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>> New Year's greetings from the community
Federation: 'Vibrancy Of Jewish Life'
R
osh Hashanah is a precious time
for us. The opportunity to pause
from our daily routines and
reflect upon the year we have lived as well
as the year to come is both special and
sacred. Many are fortunate to have expe-
rienced peace and prosperity. For others,
life has been more challenging. Each of us,
without a doubt, shares in both the good
times and the bad, often in a single year
and sometimes in a single day. Hopefully,
we all have things to be grateful for and
much to celebrate.
Just as we reflect upon our own lives,
we must also consider the life of our
community. We are lucky to live in a time
and place of relative peace and stability.
Perhaps more importantly, we are fortu-
nate to have the strength and resilience as
a community to weather whatever difficul-
ties emerge. Our ability to stand together
through good times and bad is a part of
our heritage as a people and a hallmark
of our Jewish family here in Detroit. Few
communities have faced the degree of
challenges we have seen in recent years,
while at the same time few can claim the
sense of commitment we uphold, or the
vibrancy of Jewish life that we continue to
maintain. This last year has been no dif-
ferent, a year filled with both joy and sad-
ness, growth and loss.
Life is filled with these cycles. Despite
this, we cannot ignore the struggles of
many in the community. We cannot sim-
ply wait until the next upswing arrives. If
we do, we may find ourselves waiting for
a prosperity that never returns. As Jews,
we know it is our responsibility to act on
behalf of those in need, as well as for our
children and generations to come. And
that is what we must do now Together,
we must step forward as a community.
We must step forward toward greater
harmony and unity in our community,
toward greater security for our vulnerable
members, and toward a renewed sense of
optimism, spirit and purpose. These are
not just words; if each of us truly commits
to stepping forward, the transformation
we hope for will become a reality.
Michael
crow
President
z Scott Kaufman
Chief Executive
Officer
On behalf of Federation, we want to
wish every member of our Jewish corn-
munity a healthy, happy and joyous new
year. Together, we will step forward toward
a year of peace and harmony for Jews here,
in Israel and everywhere across the world.
Chag Samayach. II
Family Service: 'Helping The Vulnerable'
A
s we gather with our friends and
families to bask in the spiritual
warmth of Rosh Hashanah, we
pause to taste the sweetness of apples
and honey and to listen to the haunting
sounds of the shofar.
But for some in our community it is dif-
ficult to embrace the sense of renewal that
Rosh Hashanah offers.
Michigan is still suffering the horrible
consequences of the economic tsunami
that struck our state a few years ago, and
too many of our fellow Jews are still strug-
gling to put their lives back together.
The most vulnerable in our commu-
nity, including seniors and the disabled,
have been the hardest hit — loss of their
homes, no access to medical care, a lack of
reliable transportation to find or maintain
employment, and bare cupboards. They
are our friends, our neighbors, our fami-
lies.
So how has Jewish Family Service been
helping our fellow Jews?
JFS provides an array of services includ-
ing mental health counseling, financial
assistance, access to free medical care and
legal services, geriatric case management
for our precious elderly, fully escorted
arm-in-arm transportation services, home
care and advocacy services for Holocaust
survivors — there is simply not enough
room on this page to list every service that
JFS delivers every day!
And our corps of dedicated JFS vol-
unteers contributes thousands of hours
every year as friendly visitors to elderly
shut-ins, as mentors to boys and girls
who need an additional positive adult
role model, as quiet but attentive visi-
tors to hospice patients, and as volunteer
doctors and lawyers providing pro bono
assistance.
It is important to note that Jewish
Family Service cannot and does not do it
alone. JFS works closely with Federation,
the Jewish Fund, sister agencies like Jewish
Senior Life, JVS, the Jewish Community
Center, Hebrew Free Loan, Yad Ezra and
countless other organizations in the
broader community.
Our services are available to any Jew
in need, regardless of ability to pay, and
every client is treated with the utmost dig-
nity and respect. Every day we fulfill our
community's pledge that No Family Stands
Alone.
Mark Milgrom
President of the
Board of Directors
If you need the services of JFS, please
call us immediately at (248) 592-2313. If
you are able to contribute to support the
work of JFS, financially and/or as a volun-
teer, visit our website at jfsdetroit.org .
Every Jew in our community deserves
to taste the sweetness of Rosh Hashanah
— Shanah Tovah U'metukah (a good and
sweet year) to you and your family. I I
JCC: 'Compassion, Wonder, Gratitude'
A
lbert Einstein cared nothing
about appearances, especially
not his own. When the German
ambassador and his staff came for a visit,
Einstein's wife suggested he might want to
spruce up a bit.
"If they want to see me, here I am','
Einstein replied."If they want to see my
clothes, open my closet and show them my
suits:'
Einstein didn't much like socks either,
and his hair was notoriously disheveled.
What Einstein did respect was compas-
sion, curiosity, wonder and gratitude.
"There are two ways to live he observed.
"You can live as if nothing is a miracle, or
you can live as if everything is a miracle."
In only a few days the High Holidays will
be here, and we will stand before God. We
will be answerable for our past actions and
pledge to do better in the coming days. Our
8
September 22 = 2011
commitment will be sincere and heartfelt
— and it will probably last for a few days.
Then it will be back to life as usual.
It is easy to take life for granted. It is
easy to complain (in fact, it's difficult to
imagine getting through just one day
without a list of complaints). It is easy to
be sedentary and do the minimum and
just pass through each day. It is easy to say,
"Life is ordinary."
That is one way to live.
The other way is to do what Einstein
suggested and live as if everything is a
miracle. When we do, life changes. The
small things — a seed that turns into a
sunflower — and the big things, like a
vaccine against a deadly disease, become
so wondrous it literally takes our breath
away.
And most miraculous of all: our fellow
human beings.
This year, we would do well to wake up
each day filled with compassion, curiosity,
wonder and gratitude. If only these ideals
could be applied to everything: the way
we treat each other, the way we give, the
way we help. It would mean an immedi-
ate empathy for the man who lost his job,
asking questions of a lonely widower in
need of company, the ability to appreciate
our own extraordinary Jewish community
and a sincere expression of thanks that we
have enough to eat, a roof over our heads
and clothing.
The next step would be to take action
— because a good thought means little
if it's not set to work. Each day, put in a
call to help someone find a job; invite the
widower for dinner; make a donation to a
charity; and say "thank you" to God, to a
friend, to a family member.
The world is truly a place of wonder,
Brian D. Siegel
Mark A. Lit
President
Executive
Director
a place filled with daily miracles: the
extraordinary coincidence, the birth of
a child, a beautiful melody, the State of
Israel. And when we are compassionate
and caring, when we give and help and
support and reach out, we are not only
recognizing and appreciating those mira-
cles, we become God's partners in creating
them.
Happy Rosh Hashanah.