6E4i-141S11-NEWS- -

friday, Whirl/ '16: 1919 31

New Tel Aviv Sports Facilities to Help Israeli Tennis Players

By HASKELL COHEN

(Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.)

TEL AVIV — If the pro-
liferation of tennis courts in
and around the Tel Aviv
area has any bearing on the
matter, you can look for Is-
rael to come up with several
bright, new tennis stars in
the foreseeable future.
In addition to the tennis
complex now in operation at
Ramat Hasharon a new
four-court complex has been
completed at Maccabi Tza-
Tennis Club in Tel Aviv ;
ing my stay here a
mber of the mayor's of-
fice stafftook me on a tour of
the northern part of Tel
Aviv showing me the big
sports complex the city is
t getting ready to prepare for
competition.
Included in the plans for
,
the vast municipal sports
- complex is a section which
►
will contain 18 tennis
courts. The Tzafon complex
was dedicated in memory of
Erich Gumpert who, for
many years, was an active
member of the Maccabi
World Union.
* *
The Liverpool soccer
team, considered by
• many to be the best 11 in
the world, has offered

Maccabi Tel Aviv IL 11.8
million ($600,000) for
Avi Cohen's contract.
Cohen, who is 22-years-
old, is the hottest soccer
prospect to come out of
Israel in the last 10 years,
playing what Israelis
refer to as "libro," a mid-
field position a la Bec-
kenbauer of New York
Cosmos fame. Cohen ob-
viously is the star of the
Maccabi team as well as
Israel's national club.
The offer extended by
Liverpool exceeds by far the
transfer fees which jumped
Israel's previous two stars,
Shpiegler and Speigel, from
the National League to
clubs in Germany and Fr-
ance. Shpiegler, it will be
remembered, ended his
playing career on the inter-
national level with the New
York Cosmos. He is still
somewhat of a threat in Is-
rael's National League but,
at this point, not to be com-
pared to young Cohen.
Other Israeli youngsters
who are being scrutinized
closely by European teams
include Uri Malmilliam of
Betar Jerusalem and his
teammate Danny Neuman.

Esther Roth, who is counted
upon to possibly cop a track
medal in the Olympic
Games in Moscow in 1980,
received an invitation re-
cently from the TV
Superstars producers to
compete in the next round
including female athletes
which will be filmed this
month in the Bahamas.

Roth is heavily en-
grossed in preparing for
future track meets and
turned down the offer.
There was a question as
to whether her participa-

tion in the competition
would affect her status as
an amateur.
* * *
of
the
Followers
Maccabi-Tel Aviv Big Five
were rudely shocked when
their favorites lost to Greek
opponents in a FIBA bas-
ketball game in Athens re-
cently. The score was 79-77
and, with the two Eastern
European referees handling
the game, the boys from Tel
Aviv were smacked all over
the court while the refs
seemed oblivious to the
roughhouse play in front of

•

their eyes.
Maccabi figured to win
this game and the result, ul-
timately, may eliminate
them from the final round of
the European Cup champ-
ionship. The hand of fate
then turned in Maccabi's di-
rection at the Sports Palace
in Tel Aviv when the Is-
raelis beat the Emmerson
Varese team of Italy by one
point, 73-72.
Actually, the real score
was 72-71 in favor of the vis-
itors but by the time the
mistake was noted the Fed-
eration of International

Basketball Association's of-
ficial, present at the game,
had signed the official score
book, which closed off any
opportunity to protest on
the part of the Italian quin-
tet.
This is a crazy rule, but it
prevails in FIBA and noth-
ing can be done to remedy
the situation. Earlier, Mac-
cabi defeated the Yugosla-
vian team, Busean
Saraiebo, 97-70 at the
Sports Palace in front of
10,000 enthusiastic fans in-
cluding Foreign Minister
Moshe Dayan.

A t

* * *

Israel's top female athlete,

Jewishness No Prevention
for Alcoholism, Experts Find

CROTON-ON-HUDSON,
N.Y. (JTA) — A new study
of Jewish alcoholics fails to
suppOrt the theory that
Jews who became alcoholics
are most likely to be Jews
who have abandoned their
religious affiliation and
Jewish identity.
The study was made by
Dee Dropkin, a
psychologist, and Sheila
Blume, a psychiatrist, who
are staff members of the
Charles K. Post Center Al-
coholism Rehabilitation
Unit of the Central Islip
I Psychiatric Center on Long
Island. Their findings were
► reported in a recent issue of
the bulletin of Temple Is-
rael of Northern Westches-
ter here.
They reported they found
that neither of two groups of
Jewish subjects had drink-
ing patterns which were
distinctive from those of
non-Jewish alcoholics and
► that the Jewish hospital pa-
tients did not differ signific-
antly from either alcoholic
patients in social and other
characteristics.
hey also reported
ing that Jewish al-
olics did not show
high degrees of
psychopathology, com-
pared with other al-
r coholics, a finding they
said was in conflict with
• the theory that Jewish
alcoholics must have
► more severe emotional
problems than non--Jews
with drinking problems,
on the premise that al-
' coholic drinking by Jews
is more deviant from
-
b
Jewish cultural norms.

r

They reported that for 53
percent of the interviewed
Jews, they found that
Jewish identity had not
• changed since childhood.

They said some Jews re-
ported they felt isolated as
Jewish alcoholics. In sev-
eral cases, the two experts
found, rabbis had told an al-
coholic he could not be al-
coholic "since he was a
Jew."
Several Jews in the study
reported they - felt uncom-
fortable in Alcoholics
Anonymous meetings in
churches and a number said
more AA meetings _should
be held in synagogues.
The two researchers con-
firmed the resistance, re-
ported by other research
studies, of Jewish leaders to
the idea that Jews could suf-
fer from alcoholism. The
two experts said "rabbis and
helping agencies should be-
come aware that alcoholism
does occur among Jews."
They also said that "those
making initial contacts
with Jewish alcoholics
should make an effort to
confront the issue of
Jewishness early and to in-
troduce them to recovered
alcoholic Jews."

Bombast From
Village Voice

NEW YORK — The Vil-
lage Voice, the "under-
ground" weekly, accused Is-
rael of stealing land and
named, three Jews to its
"100 Most Greediest List" in
its last issue of 1978.
Ex-Israeli Mishulam
Ricklis was named to the
list for having earned the
largest salary of any U.S.
executive, $1 million; Nor-
man Podhoretz of Commen-
tary magazine was accused
of being sexist; and Rabbi
Sholom Rubin was selected
for taking a $32,000 New
York State post while con-
tinuing his full-time rab-
binical position.

MORT CRIM TALKS WITH:

"Detroit's New mericano"

Who are they? The Arabs. The
Latinos. The Yugoslays. The
Koreans. And others.
Where do they live and work? How
can we help them adjust? How long
will it take them to'realize their
great American dream?
What do they bring to Detroit? And
what brought them to Detroit —
possibly the most ethnically

*

diverse city in the world?
Mort Crim looks into these
questions in an informative News 4
special report, "Detroit's New
Americans", starting Monday,
February 5th, and continuing
throughout .this month.
Don't miss Mort Crim with:
"Detroit's New Americans", on
News -4 Detroit.

a/

DETROIT

