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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