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rtwdetroit-blog · 7 years

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My Jewish Experience

by Ellie Farber

Last night, Repair the World was fortunate enough to host and co-partner an event called “Inside Jewish Europe: Stories from Berlin to Bulgaria.” Following suit with a thread we have been weaving the past two months, the event focused on the theme of story-telling. Attendees had the opportunity to hear the stories of the Jewish experience from the point-of-view of two women living on European soil. As a Jewish studies major, I knew I would be engaged and interested due to my previous in-depth studies of European Jewry. However, I was not expecting to draw so many connections to my own Jewish identity, considering the stark contrast of the upbringing of our storytellers with my own.

Anja Olejnik was born in Bosnia, and was a young girl when the fall of Communism and division of Yugoslavia occurred. Being born in Communist Bosnia, she or her family did not hold any religious identity. Anja discovered she was Jewish when she was 11 years old.

Maia Ferdman was born in Los Angeles, California, immersed in her Judaism. In 2015, began a fellowship year where she would be living in three places around the world, one of which was Sofia, Bulgaria, where she was to develop and strengthen the international Jewish community via multiple mediums. What she established from her work in these communities was that “European Jews have to work for their Judaism.”

Ellie Farber was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. (Hey, Ellie Farber???…that’s me!!!!) Okay, okay, I wasn’t a story-teller at the event. But! When I was listening to the experiences of these two women, I felt my the story of my Jewish identity was connected to both for various reasons. What I did not necessarily discover throughout the event, but confirmed, was that I have greatly worked for my Judaism.

I grew up in one of the most historically known anti-Semitic towns in Michigan. We had eight Christmas trees, a Mezuzah and a Seder plate. I always knew we were a little bit different; we did not belong to a church, my dad’s parents came over for Christmas occasionally - but never made the trek for Easter. I had heard the word Jewish, but I always thought it was kind of a choice, (like joining a group!), that because my dad is from New Jersey, he sometimes did Jewish things. I did not associate Judaism with an identity, let alone a religion! It was just something that was there, a word thrown around, and it was kind of a secret.

In the first grade, my family went to Baltimore where I met my dad’s sister and her children. My cousin, Lia, was having her Bat Mitzvah. It was here I discovered being Jewish wasn’t just something in which my dad sometimes participated as a result of geography, but was a religion and culture…and he was part of all of it! While he isn’t religious (and never really has been), he is 100% Jewish by blood. I was fascinated. All of these people knew prayers and dances and were bonded like super glue because a 13-year-old was having a fabulous party. This was something I never experienced in my life. All I knew was that I wanted in.

I returned to Michigan feeling overwhelmingly excited that I was Jewish! Not only was I enthusiastic to be Jewish though, I was thrilled that I was finally something. Christianity was intimidating and I had aways felt excluded. With the Jewish community it was more than being just welcomed in, but welcomed back. Almost as if they were saying..."Oy vey Ellie Farber, where have you been all this time?!"

Fast forward 17 years. I work for a Jewish non-profit. I majored in Judaic studies at the University of Michigan. I date a Jewish boy, (who lives in Moishe House, nonetheless)! I have been to Israel four times, two of which were for entire summers. I read, write and speak Hebrew. I teach Hebrew at Temple Shir Shalom. I don’t even attend Shir Shalom though, I am a member at Temple Israel! My life, my identity, is centered around this intangible thing, this thing which wasn’t handed to me, it wasn’t forced upon me. I chose Judaism. I always had it in me, but I worked for my Judaism. I reached out to a community and the community welcomed me with open arms and of course, many opinions.

What is to come? Meh, who knows! What is known, however, is that being Jewish isn’t going anywhere for me. Because I chose this path, I feel I sometimes connect more strongly than those born into it. And also because of this, I am so conscious to never take for granted Judiasm. This culture and community comprises so much of life and identity as a person today, I could not imagine my life without a Jewish presence.

