Editor's Letter
JIMMY CHOO
CIVIOINI
ALESSANDRO DELLACQUA
A Range Of Emotions
all call has brought a mixed bag of news with a sig-
nificant impact on Jewish Detroit:
• Evelyn Hoffman Kasle, a Franklin grandmother,
knows the gifts that a pastoral counselor can bring. When her
daughter, Linda, the mother of three, died 10 years ago, Kasle
found solace and support in Rabbi E.B."Bunny" Freedman of
the Southfield-based Jewish Hospice
and Chaplaincy Network. "When he
came to visit, he brought a certain light,
a warmth, a friendship — plus a rab-
binical presence she said.
Kasle is a geriatric social worker, but
it took a personal loss for her to feel the
power of pastoral skills. In response,
she invested in the Department of
Professional and Pastoral Skills at
the Conservative movement's Jewish
Theological Seminary in New York.
With her 2006 donation, she remains
the department's largest local contributor.
"Rabbis and others remind us that we are not alone as we
face life's many challenges': she said. "Helping these men and
women prepare to be effective and compassionate counselors is
critical."
Even people who are hospitalized typically enjoy bond-
ing with a rabbi. The visit often
brightens their day.
The JTS department that Kasle
helps fund prepares student rab-
bis and cantors in how to counsel
in matters of mourning, marital
conflict, substance abuse, illness,
domestic violence or troubled
kids. Classes for non-clergy JTS
students also are offered.
With emotional support so pivotal to life management,
Evelyn Hoffman Kasle's generosity will make life experiences
ever richer for generations of Jews.
darkened. Babcock fortunately continued to work and regularly
went to synagogue to stay connected. "Dating and marrying a
Jew has proven to be far tougher than I ever thought': she said.
She didn't fare any better using the Web site, JDate.com .
Many of Babcock's laid-off friends found work in Phoenix.
Babcock found the pull of Phoenix on a 2004 vacation to be
irresistible. She relocated nine months later, in May 2005. "I was
ready for a change," she said. She's now an administrative assis-
tant for the Harlem Globetrotters.
She wants to come back to Detroit, but things would have to
change, she said. "I miss Michigan, but I love Phoenix': she said.
"There's a huge social life here; I can socialize at temple and a
million other places."
Of course, Jewish young adults in Metro Detroit can meet
potential dates within and beyond the synagogue network.
Federation, B'nai B'rith and other Jewish organizations have
young adult chapters. The problem is that our demographic
study shows that 20- to 34-year-olds comprise just 9 percent
of the Jewish community. Those who are single find the dating
pool especially challenging.
Amy Babcock's experience isn't isolated. If the Detroit Jewish
community had job and living incentives, and a more vibrant
singles scene with an urban-like flair, there's a better chance
that we would not lose so many of our future stakeholders.
( 1
LANVIN
LELA
MIU MIU
ZAC POSEN
NINA RICCI
z
UNGARO
VALENTINO
If we had young-adult job and living incentives,
and a more vibrant singles scene with an urban-
like flair, there's a better chance that we would not
lose so many of our future stakeholders.
• Amy Babcock, 31, was born in Huntington Woods and grew
up Bloomfield Hills, but now lives in Phoenix. What drew her to
the Arizona desert is what has drawn many of our 20- and 30-
somethings: the vibrant Jewish nightlife. In Detroit, she found a
very limited pool of available Jewish men.
After graduating from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School
in 1993, Babcock earned a hospitality management degree at
Eastern Michigan University. Things were looking up. "My plan
out of college she told me via electronic
mail, "was to land a good job that I
could support myself off of, marry a nice
Jewish boy and raise my children in gen-
erally the same area that I grew up in.
Sounds perfect, right?"
Babcock was responding to my col-
umn,"If Numbers Could Talk': about
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit's 2005 demographic survey (June
Amy Babcock
8, page 5). I cited better job options, an
urban buzz and a hipper social scene as reasons why so many
of our young adults have moved to Chicago, New York, Boston,
Atlanta, Seattle or Los Angeles.
Babcock found work following graduation from EMU in
1998. But after 9-11 in 2001, Michigan's economic fortunes
DEREK LAM
• Don't think that Hamas, a terrorist group, has reformed.
The Palestinian Authority, which it now governs, has revived
a 3-year-old clip on P.A. TV to solicit kids willing to become
human shields to honor Allah in the fight against Israel.
"How sweet is the fragrance of the earth, its thirst quenched
by the gush of blood, flowing from the youthful body:' declared
a music video aired on June 28-29, reports the Jerusalem-based
Palestinian Media Watch. "Child-Martyr Heaven" is portrayed
as a fun place. The video opens with a child actor playing the
famous 2000 Gazan "martyr" Muhammad Al Dura, 12. The
actor says: "I am waving not to part, but to say,Tollow me:"
Itamar Marcus of the PMW reminds that the P.A. had its
image sullied by the June 25 kidnapping of Israeli Cpl. Gilad
Shalit, 19, as well as the related murder of two soldiers and
wounding of other soldiers. The Gaza-based missile barrage on
southern Israel is another black mark. On Monday, Detroit Jews
rallied in force at the West Bloomfield JCC for Shalit's release.
By sending kids into combat zones, the P.A. repositions itself
as the victim. "Children are taught that the shortcut to both
glory and fun is to follow Al Dura to heaven': Marcus says.
"Some of these children inevitably will be caught in the cross-
fire, P.A. leaders will rush to the media to publicly mourn the
children they have so deceitfully sent to their deaths and Israel
will once again be condemned."
Hamas' mission remains the destruction of Israel so the
P.A. can stake a claim to the land that God gave the Jewish
people. For the Israelis to sit idly as Hamas wreaks havoc is to
literally commit suicide. E
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI
NIDAY
SAtTUR DAY
EVENINGS
July 13 •2006
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