Yad Ezra,
Michigan's only kosher food bank.
I witnessed it the Sunday after
Purim as I spoke with volunteers and
clients in the bustling warehouse.
Loaded pallets of matzah were begin-
ning to take over the shelves.
Volunteers stood in line to sign up for
opportunities to sort, box, deliver and
distribute food that will enable fami-
lies to celebrate a seder.
People watched as Bernie, our ware-
house manager, stacked rows and rows
of boxes that would be used to pack-
age Passover non-perishables.
Generous donors were starting to drop
off checks to help fund food purchas-
es.
Phone calls from clients, eagerly
anticipating news of the special holi-
day distribution, were coming in on
all four lines. Schoolchildren who par-
ticipate in Yad Ezra's Food of the
Month program were announcing the
collection of special treats for us to
distribute along with the seder staples.
Now, more than any other time of

Lea Luger is development director of Yad
Ezra in Berkley.

year, exemplifies how our community
bands together in celebration of this
extraordinary holiday. The message of
freedom and its underlying responsibil-
ity resonate with those who celebrate
Passover. The warmth in the air and
the taste of spring beckon a rebirth.
Just as the Israelites were reborn fol-
lowing years of enslavement, Passover
rejuvenates our souls with the retelling
of our exodus from Egypt and the
promise of freedom. The purpose of
the seder is to make us mindful that

Participating in the good of
the greater community and
experiencing the universal
nature of the holiday creates
an atmosphere of unity and
oneness. Our history tells us
that we can be spiritually free
only when our neighbors are
LEA LUGER no longer bound by condi-
tions such as hunger. Then we
Community
can experience true freedom
Perspective
and justice.
Recently in the warehouse,
Eva Antebi-Lerman, 7, handed me an
envelope with more than $60 in it to
be used to buy food. She had saved
money from her allowance and had
also asked family members to con-
tribute as well. When I asked her what
made her decide to give her donation
to Yad Ezra, she replied, "I know how
people feel when they don't have
enough food in the fridge." Eva pro-
foundly understands and lives by the
following words of Martin Luther
King Jr.: "Whatever affects one direct-
ly, affects all indirectly."
We at Yad Ezra are privileged to
repeatedly witness examples of our
community acting as one. How truly
fortunate we are to live in such a gen-
Saul Zipser of Redford and Bernie Jonas of Wrest Bloomfield distribute produce to
erous community. ❑

clients receiving Passover packages

Save Your People, Not Just Harvard

New York
've gotten into the terrible habit
of reading the "Styles" section of
the Sunday New York Times.
I count the number of Jews marry-
ing non-Jews in Jewish ceremonies
and in non-Jewish ceremonies. The
experience is generally dispiriting for
those of us who are concerned with
Jewish demography. But this is only a
minor manifestation of the crisis fac-
ing our community.
The crisis is expressed not only in
rates of intermarriage, which seem
to hover around 50 percent, but in
our population statistics, which are
at best stagnant and more probably

I

IN

4/21
2005

36

Michael Steinhardt is chairman of the
Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt
Foundation and chairman of Jewish
Renaissance Media, which publishes the
Detroit Jewish News and Atlanta
Jewish Times. This item originally
appeared in the International Jerusalem
Post on Feb. 18, 2005.

while this is a new beginning,
the importance of our history
cannot be forgotten. We as a
community are instructed to
remember our collective past.
There is no "them" and "us,"
no wealthy and impoverished;
we are bound together in one
shared destiny.
The volunteers are as excited
about the Passover distribution
as the 1,100 client families
who are on the receiving end.

reflective of a decline. American
Jews are marrying later and having
fewer children relative to previous
Jewish generations and to their non-
Jewish counterparts.
But the crisis is not limited to
demography. In the area of Jewish lit-
eracy, popular films such as Garden
State, which take for granted the
remoteness of temple attendance for
contemporary Jews, only scratch the
surface of the malaise.
A silent majority of non-Orthodox
Jews don't read this newspaper or
any of the local Jewish weeklies or
indeed anything Jewish at all. These
people, who are well on their way to
Jewish disappearance, have no repre-
sentation in our communal struc-
tures; nor does the community occu-
py itself with the challenge of meet-
ing their needs or preventing their
slipping away.
Philanthropists have not risen to
the challenge of shoring up Jewish
identity. Can you name a serious
non-Orthodox American Jewish phi-

lanthropist below the age of
50? There may be one or
two, but it truly would be
like looking for a needle in a
haystack.
Moreover, we are talking
about an extraordinarily
wealthy community that is
generous to secular philan-
thropies.

no differently with the health
of our people.
Currently, the Jewish com-
munity is facing a dire crisis
of identity, affiliation and
knowledge. Where is the
sense of crisis among our
people?
The lingering fear of
MICHAEL
STEINHARDT anti-Semitism, regardless of
whether it is based on cur-
Special
Trending Downward
rent reality, summons mil-
Commentary
According to the Chronicle of
lions of dollars for Jewish
Philanthropy, the biggest
defense agendas and
individual gifts of 2002 ranged from
Holocaust memorials. But when it
$100 million to $375 million. Of the
comes to reinforcing Jewish identity,
10 philanthropists, six were Jewish.
we come up short. Programs that
Not a single one gave anything mean-
emphasize spiritual renewal and cul-
ingful to a Jewish cause. Today, per-
tural joy are funded almost as an
haps 20 percent of Jewish giving goes
afterthought.
to Jewish causes. In the middle of the
This is true whether we're talking
20th century, it was about 50 percent.
aboUt financing established institu-
The absence of philanthropic
tions such as day schools or summer
investment is painful for those of us
camps, or more innovative programs
who care about the Jewish future.
of identity enrichment such as
If a relative is gravely ill, we spare
Birthright Israel. Despite its proven
no expense to save them.
extraordinary impact on Jewish
We attempt the riskiest maneuvers
identity, Birthright struggles to send
and sometimes invest in the most
15,000 students to Israel each year,
outlandish cures. We should behave
when the actual cohort of interested