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National Council of Jewish Women

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Coalition’s
Dedication
To Holocaust
Education

Presidential Election:
An Equal-Opportunity
Satirical Viewpoint

P

inch me; the general election
blushing just thinking about those
for president is finally under
two lovebirds. It’s a love story that
way! But how’s that possible?
would give Ali MacGraw and Ryan
Are we to believe that after endur-
O’Neal a run for their money;
ing only a year of countless declared
except in Bill’s case, love does mean
candidacies, six months of primaries
“having to say you’re sorry” . . .
and caucuses, thousands of hours of
several times.
agonizingly repetitive media analy-
Of course, in fairness, we have to
sis/spin and hundreds of millions of Alan Muskovitz give a shout-out to Melania Trump
dollars in campaign ads, that just like
for her heartwarming speech about
that we’re expected to make a snap decision
her spouse as well. Sure, she didn’t say any-
on who should hold the most powerful office thing we hadn’t already heard before (wink),
in the world? That’s just not fair.
but it was still beautiful. And she’s no slouch.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m still trying to
I’m sure you’ve heard she speaks five lan-
analyze the results of last March’s American
guages: Slovenian, English, French, Serbian
Samoa caucus. I need to hear from more
and German. Unfortunately, she doesn’t
potential candidates; but alas, it is what it is.
speak Spanish, which will make it difficult
What’s really exciting, though, is that no mat- for her to communicate in the United States.
ter what the outcome, this November we’re
Despite our highly divisive political cli-
guaranteed to make history by choosing
mate, I hope this column accomplished its
either the first woman president or the first
goal of taking an equal opportunity satirical,
orange president. That’s right, either a glass
nonpartisan look at the current state of our
ceiling will be broken or a gold one. And I
political landscape. But before concluding,
just feel so blessed to be alive to witness it all I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer my congratula-
… I think.
tions to the winning candidates in this past
And how about that Bernie Sanders? A
Tuesday’s local primaries. I’m certainly
grassroots effort like none other as he tried
going to miss your lawn signs; especially the
to make history in his own right as the first
54 campaign signs I counted at the corner
Jewish (sort of) president. Obviously, his
of Orchard Lake Road and Lone Pine. 54!
wife was fully supportive, but for reasons you Further south, one candidate had 10 of the
might not be aware of. You see, my sources
exact same signs in a row. Oh, how I long for
tell me that Jane Sanders only wanted her
the normalcy of just estate and garage sale
husband to win so that he wouldn’t have to
signs. At least when you “elect” to buy some-
drive anymore. Meanwhile, to all of you who thing at one, you know what you’re getting.
“felt the Bern,” bravo. “Feeling the Bern” —
Thank you and may God bless America!
who knew it would be both a slogan for the
And we’ll need it. As one Facebook post
man’s candidacy and a description for his
recently declared — the worst thing about
current age-related urological problems.
this November’s presidential election is that
I know I’ll have wonderful lasting memo-
somebody has to win.
ries from this year’s political conventions.
Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voice-over/acting talent,
I’m writing this prior to Hillary’s acceptance
speaker, emcee and a regular guest host on the Mitch
speech so I can’t offer an assessment; but I’ll
Albom Show on WJR AM 760. Visit his website at
tell you one thing, I will never ever forget
laughwithbigal.com and “Like” Al on Facebook.
Bill Clinton’s address about his spouse. I’m

*

I read the article about Gov.
Rick Snyder’s visit to the
Holocaust Memorial Center
(“Powerful Lessons,” July 14,
page 10). Missing was notice
of the more than 20 years of
the impact of the Holocaust
Education Coalition (HEC)
and its effort for Holocaust
education in Michigan, other
states and many parts of the
world, including the Vatican.
HEC was made up of
representatives of survivor
groups, the Jewish Community
Relations Council, the Arch-
diocese of Detroit, ADL, B’nai
B’rith, University of Michigan-
Dearborn and the Greater
Detroit Interfaith Round Table.
We sent speakers to schools
and raised funds to provide
numerous schools with the
highly regarded Life Unworthy
of Life written by Dr. Sidney
M. Bolkosky, Betty Rotberg
Ellias and Dr. David Harris.
The material given to schools
included an 18-lesson guide
for teachers, a videotape of
survivor testimony and 30
student textbooks.
It is wonderful that a bill
was recently signed to encour-
age Holocaust education
and that a two-year advisory
committee may be assembled
soon. HEC didn’t wait for a
committee to be assembled;
we met and we raised funds to
get Life Unworthy of Life and
speakers to schools.

Micki Grossman
West Bloomfield

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Max Lapides

“Retirement - what we all hope to achieve
at some point in our lives especially when
our health allows us to engage in activities of
choice without the pressures of the work-a-
day world.
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pursue activities that would satisfy my desire
to "keep busy" I applied for a position as a
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working to understand today's teenagers.
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in the Jewish community, and so at my wife's
suggestion I joined the many volunteers
delivering Meals On Wheels, a community
service sponsored by The National Council of
Jewish Women.
This weekly Mitzvah of seeing that elderly
and sometimes home bound younger people
had a visitor and received two nourishing
meals a day was not only personally satisfying
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was necessary to consolidate routes and it
was no longer practical to continue my route.
I then moved on to weekly tutoring of young
students at The Coleman A. Young Elementary
School in northwest Detroit. Together with
other volunteers, we are assigned to a student
who needs help in developing skills in reading,
spelling, and comprehension. Thanks to NCJW
I have been able to get involved in community
services that make a difference to others
whether young or old.” – Max Lapides
Yes, Literacy Outreach at NCJW/Greater
Detroit is alive and well! At Coleman A.
Young Elementary School. Volunteers read to
children at every grade level once a month.
Volunteers work weekly to make the school
library function effectively, and be child-
friendly. An author comes to the school every
year to share his or her book with a gym full of
enthusiastic children. During March, reading
month, of every year, a grade appropriate
book is given to every student, emphasizing
the importance of literacy.
These programs at Coleman A. Young
Elementary School have been so successful
that we are now tutoring at Darchei Torah.
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be a part of the volunteer family.

Join NCJW/Greater Detroit today.
Become a new annual member and
take advantage of our special $25
annual membership fee in honor
of our 125th Anniversary.
Call us at (248)355-3300 ext. 0

MISSION:The National Council of
Jewish Women (NCJW) is a grassroots
organization of volunteers and advocates
who turn progressive ideals into action.
Inspired by Jewish values, NCJW strives
for social justice by improving the
quality of life for women, children and
families and by safeguarding individual
rights and freedoms.

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August 4 • 2016

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