JN Thoughts

OF

A MONTHLY MIX

IDEAS

George Canter's Reality Check will return next week.

Study Abroad In Israel

East Lansing

T

his summer, students participated
in the Michigan State University
Jewish Studies study abroad pro-
gram at the Hebrew University/Rothberg
International School in Jerusalem.
Students took Professor David
Mendelsson's course on the history of mod-
ern Israel, and my course on Israeli society
and politics. We worked hard in the class-
room but also took advantage of opportu-
nities available on the ground in Israel.
Guest speakers included members of
diverse social movements such as Gush
Emunim and Peace Now We heard directly
from top academics and former ambas-
sadors on Israeli political culture, the peace
process and the experiences of Ethiopians,
Yemenites and Palestinians in Israel.
We took advantage of events in and
around Jerusalem. We attended a can-
did and thought-provoking panel by Dr.
Shlomo Ben-Ami and Dr. Saeb Erekat,
chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at
the Camp David 2000 and Taba talks, and
Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer, former U.S.
ambassador to Israel and to Egypt.

We visited the Supreme Court
and the Knesset and the Israel
Democracy Institute, a think-
tank that monitors the state of
democracy and provides a forum
for creative thinking on Israel's
challenges. Students put learning
into action during the last week
of classes when, after extensive
research on each political party,
they staged a mock campaign and
election.
With archaeologist Danny Herman
as our guide, we took several tours. In
Jerusalem, we visited sites holy to all three
monotheistic religions and toured the
remains of the old City of David from 1000
B.C.E. You literally feel the different layers
of history that make Jerusalem such a fas-
cinating and beautiful city. Our trip to the
Judean desert included Masada, En Gedi (a
beautiful oasis in the Judean mountains),
the Dead Sea and Qumran (where the Dead
Sea Scrolls were discovered).
On our way north, we visited Jaffa, a
beautiful city with winding alleys overlook-
ing the Mediterranean, and Haifa, which is
a model for harmonious mixing of Jewish

and Palestinian Israelis and the
headquarters of the Bahal faith.
After visiting a Druze village
near Haifa, we visited Caesarea,
an oceanside Roman palace/
administrative center. With Dr.
Mendelsson, the students also
visited a kibbutz, Yad Vashem,
the Sea of Galilee and Rabin
Square in Tel Aviv.
All this, in addition to snor-
keling in Eilat, dancing and swimming in
Tel Aviv, and exploring different neighbor-
hoods and markets of Jerusalem, listening
to jazz concerts, and attending events of
the world-famous Jerusalem Film Festival
made the summer a fun learning experi-
ence!
•"Everything about my Israel experience
was fun and interesting — the classes,
traveling, Israeli culture and the people I
met. The classes at Hebrew U. explored the
complexity of Israeli politics, society and
history"
— Sarah Slonim, James Madison
College, social relations
•"Israel is a complex society and I am
eager to learn more. I am interested in tak-

ing another class or two about the Middle
East and Israel at MSU."
— Brenda Wapner, sociology
MSU's Israel Studies summer program
at Hebrew University of Jerusalem enables
students to earn eight credits applicable
to courses in the three sponsoring MSU
colleges, while students from other col-
leges and universities are also welcome to
apply.

Professor Aronoff is MSU's Michael and Elaine

Serling and Friends Chair in Israel Studies.

2008 scholarships (June 26-July
30) for qualified participants avail-
able through MSU Jewish Studies
Program; deadline to apply is March
1. Contact Marc Bernstein, 2008
program director, msb@msu.edu or
Kenneth Waltzer, Jewish Studies
director, waltzer®msu.edu .
Details on MSU programs in environ-
mental and natural resource sustain-
ability in a green Israel: D. Michael
Kaplowitz, kaplowit@msu.edu .

