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Cultural Series Dr. Banooni gives a culinary and historical taste of his native Iran.

K

eter Torah Synagogue in West Bloomfield hosted
the seventh “Different Cultures, Different Foods”
program on April 3. Rabbi Sasson Natan invited
the nearly 100 guests to learn from featured speaker Dr.
Firooz Banooni about the ancient-to-modern history of
Iran and Persian Jewry. His extensive lecture included
family stories and their Persian heritage.
Before his talk, guests were invited to approach buffet
tables to sample cuisine prepared from recipes chosen by
Banooni and wife, Rana. Buffet trays were filled with tasty

baghali pollo, khoresh gheymeh and gondi served with
Persian white and/or green rice. Treasured recipes yielded
Pesach haroset and halvah for dessert. All had been
prepared by volunteers directed by Dr. Banooni in Keter
Torah’s kitchen.
Led by Keter Torah and StandWithUs-Michigan, pro-
gram co-sponsors were the Anti-Defamation League,
Greater Detroit Hadassah, Jewish Community Relations
Council and Zionist Organization of America. Special
thanks go to Andree Nordan.

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Volunteers preparing to serve Persian Jewish cuisine

A sample plate of Persian Jewish cuisine

Rabbi Sasson Natan introduc-
Dr. Firooz Banooni directs
Barbara Moretsky, StandWithUs- ing featured speaker Dr. Firooz
Banooni
MI president, in gondi
preparation.

Banooni lecturing about Persian Jewish history

Modern-Day Slavery Temple Israel Sisterhood hosts an Interfaith Women’s Freedom Seder.

T

emple Israel Sisterhood hosted a Women’s
Freedom Seder April 5 that underscored
human trafficking as the modern-day
form of slavery. About 85 women from both
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield and Hartford
Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit attended and
participated in a social action Passover seder.
Rabbi Marla Hornsten and Rabbi Arianna
Gordon conducted the seder, and the sisterhood’s
Social Action Committee organized the event.
The four cups of wine became social action-
oriented cups of awareness, human dignity, hope
and action.
Participants also watched a video that told
the story of Theresa Flores, a former student at
Groves High School in Beverly Hills, who was
sexually trafficked as a 15-year-old. Many years
later she started S.O.A.P (Save Our Adolescents
from Prostitution), an initiative that provides
bars of soap to be labeled with the national
human trafficking hotline number and placed in
motels. Donations were made to S.O.A.P and to
Atzum (a social justice agency that helps human
trafficking victims in Israel).

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Temple Israel and Hartford Memorial Baptist Church
women show the labeled S.O.A.P. bars.

— Gail Katz

A special Haggadah
was used for the seder.

20 May 12 • 2016

Temple Israel Sisterhood’s Social Action Committee: Linda Mickelson,
Randi Sakwa, Wendy Kohlenberg, Gail Katz and Marilyn Schelberg

Freedom seder tables before the guests
arrived

The labeled bars of soap to be put in motels