111(11 .0
Bringing the study
of Israel's politics to
EMU's new Jewish
Studies Program
Go Ahead, Be Silly
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
"Some are slightly afraid:'
he explains. "I don't worry
about that."
At times, Klegman dances.
Every so often, he'll throw in
a joke for good measure.
"You know why there were
no apples on Noah's Ark?" he
asks with a smile. "Because
they all came out in pairs"
So, where did Mr. Silly
come from? What's his story?
And why does he spend his
days spreading cheer to total
strangers?
Klegman, who was born
in Detroit in 1926, says it all
started when he was about
15 years old, the eldest of
two boys growing up in a
working-class Jewish home
near West Grand Boulevard
and Linwood. He attended
Detroit Central High School.
"I was born with very big
ears',' he explains. "How do
you meet girls when you
have big ears? There was
a bully who would always
tease me. So, one day, I went
to the library and started
reading joke books and
started making people laugh.
To this day, wherever I go,
I'm the life of the party'
Russ Olwell
While Eastern Michigan University
Professor Raymond Rosenfeld had taught in
his fields of public policy for decades and is
an international expert in that field, teaching a
new class on Israeli politics was a stretch out of
his comfort zone in the classroom.
To prepare the class he developed for the
new EMU Jewish studies program, Rosenfeld
received a fellowship to participate in the
Summer Institute for Israel Studies in the
EMU Professor Raymond Rosenfeld
Schusterman Center at Brandeis University:
The institute assists faculty from across the world develop or revise courses
on Israel through two weeks of seminars in Boston, followed by a study tour
in Israel.
"The seminar was intense, more intense than graduate school:
Rosenfeld recalled. "We worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day, having
seminars, working on syllabi and course materials." Scholars came to the
seminar from across the globe — China, Russia, Germany, Hungary and
Romania were among the countries represented, and from disciplines
ranging from Art History and Political Science to Arabic and Strategic and
Military Studies.
On site in Israel, the seminars continued while traveling all across the
country, with lecturers including former Israeli Supreme Court Justice
Ahron Barak addressing issues of the legality of defense borders. Rosenfeld's
group traveled to the City of David archaeological site to learn about the
excavation and controversies over its interpretation, and to the Negev to
hear both sides of land disputes between Bedouins and the State of Israel.
For EMU students, the result is a new class for the Jewish studies
program, being taught for the first time this winter. In his new class on
Israeli Politics, Rosenfeld brought back what he had learned to create
the first class on Israel for the Department of Political Science, which
will become a regular offering for International Affairs majors as well as
political science students at EMU.
Rosenfeld noted a lot of his students, even those in political science and
international affairs, have little previous knowledge of Israel and its politics
and culture when entering the classroom. "I began with the history of
Zionism and the struggle to understand Judaism as a religion and yet more
than a religion," Rosenfeld said, as students often have had little exposure,
even in their classes that dealt with the Middle East, that directly addresses
Israel.
Rosenfeld's goal was to develop a class that would enhance the new
Jewish studies program at EMU, and build up the Department of Political
Science's contribution to the program. He plans to keep revising the course
as he offers it in the future, and to reach as many of EMU's students as
possible with his new perspective on the field of Israeli studies.
Rosenfeld is president of the Board of Hillel at EMU and First Vice
President of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills.
•
Russ Olwell is a professor of History and director of the Gear Up
Program at Eastern Michigan University.
TRU EMU
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12
February 23 • 2012
Mr. Silly's over-the-top demeanor brings
warm smiles.
Humor And Healing
That may have been the
first time Klegman used
humor to help ease his pain,
but it wouldn't be the last.
hi 2003, his wife, Marilyn,
passed away. They raised
Dave Dombey of Southfield gets a warm
three children together, two
greeting from Mr. Silly.
sons and a daughter, and
were married for 49 years.
Heartbroken over the loss
Bloomfield Hills, JCC assistant execu-
of his life partner, the retired salesman
tive director. "He's a nice man, and it's
who once sold carpeting and home
something we feel adds a little flavor to
improvement items spoke with a coun-
our building. It also gives him a lot of
selor at Jewish Family Service.
joy and purpose in life."
"She asked me, `What do you want to
Klegman lives within walking dis-
do?"' Klegman recalls. "I said, want
tance at the nearby Prentis Jewish
to make people smile and laugh: I just
Apartments. He's also a member of
realized that life is very short."
Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park. He says
Klegman says he was inspired in part a lady clown gave him the multicolored
by the movie Patch Adams, based on the jester's hat he wears, a 4-year-old girl
life story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams,
gave him the name "Mr. Silly',' and vari-
who founded the alternative medical
ous admirers have given him the doz-
facility the Gesundheit! Institute in
ens of ties he drapes around his neck.
West Virginia. One of its missions is
"It's such a pleasure, such an honor
to use "humanitarian clowning" as a
to be here and to do this," he says. "I'm
form of healing. Klegman began greet-
a humanitarian, I do this for nothing.
ing people at the Oak Park JCC several
And making people happy? What a
years ago. It's been his daily routine
mechayah (pleasure in Yiddish). I have
ever since.
fallen in love with so many people.
"He's appointed himself to be our
Not enough people have the chutzpah
official greeter," said Leslee Magidson of (nerve in Hebrew) to just say some-