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December 29, 2005 - Image 40

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2005-12-29

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

I

Opinion

OTHER VIEWS

A Catalyst For Change

I

read with interest Linda
Stulberg's Community
Perspective "Urging A
Communal Response" (Dec. 15,
page 52). She refers to these
times as grave times and she is
expressing the sentiments that
the Anti-Defamation League has
been expressing for years. She
refers to divestment from Israel,
anti-Israel bashing on campus,
anti-Semitism in the community
and apathy in the Jewish com-
munity about these important
issues. .
Part of the mission of the ADL
is building bridges into diverse
communities, but not at the
expense, safety and security of
the Jewish community. ADL has
the programs and the curricula
to combat these issues that Linda
Stulberg so eloquently described.
Each September, ADL hosts a
security seminar for the syna-
gogues and Jewish organizations
that have their own buildings.
The ADL is the known security
expert, the 911 for the Jewish
community. We invite almost 100

organizations to this seminar
and a handful show up. Each
September we are shocked.
When Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan came to town,
the ADL wrote commentaries to
all the local papers chastising the
city administration for pander-
ing to this avowed anti-Semite
and his cohort, Malik Shabbaz. I
personally met with the NAACP
leadership, voicing my serious
concern over,their support of Mr.
Farrakhan and how offensive
their support is to the Jewish
community. My protest was
heard and dismissed.
The Anti-Defamation League
yearly hosts an ongoing college
program dealing with some vari-
ety of anti-Semitism or Israel
advocacy-program; it is difficult
to build attendance because a
number of college campuses are
not willing to include off-campus
organizations or do not believe
that their campus has any issues
with anti-Semitism or need help
with Israel advocacy. We shake
our heads in dismay.

In 2004, we hosted
Arab community do.
the statewide pro-
These same students
gram "Confronting
listen to professors with
Anti-Semitism." It was
a pro-Palestinian bias
held at the Michigan
and do not have the
State University Hillel
knowledge or the
(which was very
courage to challenge
receptive). We invited
them.
every campus in the
Betsy K ellman
However, there are
state to participate,
Comm unity
some things that are
free of charge because
Perspe ctive
being done. ADL and
of an ADL grant. A
the American Jewish
major university was noticeably
Committee are involved locally
absent because it felt that there
and nationally in the important
was a not a threat of any kind of
task of fighting the complicated
anti-Semitism on its campus.
issue of divestment from Israel
This year, we brought in the
and the severe economic chaos
Israeli editor of the Jerusalem
that could occur if these kinds of
Report, Stuart Schoffman, to dis-
threats actually occur.
cuss Israel advocacy. Again, far
The Jewish Zionist women's
too few saw and heard his excel-
organization; Hadassah, is
lent update on the withdrawal
nationally involved in the impor-
from Gaza. The one thing that
tant task of monitoring Arab
the ADL has learned is that our
textbooks and the Arab media.
college students are woefully
Many Arab students are taught
under informed. They do not
from a very early age to hate Jews
have the facts about what is
and they are good students. They
going on in Israel. They do not
learn their lessons well. But at
knowhow to argue the case for
the same time, we cannot paint
Israel; their counterparts in the
all Arabs with a broad brush any

more than we want any people to
judge all Jews the same way.
But we need to move forward
and work as a community. I
challenge Jewish News readers to
contact the Anti-Defamation
League and tell us how you want
to get involved. We are willing to
act as an organizational liaison
and invite the other Jewish com-
munity organizations to join us.
Let us have a community meet-
ing where we can voice our
shared concern and turn it into
activism.
As a community, we can begin
to make the changes that need to
be made. We thank Ms. Stulberg
for her thoughtful response and
for saying what needs to be said.
Let her voice be a catalyst for
change.
We can make a change or we
can do nothing. The choice is
ours. E

Betsy Kellman is regional director of

the Bloomfield Township-based Anti-

Defamation League-Michigan Region.

Helping Israelis Heal Hunger

Jerusalem

atching kids in their
warm-up suits slurp-
ing chicken soup and
laughing with friends, they look
like kids you see anywhere and
everywhere. Some are serious
and shy, knowing
visitors are watching;
others ham it up for
the photos, making
silly faces and goofy
gestures.
Do they know that
one in three children
in Israel go hungry? The sad
truth is that in their group, they
all are the "one." Of the 6.5 mil-
lion people in Israel,.1.5 million
fall under the poverty line. In a
Jewish, formerly socialist coun-
try, how can this be?
It begins with the definition of
hunger. In Hebrew, there is only
one word to convey hunger and,
when translated, the word really
implies starvation or famine.
Literalists in Israel argue_that

W

40

December 29 • 2005

because there is no famine or
starvation, there is no hunger.
Activists in Israel have pushed
for the addition of a Hebrew term
to convey a state of hunger
("food insecurity") that is being
experienced by more and more of
.
its population. Sadly, that
hasn't served as enough
of a catalyst to encourage
Israel's government to
respond to this problem.
Israeli government offi-
cials who accept the fact
that there are hungry citi-
zens seem content to rely on the
NGOs (non-government organi-
zations) to address these needs.
Soups kitchens, food pantries,
food banks, non-profit institutes,
exist in abundance; after all, we
pride ourselves on our acts of
chesed (loving-kindness) towards
fellow human beings.
An Israeli-based non-profit
entity, theForum to Address
Food Insecurity and Poverty in
Israel, has taken on the mission

of "... encouraging
MAZON: a Jewish
the formation of
Response to Hunger
policies and system-
organized a trip to Israel
wide solutions to
to meet with government
the problem of food
officials, representatives of
insecurity and
NGOs, industry and edu-
poverty [in Israel]
cation to address the
based on research
growing issue of poverty
into the best prac-
Lea Lu ger
Accompanying Eric
tices known in this
Commu nity
Schockman, MAZON's
field."
Perspec tive
president, were Eric Bost,
Comprehensive
U.S. Under Secretary of
investigation by the Israeli Center Agriculture; Jean Daniel, his
for Third Sector Research and
press secretary; and Joel Jacob, a
the Forum gleaned the following
West Bloomfield activist and phi-
information:
lanthropist, who invited me to
• No infrastructure exists to
represent a non-profit feeding
address this problem;
.
agency; and Steve Freedman,
• Major gaps exist in how/who -
head of Hillel Day School of
receives assistance from the vari- Metropolitan Detroit, who repre-
ous programs;
sented Jewish day schools and
• Many non-profits are acting
their role in advocacy efforts.
without first consulting local
Meetings from 7 a.m. to 10 .
authorities about (other) assis-
p.m. engulfed our lives for four
tance programs and the popula-
action-packed days. Typical of a
tion's needs;
Jewish effort and ironic given the
• No standard exists to address
focus of our conversations, no
specific nutritional needs.
meeting was without food, and

no food came without a meeting.
MAZON orchestrated the meet-
ings with Knesset members,
including the ministers of agri-
culture, justice, diaspora affairs,
finance and foreign affairs.
Discussions included the sugges-
tion that the Israeli government
consider birthing a national food
bank (modeled after America's
Second Harvest) that would pro-
vide a central address, standards
for nutrition, food distribution
and safety, better coordination
between non-profit organizations
and more efficient use of
resources.
Other topics, included the Good
Samaritan Law that protects food
donors from, lawsuits in the U.S.,
and the WIC (Women, Infants
and Children) federal program
that provides pregnant women
and children with nutritional
needs, food stamps and break-
fast/lunch assistance program.
All of these government pro-
grams have made significant

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