Sources:

http://higley1000.com/archives/50

#jewishexperience #judaism #millenials #Jewishmillenial

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rtwdetroit-blog · 7 years

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Storytelling – The Most Powerful Tool in Your Box

by Alyah Al-Azem

Storytelling has always been with us. We’ve used it to teach life lessons, retell history, and communicate with others by making something feel more interesting. Let’s face it if you have a child you know better than anyone that you can get them to do just about anything if you preface with a good story. By embedding meaning in a story you are able to set the stage for whatever is important to you and engage others to feel the same. And yes, it can work fairly easy with children but there is no doubt that adults are similarly affected from hearing stories as well.

It is the Jewish tradition to retell the stories in the Torah every year. Even though the stories stay the same it is intended to evoke new meaning as you change as an individual through the years. I think this is a great example for storytelling of personal recollections as well. When you find your captive audience you never know how they will react. Will it really resonate with them because they are going through something similar? Will they find comfort in the story? Are they unable to relate? Will it make them angry? Will it bring something up in them years later? All of these are questions you won’t have the answers to until you tell the story out loud and that is what is important, getting your story out there. There is no guarantee how your audience will feel but at least they were given the chance of exposure to something important to the storyteller.

I wanted to bring this up to stress the importance of storytelling. As we move into times of political unrest many can feel like it is them self against the world. I think that storytelling can be a useful tool to help break down those barriers. Helping us to understand people that are different from us on a more personal level. Diving deeper into why they believe what they do, whatever the topic may be. It is fair to think that everyone deserves a chance to be understood. We need to stop focusing on all of our differences and start looking for ways to relate to one another. So the next time you feel that someone doesn’t understand you or cannot sympathize I would encourage you to use the power of storytelling to your advantage. Whether they agree with you or not at least you are heard and they can identify why the topic is so important to you.

If you are looking for an opportunity to share your story, please join us for our Turn the Tables dinner this Friday, April 7! Our discussions will be centered around sharing our own stories and drawing the parallels to the plights of our families with immigrants coming to the United States today.

You can register for the dinner via by clicking the link below:

https://dinners.onetable.org/#/events/965fdd79-5958-4afc-b1b7-2039f2b2c708

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rtwdetroit-blog · 8 years

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Tomorrow’s New Perspective

Tomorrow's New Perspective

by Aryeh Perlman

As a relatively recently arrived resident of Detroit, I have to say I am pretty confused by the city’s history. Is Detroit being reborn or did it never die? A minor battle in the city, waged mostly via T shirt slogans, I think the answer is simultaneously neither and both and lies in Detroit’s official motto - “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus.” Coined in 1805 by Father Gabriel Richard after a fire nearly razed the city, the latin phrase translate as “We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.” While rising from the ashes can conjure up an image of resurrection or rebirth, it does not necessarily imply that the city died. After the fire of 1805, only a few buildings stood strong, yet so did the entire population of the city. Infrastructurally, the city had died but it’s residents stayed, hoping for a better future and watching the now iconic hub and spoke rise from the ashes.

The concept of rising from the ashes is most often associated with the phoenix. Interestingly enough, phoenixes skirt the line of resurrection and immortality, just as Detroit has. If the phoenix is a way that the city sees itself (assuming Detroiters opinions and outlooks haven’t deviated much since Father Richard’s time), then how do outsiders see the city? Many Americans view the city as past it’s prime, in the way that a person might be, somehow diseased or eternally cursed. There are sensational articles painting the city as particularly dangerous, or even run by a pack of dogs larger than many towns. Many images of Detroit seem to ruminate on a past golden era with the most iconic being the Packard Plant and the Michigan Central Station. In national media, there seems to be few times when the story deviates. One is when the more heavily invested in areas like Midtown are featured, think all the buzz around the Q Line or new Little Caesar’s Arena.

