Basketball Jumps Synagogue Attendance

Good food, conviviality and a sense of
accomplishment — there's nothing like it
to make a young man feel as though he
had just licked the world. And it was with
this feeling that some 100 boys ate, listened
and- laughed through the grand finale of
this year's Inter-Congregational Basketball
season—a banquet last Monday, at Holiday
Manor. '
The feast marked a fitting climax to

what league officials called its most success-
ful season, both in numbers and achieve-
ments. Seven congregations entered teams
in competition this year: Beth Aaron, Adas
Shalom, Bnai David, Bnai Moshe, Shaarey
Zedek, Temple Beth El and Temple Israel.
All the way through the season, it was
the Bnai Moshe quintet that showed the
way, eventually emerging at the end of the

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12 game schedule as league champions. But, in the playoffs,
a Temple Beth El team that started slowly during the regu-
lar season emerged with the playoff title, after beating
Adas Shalom, which subdued Bnai Moshe in the semi-finals.
It was a season that pointed the way to a greater effort
next year in which 10 teams are expected in the senior
league, for boys 14 to 17, while a junior circuit for younger
lads, n to 13, is envisioned. At least six teams will be fielded
in the junior league, which had its start this year when
nearly 100 boys took advantage of Temple Beth El's offer
to use its gymnasium facilities.
Achievements of the league, which cannot be measured
in basketball terms alone, were such personal factors as
healthy recreation, the development of a thorough sense
of sportsmanship and the feeling of belonging, which league
director Herman Fishman refers to as "the espirit de corps
so essential to synagogue life today."
Even the younger ladies of the congregation got into
the act—if not on the basketball court then in the social
scene, either before or after the games. Such events as a
box supper given by Shaarey Zedek for its own team and
the night's opponents or the dance held at Temple Beth
following the semi-finals in March, helped to build solidarity
off the basketball floor. The league, too, has brought re-
ligion even closer to those belonging to the teams which
comprise the league. Weekly synagogue attendance is a
requisite for team membership.
Like most enterprises that deal with youth, the Inter-

Congregational Basketball League gets its impetus from in-
terested adults, mostly through the ranks of the synagogue men's
Future ,All-Americans? It's possible! Throughout the basketball season, these young men
clubs.
guided their respective teams in the Inter-Congregational Basketball„ League. Whether wi n
Herman Fishman, volunteer director and organizer of the
lose they directed their teams' efforts, and were responsible for the most successful season in
the League's history. Shown here are, left to right, CHUCK GOODMAN, Adas Shalom; JIMMY circuit seven years ago, takes time out from his busy insurance
WEITZMAN, Temple Beth El; DAVE STEINBORN, Beth Aaron co-captain; BOB NAFTALY, Bnai agency and work on his summer camp project, Camp Michigama,
David; JORDAN RAIDER, Beth Aaron co-captain; BOB RUBY, Shaarey Zedek, and JERRY HOS- to come down each week, watch the boys play and offer advice.
One of the great Jewish athletes in the country, Fishman
KOVITZ, Bnai Moshe. Not present was Temple Israel's captain, BILLY KRASNICK.
was a six-letter winner in basketball and baseball at the Univer-
sity of Michigan. In the army, he pitched for Mickey Cochrane's
championship service team. Fishman's interest is matched by
several other men who give freely of their time and talent to
help develop young Jewish athletes.
Among the coaches are George Parzen, Shaarey Zedek;
Wally Siporin, Temple Beth El; Ted Bale, Beth Aaron; Ed Silber-
stein, Bnai David. Responsible for the entry of their respective
teams in league play are Murray Jacobs, Shaarey Zedek; Joe
Goodfriend and Ben Jaffe, Bnai David; Harry Kwiker, Bnai.
Moshe; Edward Rothenberg, Temple Israel; Russ Davis, Temple
Beth El; Aaron Merzin, Beth Aaron; and Sanford Gordon, Adas
Shalom. Refereeing for the league were Harold Kutnick and
Lawrence Troot, both familiar names in local high school and
college basketball.
Perhaps the only real disappointment in the league, Fishman
relates, is the seeming lack interest on the part Of parents to
come out and see their boys in action. While there were several
thousand spectators during the regular season, they mostly were
other young people from the synagogues.
Many parents, Fishman stated, who won't hesitate to go out
and watch the Tigers, Lions or Red Wings play, don't make the
time to see how their sons are progressing. We are trying to
develop youngsters into good athletes instead of just interested
spectators, and it would certainly give these kids a tremendous
shot in the arm if parents would demonstrate more Interest, he
concluded.
If enough enthusiasm develops, Fishman hopes to broaden
the scope of the league into a regular sports program through
the joint efforts and cooperation of the synagogues. This sports
program would include baseball, football and other forms of
recreation to help develop body as well as mind. Working hand
and hand with the congregations, Fishman believes the program
will bring an ever greater interest in the synagogue, which would
Silverman
Post
and
Auxiliary.
Pictured,
left
Adding to the comfort of veterans in hos-
to right, are SOL HOBERMAN, Department, carry over into adult life.
pitals throughout the state is just one of the
F.S.
commander
; EVELYN Si LVERMAN, Silverman
jobs undertaken by the Department of Mich-
Auxiliary Hospital Chairman; HENNY LITT-
igan Jewish War Veterans and its Ladies Auxi-
MAN, Department vice-commander; GER-
liary. Here a patient at Ann Arbor Veterans
TRUD'E LAX, Silverman Auxiliary president;
Hospital exchanges a little chit chat for some
and IRENE WIDGOI, Silverman Auxiliary,
candy, ice cream and cup cakes provided by
shown in the foreground,
Department officials and members of Morton

