28 April 4 • 2019
jn

community news

JACII Detroit will present an 
evening with State Rep. Robert 
Wittenberg to discuss gun violence 
and the laws in Michigan 7:30 p.m. 
on April 10 at the home of Michal 
and Jordan Nodel in Bloomfield 
Hills.
Gun violence is something our 
society faces every day. Whether it 
occurs at the movies, a restaurant, 
place of worship or a threat at 
home, JACII argues that we cannot 
feel safe until common sense laws 
are in place to help keep guns 
out of the hands of people who 
shouldn’
t have them. 
Legislators in the Michigan State 
House and Senate are making 
real efforts to introduce bills that 
promote common sense gun laws. 

 Wittenberg, co-founder 
and chair of the Gun Violence 
Prevention Caucus in the Michigan 
House, and other state legislators 
will discuss current efforts 
around proposed “Red Flag” laws 
(keeping guns out of the hands 
of people who pose an extreme 
risk), implementing universal 
background checks and ending 
the prohibition on gun violence 
research.
No charge, but donations to 
JACII are appreciated. For location 
address and to register, email 
jaciidetroit@gmail.com.
JACII is the Gen-Y and 
Millennial arm of JACPAC, the 
Chicago-based bipartisan political 
action committee.

JACII Detroit Presents: Gun Violence,
Your Rights and the Law

The Holocaust Memorial Center 
is hosting a membership event on 
Sunday, April 7, featuring Derek 
Black. During the program, he will be 
interviewed about the white nation-
alist movement and what led him to 
renounce it. 
The program, “Leaving Hate 
Behind,
” featuring an interview of 
Black by Michigan Radio’
s “Stateside” 
host Cynthia Canty, will take place at 
12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., with each 
followed by a kosher dessert reception. 
Black was long considered heir 
apparent to the white nationalist 
movement. His world views were 
shaped since birth by his godfather 
David Duke and his father, Don Black, 
a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard 

who founded the white 
nationalism’
s first web-
site and online commu-
nity, Stormfront.
While attending 
New College of Florida, 
Black came to ques-
tion the fundamental 
beliefs at the core of his thoughts and 
actions. In a July 2013 letter published 
by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 
Black describes his “gradual awaken-
ing process.
” He abandoned the white 
supremacy movement and no longer 
identifies with it. 
Holocaust Memorial Center annual 
membership begins at $50 as a general 
member. Space is limited and RSVPs 
are required at (248) 536-9605. 

“Leaving Hate Behind”

Derek Black

A Return to Auschwitz

Sophie Tajch Klisman, 89, a Holocaust 
survivor from Detroit, will join 
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces 
(FIDF) supporters from Michigan and 
the U.S. on a mission to Poland and 
Israel, May 2-10. 
Klisman, born in Lodz, Poland, 
in 1929, survived, along with her 
sister Felicia, the Auschwitz, Bergen-
Belsen and Salzwedel concentration 
camps. Both sisters were liberated 
from Salzwedel in April 1945 and 
later immigrated to the U.S. in 1949, 
settling in the Detroit area. The rest of 
their family perished. 
“If I look at the rest of the family, 
they were already adults and grown-
ups and here was this child; that was 
just a miracle that I survived; it was 
meant for me to survive,” Klisman 
said. 
The nine-day “From Holocaust 
to Independence” mission will span 
Jewish history, from its darkest 
moments to its most triumphant. 
Israeli soldiers and Holocaust sur-
vivors will accompany the FIDF 
supporters on a trip across Poland, 
starting in Krakow, once home to 
more than 60,000 Jews, and tracing 
the community’
s steps from the city’
s 

ghetto to the Buczyna forest, where 
the Nazis executed more than 800 
children, and then to the Auschwitz-
Birkenau concentration and extermi-
nation camps. 
The delegation will then fly to 
Israel, where they will visit IDF 
bases and meet soldiers serving on 
Israel’
s front lines, commemorate 
Yom HaZikaron — Israel’
s Memorial 
Day for fallen soldiers and victims of 
terror — and celebrate Israel’
s 71st 
Independence Day. ■

COURTESY OF SOPHIE TAJCH KLISMA

Sophie Tajch 
Klisman

Higher Hopes! Expands Food Program

The food program of Higher Hopes! will now run year-round thanks to 
support and contributions from individuals, organizations, corporations and 
foundations. The organization will be able to provide 1,000 meal kits each 
month for 11 months of the year and 1,000 food kits that each feed 12-15 
people at Thanksgiving.
This year, Higher Hopes! will provide more than 400,000 pounds of food 
through the Early Head Start Child Care Partnership Program in Detroit.
“It is incredible to grasp the amount of food we are providing to very poor 
families this year,” says Bill Birndorf, founder of Higher Hopes! “In all, we 
will distribute 12,000 meal kits to families in the city. Receiving these kits 
frees up much needed money for parents to pay other bills, buy clothes and 
other needed items.”
For more information about Higher Hopes! visit higherhopesdetroit.org.

The NCJW Michigan Public Affairs Education Committee will hold a 
program on gun violence prevention, 7 p.m. Monday, April 15, at the 
Farmington Community Library on W. 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills.
Featured speakers will be Jeff Kasky, Parkland parent and president of 
Families vs Assault Rifles, PAC Inc., and Linda Brundage, executive direc-
tor of Michigan Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.
NCJW/MI will also be presenting awards to winners of its Youth Media 
Contest “What Does Gun Violence Prevention Mean to Me?”
Cost is $10 for NCJW members; $15 for non-members and $5 for stu-
dents. For information or to register, call (248) 355-3300, ext. 0, or pay 
online at ncjwmi.org.

Gun Violence Prevention

