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IL11.11

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Respect The Holidays

East Lansing
s a senior at Michigan
State University, I have
been exposed to what
Judaism means to the good
majority of my generation.
Every year, I have gone home
for the High Holidays even
though I would be missing
classes. Not once have I gone to
school on the days of Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
When I am at my synagogue,
however, many of the students I
know are conspicuous by their
absence at services. Granted,
there are students not able to
get home. But there are Hillel

A

houses and synagogues near
most schools in Michigan for
students to pray. It is inexcus-
able for students to stay up at
school and actually go to class.
The High Holidays are the most
important days of the Jewish

There's no excuse

for students who go

to classes instead

of services.

exam on one of the
year. What is sadder is
days of the holidays,
that many students skip
but I am making it
classes on other days
up afterward.
for lesser reasons.
Universities must
Unfortunately, a good
accommodate for
majority of my peers do
the
various reli-
not share my views
gious
beliefs of stu-
about the importance of
Daniel Fischer
dents on campuses;
the High Holidays. I
Community
to not even try tak-
know someone who
View
ing an alternate
"accidentally" planned a
exam or reschedule
group presentation on
a presentation
the first day of Rosh
speaks volumes
Hashanah. I heard
about how much some students
another student say an exam
respect their own religion.
could not be missed. Well, I
If we do not observe our
have news for all the Jewish
holiest days of the year, then
students out there: I had an

why would other people respect
us?
The High Holidays are the
time for the Jewish people to
unite as one in prayer for the
repentance of our sins during
the closing year. I ask all college
students in the future to please
stay away from classes on these
holiest of days. Go to services
at home or at a local synagogue
or Hillel house near campus.
Make these days sacred again
amongst our generation. ❑

Daniel Fischer, 21, of Farmington
Hills is a pre-dental senior at :-
Michigan State University.

21:

Remembering Katrina

Ann Arbor
espite the constant
footage of the devastation
shown on television, I see
the clearest depiction of Katrina
in my imagination.
What I picture is a nightmarish
Atlantis, submarine and mythi-
cal. In my mind's eye is an
underwater scene of a saxophone
sadly floating past a library
whose walls are furry with sea-
weed. My focus jumps back and
forth from the vast emptiness of
an evacuated city to the impossi-
ble crowding of the evacuated
masses.
I see disconsolate figures hud-
dled in the Houston Astrodome,
slumped on stadium seats. Real
images I have seen on TV flicker
in and out of the picture as well:
a baby with languid eyes, too
hungry to cry. A dead body lying
solo on the side of a highway, fin-
gers blackened, stomach bloated.
Face exposed indecently to
passersby, who aren't looking,
anyway.
I've found that such scenes are

D

need unfathomable
much more potent
amounts of money. I
when I watch them
sometimes feel at a loss
with the sound turned
as to how I can become
off. When it's on, all I
one of those people,
hear are angry indict-
that I'm too small and
ments against those in
powerless to help.
power, those who
Few New Orleanians
failed to protect the
are
going to make it all
citizens in their
Arielle Soclof
the
way
to
charge. They declare
Community
Michigan
to escape
the death toll and
View
the ruins from the
destruction "needless,"
August diaster, so I
but when are such
can't take in a fami-
things ever necessary?
ly. Any donation I could make
Why do they find solace in plac-
from my own pocket would
ing blame?
be meager. I'll give it anyway,
Pointing fingers gives our
but I want to be doing more. I
hands something to do so that
want a plan in which the peo-
they don't remain idle. Idleness
ple of New. Orleans can see a
lets our minds wander through
face across from theirs, a per-
the New Orleans of our imagina-
tions, lets them float past the alli- son who cares about their
loss, because they haven't
gators and the bodies with no
seen that so far. They've been
coffins.
told very clearly who doesn't
There are those blessed people
care, and who didn't help.
who have found better things to
It's time to turn around and
do with their hands than point,
face forward, get our hands
like feed the endless hordes of
dirty and start helping
people, take them in or write
rebuild the lives of the people
checks towards a cause that will

of New Orleans.
I'm sure I'm not alone in wish-
ing that I could take my own
advice literally and jump on a
plane to New Orleans tomorrow.
But I know that this would not
be the best way to help, or the
safest. I also know that there will
be much more that needs to be

It will be a year from

now that help will be

the most needed,

when we have all

forgotten about

New Orleans in light

of some new disaster

or the preoccupations

of our normal lives,.

done even after the images of
this disaster disappear from my
TV screen and my conscious. It
will be a year from now that help
will be the most needed, when
we have all forgotten about New
Orleans in light of some new dis-
aster, or the preoccupations of .1,-,
our normal lives.
My hope for myself is that I
will be able to continue giving
and caring long after I have ful-
filled my social responsibility to
do so. My hope for the nation is
that it will unclench its pointing
fists and reach out its hands to
give to the people of New Orleans,'.
the supplies, strength and sup-
port they will need to make their
lives whole once more.

❑

Arielle Soclof, 17, is a senior at the
Jewish Academy of Metropolitan
Detroit. Her interests include writ-
ing, reading and ceramics. She .
plans to spend a year in Israel
upon graduation, following which
she hopes to study journalism in
college. She is the daughter of Dr.
Avi and Mrs. Mindy Soclof.

October 13 . 2005

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