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Ben Voyage
5
ometimes you get a job. And
sometimes — if you're lucky and
outgoing and patient, but mostly
lucky — a job gets you. That's how I felt
six years ago when, amidst grave demo-
graphic and economic uncertainty, Repair
the World tapped me to
engage the Jewish com-
munity in Detroit in
a way that might turn
our shared values into
value for Detroiters.
And that's how I
/ 110 , feel now that I'm pre-
paring to transition
Ben Falik
into my new role as
the Corporate Social
Responsibility Lead for Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles (FCA).
When I was 8 years old, we became a
GM family. Two weeks after driving my
Saturn station wagon back to my parents'
house from New York after college, I met
a girl who worked at Ford (and drove a
Volvo and did not live with her parents).
I wasn't looking to FCA US to complete a
column on some automotive bingo card
— and yet, as my next chapter, it feels
cumulative and compelling.
When my Grandpa David was on
summer break from teaching welding
at River Rouge High School, he worked
in the plant building Thunderbirds and
Continentals and at home building toys in
his basement.
Albeit removed by decades and degrees
of automation and globalization, I can
draw a line from his summers in the
city — the work ethic, the drive to cre-
ate, the sense of place — to mine. He
and so many returned to Detroit after
World War II and supported the Arsenal
of Democracy. I can only hope to honor
their legacy and the notion that this will
continue to be a place of innovation and
inclusion.
Detroit as a company town has been
the site of unprecedented prosperity and
poverty over the last 100 years. In the next
100, car companies have the opportunity
to support diverse economies and com-
munities in Metro Detroit.
Ben with a current and
,i
future Detroit Tiger at
Jewish Heritage Day
As manager of Motor Citizens, the FCA
US volunteer program, I will get to bring
the "do-ocracy" of Summer in the City,
the mentorship of PeerCorps and Repair
the World's commitment to education and
food justice to help FCA US employees,
locally and across the country, invest their
time and talent in building strong, resil-
ient communities.
As noted in the Company's 2015
Sustainability Report, "The conviction
that the Group can and should be an
agent of positive change is deeply embed-
ded in the company culture" Challenge
accepted.
Challenges, of course, remain for
"Jewish Detroit" Chief among them, how
can we continue to leverage our bonding
social capital — that which durably con-
nects us to the kids we went to camp with,
those future campers, the elders from our
congregations, our tribe — while pursu-
ing the kind of bridging social capital
necessary to building relationships, coali-
tions, families and businesses with our
African-American and Muslim-American
neighbors?
I look forward to supporting Repair the
World and its sister organizations in pur-
suit of these greater goals.
Fortunately for us, Repair the World
has an exceptionally strong local team
and a long-term commitment to Detroit
by the national organization. The act of
repairing, after all, is a process, and the
process here is under way at a time when
we need it dearly, deeply, daily. Stay tuned
for opportunities to learn and serve (and
dine) together in honor of Dr. King next
month.
The friends, families, partners, pro-
grams, allies, advocates and angels are
too many to name. The regrets, too few to
mention. Instead, I hope we can celebrate
together. On Jan. 8, Repair the World
will host Ben Voyage, my send-off and
35th birthday party from 4-8 p.m. at the
Workshop (2701 Bagley Ave.).
Everyone is invited. Everyone. No gifts,
please. None. I've never been good at
receiving gifts and — notwithstanding the
irresistibly clever name coined by Repair
the World Fellow Ellie Farber and menu
of my favorite things — Ben Voyage is
less about me than about us and about all
we've accomplished and about the pos-
sibilities that lie ahead.
In lieu of a gift, please consider con-
tributing to Repair the World's work in
Detroit at werepair.org/donate.
Coat Drive! Check your closet and bring
(or send) an extra coat to the party. Repair
the World will be collecting dozens (hun-
dreds?) as part of a coat drive to distribute
across the city. And maybe — if I'm lucky
and outgoing and patient, but mostly
lucky — your coats will be as warm to
others as you have been to me. *
an alt-left echo chamber that has itself
engaged in the worst kind of scurrilous,
hateful defamation, baselessly maligning
Trump adviser Steve Bannon as an "anti-
Semite:'
This character assassination violates not
only the precepts of the ADL, but also the
most important ethical tenets of Judaism,
which exhort against engaging in spiteful
rumor, gossip, innuendo and slander.
How shameful the ADL blasted Bannon
without full due diligence and now,
too little, too late, has walked back its
vicious smear against Bannon.
The only smear now is that on the ADL
itself.
letters
ADL RUSHED TO JUDGMENT
It bears remembering that the "D" in the
acronym ADL stands for "Defamation"
The ADL was founded as an organiza-
tion fighting hateful defamation against
Jews.
Sadly, the ADL has devolved from being
a champion fighting defamation into
Robert Stulberg
Farmington Hills
Andi Wolfe has volunteered for
many causes across the community
and says she always knew about
Hebrew Free Loan. But HFL caught
her attention with its grant proposal to
the Jewish Women's Foundation to
establish the agency's Building My
Tomorrow fund. Andi sat on the
committee that read and approved
the proposal, and then she knew she
wanted to be part of HFL.
"I love being on the HFL Board"
Andi said. "We give people opportunity.
I know people might still think of us as
the agency of last resort, or the place
their grandparents came when they
landed on these shores, but we are so
much more. We help make college
possible, assist in launching the small
business of your dreams, get your
mom the therapy she needs, or help
you send your kid to summer camp.
We are a place of possibility."
Hebrew Free Loan, Andi said, is a
place that gives her the warm fuzzies.
"I love who I work with, the Board
members and staff from all walks of
life, and with so much heart. I enjoy
meeting the borrowers, focusing on
their stories. Everyone has a story,
and for a short while, our stories co-
mingle, which is heartwarming."
Then, there is the completeness,
coming full circle. Paying it forward,
fund recycling, call it what you will,
Andi said, community donations to
HFL are pooled to fund the loans,
loans are repaid, new loans are made
from those payments, and things are
made better. "We aren't a community
without each other," Andi said. "I think
everyone should support and take
advantage of what HFL has to offer."
Become an HFL Donor.
Click. Call. Give Now.
www.hfldetroit.org
248.723.8184
Health. A fresh start.
A good education.
The next great business idea.
Hebrew Free Loan gives interest-
free loans to members of our
community for a variety of
personal and small business
needs. HFL loans are funded
entirely through community
donations which continually
recycle to others, generating
many times the original value
to help maintain the lives of
)cal Jews.
HEBREW
FREE*LOAN
hfldetroit.org
We Provide Loans. We Promise Dignity.
6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301
G
Hebrew Free Loon Detroit
Supported by
=
N2tMe
TI
AO. @HFLDetroit
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December 15 2016
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