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CLASSES THAT MAKE YOU
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FedEd: We Deliver Adult Jewish Education
A sampling of over 30 FedEd classes offered in 2010-11...
Special to the Jewish News
For anyone who has ever wanted to learn Hebrew.
Beyond Borders: Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict
A strong, text-based historical overview from the late 19th Century through today
on understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Contemporary Jewish Thinkers and How They Saved Judaism
Great Jewish thinkers and how they confronted the challenges that the Jewish people
faced during the 20th Century.
The Holocaust as Reflected in Diaries and Memoirs
Explore the profound record of first-person accounts in diaries and memoirs
uncovered in the years since the Holocaust.
Jewish Denominations
Examine Jewish identity and religious expression against the backdrop of dramatic
political and social change over the past 300 years.
Jews in America
Explore the challenges of Jewish acculturation to American life, and the sacrifices
as well as the contributions that have been made by Jewish Americans.
Moses Maimonides: Explorations that Can Guide Your Life
We will look at Maimonides writings and how they were viewed then, and how they
are perceived today.
Parsha HaShavuah (Weekly Torah Portion)
A different rabbi or educator will present the Torah portion from his or her own perspective.
Philip Roth's Jews
We will begin with Goodbye Columbus, and proceed to The Ghost Writer and
Operation Shylock, to frame a discussion of these perspectives and of our own ideas
regarding the functions of American Jewish literature.
Rock of Ages: the Story of Jerusalem
A look at how the city of Jerusalem came to hold such a special place for Jews,
Christians and Muslims. Explore a central element in the development of Jerusalem
as a place where the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds converge.
STUDY WITH AMAZING TEACHERS:
.
Keren Alpert • Ruth Bergman • Rabbi Michael Cohen • Rabbi Rod Glogower
Yifat Golan • Nira Lev • Professor Howard Lupovitch • Rabbi Jason Miller
Rabbi Tzvi Muller • Br. Mitch Parker • Amalia Poris • Rabbi Steven Rubenstein
Ori Weisberg • Dr. Michael Weiss • Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz
For information or for a complete brochure, call 248-205-2557,
bronstein@jfmd.org , or visit jewishdetroit.org/feded
J Jewish
Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit
We Deliver Adult Jewish Education
September 16 • 2010
Paul Gross' book reflects
his passion for meteorology.
Keri Guten Cohen
Beginning Hebrew
20
Extreme Weather
ALLIANCE FOR
JEWISH EDUCATION
I
f you've ever seen a weather
report by WDIV-TV meteorolo-
gist Paul Gross, you know he's
passionate about what he does. In
his short time during the newscast,
he not only makes forecasts, but also
mg tries to explain a bit
about what's hap-
-4 pening and why.
Now he has
channeled that
desire for others to
understand weather
into his debut book,
Paul Gross
Extreme Michigan
Weather: The
Wild World of the Great Lakes State
(University of Michigan Press, $24.95).
Though he does explain the
extremes in Michigan's weather —
the destructive ice storms, heavy
snow, intense heat waves, massive
flooding, severe thunderstorms, even
tornadoes — the easy-reading book
is more a primer about what makes
our weather what it is.
Along the way, Gross can't avoid
referencing scientific equations and
laws that seem daunting at first until
he decodes them by using analogies
that make sense to the lay person.
So by the time you're done reading,
you do understand a lot more about
weather than you ever thought you
might.
And that was Gross' goal.
"I specifically wrote it in the con-
versational style that people know
me by, and with a friendly tone that
says you can understand the complex
science of meteorology if you just
relax and let me teach you a few basic
things:' said Gross, who has wanted
to be a meteorologist since age 7.
Gross lives in Farmington Hills
with his wife, Nancy, and sons Jared,
17, and Adam, 15, and is an active
member of Temple Kol Ami in West
Bloomfield. In addition to being a
broadcast meteorologist for WDIV, he
is a certified consulting meteorolo-
gist who regularly provides weather
advice for local professional sports
teams (Tigers and Lions) and testi-
fies as an expert in court.
"I decided to write the book
EHTFIE(rif
WEATHER
PAUL GROSS
because there are so many interesting
things I want people to know about
why Michigan's weather is so unique,
but I can't explain most of this to my
satisfaction on TV because we typi-
cally only get two or 21/2 minutes to do
the weather:' Gross said.
"Most people are interested in
some aspect of our weather, and
everybody talks about it, so I finally
had to do something about it."
He spent three years writing the
book, but says the narrative flowed
pretty easily because he talks about
weather for a living.
What took the most time are charts
occupying roughly half the book that
compiled record highs, lows, precipi-
tation and snow for every day of the
year for 22 cities around Michigan.
"It was brutal to hand-type those
30,000-plus statistics into the manu-
script, but that forced me to take a
much closer look at the database
Gross said.
He found glaring errors he brought
to the attention of the National
Weather Service, then worked with
them to correct them. "As a result, our
state's daily extremes database is in
much better shape — an unintended,
but extremely valuable consequence
Gross said.
Extreme Michigan Weather, which
is available in major bookstores,
already is in its second print-
ing. Gross will speak at the Jewish
Community Center Jewish Book Fair
in West Bloomfield at 4 p.m. Sunday,
Nov. 14. fl