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Fighting Anti-Semitism With Deeds ...

WV Wins the Moral Battle

By FRANK SIMONS
It's approximately a two-hour
trip to and from Ann Arbor, and
in two hour's time you can learn
a great deal about people, or-
ganizations and the work they
accomplish.
Seated between Sol M. Hober-
man, Department of Michigan
Commander of the Jewish War
Veterans, and Abe Tompkins, the
Department publicity chairman,
this writer was bombarded with
information on the fine work
carried out by JWV, here in
Michigan and throughout the

country.

All of this newly-acquired
was interesting
and certainly pertinent to a
basic knowledge of JWV's pro-
gram. But the prime purpose
of the trip was to witness JWV
in action—servicing veterans
of all creeds, colors and na-
tionality backgrounds.
On this particular day, the
Sgt. Morton A. Silverman Post
and Auxiliary was servicing Ann
Arbor Veterans Hospital, but on
any given Sunday it could have
been any of the Department's
20 Posts and Auxiliaries per-
forming the same function. As
a matter of record, on the very
day we chose to go to Ann Ar-
bor, Sholom units were servicing
patients at Saginaw Veterans
Hospital.,

information

What makes this wonderful
work so vital? The picture above
showing the sincere smile on the
face of a hospital patient gives
a clue. If you heard this big,
husky boy saying "thanks" in a
small, appreciative voice, then
you'd get the idea.
If you toured the wards with
JWV members and saw the long
faces turn into big smiles; if
you. watched the enthusiasm of
ambulatory patients watching a
fine show in the auditorium; if
you heard the comments "what,
the JWV's here today, we'll have
a great time," then you'd under-
stand why JWV makes this proj-
ect one of its most important
veterans services.
Its other big events of the
year are the Give-A-Gift-to-a-
Yank-Who-Gave program, or-
ganized by Eddie Cantor,
which occurs around the De-
cember holiday season; the
Poppy Sale, from which funds
are derived to carry out its
hospital work, and the 'Military
Ball, held in February, as its
only principal social function.
But, this by no means exhausts
the resources of JWV. Through-
out the year in other columns
of The Jewish News, there is a
constant stream of information
of veterans' families who were
helped—of food baskets dis-
tributed on holidays, of gifts

sent by hospitalized veterans,
through JWV, to their families;
of gifts of television sets and
bulletin boards to hospitals, of
wheel chairs and sometimes spe-
cially equipped cars for parap-
legics who are unable to get
around.
. It is for the above reasons that
JWV considers itself more than
just another veterans organiza-
tion, but a fighter for the good
name of the Jew. It is a positive
approach to stemming anti-Se-
mitism, through deeds that cross
-the line of religion, color and
creed.
JWV is the oldest veterans
group in the country, officially
sanctioned by a charter from
Congress. In 1894, when the or-
ganization was founded, it was
called the Union of Hebrew Vet-
erans. Its prime purpose was to
fight anti-Semitism by educat-
ing citizens about the Jews who
served their country in both
North and South during the
Civil War.
Relatively new in Detroit,
the first post was organized
here in 1937, and was appro-
priately named the Detroit
:Post. Since that time, JWV
has grown rapidly in this area,
and today numbers over 3,000
in all its posts and auxiliaries.

56—DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 16, '1954

NEIL ROSEN, of Beth Aaron, leaps into the air with DON
EISENBERG and BOB REPITOR., of Bnai Moshe, to retrieve a
ball (out of picture) just shot by GARY PECK, of Beth Aaron
(in back of Repitor), It was an exciting moment of the game,
before Bnai Moshe pulled ahead to win by a substantial margin,