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Seeing The Light
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T
August 24th to 26th
Friday 10am-7pm
Saturday 10am-7pm
Sunday 10am-4pm
29316 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills
Just south of 13 Mile on the east side
Pop-Up store information number: 248-439-6040
Cash or credit
MOVERS
leek Pvetteeat Ecteme
August 23rd
Available for hire on site
Thursday from 5pm to 9pm
$25 tickets sold at door
Exclusive access to redesign HOME store's stock of consignment furniture before
the general public and delicious light hors d'oeuvres & wine. Spend $250 or
more and $25 will be applied to your purchase! Spend over $500 and receive a
council resale shop Premiere Card entitling you to 10% off everything all the time
(including sale items!) at the two council resale shops.
FURNITURE AND DECOR FOR THE:
Bedroom I Dining Room I Kitchen I Family Room I
Living Room I Lamps I Home Office I Decorative Decor I
Fine China I and much more!
PROCEEDS BENEFIT NCJW/GREATER DETROIT
COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS
Check out the council resale shop in Berkley & Royal Oak
and the new redesign HOME consignment shop in Royal Oak
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
National Council of Jewish Women, Greater Detroit Section
248.355.3300 ncjwgds.org/councilresale
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20
August 16 2012
Adam Dickter
New York Jewish Week
Three Days Only!
Sneak
Camp Ramah reverses itself, offers to
accommodate blind Michigan camper.
re !design
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1=11
he painful story of a blind
15-year-old who was asked
to leave Camp Ramah in
Canada because he was too hard to
accommodate has touched off the
latest debate about the inclusion of
people with special needs in orga-
nized Jewish life.
The Conservative
camp movement
admits the Ontario
camp — one of
eight overnight
camps in the Ramah
network — made
mistakes, but says
it's being unfairly
Rabbi David
maligned in the
Krishef
aftermath.
Solomon Krishef
of Grand Rapids chose to leave Camp
Ramah in Canada in mid-July, sev-
eral days after his family was told on
visiting day that the staff could not
accommodate his needs for his first
full summer. (Solomon had attended
four previous one-month sessions.)
Solomon's angry dad, Rabbi David
Krishef, wrote about the incident on
his personal blog, noting that among
the reasons given were, "Sol takes too
long eating his meals and showering,
and requires help moving from activ-
ity to activity, which he also does very
slowly." The blog post quickly made
its way across Jewish cyberspace
through social media.
In a second blog post, the rabbi,
who leads Congregation Ahavas Israel
in Grand Rapids, said the camp had
reversed its decision, thanking the
director, Ron Polster. Krishef praised
Ramah campers and staff for step-
ping forward and volunteering to
help Solomon get through the rest of
the summer after his daughter, Sara,
started a petition drive to keep her
brother at Ramah.
"He called and expressed a sincere
apology to Solomon, to me and to
my wife. He took a second look at
how staff could be assigned for the
second month," wrote the rabbi on
July 19. "Of course, I wish Sol would
have chosen to stay, but given what
he's been through, I understand why
he has made the decision to come
home."
Rabbi Mitch Cohen, director of the
Ramah Camping movement, declined
to discuss specifics, citing privacy
concerns, but said it has caused the
camp and its policies of inclusion to
be maligned.
"We were really baffled by the
extent of the lashon hara and the
amount of people who commented
publicly without knowing anything
about the situation at hand," Cohen
said.
While he conceded the camp did
not handle the matter "perfectly," he
said, "When it comes to inclusion we
are proud leaders in that area as a
movement."
Ramah Canada, which is two hours
north of Toronto, will have about 600
campers in its two sessions this sum-
mer, including 20 who take part in its
Tikvah camp and vocational program
for teens and young adults with dis-
abilities.
Solomon's departure from the camp
came as a group of 20 Jewish donors
and foundation professionals was
going to board a bus the following
week for a three-day jaunt to eight
Jewish Northeast camps to look at
their level of inclusion and see how
better funding can maximize partici-
pation.
Elsewhere, activists see the incident
as a teachable moment.
Richard Bernstein, a Metro Detroit
attorney and activist who has sued
Delta Airlines, the University of
Michigan and others on behalf of
people with disabilities, said he was
upset when numerous people alerted
him to the story, but heartened when
Ramah reversed its decision.
"That doesn't happen too often:'
said Bernstein, who is blind. "I give
them a lot of credit for realizing the
mistake and doing the right thing. I
think this is a wonderful opportunity
to educate and excite our commu-
nity about ways to make people with
disabilities and special needs feel
[included]."
Citing his own experience at a
non-Jewish private camp when he
was Solomon's age, Bernstein said,
"It wasn't a big deal. I couldn't par-
ticipate in archery or tennis but I
felt close to my cabin-mates. People
wanted to help me. It created a sense
of camaraderie. It's human nature to
want to help people"
❑