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Winners of Jewish
Writing Competition

Circle Of
Friends

For 20 years, Beth
Shalom group helps
New Americans
settle in.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

C

ircle of Friends, a group at
Congregation Beth Shalom in
Oak Park formed to help New
Americans from the former Soviet
Union, recently celebrated its 20th
anniversary.
The group was started to help new
arrivals get used to life in America
and also to help them strengthen, re-
establish or create the Jewish identity
they weren’t able to fully develop in
the Soviet Union.
The group meets at the synagogue
from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every
Sunday. For many, it’s a low-pressure
opportunity to speak English, which
some of them find difficult even after
many years in this country.
Klara Shapiro, 88, of Oak Park and
her husband, Simon, were among the
founding members.
Shapiro recalled how every Friday
afternoon a bus would pull up to the
Lincoln Towers apartments, where
she and many of the new arrivals
lived, to take them to a nearby church
for English lessons.
She mentioned the church program
to some of the people she knew at
Beth Shalom and Circle of Friends got
started soon afterward with the sup-
port of Rabbi David Nelson, who was
concerned about Christian prosely-
tizing efforts. Founders included the
late Joanna Berger, Lenny Newman of
Huntington Woods and Ellie Slovis of
Bloomfield Hills
In the beginning, the group attract-

16

July 6 • 2017

jn

TOP: Julie Grodin, standing, director of Beth Shalom’s Circle of Friends program, with Yuriy Mushkin,
Asya Komarova and Klara Shapiro. ABOVE: Some Circle of Friends members.

ed 40 or more to its meetings. Now
there is a core of about 18, most in
their 80s, who arrived in the 1990s.
American-born volunteers include
co-director Myron Stein of Southfield
and Shirley Sweet of Huntington
Woods.
“We spoke about our lives in Russia,
and the Americans spoke to us about
American culture,” Shapiro said. “We
went on a lot of field trips. We visited
all the old synagogues in Detroit. We
celebrated every Jewish holiday. It felt
like a big, big family.”
Circle of Friends taught partici-
pants not only language but also “how
to be American,” said Yuriy Mushkin,
86, of Oak Park. Once he and Berger
had a disagreement about some issue.
“You are my enemy,” he told her. “No,”
she said, “not enemy. I am your oppo-
nent.”
Sarama Portnya, 70, of Oak Park
said learning about American cus-
toms and habits was difficult, and
Circle of Friends was invaluable.
Members also learned about Jewish
customs and practices, which they
hadn’t experienced in the Soviet
Union. Four years ago, Circle of

Friends participants had a group bar/
bat mitzvah at Beth Shalom.
Current director Julie Grodin of
Huntington Woods got involved with
Circle of Friends in 1998 after she
returned from a teacher-exchange
trip to Russia.
Two years later, one of the Russian
teachers Grodin had met was visiting
her in Michigan when the woman got
a call from a friend from her home-
town of Vladimir.
Asya Komarova, 70, of Walled
Lake and her husband, Samuel, had
come to the U.S. in 1999 and moved
to Detroit after a year in Kansas
City. When she arranged a visit to
her Russian teacher friend, she met
Grodin.
Grodin invited Komarova into
Circle of Friends, and she has been
part of the group ever since. In 2001,
Komarova learned that the son of
a friend still in Russia needed brain
surgery the family could not afford.
Circle of Friends and Congregation
Beth Shalom raised the funds for him
to have the surgery. Her friend con-
tinues to express her gratitude to the
Circle of Friends. •

The Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic
Studies at Wayne State University
announced that Shelli Orzach (Adams
High School) and Evan Kolin (International
Academy) are the winners of the 2016-2017
Jewish Writing Competition.
This competition, now in its second year,
invites high school students across the
Metropolitan Detroit area
to submit an essay or poet-
ry on any Jewish-related
topic.
The goal of this com-
petition, Center Director
Howard Lupovitch
explained at the awards
ceremony, is “to encourage
Evan Kolin
burgeoning young Jewish
intellectuals to think and
write — an especially
important skill at a time
when 140 characters pass-
es for complete thought.”
Orzach wrote an essay
titled “Shenkin Street,”
a vivid description and
Shelli Orzach
reflection of this hip area
and cultural mecca in Tel
Aviv, and what it means
for Israeli identity. Kolin’s essay, “Barely a
Jew,” was his response to the notion that,
because he is not observant, he is barely
a Jew. In this ironically-titled essay, Kolin
reflects on the elements that comprise his
well-developed commitment to Judaism
and the Jewish community.
Both students receive a cash award of
$500 and an opportunity to publish their
essays in the center’s annual newsletter,
which will appear later this year. Read
the essays online at judaicstudies.wayne.
edu/2017-winners.php. •

Gov. Snyder Signs
Anti-BDS Statement

Gov. Rick Snyder signed the Governors
United Against BDS statement, an AJC initia-
tive that includes all 50 U.S. governors.
“Gov. Snyder has once again asserted
his unequivocal support for Israel and
opposition to those who seek to stigma-
tize and delegitimize a valued partner of
Michigan and the only democracy in the
Middle East,” said Alicia B. Chandler, new
president of JCRC/AJC.
The Governors United Against BDS state-
ment declares that “the goals of the BDS
movement are antithetical to our values and
the values of our respective states, our sup-
port for Israel as a vital U.S. ally, important
economic partner and champion of freedom.”
“We are grateful to Gov. Snyder for
his leadership in further strengthening
Michigan-Israel ties,” said David Kurzmann,
executive director of JCRC/AJC. •