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 5