Yet, having spent several months living and working and Detroit, I’ve not found these feelings of negativity present in Detroiters. Instead there’s a beautiful sense of resilience and ingenuity, especially in areas with the least financial investment that were most affected by the events of the past 50 years. Surprisingly, it was not in Detroit that I was first introduced to this attitude -- it was in a city almost a quarter of the size of Detroit in Southeastern France. The city, Saint-Étienne (Sté for short), was where I worked teaching English last year. I was surprised to see a connection between the city and Detroit. Shortly after arriving, I attended a screening of a film made by a group of Detroiters which they spoke at afterwards. From screenings to a series of concerts featuring Detroit musicians, it seemed that the residents of Sté not only acknowledged their connection to Detroit but looked up to the Motor City.

While the story of Sté is not an exact analog of Motown, there are similarities. Like Detroit, Saint-Étienne was a city heavily based on an industrial monoculture, in their case the coal mining and arms manufacture. Overtime these staple industries became unfavorable or outsourced and now exist only as museum subjects or small artisanal production respectively. The city, like Detroit, was forced to reinvent itself. In the 1990’s, Saint-Étienne began hosting a biennale focused on design, a move that significantly contributed to the city becoming a UNESCO “City of Design” in 2010. Detroit has a strong creative history that has survived through everything that the city and its residents have experienced. As if the comparison weren’t clear enough, Detroit is this year’s guest of honor at the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale. Some 60 Detroiters from over 40 organizations will represent the slightly more recently named UNESCO “City of Design” (named in 2016 it is the only city in the US to receive the designation as of yet) at this year’s convention.

The Mothership, a creation of Akoaki Architecture, one of the organizations chosen to represent Detroit in this year’s biennale. With mainstream media focusing on the stories that are the most frightening and sensational, I think it is important that we explore a variety of viewpoints and narratives to truly understand what a place is like. It wasn’t until I saw a French film called Demain right before returning to the US from my year teaching abroad that I think I truly understood this. Demain, “Tomorrow” in English, focuses on small local initiatives around the world that are making big impacts in their local communities. Some of the first projects featured are two urban farms in Detroit, D-Town Farms and Keep Growing Detroit. Seeing these amazing organizations alongside undertakings in India, Iceland, Madagascar, England, and Denmark was incredibly refreshing and has inspired me to promote a vision of Detroit as an innovator, a hotbed of ambition and talent pushing the constraints of what those looking on from the outside think possible.

Sources

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http://gophouse.org/wp-content/uploads/Picture9.png

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-08-21/abandoned-dogs-roam-detroit-in-packs-as-humans-dwindle

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/2d/9f/a42d9fad3f066479800fddb7594d71dc.jpg

https://archpaper.com/2017/01/2017-saint-etienne-design-biennale-detroit/

https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JsAnGZW2o8R-viGxRK5eZe3LqnE=/1000x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8103989/Image_3_Mothership_at_the_ONE_Mile_Garage__Akoaki.JPG

https://www.demain-lefilm.com/en/film, highly recommended

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rtwdetroit-blog · 8 years

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Repair the Podcast: Listening Like Ari

Changing the World One Story At A Time

by Ari Weil

As a Repair the World fellow, I am encouraged to learn something new every day. Whether it is about food systems, the intersectionality of race and education, the politics of the city of Detroit, or a myriad of other social justice topics, the pressure to keep up with the daily stream of new information is an undeniable part of being a fellow. In order to learn as much as possible this year, I explored different learning methods. These are my results:

Reading (Books, Magazines, Articles):

The classic learning platform. I love books, but after years of reading before bed I inadvertently trained myself to fall asleep after about a paragraph. I can only learn so much from my dreams.

Videos (online, movies, documentaries):

I like all the visual information presented. Unfortunately after only a short time looking at a screen, my eyes get dry and a headache creeps into my frontal lobe. I can’t retain much information when I can’t see and someone is smashing a pick axe to my brain.

Presentations (Lectures, educational events):

I actually really like going to events to learn. It is really great to attend an event where the presenter uses multiple teaching styles and incorporates interactive learning techniques. So what’s the problem? Time. There are so many events in Detroit on a daily basis, it is impossible to go to all of them. Even if I am free to go to an event, it is always a choice between that or cooking myself a nice dinner, working out, and relaxing before getting a good night's rest. I try to go to at least to events a week, and it seems there is never enough time to do everything I want.

