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

