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Michigan State & Israel: A Strong Connection
M
Michael Serling
MSU Professor Eric
SU Jewish
Aronoff of the Residential
Studies Director
College in Arts and
Yael Aronoff
Humanities will lead 15
proudly announces that 37
undergraduate students
Michigan State undergrad-
on the “Green Israel
uate and graduate students
Study Abroad Program”
will be traveling to Israel
on an environmental/
this summer on three differ-
ecological study curricu-
ent professor-led programs. Eric Aronoff
lum, earning four to six
Fourteen undergraduate
MSU credits. The course
students will be led by Dr.
is known as “Nature, Culture and
Aronoff, the Serling and Friends
Environmental Sustainability in a
Israel Studies Professor, for study
Green Israel.”
abroad at Hebrew University in
The students will travel from the
Jerusalem on the campus at Mt.
far reaches of the upper Galilee at
Scopus, where they will receive
Tel Hai Environmental College to
eight MSU course credits.
the southern end of the country
The students will be taking
all the way to Kibbutz Lotan and
courses in “Israel Politics, Cultures
the Coral Beach Nature Preserve
and Society” taught by Professor
in Eliat along with many places
Aronoff and “The History of the
in between. Four students will be
Emergence of Modern Israel” with
doing both the Hebrew University
Hebrew University Professor David
and Green Israel courses.
Mendelsson. The students will also
A third group of approximately
have the opportunity for travel
throughout Israel with their profes- 12 Ph.D. graduate students in
MSU’s CREATE for STEM Institute
sors.
will attend the Weizmann
Institute of Science in Rehovot,
located just south of Tel Aviv.
CREATE for STEM is a collabo-
ration between the Colleges of
Education, Natural Science,
Engineering and Lymon-Briggs.
MSU post-doctoral student Tom
Bielik, an Israeli who graduated
from the Weizmann Institute, has
organized and will lead the group.
Courses will be taught by research-
ers from MSU, the Weizmann
Institute and the Technion. The
Weizmann Institute of Science is
one of the world’s top research
institutes.
Interestingly, Bielik came to
MSU within the past couple of
years for his post-doctoral course
work with CREATE for STEM
without any knowledge of the MSU
Jewish Studies Program. When he
arrived, he discovered MSU’s very
advanced Jewish Studies Program
and decided to become involved as
an affiliated graduate student.
Yael Aronoff and Tom Bielik
During the year, he worked
closely with Director Aronoff, and
the outcome was a very welcome
collaboration with the Weizmann
Institute in Israel.
The undergraduate study abroad
programs are funded in large part
by Levy scholarships donated by
Detroit philanthropist Ed Levy
Jr. The graduate program at the
Weizmann Institute is funded in
part by the MSU Jewish Studies
Program.
These programs are helping to
build bridges between MSU stu-
dents and the State of Israel.•
Michael B. Serling is chair of the MSU
Jewish Studies Advisory Board.
guest column
Woodward And Gladstone
I
Justin Wedes
8
am sitting under the giant
white columns of Temple Beth
El at Woodward and Gladstone
in Detroit. It’s no longer a temple
in the Reform Jewish sense — there
are no more Jews living in the area.
They’ve moved northwest to
Oak Park, Huntington Woods or
West Bloomfield or further to Ann
Arbor. Or they’ve moved out of the
state entirely, a diaspora within the
Diaspora. There are a few, mostly
young, Jews now living i n the city
— they are bold and progressive,
but they are few in number ( for
now).
I am one of those Jews. I live
each day with the deep contradic-
tions of my past and present. I live
among blacks and whites, immi-
grants and refugees. There is a
palpable tension still in the air, but
I believe in the power of honest,
intentional community to heal old
May 11 • 2017
jn
wounds.
The prophetic Jewish tradition
that nourished me instilled in me
the power of vision. That line from
Joel 2:28 that Debbie Friedman
sculpted into sweet song:
And the old shall dream dreams,
and the youth shall see visions; And
our hopes shall rise up to the sky.
I share a vision of a beautiful
Detroit to come, alongside my
brothers and sisters of the Bethel
Community Transformation
Center — two rabbis, three black
pastors and a small but growing
“peaceful army” of compassion-
ate individuals. Our vision is one
of restoration and revitalization,
not just of the physical spaces left
behind by Jews and inherited by
Christians, but of the very relation-
ships that will one day flourish in
those spaces.
Our vision sees black and white,
Jew and Gentile, young and old,
living together in community
— caring for the needs of those
who suffer today and building
toward the future of all together,
tomorrow. We need each other,
more than ever in these times of
political uncertainty.
I feel a deep sadness that our
first campaign — to kickstart this
beautiful vision — did not come to
fruition. It is a setback for all of us
who believe in this work. Yet it only
strengthens my resolve to rebuild
this dream, white and black, hand-
in-hand. I know that the historic
Temple Beth El on Woodward
and Gladstone will be restored as
a house of prayer “for all people,”
under the faithful stewardship of
Pastor Aramis D. Hinds, and with
the steadfast support of many
visionary and compassionate Jews
and Gentiles.
I close my eyes. I breathe deeply.
It is 1967 again. The rebellion
is sweeping the streets around
Temple Beth El, and Rabbi Hertz
joins with synagogue president
Aubrey H. Ettenheimer in pro-
claiming a statement to the city:
Their congregants will be “ambas-
sadors of reconciliation” and
their high-columned home on
Woodward a “source of strength
and stability … to our city.”
It is not too late to be those
ambassadors of reconciliation in
a Detroit still deeply wounded. A
Detroit that is not giving up but
rising from the ashes. •
Justin Wedes is a community activist and
communications director of the Bethel
Community Transformation Center, an inter-
faith coalition aiming to restore the historic
Temple Beth El in Detroit and transform it
into a performing arts, multi-faith worship
and community center. BCTCDetroit.org.