I was frustrated because I could not find a learning modality that worked well for me. One day, my lovely Program Manager, Stephanie, sent me this link and everything changed. I instantly became addicted to Podcasts. I always liked listening to sports radio in the car, and now I know I can listen to people discuss actual important topics of my choice through my phone or computer (Sorry sports fans for throwing you under the bus. Sports are fun and exciting, and I still listen to 97.1FM occasionally.).

The Wikipedia definition of a podcast: “A podcast is an episodic series of digital media files which a user can set up so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user's own local computer or portable media player.[1]”

My definition of a podcast:

“A radio talk show that you can play on your phone or laptop any time you want, as long as you have internet connection or you download it.”

Podcasts are great because you can listen to them anywhere. I often listen to them when I am running on a treadmill, gardening, or driving a long distance on the Detroit highways. I also love them because when I zone out, lost in thought (AKA Ari Land), I can rewind the episode and pick up where I left off.

I could go on about the history of podcasts (The first consistently produced podcast series started in 2004 called “The Dailey Source Code”) The origins of the word “podcast” (A combination of “pod” like ipod, and “broadcast”) or the research done on the educational benefits of podcasts (Just take my word on this one). Instead, I want to share with you some podcasts that either I listen to or my friends and colleagues shared with me.

*I get most of my podcasts free through the podcast app on my iPhone. There are also a few podcast apps for android, and many podcast have a website where you can listen to their show on a computer.

Environment and Food

The Environment Report- Michigan Radio

The Environment Report speaks about a range of Michigan environmental topics. The episodes are only usually only 4 minutes long so they are easy to listen back to back and great for a ride down Michigan Ave.

A Sustainable Mind

This podcast series consist of interviews with experts in the sustainability field. Between 30-40 minutes each, this is great for a walk on the Detroit riverfront, or on the way to volunteer at Keep Growing Detroit’s Urban Garden.

Bioneers: Food Justice

The audio from the speeches at the last Bioneers Food Justice Conference. About 20-30 minutes each, it is great to listen to at any Detroit Coney Island. Warning: Enjoy your hot dog, you may turn vegetarian after listening to a few episodes. Also great if you are heading to volunteer at the food pantries Yad Ezra or Gleaners Mercado.

Education

This American Life-NPR

Probably the most well known podcast series. They have episodes that cover a variety of fascinating topics. They have some really good episodes about the American education system. Episodes are generally about an hour, so it would be great to listen to on the way to and from volunteering at an Project Healthy Community’s afterschool program.

Revisionist History- Malcolm Gladwell

Most of what we learn in school is taught from the victor's perspective. This podcast tries to teach us more about the facts, events, and people that are generally overlooked at school. This is a great podcast to listen to on the way to Cass Corridor…I mean Midtown...I mean Cass Corridor.

TedTalks Education

I am surprised it took me this long to get to Ted Talks. The prominent educational talk series also has a few podcast series. The one about education topics is pretty good. Listen to this while exploring one of the many abandoned school building in Detroit, or Volunteering at Auntie Na’s House on the West Side

Outdoors (Ari’s Favorite)

Sounds of the Trail

A podcast all about thru-hiking (backpacking across many miles and many states from one end of the trail to the other). It includes many interviews with hikers and tips on how to successfully do a thru-hike. Great to listen to when you are sitting at work dreaming of taking four months off to hike the Appalachian Trail (Just kidding ;))

Outside Podcast

Great podcast about all things outdoors. Has a few subseries including “The Science of Survival” and “The Outside Interview.” Great to listen to while you are outside strolling through a park. It is also great to listen to inside.

Dirtbag Diaries

Sponsored by the gear company Patagonia, the Dirtbag Diaries touches on topics such as hiking, climbing, skiing and living in a van. Great to listen to if your parents want you to be a doctor or a lawyer, but you want to “just chill bro!”

Other Topics

These are some other great podcast that I wouldn’t do justice by trying to categorize and describe. Dabble with these as you please:

Embedded

99% invisible

Radiolab

Detroit Bad Boys

Code Switch

How to Be Amazing with Michael Ian Black

Imaginary Worlds

Invisibilia

Please feel free to tell us about your favorite podcasts in the comments section.

