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January 25, 2007 - Image 30

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2007-01-25

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

I Opinion

OTHER VIEWS

Embracing Hunger

T

hank you for your attention to
the issue of hunger, the inad-
equacies of the Food Stamp
program and the work of Yad Ezra, the
Berkley-based kosher food pantry ("Not
Enough:' Jan. 4, page 13).
Without stating it directly, your article
addresses the worsening economy in
Michigan and the challenging times this
creates for families. Like all other social
problems, unemployment and poverty
are no strangers to the Jewish community.
Each of us has neighbors, relatives, fel-
low congregants, former colleagues and
friends who are finding themselves on
hard times that are getting harder.
The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit is very aware of this community
problem. It is helping both by examin-
ing how best to intervene in the long run
while at the same time providing funding
for agencies and programs that provide
immediate direct assistance.
A key Federation partner is Jewish

Family Service of
been explored and exhausted
Metropolitan Detroit, the
is Jewish Family Service able
community's "safety net:'
to provide limited emergency
helping people in need for
financial assistance. We do not
more than 80 years. Jewish
give out money, but rather write
Family Service has seen a
checks to landlords and utility
fourfold increase in families
companies, give vouchers for
needing emergency finan-
grocery stores and gas stations
cial assistance over the last
and get involved in any other
several years. We first help
way to help prevent hunger and
people seek out available
homelessness.
Amy Hoffman
family, government and
Like Yad Ezra, Jewish Family
Haimann
community resources and
Service
cannot do it alone. We
Community View
are then a "giver of last
partner with our sister agen-
resort!'
cies whenever appropriate.
In other words, a family in need will ask The most important component of our
for help and it is Jewish Family Service's
emergency financial assistance program
responsibility to ask tough questions
is case management. These professional
about who else has already helped or who
services help families create plans that not
might be able to help now, e.g., has your
only get them connected to other service
parent been able to help out? We also must providers, but force them to make tough
make sure that people go to every non-
decisions about income and expense, e.g.,
family/government resource available.
can we afford our lease payment, should
Only after all other resources have
we downsize to a more affordable home?

With community funding through
Federation for these case management
services, we refer to Yad Ezra, JVS, Hebrew
Free Loan Association and any other
resource within or outside of the Jewish
community that can help. Without this
ongoing professional case management,
Jewish Family Service would be bandaging
situations without looking for cures. This
would be a disservice by creating a depen-
dence that the community cannot afford.
Please understand that the unemploy-
ment rates you read about in the paper are
about families with names we'd all rec-
ognize, people we know. Yad Ezra, Jewish
Family Service and the Jewish Federation
are in the unfortunate growth industry of
helping the poor. The more that we all see
this as our own problem, the better off we
will all be.

Amy Hoffman Haimann is president of Jewish
Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit in West
Bloomfield.

Gerald Ford's Legacy

T

his month saw the passing of
Gerald R. Ford, 38th president of
the United States. Personally, I'm
too young to recall the Ford administra-
tion; but the news media has effectively
filled me in on all the pertinent events
surrounding his presidency.
The most controversial act of his
presidency was the unconditional pardon
he granted Richard Nixon less than 30
days after taking the oath of office. In a
televised broadcast to the nation, Ford
characterized Watergate as an American
tragedy that could go on and on and on
if someone wouldn't write the end to it. "I
have concluded:' he said, "that only I can
do that; and if I can, I must!'
The act cost him dearly. He was assailed
and castigated by friend and foe for
pardoning an unpardonable crime. The
media righteously raged at the shame of a
criminal not paying for his crimes due to
a backroom deal that was presumably bro-
kered. Historians all agree that the unpop-
ular pardon was the reason for Jimmy
Carter's razor-thin victory over President
Ford in the 1976 presidential elections.
Years passed, and with the benefit of
hindsight at their disposal, more and more
people from both sides of the aisle began
seeing the wisdom behind the pardon.

30

January 25 • 2007

To quote President Carter:
A quest for retribution is the
"He wisely chose the path
natural reaction to such an
of healing during a deeply
occurrence. Why should we
divisive time in our nation's
simply swallow an injustice?
history"
The feelings of righteous
In theory, it is true that
indignation prompt the victim
we must hold everyone
to shun the guilty individuals
accountable for their
and badmouth them. While
actions, no matter their
this reaction may be techni-
prestigious position; but at
cally correct and just, it leads
times the greater good must
to
family schisms and lifelong
Rabbi Naftali
take precedence. The nation
friendships
may be ripped
Silberberg
didn't need the dragged-out
asunder.
In
the
end, both par-
Community View
spectacle of a president on
ties to the quarrel end up as
trial and then incarcerated.
losers.
Arriving at closure was more important
The sages of the Mishnah praise the
than all other considerations.
person who has the ability to "see that
This isn't merely a manifestation of
which will be born." At a certain point, it
the "eulogy phenomenon," which causes
ceases to matter who was right and who
people to extol the virtues of recently
was wrong; everyone suffers when close
deceased individuals; this shift in public
relationships are destroyed.
opinion has been fermenting for a while. A
As a side note, a historical factoid that
noted senator, who at the time was a vocal the media has made much of is the fact
critic of the pardon, dubbing it a "betrayal that Gerald Ford is the only American
of the public trust:' was quoted a few years president to have held the office without
ago saying, "Unlike many of us at the time, being elected by the general public — nei-
President Ford recognized that the nation
ther as president nor as vice president. He
had to move forward!"
was appointed to the post of vice president
In the course of life, we are all at times
by President Nixon when it was vacated
wronged. The pain is exacerbated when
by the resignation of Vice President Spiro
the offender is a family member or friend. Agnew.

Historians and politicians interviewed
in the aftermath of Ford's demise all
agreed that he was "the right person at the
right time!' Following the Watergate scan-
dal, perhaps the darkest moments in the
history of the American presidency, Ford
restored integrity and dignity to the high-
est office of the land.
In a democracy, the electorate controls
its own destiny. The nation determines
who will lead and how. Or does it? Isn't it
ironic that the voting public had no say in
the installment of the "the right person for
the job" as president?
Is this simply a quirk, or is there some-
one who wanted to ensure that this won-
derful and kind nation of ours be blessed
with a leader who could start the country
on the road to healing?
Could this someone be the One in
whom — as is stated clearly on every
piece of United States currency — we all
trust implicitly? ❑

Rabbi Naftali Silberberg (www.BaisChabad.com)
is the son of Chaya Sara and Rabbi Elimelech
Silberberg of the Sara Tugman Bais Chabad of
West Bloomfield.

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