metro
A scene from Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream"
speech, which marks its 50th
anniversary this year
I
r•
A day of community service at Temple
Shir Shalom on Sunday, Jan. 20.
T
Major event marks anniversary of Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic speech
A
group of community leaders and
organizations have planned a
major concert and awards cer-
emony marking 2013 as the 50th anniver-
sary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have
a Dream" speech. The event will begin at
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at Detroit's Gem
Theater.
The celebration is being organized and
coordinated by the Spilling the Honey
Project, a philanthropic initiative of Building
Relationships Inc., founded in 2012 by Shari
Rogers of Franklin to advance public knowl-
edge of the Holocaust and promote the preven-
tion of genocide.
In August 1963, King delivered his famous
"I Have A Dream" speech from the steps of
the Lincoln Memorial to more than 200,000
supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., to
advocate for civil rights. King gave an earlier
version of the speech in June 1963 in Detroit.
The Jan. 22 celebration in Detroit will
feature a speech by Dr. Clarence B. Jones, a
scholar-in-residence at the Martin Luther
King Jr. Research & Education Institute at
Stanford University in California, who col-
laborated with Rev. King on many of his
speeches, including the "I Have A Dream"
speech. Jones will receive the Architects of
Peace Award at the event in honor of his life-
long commitment to social change.
Other speakers will include Charles Asher
Small, director of the Institute for the Study
of Global Antisemitism and Policy and Koret
Distinguished Scholar at Stanford University's
Hoover Institution, and entrepreneur and
author Robert Levin, CEO and founder of
Transclick Inc., who is the first biographer
of President Bill Clinton. Brenda Rosenberg
of Bloomfield Hills will speak about the
American Jewish Committee's role in the Civil
Rights movement.
Three regional leaders who have worked to
find common ground among different ethnic,
racial and religious groups in Metropolitan
Detroit — Arthur Horwitz, president of
Renaissance Media and publisher of the
Detroit Jewish News; Martin Manna, presi-
dent of the Chaldean American Chamber of
Commerce and co-publisher of the Chaldean
News; and Bankole Thompson, senior editor
of the Michigan Chronicle — will be presented
with the first Detroit Innovation & Renewal
Awards.
12 January 17 • 2013
JN
In addition, UAW
vice president General
Holiefield will receive the
2013 Citizen for Change
Award.
Broadway actress and
singer Simone, daughter
of the legendary Nina
Arthur
Simone, will perform,
Horwitz
as will Grammy award-
winner Miri Ben-Ari, a
classically trained violin-
ist who has created her
own pioneering sound
and recorded with a wide
variety of artists including
Kanye West, Jay Z, Wyclef
Jean, Alicia Keys and
Martin Manna
Wynton Marsalis.
Other performers
include KidzBop lead sing-
ri
er Elijah J, who performed
in Disney's Lion King,
Detroit pop/rock group See
Jane Rock; and poet/actor/
playwright activist Jessica
Bankole
Care Moore.
Thompson
The host committee
chairs are U.S. Rep. Gary
and Colleen Peters. Dennis Archer Jr. is chair;
Daniel and Amie Stern are the co-chairs.
Shari Kaufman is the chair for a related event
earlier in the day at the Holocaust Memorial
Center Zekelman Family Campus for 300 stu-
dents from Detroit and Cranbrook Schools in
Bloomfield Hills.
Community partners include Defeat the
Label, a local anti-bullying campaign; the
Holocaust Memorial Center; Wayne State
University's Damon Keith Center for Civil
Rights; and NAACP Detroit Branch.
Proceeds from the inaugural Voices of the
Dream Concert and Awards Ceremony will
be donated to the Martin Luther King Jr.
Research and Education Institute and Defeat
the Label.
Tickets are $50. VIP tickets, which include
a pre-reception at 6:30 p.m., are $125 and can
be purchased online at
2013voicesofthedream.eventbrite.com.
❑
See related stories on pages 25 and 36.
ikkun Olam" are the Hebrew
words that mean "repair
the world:' The Tikkun
Olam-a-thon is a day of community
service when more than 200 Temple
Shir Shalom members (children and
adults) and friends come together to
help repair the world while celebrating
the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. It is an opportunity for parents
and children to work together on a
variety of community service projects.
The event begins at 9:15 a.m.
Sunday, Jan. 20, with a light break-
fast and a brief service to celebrate
Dr. King's vision and teach about the
importance of unity, diversity and the
worth of every person. Following this
service, volunteers go to their sites to
engage in a variety of community ser-
vice projects to help make the world a
better place.
Volunteering on this day will take
place at off-campus partner organiza-
tions and in stations set up around the
social hall at Temple Shir Shalom.
Volunteers who want to stay on
the Temple Shir Shalom campus can
assist caterer Zack Sklar of Cutting
Edge Cuisine in preparing a meal in
the temple kitchen for the residents of
Ronald McDonald House. More vol-
unteers are needed to make small care
packages for the house's residents.
Other projects include putting
together study kits of school supplies
for needy children at the Baldwin
Center in Pontiac, as well as helping
the National Council of Jewish Women
tie no-sew fleece blankets for children
in need and making cards for Meals on
Wheels recipients.
Volunteers are also needed to
decorate small dishes for seniors at
Fleischman Residence to keep on their
dressers for change, keys, jewelry, etc.;
to make kitty forts out of cardboard
boxes and fabric that will be donated
to local animal shelters; to create labels
for seed packets that will be distrib-
uted to Detroit residents in the spring
to plant in the 1,300 community gar-
dens the Greening of Detroit supports
throughout the city; and to make cards
for U.S. soldiers or draw pictures to
help decorate the children's area of
Henry Ford Hospital.
Volunteers who want to perform
community service off campus can
choose from the following:
Yad Ezra Kosher Food Bank
10:30 a.m.-noon: Volunteers will work
in the food warehouse (2850 11 Mile
Road in Berkley) to sort and organize
food. Children must be age 6 or older.
Detroit Rescue Mission
Oasis Soup Kitchen
10:45 a.m.-1 p.m.: Volunteers will
assist the kitchen staff in preparing,
serving and cleaning up from lunch.
13220 Woodward Ave. in Highland
Park. Children must be age 12 or
older.
Fleischman Residence
Nursing Home
10:45 a.m.-noon: Volunteers will play
Bingo with residents. Additionally, one
volunteer will be needed to select and
call the Bingo numbers while another
volunteer helps check winning cards
and hands out prizes. 6710 W. Maple
Road in West Bloomfield.
Ronald McDonald House
5:15 p. m. -7p. m.: Volunteers will be
taking the food prepared earlier in
the day at temple (by other volun-
teers) down to the Ronald McDonald
House in Detroit. Volunteers will
bring the food with them, warm, set
out and serve the food, then put away
leftovers for residents to snack on
later. Volunteers will also clean the
serving and kitchen area before leav-
ing. 3911 Beaubien in Detroit.
Detroit Bus Tour
10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.: Led by Ben Falik,
Repair the World manager of Detroit
service initiatives and Summer in the
City co-founder, who will show fasci-
nating sites in the city of Detroit while
talking about the social action and
community service projects that are
currently under way there. Attendees
will meet at the temple.
❑
Temple Shir Shalom is located at 3999
Walnut Lake Road in West Bloomfield.
For more information, email info@
shirshalom.org, or call (248) 737-8700.