To Life!
AROUND TOWN
Shared Night Out
Event brings together women from
three major streams of Judaism.
Jodee Fishman Raines of
Huntington Woods
Event speakers Adela Gold,
Bosmat Dovas and Eliza
Sosne
Debbie Kirshner and her
daughter Elizabeth, 12, both
of Oak Park, next to them
is Elizabeth's grandmother
Blanche Engel of Oak Park
Esther Monheit of Commerce
Township, Jean Elkus of
Farmington Hills and Fayge
Posen of Oak Park
kit Cohen, right, leads Israeli dancing
C
elebrating similarities,
instead of dwelling on differ-
ences, was the focus of the
annual Tri-Synagogue Women's Night
Out at the Jewish Community Center
in Oak Park. About 140 women from
Orthodox, Conservative and Reform
congregations — Young Israel of
Oak Park, Beth Shalom and Temple
Emanu-El — came together to social-
ize, have dinner and share ideas.
"We're all Jewish, but with the dif-
ferent streams of Judaism, sometimes differ-
ences might tend to pull us apart:' said Jodee
Fishman Raines of Huntington Woods, one
of the organizers. "A Reform woman growing up
in Huntington Woods might not even typically
get to know a young Orthodox woman from Oak
Park. We're one people; there's really a need for
this:' .
The theme of this year's event was "Jewish
Women: Our World-Our Community" A repre-
s-entative from each congregation spoke about
what it's like to grow up in another country and
settle in Metro Detroit. They were from Cuba,
Israel and France.
"I feel that no matter where you grow up in
the world, if your parents don't make an effort
to raise you Jewish, you will not be Jewish:'
said Bosmat Dovas of Huntington Woods, a
38
November 9 • 2006
IN
° Congregation Beth Shalom member
who grew up in Israel.
The Women's Night Out is an
annual event that used to be part of
the former Neighborhood Project,
a program sponsored by the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
to build a strong neighborhood
in the Oak Park, Southfield and
Huntington Woods area. The proj-
ect, which offered no-interest home
loans and home improvement loans
in parts of Oak Park and Southfield, ended about
five years ago; but there was an outcry in the
community to bring the women's event back. A
group of volunteers got together to make that
happen.
"It's a true legacy of the Neighborhood
Project," said Marion Freedman of West
Bloomfield, the project's past director. "This is
community in the broadest sense — it's bring-
ing everybody together to celebrate what we
share:'
Spotted in the crowd on Oct. 24 were: Ellen
Berlin, Margie Yaker, Elissa Driker
Ohren, Wendy Bakst and Jodie Krasnick,
all of Huntington Woods; Elaine Driker and
Delores Galea, both of Detroit; and Julie
Edgar Sklar, Ida Warshay and Beth Isaacs,
all of Oak Park. E