views letters Can We Get A Starbucks To Replace JPM? I can no longer wait to express my sad- ness at the loss of our Jimmy Prentis Morris JCC in Oak Park. My heart aches each Shabbat as I drive up to the Federation apartments to pick up a woman I take to shul and see lots of Orthodox families walking past an empty mound of grass. In 1976, before I had children, my friend and community leader Janet Levine asked if I would help get a pool built at the 10 Mile Jewish Community Center. She said there was no nearby pool for Jewish kids to learn how to swim. We quickly learned one of the commandments is to teach a child how to swim so they don’t drown. We used that as a tool to get our voices heard. The alternative for kids was the YMCA in Royal Oak, which had a cross over the pool. Janet and I worked for 16 years organizing a grassroots group from Huntington Woods and Oak Park. We had many meetings with the heads of the JCC and Federation over the years. Finally, the Federation decided to offer loans to young Jews to see if they would live in Oak Park. The Neighborhood Project was born and offered $5,000 loans to hundreds of families to see if this was a viable community and to sta- bilize it. Again, we waited. By the time a pool was built, 16 years had passed and my three children were the first ones in it. Over the years, we used our little JCC for children’s concerts, adult concerts, nursery school, day care, exercise class- es, basketball, senior adult activities, knitting groups, woodworkers, paint- ing classes and ESL classes. We also had a health club and swimming pool that was wheelchair-accessible. Book Fair finally came to our side of town. We would take our kids for a kosher lunch or dinner. I was able to make friends with women who still lived in my old Detroit neighborhood as well as Holocaust survivors. Where are those familiar faces I used to see? Everyone is sad at the loss of our gathering place. We truly feel forgot- ten while the Federation says they are concerned about the needs of the entire community. My question for Federation: Where can we gather as a community now on a daily basis? Consider building a Starbucks there for us to at least get a cup of coffee and meet an old friend. You don’t have to worry that it won’t be self-sustaining. Marcy Feldman Federation volunteer and solicitor since 1975 Huntington Woods Thank You! I can’t thank you enough for the uplift- ing breath of sweet air I felt when read- ing last week’s cover story by Lynne Konstantin, “Straight From The Heart” (Jan. 25, page 52). Lynne carefully painted such a beauti- ful and powerful picture of what feels like our own Jewish Camelot. I have witnessed the miracle of our new rabbi meeting his “bashert” and the pure love and coming together of their families and their extended Shaarey Zedek family. I vividly remember the first picture posted on Facebook of that “Belle Isle bike ride” and immediately shared with Meredith’s mom, Linda Cohen, that “something more than friendship was blooming.” During these cold winter days, the Dahlens are a shining example that pure love — blended in with a beautiful and meaningful practice of Judaism — can Contributing Writers: Ruthan Brodsky, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg, Judy Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein, Joyce Wiswell Arthur M. Horwitz Publisher / Executive Editor ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. Kevin Browett Chief Operating Officer kbrowett@renmedia.us | Editorial Managing Editor: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@renmedia.us Story Development Editor: Keri Guten Cohen kcohen@renmedia.us Arts & Life Editor: Lynne Konstantin lkonstantin@renmedia.us Digital/Social Media Editor: Hannah Levine hlevine@renmedia.us Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@renmedia.us Senior Columnist: Danny Raskin dannyraskin2132@gmail.com Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar rsklar@renmedia.us | Advertising Sales Sales Director: Keith Farber kfarber@renmedia.us Account Executives : Wendy Flusty, Annette Kizy overcome. Perhaps this article might inspire other engaged couples to contact Rabbi Yoni Dahlen to see how they, too, can incorporate some of the beautiful, more egalitarian Jewish rituals into their own weddings. Thank you for sharing their beautiful journey with the rest of the community. Suzi Terebelo Southfield Playing Hardball With The P.A. Robert Sklar is absolutely right about the “blood money” the P.A. gives to ter- rorists and their families (“Pejorative Payouts,” Jan. 25, page 6.) The U.S. has been coddling the P.A., paying them and letting them do what they want with the money. This has enabled terrorism against Israelis (and visitors to Israel) for decades, incentivizing them to keep up the killings. Whatever your opinion of Trump, I am thankful to see the hard line he and his administration are taking in dealing with Abbas and the P.A., including mak- ing sure that Jerusalem stays the capital of Israel. “The Palestinians are ‘going to have to want to make peace, too, or we’re going to have nothing to do with it any longer,” he said in Davos on Jan. 25. “Its many years of killing people. Its many years of killing each other. They have to be tired and disgusted of it.” Trump is right; but obviously, the P.A. is not disgusted with killing but feels justified in paying for and promoting violence in Israel because, to them, they are at war with the Jewish State of Israel. If you’re a Jew who believes we can have peace with the Palestinian leader- ship, don’t worry. You’ve still got former | Production By FARAGO & ASSOCIATES Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Kelly Kosek, Amy Pollard, Michelle Sheridan, Susan Walker | Detroit Jewish News Chairman: Michael H. Steinhardt President/Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz ahorwitz@renmedia.us Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett kbrowett@renmedia.us Controller: Craig R. Phipps | Social Media Producer Andrea Gusho socialmedia@thejewishnews.com Sales Manager Assistants : Karen Marzolf | Business Offices Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner | Fulfillment Joelle Harder jharder@renmedia.us Secretary of State John Kerry, who met Abbas’ close associate Hussein Agha in London and told him to tell Abbas to “hold on and be strong.” (Ben Caspit, The Jerusalem Post, Jan 24, 2018). Tell him, he told Agha, “that he should play for time, that he will not break and will not yield to President [Donald] Trump’s demands” because, within a year, according to the reporting, “there was a good chance that Trump would not be in the White House.” This truly should scare American Jews because if Kerry gets his wish, the U.S. will soon be back to paying more to inflame the violence in Israel, in the magical dream that Palestinians will someday stop killing Jews. Peace can only come if the killing stops, which is a fantasy we have had for almost 70 years. Arnie Goldman Farmington Hills Root Causes The column “Pejorative Payouts” was OK, as far as it went, but it doesn’t touch the root cause(s). 1. The Palestinians must stop teach- ing their children, from earliest school experience through terrorist acts, to hate/kill Jews. 2. Mideast nations must stop using Palestinians as a “cistern of hatred against Israel” to divert attention of their respective populations from struc- tural problems in their homelands. For at least a millennium, the world has used Jews as scapegoats for its problems. Since it seems to work, why should countries stop now? Look no fur- ther than the number of U.N. member nations who sign up for every measure condemning Israel to see what I mean. 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