Happy Listening!

~Ari

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rtwdetroit-blog · 8 years

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Breaking Our Silence

By Aaron Appel

What will the next fifty years hold for Metro Detroit? What kind of cities do we want our children and families to inhabit during our lifetimes and after? If we are concerned about the state of our cities and communities, if we are concerned about our country, what does it mean to break our silence and act? The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership has been posing similar questions for many years, and these questions take on an even deeper significance today as Repair the World works with the Boggs Center on a series of Breaking Our Silence conversations.

Fifty years ago this April, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in New York City’s Riverside Church and delivered his famous and controversial “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech. In it, he remarked:

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

Three months later, in July of 1967, Detroit erupted in an uprising known to some as the Detroit Riot and others - particularly those who would remain in Detroit over the following decades - as the Detroit Rebellion. Whatever the terminology, 43 people died, over 1000 were injured, and many thousands more were arrested after four days of conflict that arose from a police raid of a predominantly Black bar at 12th Street and Clairmount. The City of Detroit was forever changed by this occurrence, as white flight intensified and the population of Detroit rapidly fell from over 1.6 million to under 700,000.

Fifty years after both Dr. King’s powerful speech and those four days of struggle, have we created person-oriented communities? Do we prioritize people over profits? Have we acknowledged and ameliorated centuries of racism in this part of the country or any other part of the country? Has our country moved away from massive military spending and toward transformative programs of social uplift? Do our material possessions and status matter less to us than the the 3,734,090 people and 1,337.16 square miles of land that make up the Metro Detroit region? (Source: 2010 census) What will be the impact of a Donald Trump presidency on the state of our communities?

These are challenging questions because they force us to look inward and acknowledge the extent to which we all are or perhaps should be interconnected. The answers certainly aren’t easy and they all seem to bring up countless more questions of “why?” and “what next?”. I’ve noticed that nobody has a complete set of answers to these questions, so many of us joining together in search of answers. It was this search that brought around 50 people to the Kulick Community Center in Ferndale early last December for our first Breaking Our Silence Conversation sponsored in part by the Boggs Center. At that conversation we shared our hopes and fears, and our thoughts for the future. Since then we’ve had another conversation at the Kulick Center with over 70 people, we’ve formed a planning committee of around 20 people from throughout Metro Detroit, and we’re moving forward with organizing conversations in Macomb and Oakland County. Repair the World is partnering with this initiative and is looking to engage our partners in the Jewish community over the coming months.

Be sure to check out the next Breaking Our Silence conversation at the Kulick Center at 2 pm on Saturday, March 18, and if you’re interested in learning more and getting involved, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or (248) 505-6075. Now is the time for us all - no matter our background or politics - to come together and decide what kind of communities we want to live in and what we want to leave behind.

#jamesandgraceleeboggs #detroit #breakingoursilence

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rtwdetroit-blog · 8 years

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Educate Yourself on Education

by Alyah Al-Azem, Team Leader

If you are anything like me you are probably pretty confused about all the changes happening in the Detroit Public School District. It seems like everyday something new is popping up on my newsfeed about another horrific story about DeVos or projections of school closings in the area. It is hard to keep up with and can be frustrating when you don’t have the right vocabulary to understand everything going on.Luckily Detroit residents have an amazing opportunity to stay educated on what is going on with our schools. By engaging in programs like Detroiters Speak you can obtain all the tools you need to stay informed.

Detroiters Speak is a mini-series of classes curated by University of Michigan’s Semester in Detroit program and Wayne State University. They have opened their class to the public to help educate us on what we need to know as a community about our public school system. No longer do we have to follow blindly as changes are forced upon us, this class provides you the opportunity to start making informed decisions! Although the program started last week it is not too late to join. They meet on Thursdays 7:30-9:30 and you can come for as many of the classes as you’d like. Repair the World hopes to see you there!

#detroit #dps #detroitpublicschools #education

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