The Jews Of Windsor

L

ike many other small communi-
— Windsor boasted Canada's
ties in North America, the Jewish
first Jewish Provincial Cabinet
community of Windsor, Ontario, is
member, David Croll, and the
shrinking in numbers. But Windsor's loss
first Jewish Federal Cabinet
has been a boon to communities in other
member and deputy prime min-
areas of the country.
ister, Herb Gray.
In my new book, The Jews of Windsor
Many Windsor Jews moved
1790 1990, the 200-year chronicle of the
across the river to make the sub-
community is recorded, beginning in 1790
urbs of Detroit their home and
with the first Jewish settler, Moses David.
began contributing to the Greater
The founding pioneer families transformed Detroit community. But Windsor
their Eastern European shtetl into a North
always will be their spiritual
American settlement; many were involved
home because the roots of their
in establishing synagogues,
forebears truly run deep.
schools and an organized
Among the many Jewish
THE :JEWS OF W I ND S OR
990
communal structure in spite
transplants
now living Detroit
a ni l -
of divergent religious, politi-
is Alan Zekelman, who along
cal and economic interests.
with his brothers, Barry and
Modernity and the grow-
Clayton, were the impetus for
ing influences of Zionism
a $10 million contribution to
and Conservative/Reform
the Holocaust Memorial Center
Judaism challenged the
Zekelman Family Campus in
traditional and leftist lean-
Farmington Hills. In addi-
ings of the community's
tion to this generous gift, Alan
founders.
Zekelman donated $2 million to Mishkan
Windsor's Jews took an active role in
Israel, a high school, rabbinic college and
civic life. From the outset, Jews were repre-
synagogue in Oak Park. Harry Zekelman,
sented in city council, involved in commu-
Alan's father, was involved in many organi-
nal organizations and appointed to judicial
zations in Windsor; Alan learned from his
posts. While its Jewish population was
parents the importance of giving back to
small — at its height, no more than 3,500
the community:

-

/790.4

- A Historical

ro c e

Alan Zekelman has said that
"in Windsor, the small traditional
Jewish immigrant population
stuck together and family values
were imprinted upon the young-
est members of the community
from the earliest days. This close-
ness in upbringing translated
itself into permanent lessons for
my future."
Dr. Jeffrey Taub, another for-
mer Windsor resident, is the Ring
Screw Textron Endowed Chair in
Pediatric Cancer Research and the youngest
recipient of an endowed chair at Children's
Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. Dr. Taub's
father, Harold, was a former president of
the Windsor Jewish Community Centre and
his mother, Paula, a former president of
Congregation Beth El.
Commenting on the impact of his early
years in Windsor, Dr. Taub said, "Growing
up in Windsor in a relatively small Jewish
community was special to me because of
the closeness of families and friends. My
own parents' involvement at both the JCC
and Congregation Beth El fostered the
importance of giving your time to help
others, whether it would be for the entire
community or to particular individuals and
families as I have done in treating children

with cancer and performing leukemia
research to help others:'
Rabbi Miriam Jerris is only the second
person born and raised in Windsor to
receive rabbinic ordination. A member of
the Society for Humanistic Judaism and
committed to its philosophic principles
since 1970, she is the rabbinic coordina-
tor for community development for the
Society for Humanistic Judaism, based in
Farmington Hills. Rabbi Jerris occasionally
returns to Windsor to officiate at friends'
lifecycle functions.
There are many others who grew up in
Windsor and now are engaged as profes-
sionals and in other occupations in the
Detroit area. The strong Jewish feelings
many parents instilled in their children
during their formative years in Windsor
continue to influence their actions.

Rabbi Jonathan V. Plaut discusses "The Jews

of Windsor 1790-1990: A Historical Chronicle"
during the Local Authors Fair 10 a.m. to noon

Sunday, Nov. 11, at the Book Fair hosted by the

Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield.

"The Jews of Windsor 1790-1990: A Historical

Chronicle," Jonathan V. Plaut, 320 pages,

Dundurn. UTP Distribution (1.800.565.9523);
www.amazon.ca; local bookstores.

October 25 2007

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