22 | NOVEMBER 21 • 2019
M
ichigan State Sen.
Jeremy Moss pro-
posed a resolution
on Tuesday, Nov. 12, that
would allow a menorah to
permanently share a spot
on the Capitol lawn with a
Christmas tree during the hol-
iday season.
Currently, the Michigan
Capitol Commission allows a
menorah and other religious
symbols space on the Capitol
lawn, but they must be no
larger than 4 feet by 4 feet and
be removed each night and
re-installed each morning.
Moss calls it unfair that a
Christmas tree stays outside
the Capitol from November
through Christmas, but a
menorah must be removed by
volunteers each evening.
Also, the rules prevent a big
menorah, like the one used in
Menorah in the D, from being
installed on the lawn.
The Detroit News reports
that the Michigan Capitol
Commission’
s vice chairman
John Truscott says the reason
a menorah is treated differ-
ently from a Christmas tree is
because the “Christmas tree is
a secondary religious symbol,
and a menorah is a primary
religious symbol.
”
Senate leadership sent
Moss’
resolution to a com-
mittee instead of holding a
vote. According to Amber
McCann, spokesperson for
Senate Majority Leader Mike
Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, he’
s
“not inclined to do anything
different than we do now in
terms of policy with regard to
religious symbols.
”
Moss said Lansing Mayor
Andy Schor, who is Jewish,
would like to light the meno-
rah along with the Christmas
tree during Lansing’
s Silver
Bells in the City holiday event
on Nov. 22. But unless the
rule changes, it will have to be
removed that night.
JN STAFF
COURTESY OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS
Capitol Menorah in
the Spotlight
This year’
s festivities begin at
4:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, at
Campus Martius in Detroit with
the menorah lighting at 5 p.m.
The annual event, put on
by The Shul in partnership
with the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit and
Chabad of Greater Downtown
Detroit, is a family favorite
with entertainment and
refreshments, a marshmal-
low roasting pit, strolling
entertainment, face painting,
Chanukah gelt for kids, com-
plimentary snack bar and hot
soup, a kosher food truck,
dancing dreidels and dreidel
mascot, mitzvah station,
horse-drawn carriage rides,
live music and a fire show.
MENORAH IN THE D 2019
THE SHUL
Last year’
s Menorah in the D
State lawmakers
and others gather
around menorah
outside the Michigan
Capitol during a past
holiday season.
Jews in the D
Generous Gift
Ann Arbor Hebrew Day School
receives a $1.8 million pledge.
L
ast month, Hebrew Day
School of Ann Arbor
(HDS) secured a pledge
from an anonymous donor
for a gift of $1.8 million, the
largest donation the school
has received since opening its
doors in 1975, and it will sup-
port all aspects of the school’
s
operation.
The pledge marks the lat-
est in a series of fundraising
successes for Hebrew Day
School, which has received
generous support in recent
years from the Jeffrey Farber
Family Foundation, the
David and Nanci Farber
Family Foundation, Mickey
and Debbie Stern, the Allen
Foundation and others.
Gil Seinfeld, president of
the HDS Board, shared news
of the gift with HDS families
and staff shortly after the
school year began. “The mag-
nitude of this gift is, of course,
extraordinary, but the instincts
underlying it are familiar. It
reflects deep appreciation
for the value of Jewish edu-
cation — an understanding
of the fact that day schools
have a profound and durable
effect on their students’
sense
of Jewish identity and of the
central role day schools can
play in an entire community’
s
Jewish experience.
”
Seinfeld noted that this gift
“will help scores of Jewish
families in Ann Arbor to
partake of the warm, proud,
deeply connected Jewish
community [his] family has
enjoyed since moving to Ann
Arbor.
”
Greg Gafni-Pappas, imme-
diate past president of the
HDS Board, said, “This is
extraordinarily exciting news
for our school. It’
s no secret
that there has been a decline
in day school enrollment
across the country in recent
years, and that, of course, can
create significant financial
challenges for schools.
“We have confronted
some of these challenges
at HDS, but we have been
able to continue to supply
an excellent product to our
families because of generous
support from our families,
the Ann Arbor Jewish com-
munity, especially the Jewish
Federation of Greater Ann
Arbor, and dedicated sup-
porters of Jewish education
elsewhere in Michigan and
throughout the United States.
This gift builds on that tradi-
tion and will enable us to con-
tinue our important work.
”
Sam Hendren, who has
served on the HDS Board
since 2016 and sits on its
executive committee, empha-
sized that the benefits of this
gift will extend far beyond
Hebrew Day School families.
“There is ample evidence,
”
she explained, “of the relation-
ship between Jewish education
and having a strong, positive
sense of Jewish identity as an
adult. Day school graduates
are more likely to be vibrant
participants in, and leaders
of, their Jewish communities
when they grow older. So,
the consequences of this gift
will ripple far into the future
and far beyond Ann Arbor,
as our students go off to lead
engaged Jewish lives wherever
they choose to settle down.
”
JENNIFER ROSENBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
COURTESY HDS
Young students
of Ann Arbor
Hebrew Day
School