views

for openers

Yad Ezra’s Food
Stamps Challenge

Participants were
limited to spending
only $4.20 for a day’s
worth of food.

H

no snacks? Eat only twice in the day?
ere’s something to chew over:
So many choices. But you know what
The daily SNAP (aka food
wasn’t a choice anymore? Pizza.
stamps) allocation in
Eating out. Most of my favor-
Michigan is $4.20 per person
ite foods. The good-looking
per day.
cookies that someone had put
The good folks at Yad Ezra,
on the wrong shelf that I got
the Berkley-based kosher food
excited about until I scanned
pantry, asked: How far does
them …
$4.20 worth of groceries really
Keeping kosher made the
get you?
challenge even harder. But then
I thought it might be fun to
Rochel Burstyn
again, who doesn’t have dietary
see if I could shop for grocer-
restrictions? There are plenty
ies on such a limited budget,
of folks who are diabetic, low-
but what I didn’t realize was
sodium, have allergies, etc., and
that the challenge involved
sometimes those restrictions
eating exclusively those few
mean their food costs triple the usual
measly groceries for the next 24 hours
price (helloooo, gluten-free aisle!) so I
as well.
reckon the “added” kosher challenge
I wasn’t going to chicken out once I
kept things authentic.
realized; but let’s just say that if I had
Then there’s the matter of fruits and
known what I was in for, I would have
veggies. They are generally so much
made sure to eat a double portion of
more expensive than cookies and chips.
dinner that evening before I headed
I mean, it’s a shame that folks on food
out on our communal shopping trip to
stamps can’t afford healthier options
Meijer on May 23.
too often, but I suppose they’re also
So how did I do on Yad Ezra’s annual
likely getting government health insur-
food stamps diet challenge?
ance. I wonder how much of it covers
For starters, I don’t think I’ve ever
illnesses due to bad food choices? (And
spent so long shopping for so little; I
is it really considered a “choice” if they
spent ages roaming the aisles, study-
couldn’t afford anything healthier in
ing the sale prices. Some of the other
participants banded together to double the first place?)
At the risk of boring the pants off
their “allowance.” Others, like me, who
you like any inspired new dieter who
did it alone suddenly had to decide
wants to tell you about her food in
how to divvy up such a small amount
over the course of a day. $1.40 per meal, painstaking detail, I will tell you what

I purchased: one box of macaroni (on
sale! 89 cents!), one dozen eggs (the
half-dozen wasn’t available), a single
corn on the cob (woo-hoo! A metziyah
at 10 cents!) and one tube of barbecue
Pringles.
I know the challenge isn’t an exact
portrayal of the way the system works.
Families really get their allotted food
stamps in one monthly swoop and it’s
likely they already have some staples,
spices, oil, etc. (part of the challenge
was not to use what we already had at
home …) Still, close enough.
I left Meijer feeling like I was prepar-
ing for Yom Kippur (albeit without all
the repenting). I kept thinking, “I’ll be
fine; it’s only 24 hours and then I can
eat normally again.”
I was super aware that I had very lit-
tle food for the next day. So that night,
every time I heard footsteps and creak-
ing floor boards, I yelled out to which-
ever kid was out of bed, “You better not
be touching my Pringles!”
In the end, I actually fared OK. It
wasn’t fun. I didn’t like my food much
(besides the Pringles), but I didn’t
starve, which I suppose is the goal of
the Powers That Be who get to decide
exactly how much to allocate for the
hungry in Michigan. But i s it really
enough?
Granted, I only ate like this for one
day. Eating this way for much longer
would get stale fast. •

letters

Presbyterian Church
Is Anti-Israel

I read with interest your article “Keeping
The Faith” in the May 31, 2018, issue
(page 36) about the Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival. Over the years,
I’ve enjoyed many concerts at this high-
quality music festival.
However, I regret that I will not
be attending this year because of
the involvement of Kirk in the Hills
Presbyterian Church, which is a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church USA
(PCUSA).
PCUSA has for many years had an
obsessive focus on criticism of Israel and
has passed anti-Israel resolutions, disin-
vested in companies doing business in
Israel and supported, praised and even
given awards to committees in its midst
that are frankly anti-Semitic and sup-
porters of the BDS campaign.

5

June 14 • 2018

jn

The PCUSA has been called anti-Israel
and anti-Semitic by many Jewish organi-
zations, including the Anti-Defamation
League, American Jewish Committee,
B’nai B’rith and the Israel Embassy USA.
In recent years, I have attended the
festival but skipped events at the Kirk.
This year I will not attend any of the
events. Although I have great respect
and admiration for the people involved
in the festival, at this point, I feel that
their cooperation and partnership with
an PCUSA member amounts to com-
plicity in a bigoted enterprise.

Barry Tigay, Ph.D.
Bloomfield Hills

Evangelical Response

I am an evangelical Christian, and I
have a different view than Mr. Falbaum
concerning Pastor John Hagee’s and
Pastor Robert Jeffress’ participation at
the opening of the U.S. Embassy cer-

emony (June 7, 2018, page 6).
A conservative rabbi friend of mine
said to me, “If you don’t give out the
Gospel, you are not an evangelical.”
As evangelicals, we support Israel on
a biblical basis, not just a political or
economic one. We love Israel and the
Jewish people, and the presence of the
two pastors showed that. Pastor Jeffress
shared from his heart the message that
leads us to support Israel: the Gospel. It
in no way diminishes his heart for Israel
and the Jewish people.
Our stance on Israel won’t change
because we are misunderstood or mis-
aligned by those who don’t believe our
support for Israel is genuine.
Some Jewish people can trust evan-
gelicals and some cannot. We will con-
tinue our support for Israel because of
our love for the land and the people and
because it’s the right thing to do.

Rev. Tim Munger
Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry Inc.

My
Story

Marlene and David Gross
have had several loans from
Hebrew Free Loan through the
years, including one in the 1980s to
make home improvements at their
Oak Park home, and another to
help their daughter with expenses
for a Bat Mitzvah. Not long ago,
when Marlene needed hearing
aids, they again approached HFL.
“I work as a school lunch aide,
and I realized I wasn’t hearing the
kids very well when they spoke to
me,” Marlene said. “It seemed best
for me to get hearing aids. One
thing I found out was that they are
very expensive, and that’s what
made us decide to go to Hebrew
Free Loan, because the cost is not
covered by insurance, so the entire
expense would have come out of
our pockets.”
“Before we thought of Hebrew
Free Loan, we were considering
taking money out of our retirement
fund to cover the cost,” said David.
“Going to HFL helped us avoid that.”
“Everyone we’ve talked with at
HFL has always been very kind and
professional,” Marlene said. “This
is a great service for our community,
and it’s interest-free. I would recom-
mend it to everyone if they need it.”
Marlene’s hearing aids were
funded by the D. Dan and Betty
Kahn Older Adult Care Loan
Fund (KOACLF) at HFL. In part-
nership with Jewish Family Service
and Jewish Senior Life, the fund
helps adults age 62 and older, and
their families, better afford life-
enhancing services, equipment
and home adjustments.
“HFL has made our lives easier
several times,” David said. “What a
benefit for us all to have it.”

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
local Jews.

6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

jn

@HFLDetroit

June 14 • 2018

5

