Front Lines
NOTEBOOK
iNer ine
This Week
Making Their Pitch In srael
Alan Hitsky
Associate editor
T
wo baseball pitchers with deep
Michigan roots are on the rosters
of the inaugural Israel Baseball
League (IBL), which began a 150-game
season June 24.
Justin Prinstein of Farmington Hills
is playing for the Netanya Tigers and
Jason Benson of Holland is with the Bet
Shemesh Blue Sox.
Prinstein, 23, grew up playing in
Jason Benson
Southfield and in the North Farmington-
West Bloomfield league. He was a team
captain and most valuable player as a high school senior in 2002 at
North Farmington before attending Albion College for two years and
then George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He earned
his degree in political science in 2006 and will probably go on to law
school, but is devoting this year to professional baseball according to
his parents, Dayle and Jay Prinstein.
Justin Prinstein, who attended Shaarey Zedek Hebrew school, was
Ann Arbor
One of the founding fathers of the family medicine specialty at the
University of Michigan Health System has given a $1.5 million gift to
honor the department he helped to establish.
The gift establishes the George A. Dean, M.D.
Family Medicine Chair at the U-M Medical
School. Dean's gift is part of the President's Donor
Challenge, a program launched by U-M President
Mary Sue Coleman to create endowed professor-
ships and support need-based financial aid. With
the Donor Challenge fund donating an additional
Dr. Dean
$500,000, the total value of the gift is $2 million.
Dr. Dean's gift is the first endowed professorship
for the U-M Department of Family Medicine.
"I believe that family medicine is the most logical, beneficial and
cost-effective way of providing care to families," said Dean, who lives
in Bloomfield Hills and Boca Raton, Fla.
"Since the moment we first suggested that U-M create a
Department of Family Medicine, I have said that family physicians
provide continuity of care, humanistic care and preventive medicine,
and all of those things are vital for the care of families."
- Robert A. Sklar, editor
Book bargains will be available during the summer mini Bookstock
sale, from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday, July 12, through Saturday, July
14, and from noon-5 p.m. Sunday, July 15, in the former Don Thomas
Sporthaus in Bloomfield Plaza at the southwest corner of Maple and
Telegraph roads.
The sale is sponsored by the Detroit Jewish Coalition for Literacy,
the Oakland Literacy Council, the Detroit Jewish News, Schostak
Brothers and Company and a consortium of Jewish communal non-
profit organizations that support education and literacy.
Volunteers are needed to help during the sale. Contact the Greater
Detroit Chapter of Hadassah at (248) 683-5030.
- Hadas Corey, Teen2Teen intern
July 5 2007
pitching for a team in Hoboken, Belgium,
before the start of the IBL season.
According to his mom, Dayle, "He's doing
what he loves. I'm thrilled he's going to
Israel."
Benson, who is not Jewish, is 28. He was
intrigued when he saw the IBL announce-
ment last year. "It's a place I always wanted
to go:' said the former history major. A
year-round player, Benson pitches about
32 games a year in the United States,
AV' Canada and Australia. His Quebec team
gave him permission to go to Israel, but
Justin Prinstein
he'll return to Quebec in time for the play-
offs at the end of the summer.
Six teams are sharing three ball fields in Israel. Each team will play
50 games. Benson believes the IBL has a future because "I think the
people who are putting it together are going to make it go."
Team managers include former stars Art Shamsky, Ken Holzman
and Ron Bloomberg; and Major League Commissioner Bud Selig is on
the IBL's advisory committee.
Koolanoo: Hebrew For All Of Us'
Hre's To Good Health
8
www.JNOnline.us
With computers playing a main role in today's communication, Jewish
adults between ages 20 and 40 have the opportunity to chat online
with other Jewish singles using a new social connection Web site:
www.koolanoo.com . This Jewish adult Web site allows members to
share and connect with friends all around the world.
Koolanoo.com is similar to the popular Facebook.com and
MySpace.com used by teens and college students. Koolanoo can be
used for dating, chatting, blogging and sharing videos or sound-
boards. The service is free, but you must sign up — and Koolanoo
says it is only available to "members of the tribe."
- Hadas Corey, Teen2Teen intern
Building Bridges With Books
The American Jewish Committee Metropolitan Detroit Chapter pre-
sented small Jewish book collections to the Detroit Muslim Center in
Detroit and the Islamic Organization of North America in Warren.
The collections include books about the Jewish faith, customs and
holidays, Jewish literature, Jewish codes of law and ethics and sacred
texts. Sixteen books appropriate for young adults and up will be
housed in special areas of the mosques and made available to those
who are serious students of the Abrahamic faiths. This project has
been underwritten by Suzy and Burton Farbman.
"Recent events in the Middle East and in America have challenged
many in both communities who value the cultivation of positive rela-
tions between the two faith communities:' said Brenda Rosenberg. As
the co-chair of the AJC chapter's Inter-Religious Affairs Commission,
Rosenberg feels that Building Bridges With Books is a model for
strengthening interfaith outreach and understanding.
Imam Abdullah Bey El-Amin of the Detroit Muslim Center and Imam
Steven Mustapha Elturk of IONA were enthusiastic about the books.
"We value this contribution and we hope that these books will
indeed help build bridges among those who follow the Abrahamic
faiths;' Imam Mustapha Elturk said.
Other area imams will accept mini Jewish libraries and presenta-
tions in Dearborn and Oakland County will be scheduled for August.
- Keri Guten Cohen, story development editor
Synagogue Listings
Want to know what time ser-
vices start at a particular syn-
agogue or who might be speak-
ing? Maybe you're interested in
special congregational dinners
or gatherings. Find all this and
more in our online synagogue
listings that will be changed by
Wednesday each week.
Just visit JNonline.us and
click on Synagogue on the
left.
JBIog
Arnie Goldman shares his
thoughts about the Iraq war,
little mitzvahs and more.
Jeff Klein offers his Metro
Perspectives on everything
from dating to friendship.
Only at JNonline.us . Just
click on JBlog on the menu
on the left.
Celebrations!
Find weekly listings of births,
b`nai mitzvah, engagements,
weddings and anniversaries
online as well as past sim-
chahs all online. They are all
bundled under each week's
publication date.
Just visit JNonline.us and
click on Lifecycles on the left.
Results from
last week's poll:
Do you think Israel is doing all
it can to secure the release of
the kidnapped soldiers?
Yes 50%
No 50%
This week's poll question:
Are calls to boycott Israel by
British labor unions and aca-
demics motivated primarily by
anti-Semitism (rather than the
desire for fairness and peace)?
Visit the JNonline.us
homepage to cast your vote.