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Grosse Pointe Jews Earn Hearty Yasher Koach

T

he story of Grosse Pointe Jewish
Council is very much the story
of Jewish Detroit: imagine,
mobilize, innovate and persevere. This
Chanukah marked the 25th anniversary
of the grand GPJC experiment to not only
survive, but also prosper as a spiritual
group open to anyone who embraces an
expression of Judaism, from strictly secu-
lar to a level of ritual observance.
The city of Detroit's eastern and western
suburbs are a ways from Jewish Detroit's
southern Oakland County core. But the
fact that they, from Mount Clemens to
Canton Township, are home to vibrant
pockets of Jews who pray and celebrate
together says a lot about our faith's force
field. You don't have to dwell amid a

The beauty of GPJC is its mobility:
from worship services led by Rabbi
Ariana Silverman in a local church to
events in member homes or rented space
to cooperative programs in collabora-
tion with the Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue and the Reconstructionist
Congregation of Detroit. GPJC also taps
into even broader Jewish life here in
Metro Detroit. So it's not isolated.
GPJC operates a small religious
school for kids in elementary and
middle school grades, further reinforc-
ing its commitment to sustaining an
informed Jewish presence east of Mack
Avenue.
Yasher koach, Grosse Pointe Jewish
Council — well done!

This Chanukah marked the 25th anniversary
of the grand GPJC experiment.

concentration of synagogues, Jewish day
schools and Jewish communal agencies to
feel Jewish or tap into your Judaism. Say
"Jewish Detroit" and you're unwittingly
referring to dozens of ZIP codes spanning
the metro region.
GPJC's growth from 63 founding fami-
lies to 150 families today underscores the
power of a common interest in seeking
"to preserve and promote the heritage
and traditions of the Jewish religion and
culture" Such growth also dispels the

myth that Jews aren't welcome on the
largely Christian far eastside. The IN story
"East-Side Silver Anniversary" (Dec. 18,
page 16) reveals Jews have lived in the five
Grosse Pointes for almost a century.
GPJC members aren't necessarily long-
time Detroiters, although some are. Many
members arrived here as a result of busi-
ness or employment opportunities in the
Pointes or in Detroit. Some even work
in Oakland County. All are near Lake St.
Clair as well as Midtown Detroit.

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Fatah party governs Palestinian-
controlled areas of the West Bank.
"I assert, " Odeh wrote, "that those
people who are attempting to sanction
this crime or incite to similar acts in
the name of religion have no backing
from the Koran."
Tall as Odeh stood in breaking from
Fatah's anti-Israel party line, many
mainstream Muslims consider the
Ahmadi to be heretical. Some Muslim
lands have gone so far as to persecute
and oppress them – and even reject
them as Muslim, according to PMW.
Clearly, there's little incentive for
Muslims turned off by the extremist
beliefs of Islamism to speak up in the
glare of international scrutiny and risk
public ridicule – or worse.

Islamists Scorn Compassionate Muslims

ews imagine a safer world if
only moderate Muslims spoke
out more against Islamism,
the political radical perversion of Islam,
the religion. Once in a while, a Muslim
with a wider worldview will shed the
fear of retaliation and openly condemn
terror against Israel in Allah's name.
Sheikh Muhammad Sharif Odeh
is such a Muslim. He leads the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the
Holy Land – a relatively small branch
of Islam with 10 to 20 million follow-
ers who share more inclusive, tolerant
beliefs than Islamists. For starters,
they believe in freedom of religion.

In a courageous opinion piece for
Ma'an, a private Palestinian news
agency, Odeh, who lives in Israel,
denounced the spate of recent terror
attacks carried out by Palestinians
under the pretext of defending Islamic
holy sites, according to Israel-based
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).
Odeh branded the attacks, includ-
ing the deadly assault on a Jerusalem
synagogue, a distortion of Islam. The
synagogue killings, he wrote, "con-
tradict the principles of tolerance."
Muslims, he wrote, must "defend, first
of all, the churches, houses of worship
and monasteries of their fellow men,

even before their own mosques."
Odeh took the time to visit the
Har Nof neighborhood in west
Jerusalem where the synagogue kill-
ings occurred. You seldom hear about
a Muslim calling for the defense of
another faith's holy space before a
mosque.
Odeh boldly sided against
Palestinian Authority leaders who
defended or glorified the synagogue
attack by two armed Palestinians.
PMW exposed President Mahmoud
Abbas' condemnation of the syna-
gogue murders as insincere and borne
from diplomatic necessity. The P.A.'s

❑

Poverty Inside Israel Pulsates

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ational security will com-
mand the spotlight, but
social issues also will reso-
nate among candidates during the
buildup to Israel's March 17 special
elections.
For example, the nation's poverty rate
is both high profile and deeply troubling.
It showed a slight decline of 1.7 per-
cent in 2013, but weighed in at 21.8
percent. America's poverty rate, in
contrast, is closer to 15 percent.
In Israel, more men and women
are working. Still, Israel boasts
the third-worst poverty rate
among Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development coun-
tries, trailing only Mexico and Chile;

32 December 25 • 2014

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neither has Israel's economic potential.
The just-released National Insurance
Institute's 2013 report showed 1.6 mil-
lion Israelis living under the poverty
line. That included nearly 757,000
children (every third child) and nearly
433,000 families. Not included are
those just outside the line.
More households with two provid-
ers fell below the poverty line in 2013
despite the number of impoverished
households overall slightly dropping.
The report notes that a family of six
where both providers receive mini-
mum wage could not survive finan-
cially.
Not surprisingly, the poverty rates
remain highest among Arabs (47 per-

cent) and haredi Orthodox Jews (66
percent); for various reasons, both
groups have a harder time integrat-
ing into the job market. Even group
members who do work barely earn
more than the jobless, pointing up
another problem — the skirting of
labor laws over wages. A national cut
in child welfare benefits further hurt
the haredi, already dogged by an array
of job hurdles.
With a new government looming,
Israel should grab the poverty problem
by the horns and name a commission
to develop a multi-tier, multi-year
blueprint to facilitate a sustained drop
in the poverty rate to below 20 per-
cent.

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