community
Texting And Driving
Hebrew Memorial show teens
the dangers of distracted driving.
0
n Oct. 5, local teens were shown
the dangers of driving while texting
when Hebrew Memorial Chapel
hosted its fourth annual Don't Text And Drive
Program at Paradise Park in Novi under the
watchful eyes of the Novi police and fire
departments.
Staff of Hebrew Memorial directed the
teens, mostly members of local BBYO chap-
ters, to drive around a go-kart course and
then drive the same course while texting to
friends.
With fire trucks, police cars and hearses
surrounding the course, the message was
driven home that you put your life on the line
every time you text and drive. Rabbi Boruch
Levin, Hebrew Memorial executive director,
asked the kids: "Look at your last text. Is it
worth dying for?"
According to statistics compiled by
the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, 5,474 people were killed and
an estimated additional 448,000 were injured
in motor vehicle crashes that involved dis-
tracted driving during 2009. The highest pro-
portion of distracted drivers involved in fatal
crashes were in the under-20 age group.
"Teenagers were crashing into gates, bump-
ing into the guard rails and each other when
they started texting," said Otto Dube, manag-
ing funeral director at Hebrew Memorial.
As a guardian of our community, we
attempt to ease the path of grief when we
meet with families. But saving a family from
that grief allows us to serve our community
on a much higher lever Dube said.
"It was good to see the difference between
driving here, and then go-karting and driving
without texting and then with texting," said
Andrew Brown of Tzavah AZA. "You aren't
as aware of your surroundings like you were
before:'
Harrison Parker, Tzavah AZA prospective
member said, "It was really fun almost being
spun out by a cop while texting and driving
on the go-kart track!"
Hebrew Memorial's motto: "Don't text and
drive. We'd rather wait!"
Harrison Parket, 17, of West Bloomfield texts while on the course.
WE'D RATHER WAIT
HEBREW MEMORIAL CHAPEL
Members of the Novi police and fire departments with Otto Dube, right, of
Hebrew Memorial Chapel
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A Ride To Remember
Bikers tour the former
Temple Beth El building
in Detroit.
This summer's J-Cycle Detroit a day to remember.
Adrian Christie
Special to the Jewish News
I
n 2011, the Jewish Historical Society
came up with the brilliant idea of
instituting an annual bike ride around
Detroit with stops at historic sites where
prearranged speakers would educate the
cyclists about the Jewish connections, both
past and present, to these one-time iconic
institutions that have played an important
role in the city's life.
Although my wife and I lived in New York
City for a year during the summer of 1967,
a historic period when we read about riots
in Detroit, Martin Luther King was assas-
sinated and my fellow medical residents at
Mount Sinai Hospital were scrambling to
avoid getting shipped out to Vietnam, we
did not actually immigrate from Wales, UK,
until 1973, to Windsor, Ontario.
Two years later we moved to Michigan
where we have lived in the same
Birmingham house since June 1976. We
joined Temple Beth El (TBE) not long after,
50 October 23 • 2014
JN
in the late '70s.
I was one of many
TBE members who par-
ticipated in this 22-mile
bike ride, along with my
good friend Earl Remer.
What made this bike
ride particularly interest-
ing for me, and I have
participated in three of
the four to date, were the
The Temple Beth El portion of
Jewish connections to
Adrian Christie and
Belle Isle with the Albert Elmwood Cemetery
Earl Reimer
Kahn-designed aquarium
(saved by two Jewish
grave with an ex-medical colleague's name
ladies from rack and ruin during the Kwame on the headstone.
Kilpatrick years), the Beth El connection
At the old temple building we learned
to the oldest Jewish cemetery in Detroit,
that its stained glass windows now adorn
the history of Jews behind the musical phe-
our present temple, its carved wood panel-
nomenon known as "Motown" and the visit
ing now lines our chapel and its candelabra
to the Beth El building on Woodward that
was also saved for the present congregation.
preceded its present site.
This synagogue on Woodward Avenue once
At the Elmwood cemetery, we were
held up to 4,000 congregants on the High
informed that the last burial there occurred
Holidays!
in 2011. That was the year of the first bike
Educational and enjoyable, what a great
tour, and I recalled seeing the freshly dug
combination!
❑