oints of view >> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com Publisher's Notebook Editorial Making The Case For Jewish Detroit: Help To Morgue: The Jewish Way 1 9117 alk about coming together for a cause, one that unites the If Not Now, Whei: local Jewish and secular communities to help Metro Detroit resolve an unlikely, but urgent concern: burying unclaimed As Michigan puts out the welcome mat for immigration, we need our own version of a "Jewish welcome mat" to attract "immigrants" from New York, Chicago and other high-cost areas. A side from financial woes plaguing the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit, it's been a very good 2014 for the Detroit Jewish com- munity. So far, the William Davidson Foundation, the William and Audrey Farber Philanthropic Endowment Fund and the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation have revealed plans to invest more than $35 million in gifts or grants for Hillel Day School, Temple Israel, Akiva Hebrew Day School, Hebrew Free Loan and Congregation Shaarey Zedek. At their core, these gifts are designed not only to help make Jewish preschool, Jewish day school and college educa- tions more affordable, but also to provide state-of-the-art learning facilities for our children. An unexpected dividend came in April from blogger Matthew Williams, a respected doctoral candidate at Stanford University, who con- cluded in a conversation-stimulating and widely shared assessment that Detroit is the most affordable place in America to raise a committed Jewish family. All of this has me thinking about tiny Dothan, Ala., ... again. Remember Dothan? In September of 2008, I wrote about its aggressive efforts to recruit young Jewish families to this "regional hub of industry, healthcare and education" that enjoys a "low cost of liv- ing, vibrant economy and all of the conve- niences of a larger city:' Dothan's Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services "Family Relocation Project" offered financial assis- tance of up to $50,000 for those who quali- fied. Dothan was proactive in communicat- ing its message — even taking out paid advertisements in Rust Belt-centered Jewish community publications. Dothan, with its extremely modest Jewish communal infra- structure and attributes, was successful in recruiting more than a dozen young families for a "fresh start:' Meanwhile, our communal leadership was still reeling from a 2005 demographic study showing that Detroit's Jewish popu- lation declined to 72,000 — a drop of 25 percent — since the previous 1989 study. Most sobering was the realization that, aside from Sunbelt retirement communities, we had the highest median age and the smallest number of 20- to 29-year-olds of any Jewish community studied. If these trends weren't acknowledged and aggressively attacked in a sustained way, we were on our way to being a Jewish community of 50,000, with half of its population above age 65, by the year 2020. Could our community mus- ter the courage and wisdom to develop a long-term and appro- priately funded plan to inventory and proactively communicate to others, including our own children who had moved else- where, the myriad attributes of living, working, playing and rais- ing a Jewish family in Detroit? It wasn't rocket science to see that without an influx of children entering our well-developed communal pipeline of preschools, day schools, synagogue reli- gious schools, day camps, overnight camps, youth groups and college Hillels, important and well-meaning investments in facilities, scholarships and programming would be underutilized if not wasted. You DESERVE A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE June 12 • 2014 Casket Funding Through a discretionary grant, the Jewish Fund, an independently managed financial resource for community-based programs and ser- vices, will pay for up to $60,000 in costs to buy caskets to facilitate dignified burials. The Fund, with current assets of $63 million, slightly higher than in the first year in 1997, benefits Metro Detroit, not just the Jewish community. It emphasizes support of services that aid vulnerable local Jews as well as support of health and social welfare needs in the larger community. The Fund also strives to engage Jewish involvement within the cen- tral city as it strives to rebound from bankruptcy. Tapping the Jewish Fund for the noble cause of solving the buildup of unclaimed bodies at the Wayne County morgue makes perfect sense. Created through the Detroit Medical Center's purchase of Sinai Hospital of Detroit for $65 million in 1997, the Fund preserves the memory of the Jewish community's humanitarian markers that col- lectively led to Sinai's groundbreaking in 1951 – including the Orthodox rabbis' "Buy a Brick to Save the Sick" march on Hastings Street on Detroit's near east side in 1912. Sinai was a byproduct of the discrimination confronting Jewish phy- sicians who wanted hospital privileges in the early years of the 20th century. But it was always inclusive in how it was staffed and whom it served. A fresh start awaits your family in Dothan, Alabama; a regional hub of industry, healthcare and education. We enjoy a low cost of living, vibrant economy and all the conveniences of a larger city. Dothan's Jewish community has a rich history and enjoys our neighbors' deep respect. Discover a higher quality of everyday, progressive living in Dothan. You Deserve It - We Can Help Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services' "Family Relocation Project" offers significant financial assistance in the form of no-interest grants, up to e• $50,000 to those who qualify. For mom information, please contact us: I• BLUMBERG FAMILY DOTHAN, ALABAMA , J EWISH COMMUNITY SERVICES VI DOTHAN 2733 Ross CLARK CIRCLE Qan DOTHAN, ALABAMA 36301 PH, (334) 793-6855 EXT. 270 robg@lbaproperttes.com BFJCS.org Th< beautiful bench. of the Gulf of Mexico are short drive away along with a huge variety of cultural portunIties,in Agama, &nu i.e.., northern g ew Jewish Detroit on page 35 34 bodies. In a whirlwind timeframe, David Techner of the Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield, at the behest of the Detroit Jewish community's Jewish Fund, quarterbacked an amazing and dignified arrangement to give a final resting place for up to 200 unclaimed bodies at the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office ("Dignified Burials," June 5, page 1). It's a lesson in identifying a public need and rallying the proper forces to drive forward with purpose and compassion. Local members of the Michigan Funeral Directors Association are leading an alliance of volunteers to engage in the humanitarian mis- sion of designating bodies not claimed over 90 days, then burying them in caskets in their own graves in local cemeteries – but not before trying to locate family members so a common, interfaith memo- rial service can be held. Funeral and cemetery professionals are donat- ing the associated burial costs. MAI, a veterans' organization, is donat- ing services and space at the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly. Since news of the morgue crisis broke a few weeks ago, some family members have stepped forward to claim bodies. So the actual number of bodies to be buried through the coalition has fallen slightly. Tradition Continues Over 44 years of operation, Sinai Hospital administered high-quality medical treatment and care for all patients, regardless of religious, racial or ethnic background. It stood as a beacon of Jewish unity, con- cern and resolve to the broader community it was part of. The Jewish Fund ably became that beacon when Sinai closed. The Fund represents Jewish Detroit's commitment to tzedakah through twice-yearly grant cycles. Last year's grant total was nearly $3 million. Over 17 years, the Fund has awarded 675 grants totaling $50 million. Burying the dead with timeliness, dignity and compassion is a high calling of Judaism; the funeral, burial, shivah and annual yahrtzeit are all integral to celebrating and remembering the life of a loved one. Taken further, Judaism commands reaching out to the larger com- munity when a helping heart and hand are legitimately and sorely needed – such as the gathering of unclaimed bodies at the Wayne County morgue. ❑