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MEMORY
MEMORY
WILL JUST FORGET
THE RECENT HEALTH
WARNINGS ABOUT
CELL PHONE USE?

Editorial

Young Adult Unity

F

ederation's Young Adult Division
(YAD) has long has been the core
address for young adult program-
ming in Metro Detroit. But it's now openly
partnering with other Jewish organiza-
tions that also appeal to 20- and 30-some-
things in hopes of reinforcing communal
opportunities for an age group vital to
Jewish Detroit's future.
That's excellent news.
We're cautiously optimistic about the
coming together of synagogue, university
and other Jewish groups into the newly
formed Young Leadership Community
Council (YLCC). About 20 representa-
tives attended the July 21 organizational
meeting at the Max M. Fisher Federation
Building in Bloomfield Township. The
meeting site itself is significant: the late
Max Fisher, Jewish Detroit's beloved patri-
arch, understood as well as anyone that
the stamina of a Jewish community lies in
developing young leaders.
The YAD-synagogue-Hillel collaboration
is a good sign that the YLCC will succeed.
YAD matters, more than ever: For the
first time in its history, the under-40
crowd raised more than $1 million for
Federation's Annual Campaign, despite
Michigan's troubled economy. Its objective
— to make Detroit a vibrant, exciting and
meaningful place to live and volunteer

— is possible if the larger community
joins the challenge.
As for our synagogues, it's nice to see
them continue to look beyond their sanc-
tuaries in search of alliances with other
congregations.
Campus Hillels play a key role in keep-
ing Jewish identity and interest alive at a
critical juncture in the lives of our college
students. We're especially impressed that
other groups that require young adult
support to prosper — like the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, Friends
of the Israel Defense Forces and Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah's Theodore and Jean Weiss
Partners in Torah program — have
stepped up as well.
Crafting a mission statement and defin-
ing its goals that include a two- to four-
year action plan complete with realistic
benchmarks are essential if the YLCC is to
succeed.
Certainly, giving young adults cause
to stay home rather than seek out hipper
metropolises is essential. The brain drain
of young Jewish professionals is a constant
source of frustration.
Social-holiday events like the Purim
bash at the Palace of Auburn Hills and
social-study events like Federation's Torah
on Tap have a place. Federation's Grosfeld
Leadership Group, which takes annual

trips to Israel, Poland
and Kiev feeds the young
adult leadership base.
But a YLCC plan lack-
ing job search and busi-
ness networking com-
ponents will fall short.
The dearth of work is
the top reason so many
young adults leave Metro
Detroit.
Young people who stay
or return have plenty of
choices to mix and min-
gle as well as stand with
Israel and serve diaspora
Jews in need. Further,
the young people fea-
tured in the IN's monthly
Coming Home profile
cite a wealth of ways
they can get involved in Jewish life, from
raising a family to social justice.
Metro Detroit is home to young stars in
real estate, e-commerce, law, finance, edu-
cation, medicine and business ventures
— some left and came back while others
never left.
We're eager to see the results of
Federation's high-level initiative to host
events in L.A., Chicago and New York for
young Detroit natives to aggressively try

rko

•

•

to lure them back. At the same time, let's
do more to reach young Jews who couldn't
afford to leave or who just chose to stay
but remain beyond the edges of organized
Jewish life.
Reversing the flight of young profes-
sionals and stirring the souls of their
peers still here but who are not involved
are paramount if Jewish Detroit really
intends to slow our population decline
and assure a vigorous Jewish community
into the next two decades.

❑

Reality Check

Standing Next To History

I

was going through old stuff in the
storage room the other day and came
across a notebook from 1962.
Mostly it contained a list of scores for
college and pro football teams. In those
days long before computers it was an easy
way to keep track of their records, just in
case the urge overcame me to get a bet
down. That sort of thing happened fre-
quently.
But as I thumbed through the pages of
numbers, I also found some notes for a
story I had covered. It didn't take me long
to figure out which one it was.
In the fall of 1962, I was finishing up an
internship with the Flint Journal, my first
job after graduating from college. I had a
small studio apartment three blocks from
the paper, was on my own for the first
time and hated just about every minute of
the experience.
On the first Saturday in October, though,
I was assigned to be part of the paper's
team covering President John F. Kennedy's

visit to Flint. Not a major part,
to be sure. I was stationed at
the Michigan School for the
Deaf where the Presidential
helicopter would arrive and
depart, and told to do a sidebar
on what went on. Not a bad day
at the office.
From my notes in the old
scorebook, I must have inter-
viewed lots of people in the
crowd and wrote down what
was on the signs they waved
at JFK. Health care for the elderly seemed
to be the big issue and most of the signs
dealt with that. Some things don't change
much.
The president made a speech downtown
in support of several Democratic candi-
dates for Congress, and then his motor-
cade, led by a white Lincoln, returned to
where I was.
Just as it arrived, one of the local motor-
cycle cops hit a slick spot on the road. The

cycle skidded out of control
as the door of a car carrying
members of the Secret Service
swung open. The cop was
thrown from the motorcycle
and lay dazed on the ground.
I went running over there
to see if he was all right and
wrote down his name, Harold
Congdon. Then my handwrit-
ing kind of went all wobbly.
That's because I looked
up from the cop and there,
standing right beside me, was JFK. Close
enough to touch.
I was young enough to be awestruck at
that moment. Like most people my age, I
regarded JFK as a heroic figure. I told my
mother later that day that when I looked
at him, he seemed surrounded by a golden
aura. But that was long ago, and I haven't
seen anything like that lately.
The fact that I could get so close to the
president astonishes me now, especially

when I know what the future held.
Medicare was enacted by Congress in
1965, one of several bills that President
Lyndon B. Johnson powered through in
the emotional period after Kennedy's
death. So the sign-carriers got their
reward.
I saved my ID badge from that day for
many years. Funny, I don't remember
going through any kind of security check.
They just handed it to me when I showed
up for the bus ride to my reporting sta-
tion. Maybe I'll look for it next time I go
rummaging around.
It was a glorious October day. I remem-
ber that clearly. According to my notes, the
president boarded his helicopter at 1:12
p.m. and flew off into the bright Michigan
sky

❑

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aoLcom.

.114

August 14 • 2008

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