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Donors, Please Step Up
To Save Oak Park JCC
Our 10 Mile JCC needs an endowment
now. Everyone talks "seniors, education
and community" — yet no one yet is
encouraging efforts to keep the Jimmy
Prentis Morris JCC in Oak Park open.
I believe we need a total endowment
of $20 million from 20 or more families
to sustain our beloved Center. In my
view, it should be under the umbrella of
Federation and associated with national
JCCs, but it should be a separate organiza-
tion, called JPM, apart from the JCC in
West Bloomfield.
Federation is planning to close our JPM
Center by Aug. 31. It needs $900,000 by
June 1 to fund the difference between rev-
enue and expenses for the 2015-2016 fiscal
year. The endowment can come in stages.
The Kahn JCC in West Bloomfield is
also in arrears to the tune of $400,000, but
no one is suggesting they raise the funds
or be closed.
The JPM JCC can be a self-sustaining
entity with help from community donors
and the addition of new members. It can-
not raise dues beyond what the market
will bear.
We need donors to step forward and
write checks to the JCC for the JPM build-
ing. The 5 percent interest from that $20
million should be sufficient to meet the
needs of our center so it will be financially
viable.
My concern is that selling or leasing
our center will change the dynamics.
There is the concern a regime change
may not be able to sustain our building
without returning to Federation for help.
Please visit our center, take our hydro-
tone water classes, our healthy back class,
our exercise classes. Get a pass for our
health club for a day. Visit. Join. Donate.
Become a member. See for yourself the
fellowship, the friendship, the loyalty
we all feel for our center, our wonderful
teachers, our pool, our health club and
our kosher restaurant.
Major donors: Please step forward —
give now Help JPM succeed. Thank you.

Helen Mendelson Kerwin

Southfield

Donating An Organ
Is A Great Mitzvah
Organ donation is not only permissible in
Jewish law, but some would also go so far
as to say it is obligatory.
Many of us long believed that this was
not the case. Our confusion, and even
mistaken notion in this regard, stems
from a few reasons:
1. In Judaism, we believe that one
should be buried whole, with all one's
organs intact.

2. It is our practice to bury a loved one
quickly, and organ donation delays burial.
3.We have heard that organ transplants
are not successful, and therefore the
desecration of the donor's body does not
result in saving a life.
Despite the above objections, rabbis
of all movements now agree that organ
donation is a correct choice for a Jewish
person.
Advancements in modern medicine
now enable organ donations to over-
whelmingly benefit the recipient. In the
case of a deceased donor, the removal of
the organ does not prevent a family from
proceeding with a quick burial. Although
we still believe in preserving our bodies as
God gave them to us, we also believe that
saving a life is a more important mitzvah.
Therefore, I urge you to strongly con-
sider becoming an organ donor, both dur-
ing your lifetime, if possible, and follow-
ing your death. You should discuss this
important decision with your family and
your doctors. To learn more about the
Jewish high regard for organ donation,
visit www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/
organ-donation-card.

Rabbi Elliot Pachter

Conq. B'nai Moshe, West Bloomfield

Current Threats To Jews
Are Nothing Like Nazi Era
Regarding Rabbi Jason Miller's com-
mentary, "I Won't Be Like The Rabbis Of
The 1930s" (Feb. 12, page 31), the idea
of using the Holocaust as a backdrop for
talking about oneself is a relatively new
phenomenon.
Especially with the "new media," self-
published memoirs, taking a "selfie" in
front of Auschwitz, etc.
So now we have one more example,
from Rabbi Miller.
In addition to telling us he won't be like
the others, Rabbi Miller also is stating,
almost as a fact, that 2015 can be com-
pared to 1933.
As if another Holocaust is just around
the corner, maybe in front of our eyes.
Most serious scholars, historians and
military analysts rebuke this notion.
So why is the rabbi trying to scare us
more than we already are about anti-
Jewish events all around the world?
Fear and such dramatic headlines grab
attention. Any media person knows "if it
bleeds, it leads:'
Each paragraph in his article includes
or implies "Holocaust" or extermination.
In addition, Rabbi Miller uses Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks' article for support, but if
one reads Rabbi Sacks' article in full, one
will see that the former chief rabbi of the
United Kingdom actually puts the three
major religions together, as "religions of

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peace
But Rabbi Miller equates Nazism with
what he calls "Islamism:'
One also wonders if Rabbi Miller
has really spoken to anyone in Europe
recently about what is going on there. He
should.
I recently returned from Paris, includ-
ing from staying a few blocks from
Vincennes, and I do not think anyone
would characterize the terrible events in
Paris as "1930s" or another "Holocaust'
As others point out, one more differ-
ence between 2015 and 1933 is about 400
nuclear weapons in the capable hands of
Israelis.

Rene Lichtman

West Bloomfield

Remember The Holocaust
So It Won't Happen Again
This letter is written in the deepest hope
that Jews will realize the world we are liv-
ing in — and will have long memories.
My co-teacher and I read the com-
mentary in the Jewish News by Rabbi
Jason Miller ("I Won't Be Like The Rabbis
Of The 1930s; Feb. 12, page 31). We
have taught courses on the Holocaust for
at least 30 years with the same voice as
Rabbi Miller.
We live in very difficult times and have
always felt that people are not involved
in remembering our past. In every gen-
eration, a new Haman has walked on
the stage of the world with one goal: the
removal of the Jewish people. Our day is
no different.
We try to make our students aware
of what the Shoah cost our people, and
silence today will not stop it from hap-
pening again. Our children and world
Jewry must face the world as it is, or our
future may once again be the major target
of those who would remove us from the
stage of history.
In the United States, we live in comfort
and seem to forget the degree of anti-
Semitism that existed here in the '30s,
how quiet we were and how we seemed
afraid to speak out.
We believe Rabbi Miller's commentary
was extremely important; hopefully an
awakening. If we as a people do not make
ourselves heard and do not educate our
children to remember to stand for who
they are, then the road we have seen in
every century will happen to them.
We must speak out and let the world
understand that we speak in one voice,
and that voice must dedicate ourselves to
the continued history of our people. If we
don't, the future will be filled with great
sadness again!

Linda Brodsky, West Bloomfield

Robert M. Lask, Bloomfield Hills

Letters on page 6

IT IS TIME TO ACT!

What is the plan
for 2015?

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February 26 • 2015

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