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Taking Baby Steps
This New Year 5773
As Rosh Hashanah fast approaches, we
are meant to make resolutions for the
New Year. While the rest of the world
does this on Dec. 31, with champagne
in hand while watching the ball drop,
those of us that are Jewish have to con-
tend with an ever-changing date that
falls in either September or October.
Doesn't seem very fair, does it? Then
again, when was it fair (or easy for that
matter) to be Jewish?
As I write these words, I am think-
ing of how I want to improve next year.
The things I want to do that will not
only change me for the better, but also
affect the people I love, work with and
interact with on a daily basis in a posi-
tive way.
That got me to thinking about all the
resolutions I have made in the past, and
the sad reality that most of them were
not kept. Most were forgotten weeks, if
not days after they were made. We make
these resolutions with such conviction;
motivating ourselves to change once the
ball drops or, in our case, the sun goes
down. It's pretty depressing when you
really think about it.
Isn't that the case for most of us?
How many of us are discouraged by
our lack of progress, reasserting the
same old commitments? How many of
us arrive at Rosh Hashanah stunned to
discover that we're making the same
resolutions we made the year before,
and the year before that and the one
before that? Do we have any motiva-
tion left?
Do we have any credibility left?
How do we break this pattern? How
do we treat this New Year as truly
new, as a real opportunity for growth
and change? What goals do we have a
realistic chance of achieving? Realistic
being the operative word here.
Change happens slowly, incremen-
tally over long periods of time. As my
rabbis have taught me, the accomplish-
ment is in the persistence, in the ability
to continue to look ahead, to keep put-
ting one foot in front of the other, to
keep trying.
True growth and change comes
about in those small, consistent steps.
We all want to be great overnight. But I
need to accept the fact that's not going
to happen. And even more importantly,
I need to understand that it is a goal
that is too difficult to achieve. Too
much stress!
There are no quick fixes when you
are talking about life-changing actions.
I am reminded of one of my favor-
ite movies, What About Bob? where
Richard Dreyfuss (Dr. Marvin) lectures
Bill Murray about the importance of
taking "baby steps" to change your
behavior.
Dr. Marvin is right. Hopefully
through this slower pace, I will achieve
real change.
Andre Douville
West Bloomfield,
Lubavitch Should Drop
Appeal Of Its Lawsuit
As a current member of Bais Chabad
Torah Center, I served as treasurer dur-
ing the time the Torah Center paid for
the purchase of its property. Member
donations funded the purchase, with
no funds contributed by the Lubavitch
Foundation of Michigan.
I wish to express my profound disap-
pointment in the Lubavitch Foundation
for continuing to pursue an appeal of
its lawsuit against our congregation
even after it was thrown out of court by
Judge Chabot.
One would expect some sense of
social and communal responsibility on
the part of the Lubavitch Foundation;
one would assume that it would now
attempt to heal the wounds that it cre-
ated by not pursuing the lawsuit it lost.
Instead, it continues to add to the
division and pain it has already inflict-
ed on the entire Jewish community of
Detroit by continuing to pursue the
case on appeal.
I am also disappointed with the
law firm Honigman Miller et. al., for
its involvement in this lawsuit that is
causing such damage to our Jewish
community.
During this period of Asseret Yemei
Teshuvah, the Days of Penitence, I
hope and pray that the Lubavitch
Foundation will come to its senses and
drop its appeal.
David Hillel Morrison
Huntington Woods
Thomas More Law Center
Is Justified In Eagle Case
There are none so blind as those who
will not look. Case in point is the let-
ter "Thomas More Law Center Merits
Closer Scrutiny" (Sept. 13, page 6).
Let's look at the main points.
So, what is wrong with the TMLC
not having an interest in Eagle until
they saw a connection with radical
Islamic groups?
There is, indeed, such a connection.
The purchaser, ICA has documented
connections with the North American
Islamic Trust, which is a Saudi-funded
organization connected to terrorist
funding organizations. Also, CAIR, a
front organization for Hamas and the
Muslim Brotherhood, had identified
ICA as one of its constituents. I believe
that TMLC has it right.
A charge of "McCarthyism" is often
the refuge when one can't dispute doc-
umented connections to seditious orga-
nizations. By the way, in retrospect, we
now know that the government was,
indeed, inundated with communists,
unfortunately many of them Jews.
The target of TMLC is not
"Muslims:' it is Islamists. TMLC
is absolutely correct in saying that
nowhere in the Constitution is there
the phrase "separation of church and
state." The First Amendment says
"Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohib-
iting the free exercise thereof"
That is what is guaranteed, and that
is what prevents forcing our children
to pray in school honoring a state-
controlled religion — this is what sepa-
rates us from Islamists. To intimate
that TMLC's agenda in this affair is to
support forcing our children to pray to
government-sponsored religion shows
how far hate for that organization can
be carried.
The letter writer credits TMLC for
him joining the ACLU and the ADL.
Apparently he isn't bothered by the fol-
lowing fact: When the U.S. and Israel
walked out of and boycotted the noto-
rious 2001 U.N. conference on racism
in Durban, South Africa, because the
conference was rife with anti-Semitism
and hatred of the West, the ACLU
chose to stay and join in the hate fest.
The writer should take a few min-
utes to look at the TMLC's 22 pages
of allegations that are documented by
the Farmington Public School's own
communications as revealed under
the Freedom of Information Act, and
see for yourself that an investigation
is warranted. The public is unaware of
the facts because the local media has
blindly supported the school district,
never bothering to do any investigative
journalism. Why is that?
Richard Kaplan prepares
for the hotiday
IALC
The High Holy
Days are a time
of personal
reflection and
meditation.
For everyone at
ARC, it is also
an opportunity
to wish friends,
family and a
generous, loving
community
a very Happy
and Healthy
New Year!
32nd Annual
Fall Fundraiser,
Irving Ginsberg, Ph.D.
Farmington Hills
Corrections
• In "Alleged Hate Crime At MSU"
(Sept. 6, page 8), Zach Tennen is not
a member of Chi Alpha Epsilon Pi,
according to the fraternity's scribe,
Justin A. Polk.
• In "Rub-A-Dub" (Sept. 13, page
54), ORT wanted to clarify that the
organization netted $300,000. The
story had reported that it grossed
$300,000.
OCTOBER 23, 2012
FOX THEATRE
BUY TICKETS NOW
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September 20 • 2012
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