Guest Column
Standing Up To
Meer Apartments
Independent Living in a Luxurious Senior Community
a residence of Jewish Senior Life
6760 West Maple Road, West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus
Jewish participants: Brenda Rosenberg, Sheri Schiff, Alex
Stotland, Rachel Klein, Allan Gale, Heidi Budaj and Ariana Menzel.
0
n July 27, Dr. Ramsay Dass,
president of the American
Middle East Christian
Congress, sent me an urgent appeal to
help the Christians and other
minority sects suffering from
a complete ethnic and reli-
gious cleansing in the prov-
ince of Mosul, Iraq. If these
Christians refuse to convert
or pay a penalty, they are
executed by the Islamic State
militants (ISIS). Their houses
are marked with an "N:' the
first letter of the Arabic word
for Christian, "Nasrani" or
Nazarene, and confiscated.
Churches have been demol-
ished. Businesses looted.
Children beheaded.
Yazidi, another religious minority in
Iraq, and Christian families stripped
of all belongings have fled to the top
of Mount Sinjar but will soon die of
thirst, malnutrition and sickness with-
out aid.
A movie of global horror began
playing in my head. Four thousand
years of Jewish history flashed before
my eyes: our rise to greatness in a
country, only to be persecuted, held
in captivity, our holy sites destroyed,
forced into slavery, debased, expelled,
pogroms, and 6 million Jews dehu-
manized and murdered in the
Holocaust, just because we were Jews.
Jews know what it's like to not be
heard — the world does not acknowl-
edge the expulsion of Jews from Arab
countries or our ongoing fight to be
recognized as a people in
our historic Jewish home-
land.
My Jewish heart said
I must stand with the
Christians and Yazidi to
stop the destructive insani-
ty of ISIS, a violent terrorist
organization bringing death
and destruction to not only
Iraq, but Syria as well.
I sent Dr. Dass's invita-
tion to our local Jewish
Community Relations
Council, the ADL and
American Jewish Committee. They
saw the urgency and joined us for din-
ner at the Sahara restaurant to discuss
the crisis.
I was thrilled to see Shia and Sunni
Muslims sitting together and jointly
condemning ISIS; Hindu friends
offering their Temple and resources;
and Ariana Menzel, AJC ACCESS
and Tectonic Leader, taking the lead
to create a unity candlelighting vigil
on Thursday, Aug. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in
Shain Park Birmingham.
Let the world know we as Jews will
not stand idly by. Join with us. Stand
with us.
Otherwise, history will repeat itself.
Ask about our MOVING FEE SPECIAL
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--""
Apartments
f\N
AB& Voted Best
a'n in Senior Housing
2013
Detroit Jewish News
JEWISH SENIOR LIFE
For information or to visit, call Marcia Mittelman
at 248-661-1836 or visit
www.jslmi.org for an application!
Season Begins September 2nd
,Nso
off full season
for New
Preschoolers
(3 - 5 years old)
Fresh New
Hip Hop and
Lyrical Classes
with our new
instructor Maye
Volunteers like these helped the United Nations distribute 2,500
mattresses, quilts and other emergency relief items to the
most recent wave of displaced Iraqis to arrive in northern Iraq's
Kurdistan region. These mattresses are being used in a school
where 700 of the displaced settled.
August 10th
from 10am-2pm
Cutting Edge
Contemporary
Classes taught
by new instructor
Rebecca
School of Dance
off balance of
2014 for New
Beginners
Competition
Company
Jazz, Tap, Ballet,
Hip Hop, Modern,
Contemporary
and Lyrical
28801 Orchard Lake Rd. • Farmington Hills, MI 48334 • 248-553-0305
www.annetteandcompany.com
August 14 • 2014
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