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Cycling For A Cause
This Week
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Ann Arbor
R
obert Levine plans to pedal for the Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society in honor of his mother, Evelyn,
who died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2003.
As a volunteer in the Team in Training program, Levine, 40,
is committed to raising at least $5,000 toward the fight against
leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma as well
as improving the quality of care and life for patients and their Robert
families. Since 1998, Team volunteers have raised $600 million
by competing in sports events across America.
"Riding in my mother's memory has given real meaning to my
training, fundraising and this cause," said Levine, a member of Ann
Arbor's Beth Israel Congregation. "It has helped me to heal and has
been a remarkable motivate
Last year, Levine completed the ride with his wife,
Jennifer. He crossed the line with a picture of him and his
mother pinned to the back of his jersey. "It was such a tri-
umph," he said. "It was my Stanley Cup."
Another inspiration for Levine is brother-in-law David
Michael, who is fighting leukemia, and mother-in-law Mary
Michael, who has ovarian cancer. "Training is difficult, but
if they can handle chemo, I can handle the pain of 100
Levine
miles," Levine said. "I really value the time and relation-
ships that I have with my family and friends more now."
To donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society via Robert
Levine, go to his Web site: www.active.com/donate/tntmi/RLevine07
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E-Newsletter
Golden Circle Gala
Learning Circle Academy started three years ago with seven students
and now has 22. It remains the only school in southeast Michigan
providing services to children in grades 4-12 with complex learning
disabilities often accompanied by difficulties with language process-
ing, sensory integration and social skills.
The school, which operates at the Laker Center in West Bloomfield,
owned by Congregation Shaarey Zedek, has a three to one student-to-
teacher ratio and often students do one-on-one learning. Tuition runs
$17,000 this year, but the actual cost per student is up to $25,000, says
Bonnie McDonald, director and a founder of the non-profit school.
She's strictly a volunteer.
Hoping to raise money for scholarships and to open classes for
grades 1-3 where demand is high, the school will hold its Golden
Circle Gala Night of Stars beginning with a silent auction at 6 p.m.
Saturday, April 28, at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. The event
includes hors d'oeuvres, dinner and entertainment. Tickets are $100
per person. To learn more about the school, go to www.learning
circleacademy.org . To purchase gala tickets, call (248) 538-0115. Lisa
Smith and Karen Barnhart are co-chairs.
Holocaust Documentary
Handleman Filmworks' Emmy-winning documentary, Remembering
the Holocaust, will be re-broadcast at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, April 14,
on Detroit Public Television/WTVS (Channel 56) in conjunction with
Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which falls on April 15.
The documentary originally was shown across America in the late
1980s in answer to Holocaust deniers.
"It is unfortunate that the same false claims are being voiced today,
not only by fringe elements but by a head of state, Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," said the film's producer, Philip Handleman
of Birmingham. "To leave these claims unanswered would be to allow
grave untruths to settle into the world's collective consciousness and to
open the way for a recurrence of one of history's most horrific events."
The documentary features interviews with Deroit-area Holocaust
survivors and was made in cooperation with the now-Zekelman
Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills.
In 1989, Handleman earned an Emmy for best documentary from
the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences.
- Ken Guten Cohen, story development editor
- Keri Guten Cohen, story development editor
Shoah Tapes Online
A remarkable set of interviews with Holocaust survivors, recorded
in 1946, is being placed on the Internet by the Illinois Institute of
Technology in Chicago.
Dr. David Broder, a psychologist at ITT's forerunner, Lewis Institute,
went to Europe after Gen. Dwight Eisenhower asked journalists to
record what happened in the Holocaust. Dr. Broder took along bulky
wire-recording equipment, a forerunner of tape recorders, invented by
a Lewis engineer.
He conducted 109 interviews totaling 120 hours on spools of car-
bon steel wire. He met with displaced persons, mostly Jews, in camps
in France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. Most of the interviews are
in Yiddish, German, Russian and Polish.
In 1998, an ITT psychologist and the library staff uncovered a 16-
volume set of typescripts of the interviews, including 70 that had
been transcribed into English. The collection is now being placed on
the Internet, and can be heard at hap://voices.iit.edu .
In 1949, Dr. Broder published eight of the interviews in I Did Not
Interview the Dead (University of Illinois Press). For health reasons,
Dr. Broder retired from ITT in 1952 and finished his career on the fac-
ulty at the University of California — Los Angeles.
- Alan Hitsky, associate editor
Circumcision In AIDS Fight
Late last month, the World Health Organization ended a years-long
debate by recommending circumcision as a way to prevent hetero-
sexual transmission of the AIDS virus.
The recommendation allows donor agencies to pay for the opera-
tion and came after three clinical trials in Africa found that male cir-
cumcision reduced the risk of infection in men by 60 percent.
WHO officials said men must be taught they can still catch the
virus after the operation. WHO recommends abstinence or sex with
fewer partners, plus the use of condoms.
After several small trials in Africa, AIDS researcher Daniel Haplerin
of the Harvard School of Public Health argued in a 1999 Lancet arti-
cle that circumcision reduces the risk of AIDS infection.
- Alan Hitsky, associate editor
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The deadline for Cap & Gown editorial
submissions is May 1. Any Jewish high
school senior in Michigan with a 3.50 or
higher grade point average can receive
a free listing in the May 24 Cap & Gown section. For informa-
tion, go to JNonline.us and click on the Cap & Gown button in
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Results from last week's poll:
Do you agree with President
Bush's aggressive approach to
containing Iran's nuclear capa-
bility?
Yes 51%
No 49%
This week's poll question:
Is Israel wise to negotiate
prisoner swaps — few for
many?
Visit the JNonline.us
homepage to cast your vote.
April 12 d 2007
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