Global Detroit from page 42

Commentary

for a low-immigration state.
In Michigan, 64.4 percent of the for-
eign born are working-age compared to
50.8 percent of the non-immigrant pop-
ulation, a critical fact in a rapidly aging
state that also is rapidly losing working-
age residents due to out-migration. An
example of immigrant industriousness
can be found in the Hispanic popula-
tion in Southeastern Michigan; they
make up just 3.5 percent of the region's
population, but 6.5 percent of its total
employment.
As noted by Washington Post col-
umnist Conor Williams, `Bottom line:
The Midwest can't survive without
immigrants. The nation's heartland can't
afford any more partisan gamesman-
ship on immigration policy. Millions of
Midwestern jobs are at stake
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder embraced
this opportunity in his first State of the
State address: "Immigration made us
a great state and country. It is time we
embrace this concept again as a way to
speed our reinvention:'

JCCs Must Think Big Picture

Moving Forward
No one strategy will, by itself, revitalize
the Detroit regional economy. However,
nothing is more powerful to remaking
Detroit as a center of innovation, entre-
preneurship and population growth,
than embracing and increasing immi-
grant populations and the entrepreneur-
ial culture and global connections that
they bring and deliver.
The Jewish community has a par-
ticularly important role in leading
this effort. Our historical diaspora
experience, our understanding of the
importance of America's freedoms, and
our community's notions of charity
and welcoming can serve as the critical
foundation for Metro Detroit to embrace
an immigrant welcoming campaign.
Local institutions such as JVS and
Jewish Family Service, as well as the
Jewish community's partnership with
the Arab, Chaldean, Christian, Muslim,
African American and Hispanic com-
munities, provide important models
upon which to build.
I hope you will join me by visiting
www.globaldetroit.com .

New York/JTA

A

s central gathering places for
the Jewish community for a
century and a half, Jewish com-
munity centers have seen their share of
vigorous and even contentious debate
about many issues of importance to
North American Jews, from education to
draft counseling, immigration to religious
observance.
Throughout that time, the
JCC remained the place that all
Jews could express their views
without fear and expect to be
listened to with respect. It has
been the living room of the
community, so to speak — the
place that complicated and dif-
ficult issues could be hashed
out, and if not concluded, then
at least openly discussed.
Now another issue has
become the roiling center of
debate — Israel. The debate,
however, is not whether Israel
should be present in the JCC — no one
contests that — but what the parameters
of the conversation should be.
Several JCCs have been loudly criti-
cized recently for presenting art pieces
that are unflattering to Israel. The JCC of
Manhattan's Other Israel Film Festival,
which focuses on non-Jewish minori-

ties in Israel, and the DC JCC's Theater
J presentation of Seven Jewish Children
and Return to Haifa have provoked angry
responses from some in their communi-
ties. The accusation: the JCCs are implic-
itly delegitimizing Israel's right to exist.

These people have raised their voices in
what no doubt is sincere dismay at what
they perceive to be an immediate threat
to the Jewish state. But in their
insistence on the singular
validity of their viewpoints,
they misunderstand the role of
a Jewish community center.
JCCs are the original big-tent
institutions, opening their
doors and welcoming all Jews
— not only Jews who act a cer-
tain way or look a certain way
or think a certain way. Their
inclusivity has made them
the perfect place for the entire
Jewish community to gather
and celebrate, learn, argue and,
more than sometimes, disagree.
The JCC of Manhattan and the DC JCC
have continued that honorable tradition
with great elan, opening their doors to
their communities and inviting them in
to share views and opinions on a wide
diversity of topics and especially on Israel.
They have offered a remarkably rich
assortment of Israeli
films, performances,
exhibits and foods.
Theater J also has
upheld the venerable
Jewish custom of chal-
lenging art. It wants to
make its audience think
as well as laugh or cry.

Dr► Bones ISRAEL DAY

Steve Tobocman lives with his wife and

daughter live in Detroit. He is a former state

representative from Detroit and a former

Michigan House majority floor leader. He was

co-founder of Community Legal Resources,

co-directs the Michigan Foreclosure Task

Force, co-directs the Michigan Political

Leadership Program at Michigan State

University and spearheads the Global Detroit

initiative. His email address is:

steve.tobocman@gmail.com .

DryBoneccom

important Part
Moreover, JCCs reflect
the communities
that support them;
the Upper West Side
of Manhattan and
downtown Washington
are going to have dif-
ferent conversations
than Borough Park,
Brooklyn, or Miami, Fla.
At a time when our
community is increas-
ingly diverse and
sophisticated, when
so many of our young
people (and their
elders) are growing
more emotionally and

intellectually disengaged from Israel,
these JCCs are playing a vital role in con-
necting American Jews to Israel, as JCCs
do everywhere. In so doing, they reflect
the recommendations put forward by our
2010 Israel Task Force, which saw JCCs
as the perfect venues to introduce the
vibrancy and diversity of Israel life and
culture to North Americans through the
arts and to promote discussion of critical
issues relating to Israel.
As President Obama urged after the
horrific shooting in Tucson that shocked
the nation, "at a time when we are far too
eager to lay the blame for all that ails the
world at the feet of those who think dif-
ferently than we do — it's important for
us to pause for a moment and make sure
that we are talking with each other in a
way that heals, not a way that wounds."
American and Israeli Jews have had too
much bitter experience with the results
of reckless speech, and with the conse-
quences of blacklisting.
Despite our deeply held differences, we
can still respect each other's motives and
intentions, and keep the JCC as a space
free of accusations and reprisals.

Allan Finkelstein is president of the

JCC Association, based in New York City.

standing
uard

4

For Israeli
Muir Je- vvish:

Join the Detroit Jewish
community's largest expression of
solidarity with Israel by attending
this year's Walk for Israel, 1 p.m.
Sunday, May 15, starting on the
grounds of Temple Shir Shalom at
Orchard Lake and Walnut Lake roads
in West Bloomfield. Mark your calendar
and bring your family, friends, neighbors
and co-workers to celebrate our Jewish
homeland and take a stand for a safe and
secure Israel.

Prepared by Allan Gale, Jewish
Community Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit

© May 5, 2011, Jewish Renaissance Media

May 5 a 2011

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