metro >> on the cover
...helping children and
Caring. Helping. Mental Illness.
KADIMA
t
adults with mental illness
move forward in their live
'44
The past thirteen years in United States
schools, we have experienced anguish that...
• 22 elementary children and 6 of their
teachers/administrators were killed
• 5 middle school children and 1
administrator/teacher were killed
• 7 middle school children were wounded
• 31 high school children and 12 of their
teachers/administrators were killed
• 56 high school students and 3 of their
teachers/administrators were wounded
• 41 college students and 11 of their
professors/administrators were killed
• 17 college students and 4 of their
professors/administrators were wounded
To these staggering numbers, we add the 6 killed and
11 wounded in Tucson, AZ, the 12 killed and 38 wounded in Aurora,
CO, the 6 killed and 3 wounded in Oak Creek, WI, the 2 killed and 1
wounded in Portland, OR and countless other murders committed
against innocent victims in our country.
Is this mental illness?
What we at Kadima know is that our community has
a collective responsibility to contemplate these numbers
and move beyond awareness to action.
We have also learned that the earlier services are provided
to children with emotional and behavioral disorders,
the better the long-term outcomes.
You can make a difference...
Contact your local, state and national elected
officials to ensure that mental health funding is not cut and
that programs and services are not eliminated.
Help reduce the stigma so often associated with mental illness
by knowing and sharing with others that only a very small
minority of people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or
schizo-affective disorder are dangerous.
Make a donation to Kadima to ensure continuity of the
professional and meaningful services we provide to
children with emotional and behavioral disorders and
adults with chronic mental illness.
If you, or someone you know, need Kadima
please contact 248.559.8235.
Kadima . 15999 W. Twelve Mile Road . Southfield, Ml 48076. www.kadimacenter.org
10 January 24 • 2013
Gun Control
Some Jewish views of Obama's
efforts after Sandy Hook.
Harry Kirsbaum I Contributing Writer
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
members of faith-based communities,
we need to find a way to come together
to have a serious national conversation
about the culture of violence in our
society so that Congress can work in a
bipartisan way to pass comprehensive
gun violence legislation:'
Rabbis Weigh In
Rabbi Joseph Klein of Temple Emanu-
El in Oak Park said the measures would
not infringe on the
rights of citizens, and
there is no reason to
be paranoid that the
country is going the
way of Hitler in the
1930s, when the gov-
ernment took away
guns from citizens.
Rabbi Klein
"If there are Jews
who favor free access to guns in order
to protect themselves if the government
`comes to get them: then they don't live
in the same country I do:' he said. "My
America is not Germany in the 1930s. I
do not live in fear that my country will
turn against the Jews. I am, however,
very fearful of the proliferation of hand-
guns and assault rifles that increas-
ingly threatens the well-being of all
Americans. I favor banning all weapons
with detachable magazines:'
Rabbi Alon Tolwin of the local Aish
HaTorah said the issue is very complex.
"We are a product of many sub-cul-
tures, and it is that very diversity that
makes us so great:' he said. "Who
would attempt to tinker with this bal-
ance that has taken 300 years to create?
It is clear that there must be some way
to limit the access to guns by people
who are mentally ill. Who is mentally
ill? Who is not mentally ill at one point
or another in one's lifetime?
"The Talmud says that dogs are
stupid because they bite the stick that
hits them and don't notice the person
holding the stick. The gun is a stick and
biting the stick is stupid. We are faced
by very serious social issues.
"Look at the cancers that are eating
us away from the inside. When the rates
of illegitimate births in most major
urban areas are more than 85 percent,
and, in that very environment, the No.
1 cause of death among young men is
gun-related violence, and when only 21
percent of these children are graduating
high school, we have much more seri-
ous problems:' he said.
"These laws are a bandage on a
cancer that is eating us alive, and that
bandage will fall off the first time we
take a shower:'
Jewish Shooting Club
Since 2007, Jews — men and women,
Democrat and Republican, liberal and
conservative, Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox from 20-75 years old — have
been meeting regularly to participate in
the sport of trap and pistol shooting at
local gun ranges.
"This is basically a sports club:' said
Ron Miller, founder of the Detroit Jewish
Cigar and Shooting Club, which has
slightly more than 100 members. "It's
for people who want to shoot because
they enjoy shooting. There's no hunting,
no self-defense; it's not a political group.
We're not getting hyped up about any-
thing; we just enjoy shooting as a sport:'
Miller of West Bloomfield, a member
of the Bais Chabad Torah Center, said
that Obama has been an advocate of gun
control, and he's using the current situa-
tion "to change the way we look at guns
in the country:'
Shooting Club
Secretary Stuart Weiss
said Obama's actions
are misplaced.
"Any actions target-
ing lawful gun owners
will have no effect
whatsoever on vio-
Stu Weiss
lence, including gun
violence said Weiss
of West Bloomfield.
"Obama's actions are consistent with
the views he has always held. He is on
record as stating his support for state leg-
islation to 'ban the manufacture, sale and
possession of handguns: and he voted to
not allow the use of a firearm to defend
oneself in one's own home:'
Weiss, also a Bais Chabad Torah
Center member, said many have decided
to "vilify gun owners but continue to
coddle violent and deranged people.
These incidents [Sandy Hook] are horrif-
ic, but punishing law-abiding gun own-
ers for the acts of a very small number of
sick people is nonsensical:'
❑
Where do you stand on gun control? To tell
us, visit Detroit Jewish News on Facebook
or send an email to letters@renmedia.us
(include name, city and day phone number).