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S chukof's
Citizen Power
My husband and I had the recent privilege of being with Dena
Kawer and her family for her Masada climb ("Moving Mountains:'
June 19, A19). The Jewish world is small and we were traveling
together in Israel to celebrate the same bar mitzvah that prompted
her climb. She, her daughter Shana and her father, Ben, were all
fantastic and inspiring.
What was most inspiring and sobering to my husband and me
was the amount of development in Jerusalem. From the brand-new
Waldorf Astoria hotel going up outside the Old City to the light-rail
system taking form throughout Jerusalem, despite the daily chal-
lenges with which Israel lives, there is progress.
What a contrast to Detroit with our crashing housing market,
double-digit unemployment, stalled projects, bankrupt businesses
and scandal upon scandal. I can't help but think maybe it is time
for us to stop looking to our government to act and work around
our challenges like our Israeli friends.
Perhaps it is time for all of us to take action instead of lament-
ing on our misfortune. We are lucky to have so much talent in our
community. Rather than lose it, perhaps the assembly of citizen
task forces to promote business growth, lobby government and
invest in our city would create opportunity to keep those talented
people here. We certainly have nothing to lose in the effort and so
much to gain.
V agni -Rcent
<un -zite
Shaindle Braunstein-Cohen
West Bloomfield
or-rings
Kosher Not Requirement
Like many families in Metro Detroit, we all know Thursday is
Jewish News Day. Every Thursday, I sit down and open up my
Detroit Jewish News. However, today when I turned to the Letters
page, I came upon "No Cheese With Chicken" (July 17,A8).
I find it alienating to assume that all readers of the IN keep
kosher and are Jewish. We Jews come in all shapes, sizes, colors and
sects. If I choose to eat milk and meat, it doesn't make me less of a
Jew. Considering all the trouble in the Middle East and the mission
to sustain Israel as a Jewish state, the Jewish community needs to
stay strong and united, regardless of who keeps kosher and who
doesn't.
"These earrings are
one-of-a- kind..
are you?"
sc
Amy Weiner
Farmington Hills
JULES
1LIBOT
JEWELLERS t GEMOLOGIS•S
across CoolidgePorn the Somerset Collection
3001 West Big Beaver, Suite 112
Troy, Michigan 48084
248.649.1122 / 800.SCHUBOT
Detroit
Grandma's Not Kosher?
Fifteen of us were being served dinner while cruising to France.
Five were strictly kosher: A mom, a dad and three young children
awaited their prepackaged frozen kosher dinners.
My 4-year-old granddaughter, with an amused smile and an
innocent curiosity, popped the question. My answer,"No, I wasn't
raised kosher:' (Let my parents take the blame for this transgres-
sion). But seriously, what surprised me is that I only felt a tiny bit
of guilt.
After all, I have been known to say, "I wish there were no orga-
nized religions. Wouldn't we all be better off?" Upon deeper intro-
spection, I admitted that I took great pride in my identity as a Jew.
After all, we survived throughout the ages while being persecuted,
whether kosher, not kosher or whatever.
I have seen traditions washed away as my older children raise
their families and I do experience a sense of cultural loss.
The family of five that patiently follow a myriad of command-
ments each day is closely bound to each other and to their precious
heritage. I feel they will keep that heritage safe and sound.
Bottom line: What I am saying to my granddaughter is,"No, I'm
not kosher. But I sure am glad you are!"
Geraldine Spilman
Orchard Lake
Successful Summer
We were so pleased to see your cover story "Summer in the City"
(July 10, A13). This is a wonderful program that has been able to
accomplish a great deal with a small amount of funding. It con-
nects young people in the city and suburbs with the city of Detroit
through volunteer activities that work to better Detroit neighbor-
hoods.
Kudos goes to its creative young founders, Ben Falik, Mike
Goldberg and Neil Greenberg. It is also important to note that the
success of this program has been dependent on funding provided
by the Detroit Jewish community's Jewish Fund, which has pro-
vided $21,000 in support over the last three years, enabling the
program to expand significantly since its creation in 2002.
In addition, this summer the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit's Stephen H. Schulman Millennium Fund is providing
funding to enable counselors in training from Fresh Air Society-
Tamarack Camps to participate in the program for a week as part
of their leadership training.
We wish "Summer in the City" continued success and are
pleased to provide support for this wonderful program.
Michael Maddin, vice chair
The Jewish Fund
Penny Blumenstein, chair
Schulman Millennium Fund Committee
Bloomfield Township
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July 24 it 2008
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A6
Uplifting Thoughts
We mourn.
Every Jew mourns you each (Ehud Goldwasser Eldad Regev and
countless other Israeli war heroes) as though you were our own,
because you are.
I don't know if I ever met you in the street, at a party or cut you
off in traffic.
Perhaps you humbly thought you were milluimnikim (reserv-
ists), ordinary ezrachei yisrael (citizens of Israel).
For some of us, you are heroes of the ghettos of Europe which
imprisoned us; successors to those heroes in this war that contin-
ues to consume us even as we grow more strong and secure.
Our sadness is even greater to witness the chaggigot (parties)
and celebrations a few miles north of your resting places in Haifa
and Kiryat Motzkin. For those celebrants are also God's children
but they dance on the graves of their own 900 dead — their chil-
dren, the destruction of their own cities as well as the graves of
their victims in this medieval series of Holy Wars.
No matter how much I may do in my ordinary life as a Jew, your
banal, ordinary humble doing of your duty puts any of my poor
efforts far down the scale.
But you inspire me to do more.