Opinion
OTHER VIEWS
From Detroit To Sydney, With Love
M
y recent three-week holiday
to Australia and New Zealand
unexpectedly has the potential
to help thousands of developmentally
disabled children as well as the aged
Jewish populations of Detroit and Sydney,
Australia.
Prior to my trip to Australia, I learned
that friends of mine had forged a friend-
ship with a Jewish couple from Sydney
while on an Alaskan cruise last July. With
such a great distance between them,
modern technology was key to keeping
in touch — and key to the beshert con-
nection I would soon make. Joan and
Sherm Char of Farmington Hills e-mailed
their new friends, Melanie and Alan
Lindenberg, to tell them the dates of our
stay in Sydney and mentioned that they
thought that we would have a lot in com-
mon. What an understatement that turned
out to be!
In getting to know one another, Melanie
and I discovered that both of us are
passionate about helping children with
special needs and assisting the elderly.
Melanie has a staff position with the
Montefiore assisted living home in Sydney
and I volunteer at Fleischman Residence
in West Bloomfield and serve on its aux-
iliary and foundation boards.
Melanie was anxious to show
me their new state-of-the-art
facility, which she did.
The many photos and
information packets that
I brought back with me
provided some new ideas
for our home. In turn, I
explained my involvement
with the West Bloomfield-
based Friendship Circle and
Life Town and how it enables
developmentally disabled
children and young adults to
learn life skills in a realistic, functioning
"town."
With autism reaching epidemic propor-
tions worldwide, Melanie was fascinated
with the concept of Life Town. She later
told me that she went home after our
first meeting together and explored the
Friendship Circle's Web site. Her enthu-
siasm and determination to bring a
Friendship Circle/Life Town to Sydney
grew after reading even more
about it. I left Sydney promis-
ing to put her in touch with
someone at the Friendship Circle
who could help her make that
happen.
In addition, I promised that,
should she ever come to Detroit,
she would be able to tour
Fleishman and the Dorothy and
Peter Brown Jewish Community
Adult Day Care Program for
Alzheimer's patients, about which
she had heard so much.
Two weeks later, Melanie was
here in Detroit with meetings scheduled
with everyone involved in the Friendship
Circle and Life Town, in order to learn
exactly what needed to be done to build a
similar facility in Sydney. She and Robyn,
a friend of hers who is instrumental in
raising funds for all Jewish causes in
Australia, spent a week watching and
learning while Life Town was in opera-
tion.
They also found time to visit
Fleishman with me to take a tour and
exchange ideas at a lunch meeting with
Jewish Home & Aging Services Executive
Director Carol Rosenberg and other staff
members.
It is quite rewarding to know that my
trip to Australia may be instrumental in
building a place where developmentally
challenged youngsters can feel comfort-
able and feel at home as they learn to
master the challenges of everyday liv-
ing.
I'm firmly convinced that within the
next few years Sydney will have its very
own Life Town thanks to a serendipitous
encounter with a very determined and
dedicated woman Down Under.
❑
Jill Margolick is a Farmington Hills resident.
Make It Pay To Study Judaism
Jerusalem/JTA
ssues of conversion have been cov-
ered on the front pages of Israeli
newspapers on a frequent basis
— and for good reason, since most soci-
ologists accept that as many as 350,000
Israeli citizens living in Israel from the
former Soviet Union are not Jewish.
These people made aliyah under the
Law of Return that allows Israeli citizen-
ship with one Jewish grandfather, even
though traditional rabbinic law recognizes
as Jewish only someone who has a Jewish
mother or who has converted to Judaism.
This situation has created what some in
Israel view as a ticking demographic time
bomb. These Israelis live as Jews. They
study side by side with their Jewish peers
in Jewish schools and join Jewish youth
groups. They serve in the army and are an
integral part of Israel.
However, since personal-status matters
in Israel are handled by religious authori-
ties, they cannot get married in their new
home country and their offspring are not
A42 April 3 2008
considered Jewish.
one can live just fine as a non-Jewish
The consensus in Israel is that it would
citizen.
be wonderful for most of these people to
So how do we get the masses to take an
convert to Judaism, thus becoming Jewish
interest in becoming Jewish? Israel should
Israelis. But previous efforts to
create an incentive system. Pay
meet the conversion challenge
to convert? Not exactly.
have met with failure.
Such an approach would be
Long gone are the days
immoral and illegal. But let us
when the Chief Rabbinate
consider payment, or tax credits,
— the days of Rabbis Shlomo
for those who take the basic
Goren and Ovadia Yosef
Judaism courses that can serve
— would provide the means
as preparation for conversion.
for a reasonable path to join
Why do a relatively high num-
the Jewish people. With the
ber of soldiers agree to convert?
increasing influence of the fer-
It's because studying Judaism
Rabbi Andrew
vently Orthodox, or haredim,
for three months while living on
Sacks
the process of conversion to
a kibbutz sure beats guard duty
Special
Judaism is often long, arduous
on the cold front lines along the
Commentary
and humiliating. In the end,
Lebanon border. In other words,
the doors remain closed to
they have an incentive.
most who apply.
Thousands of dollars already are being
Not surprisingly, surveys show that few
spent to prepare each convert if one takes
from the former Soviet Union have any
the budget and divides it by the numbers
interest in conversion. The process is unat- who actually complete the process. So
tractive, cumbersome, long and distaste-
why not help the person who gives up 350
ful. The inability to marry in Israel aside,
hours to study?
Israel subsidizes some 75 percent of
the actual cost of study for university stu-
dents. The government makes generous
grants available to those who wish to learn
in yeshivot. Why not make similar money
available to non-Jewish Israelis who wish
to study Judaism?
I believe we would see a huge increase
in the numbers of people registering for
these preparatory courses. Yes, they would
still face the obstacle of an unfriendly rab-
binic judicial system. But as thousands
more Israeli citizens decide they want to
convert, public pressure will mount for a
serious restructuring of the system. In the
meantime, their connection to Judaism
and the Jewish people will be stronger.
Ultimately, however, if Israel fails to take
creative and aggressive steps to address
the issue, then it might continue to be a
state of its citizens — but will no longer
be a truly Jewish state.
❑
Rabbi Andrew Sacks directs the Conservative
movement's Rabbinical Assembly in Israel and
the Masorti Bureau of Religious Affairs.