Front Lines
IGESI
Only In America?
I
n school, there used to be a course
called language arts. What a lovely
combination of words: language and
art.
I'd like to share with you something
called "The English Language," which I
first encountered as performed by Josh
White Jr.:
"There is no egg in eggplant and no
ham in hamburger. There is no pine nor
apple in pineapple ... Public bathrooms
have no baths and the guinea pig is nei-
ther a pig nor from Guinea ...
"And if the plural of tooth is teeth,
shouldn't the plural of both be beeth?
One moose, two meese; one
goose, two geese ... Doesn't
it seem loopy that you can
make amends, but not just one
amend? You can comb through
the annals of history, but not
just one annal. If a teacher
taught, isn't it also true that a
preacher praught? If a vegetar-
ian eats vegetables, what does
a humanitarian eat? ...
"In what other language do
people park on a driveway and
drive on a parkway? Recite at a
play and play at a recital? Ship
On A Mission
Joel Jacob, owner of
the Bottle Crew in West
Bloomfield, has completed
his 20th trip to Israel.
The visit included a stop
Joel Jacob
at the Weizmann Institute
of Science in Rehovot,
meetings with Israeli
government ministers and a discussion with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to discuss hunger in Israel.
A Few Good Teens
Detroit's JCC Maccabi team has spots open for teen
athletes in several sports.
Depending on the sport, Detroiters will partici-
pate Aug. 1-6 in Denver, Colo., or Richmond, Va., or
Aug. 8-13 in Baltimore, Md. Participants in Maccabi
Artsfest will be in San Rafael, Calif., Aug. 8-13.
For more information about the Games and activ-
ities, go to www.maccabidetroit.org or contact Karen
Gordon, kgordon@jccdet.org or (248) 432-5482.
— Alan Hitsky, associate editor
Girsky Named
To GM Post
Last week, General Motors Corp.
named board member Stephen J.
Girsky of New York as vice chair-
man for corporate strategy and
business development. A longtime
auto analyst and industry adviser,
Stephen
Girsky, 47, also is a member of the
Girsky
UJA-Federation of New York exec-
utive committee and a Democratic Party activist.
He is a former auto analyst for Morgan Stanley
and was appointed to the GM board by the United
Sy Manello
Editorial
Assistant
by truck and send cargo by
ship? Have noses that run and
feet that smell?
"How can a slim chance and
a fat chance be the same while
a wise man and a wise guy
are opposites? ... Where are
those people who are spring
chickens and would actually
hurt a fly?
"You have to marvel at the
lunacy of a language in which
your house can burn up while
it is burning down, in which
you fill in a form while filling
Automobile Workers union in 2009. He is expected
to work closely with GM Chairman and CEO Ed
Whitacre Jr.
A resident of Mamaroneck, N.Y., Girsky is a
graduate of UCLA and Harvard Business School
and is president of New York-based S.J. Girsky &
Co. advisory firm.
— Alan Hitsky, associate editor
Interfaith Journalists
A group of 15 writers, photographers, clergy and
activists braved a snowstorm last week to attend
the inaugural meeting of the Interfaith Leadership
Council (ILC), held at Congregation Shaarey Zedek
Southfield.
Co-hosting the meeting were former Detroit Free
Press religion writer David Crumm; ILC president
and CEO Robert Brutell; Kari Alterman, direc-
tor of the Detroit office of the American Jewish
Committee; and Gail Katz, president of WISDOM, a
women's interfaith group.
The ILC is trying to be a resource and learning
point for area religion writers, as well as intensify
interfaith activity in Metropolitan Detroit. Crumm
told the group that there are only 10 full-time reli-
gion writers remaining in the United States.
Shaarey Zedek Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff gave
the group a tour of the building as well as a crash
course in Judaism and the holiday of Passover.
Brutell wants people of different faiths to know
one another, so they can "work together when there
is a moral responsibility that they share, such as
the current economic tsunami:'
He added that "there is a long tradition of being
Balkanized [segregated] in our community. We have
to get folks together again and work on conciliation."
The group will meet every two months, with
an April meeting scheduled at Christ Church
Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills.
— Alan Hitsky, associate editor
it out, in which your alarm clock goes off
by going on.
"English was invented by people, not
computers and reflects the creativity of
the human race, which, of course, is not a
race at all. That's why when stars are out,
they're visible; but when the light is out,
it's invisible. Why when I wind up my
watch, I start it; but when I wind up this
song, I end it."
With all of the hardships the language
engenders, it's still a source of learning
and fun. And where would we be without
it? (Okay, so maybe modern TV does
answer that question.) E
Help Prevent Foreclosure
Following through on a pledge to
use the county treasurer's office
to fight the Oakland County fore-
closure crisis,
Andy Meisner
joined with the
United Way,
Wayne County
Executive
Robert Ficano
and housing
counseling
Andy Meisner
agencies in
announcing
the Oakland County Foreclosure
Prevention Initiative as part of
a broader, regional collaborative
centered on a new Web site: www.
fightmortgageforeclosurefinsc.com .
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"Oakland County families and
communities have been hit hard by
the foreclosure crisis in the form
of lost homes, blighted neighbor-
hoods, decreased property values,
and lower tax revenues',' Meisner
said.
The collaborative was started
by a Wayne County program that
the United Way is bringing to
scale with the support of Bank of
America. Currently ,1 in every 47
homes in Oakland County is in
foreclosure.
"Working together, we can pre-
vent many of the foreclosures that
are causing such serious problems
for Oakland County and our neigh-
bors," Meisner said.
Quotable
"Hadassah's founder saw women's rights as more
than an abstract idea. To her, it was not just
about liberating women but about what women
would accomplish once freed from the prejudices
of Jewish and general society. It was about
allowing Jewish women to empower themselves
individually and collectively to repair the world."
— Nancy Falchuk in her President's Column in Hadassah Magazine's
February issue, dedicated to the life and times of Henrietta Szold, who
founded Hadassah 98 years ago.
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