Metro
New Home
Art For Stoves
Teen's jewelry project
helps families in Darfur.
Hillel dedicates its new
Early Childhood Center.
Julia Fertel, 13, of Commerce Township with some of the clay pendants she
Hard at work are Julia Feber, 4, of West Bloomfield, Joely Gottlieb, 4, of
makes and sells to raise money for the Darfur Stoves Project
Keri Guten Cohen
Story Development Editor
W
hat began as a bat mitzvah
project has continued
as a fundraising project
with the sale of handmade ceramic
pendants in several galleries and in the
annual fall boutique sale to be held Oct.
20 at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.
Julia Fertel, 13, of Commerce
Township is an eighth-grader at
Walled Lake Walnut Creek Middle
School. After hearing a speaker several
years ago compare the genocide in
Darfur to the slaughter of 6 million
Jews during the Holocaust, Julia was
moved to action.
"Since 2003, millions of men,
women and children have been dis-
placed in the Darfur region of Sudan
due to an on-going conflict that has
claimed the lives of thousands:' she
said. "Now more than 2.5 million peo-
ple are living in crowded camps, where
resources are scarce. Women and
children spend up to seven hours a day
gathering wood in remote areas. This
imposes great risk of bodily harm.
"The Darfur Stoves Project helps
provide fuel-efficient stoves to women
and families in Darfur. The stoves are
$30 a piece. All the money I collect
will go to help this project."
So far, she has made at least 500
22
October 14 • 2010
Huntington Woods and Nicolette Handler, 4 of Birmingham.
clay pendants and donated $2,700 to
the project — almost doubling her
original goal of $1,500 for her bat
mitzvah. She will continue collecting
money from her jewelry sales.
"Just thinking about how this is
going to help someone makes me
feel good:' Julia said. "The stoves not
are not only helping the women, they
ALSO are helping the environment"
She credits her parents, Natalie
Cohen and Howard Fertel, with instill-
ing in her this attitude to help others.
Julia creates her pendants in a two-
week process that includes imprinting
round discs of clay with designs, then
firing them in a kiln in the family
garage. Her mother is a fabric and
jewelry artist who teaches young chil-
dren at Temple Israel.
The colorful pendants with their
bold designs come with black
cord necklaces. Her jewelry will be
available at a special price at Temple
Israel Sisterhood's boutique sale and
fundraising luncheon/fashion show.
The boutique sale runs from 10 a.m.-
3:30 p.m. at the synagogue.
❑
Julia's pendants also can be purchased
at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center,
1516 S. Cranbrook, Birmingham, and the
Hanni Gallery, 140 S. Spring St., Harbor
Springs. For more information on the stove
project, go to www.darfurstoves.org.
H
"We have more than 70 happy
illel Day School held a
children enrolled',' Papps said."Thes
Chanukkat Ha-bayit (new
home dedication) and hung 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children are our
sweet reminders that the early child-
a mezuzah to celebrat the official
hood experience is the foundation of
opening of the Hillel Day School
our social, emotional,
Early Childhood
intellectual and moral
Center (ECC) at
development.
the Farmington
"Our students are
Hills school on
learning together,
Sept. 7.
exploring their world
Approximately
through play, words,
75 children, their
music, art and move-
parents and corn-
ment, all within the
munity leaders
context of Hillel Day
gathered with
School's core Jewish
Steve Freedman,
values."
head of school,
Hillel's ECC has
Rabbi Steven
five full-time teach-
Rubenstein of
ers and seven teacher
Congregation
assistants as well as
Beth Ahm in
Gabrielle Kam, 3, of West
resource teachers
West Bloomfield
Bloomfield with her finished
from the Hillel music,
and Rabbi
artwork
physical education and
Joseph Krakoff
Hebrew departments
of Congregation
—
and
use
of
the
Hillel facility.
Shaarey Zedek of Oakland County
Hillel has grown from two rented
as Rabbi Jonathan Berger, Hillel
classrooms more than 50 years ago
rabbi-in-residence, performed the
to its current facility, expanding five
Hannukat Ha-Bayit and hung the
times throughout the years. The new .
mezuzah.
ECC joins a state-of-the-art technol-
From there, everyone entered the
ogy center, three science labs, an art
ECC to be greeted by Robin Pappas,
center and another recent addition —
ECC director, and the staff and
a new theater arts/athletic facility. ❑
teachers.