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Explore and Enjoy our
Family Friendly
Temple
Emanu-EI
Fall Events
14450 W. 10 Mile, Oak Park
WELCOME
PICNIC & SCHOOL
OPEN HOUSE
All families invited - FREE!
Sunday Sep 7th 1 1:30 - 1
Hot Dogs, Bounce House,
Glitter Tattoo, Social Action, more
Meet our teachers
and school families
Thurs, Sep. 25th
Youth & Family Service 9-10am
(best for 3rd graders and up)
Young Family/Tot Service 4-5pm
(best for tot - 2nd graders)
Birthright
Reunion
Mifgash brings
Birthrighters and
Israelis back together.
M
ifgash: the Hebrew word for
coming together. On Aug.
13, the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit kicked-off its
Mifgash, a five-day event that brought
together 100 participants from this year's
three Community Birthright trips with
20 of the Israelis who joined them on
their experience in Israel.
Through a busy schedule of programs
and activities across the city, the Detroit
and Israeli Mifgash participants renewed
and strengthened the bonds that were
forged on their trips.
When the Israeli visitors arrived at
Detroit Metro Airport, they were greeted
by a group of excited Americans that
would host them in their homes for
the entirety of their stay. The next four
More than 100 people enjoy a luncheon reuniting
Birthright participants and their Israeli comrades.
days were filled with
learning, discovery, dis-
cussions and bonding.
The program included
interactive dialogues with
Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox Rabbis; a bar-
becue at Kensington Park;
a trip to the Holocaust
Memorial Center; an
Liraz Gibli, Mirabeth Braude, Noga Barzilai , Jessica
afternoon spent with
Prentice, Shaked Amzalleg, Nisim Vaknin, Shir Kima
the Tigers at Comerica
Park; an overnight trip to
Tamarack; and a NEXTGen Detroit Good time community experience in Israel.
Shabbos Detroit dinner at Temple Israel.
Traveling with peers from their com-
Detroit Community Birthright, a pro-
munity, participants climb Masada,
gram of Federation's NEXTGen Detroit
swim in the Dead Sea and tuck prayers
and Israel & Overseas Departments,
in the Western Wall. They spend a day
offers 21-26 year-olds a free first-
in beautiful Central Galilee, Federation's
Cross-Cultural Cagers
OPEN TO ALL!
YOM KIPPUR
SERVICES
Sat., October 4th
For all families 9-10am
Music from our
Youth Choir!
Celebrate w/ us!
sualltot Services
Pizza In The Hut
LOOKING FOR
A PLACE TO
'DO JEWISH' I
warm, inclusive,
Give our
student-centere d
Religious school a try!
Register now:
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w ww.emanuel-m
TEMPLE EMANU-EL
WHERE YOU BELONG!
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Call an me:
www.emanuel-mich.org
26 August 28 • 2014
metro
JN
Jewish and Chaldean basketball players enjoy long-term
friendship.
I
t's not just about the sport; it's about
deep friendships. We live parallel
lives and we don't intersect all the
time, but basketball was the mechanism
(for us) to intersect. And our lives are
richer because of it."
Who said it? Lebron James reminisc-
ing about his Miami teammates after
announcing he was returning to the
Cavaliers? Or a moment of reflection
by retired NBA commissioner David
Stern at his recent NBA Hall of Fame
induction? Give up? Actually it was Rick
Sherline, Southfield insur-
ance agent and pick-up
basketball fanatic, describ-
ing his 15-year relation-
ship with a group of Iraqi
Christian (Chaldean) bas-
ketball players with whom
he shares "a special kind of
relationship:'
I met Rick after having
written an article about
his father and Jewish War
Veteran, Herman Sherline,
of blessed memory. Rick
told me about his basket-
ball brethren and thought
readers would enjoy
hearing the feel good story. From the
moment I heard the first heartwarm-
ing details, I understood why Rick felt
it was a story people could learn from
Above: These Jewish and Chaldean friends bonded over basketball.
as well.
Two cultures, one sport,
countless hours of fun. There
are a few versions of exactly
just how it all began. By most
accounts, it came down to
two different groups of play-
ers showing up at a court, one
Jewish, one Chaldean, each in
need of extra players to field
two teams for a game of pick-
up basketball. Game on.
It was there, Sherline recalls
fondly, that we "cross-pollinat-
ed ... melded (our) two games
together" and, in doing so,
the players discovered they shared the
same passion for family, education and
friendship.
As the years passed, the friendships
grew and so did the number of players
with the games moving from the school
yard to the backyard of West Bloomfield
physician Dr. Norman Markowitz.
"The guys meshed from day one,"
Markowitz says. "There were never any
issues regarding our different cultures
or any awkwardness whatsoever:'
Chaldean counterparts Justin Hermiz
and Tim Somero echo those exact senti-
ments. "It has been a great Chaldean/
Jewish social connection we have devel-
oped," Justin says.
Tim adds, "I love the guys ... like
they're my own brothers ... I don't make
a distinction between who is Jewish or
Chaldean."
Today the list of participating play-
ers, who range in age from young adult
to the 60s, has grown to 50, and this