20 January 31 • 2019
jn

continued from page 18
jews d
in
the

tacted Howard Lupovitch, director of
the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic
Studies and associate professor of
history at WSU. Lupovitch connected
him with Khan, who has worked for
some time on interfaith engagement
initiatives. Ariana Mentzel, a mem-
ber of the local JCRC/AJC and a reli-
gious school teacher at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, serves
as the center’
s assistant director.
So far, funding for the center comes
from private donors. Lopatin says the
DCCD is now applying for nonprofit
status and is in the early stages of
seeking funding from foundations.
WSU has given the center space in its
faculty building on campus.
The center’
s focus on Muslim-
Jewish relations is a reflection of its
leadership — Lopatin being a rabbi
and Khan a Muslim, and also of how
strongly both populations are repre-
sented in Metro Detroit. However,
the DCCD seeks to foster engage-
ment among other groups as well.

For instance, in late January, the cen-
ter helped bring 130 Farber Hebrew
Day School and Hillel Day School
students to Cass Tech High School to
join Detroit public school peers in a
National Day of Racial Healing.
Lopatin hopes, in time, to apply
the civil discourse approach to all
kinds of discord, from wars between
economic classes to angry political
arguments at the Shabbat table.
“The idea really is that … connec-
tions between diverse communities,
even communities that have histori-
cally been seen as very much at odds
with each other … that this kind of
connection can be really rewarding,”
he said. ■

The program on Yemen will be at 4 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 4, at the WSU Student Center,
5221 Gullen Mall, on campus. Free. Panelists
include professors Saeed Khan and Howard
Lupovitch, Yemeni-Israeli community activist
Ashley Attar and Emad Shammakh, vice
president of the Yemeni American Leadership
Association in Hamtramck.

“You don’
t have to legitimize
the other side; you don’
t have to give up
your own passionate feelings; and you can
still come together — that’
s the theory
of civil discourse.”

— RABBI ASHER LOPATIN

Jewish day school students and Cass Tech students offer greetings at a meeting facilitated by

the Detroit Center for Civil Discourse on the National Day of Racial Healing.

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