Consolidating connections

Editorial

When young adults - single, married or with young children - arrive in the Valley, where do they turn to connect with the community?

A number of programs provide services ranging from study to sports.

But how do newcomers discover them and get on their mailing lists? This often occurs by word of mouth or simple luck.

Many groups operate with limited resources and shoestring publicity budgets. Most have not shared their participant databases with each other.

This segment of the Jewish community needs a way to access a consolidated, easy-to-use list of programs targeting their age range.

Jewish News provides all the news, programs and services we know about in our community and calendar pages. With the construction of the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center have greater visibility and resources.

These groups, in association with the Tri-City Jewish Community Center, could add to their Web pages a consolidated list of every group devoted to young adults, and if possible, jumps to their Web pages.

With a few key strokes and a little bit of money, they could put a mechanism in place to ease young adults' efforts to connect with the Valley's Jewish community.

In support of Pipes

President George W. Bush is preparing to name columnist Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, to the board of the U.S. Institute for Peace - a think tank that fosters peace and non-violent conflict resolution.

Various Muslim and Arab groups stand in opposition to this nomination, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslims for Jerusalem. These groups paint Pipes as a bigot and an Islamaphobe and someone who slanders Islam at every turn.

Pipes, whose columns have appeared in Jewish News, is an excellent candidate to serve on the USIP think tank. Is he conservative? Yes. Controversial? At times. A racist? Absolutely not.

Both CAIR and Americans for Jerusalem have organized phone-in days for Pipes' critics to call or send e-mails to Bush, voicing their opposition.

Those who support Pipes can also call or e-mail the president, urging him to follow through with the nomination. Call (202) 456-1111 or e-mail president@whitehouse.gov.

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