..41111111111111111111•1111%.
42 Friday, July 29, 1983 -
-411111.,
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
WSS Group Quietly Rai8es Money for Israel's Elderly, Infirm
By RIFKA ROSENWEIN
NEW YORK (JTA) — A
women's group that has
managed to raise millions of
dollars for its institutions In
Israel while maintaining a
low profile, has decided to go
public.
"In some ways we have
been a well-kept secret in
the Jewish community,"
said Sally Scharman,
Datoit Area RetarResbee.
Meet Dealers Assoc:
Starting Sun., July 31st thru Thurs., Aug. 4th
TURKEY DRUMSTICKS
59c lb.
BEEF PATTIES
$1.99 lb.
Cohen & Son Kosher Meat Market
26035 Coolidge, Oak Park
Dexter Davison Kosher Meat Market
24760 Coolidge, Oak Park
Harvard Row Kosher Meat Market
21780 W. 11 Mile Rd., Southfield
Northgate Kosher Meat Market
25254 Greenfield, Oak Park
New Orleans Kosher Meat Market
15600 W. 10 Mile, Southfield
Singer's Kosher Meat Market
13721 W. 9 Mile, Oak Park
5 weeks to Rosh Hashana. Shop early while supplies are plentiful!
SOLID
president of the Women's
Social Service for Israel
(WSS), in an interview with
the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency.
The 35-year-old organiza-
tion, which serves the el-
derly and infirmed in Israel,
maintains 20 subsidized
apartment complexes for
the elderly in Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem, two senior citi-
zen homes in Tel Aviv, and a
hospital for the chronically
ill, the Lichtenstadter Hos-
pital for Chronic Diseases in
Tel Aviv.
WSS is the American
fundraising arm of
Sheruth Nashim Sociali
in Israel, which was
founded by Paula Barth
in the mid 1930s. Mrs.
Barth, a German immig-
rant whose husband was
the first president of
Bank Leumi, began by
organizing soup kitch-
ens, "meals on wheels,"
and subsidizing housing
for the waves of immig-
rants arriving in Pales-
tine before World War II,
according to Edith Jellin,
vice president of WSS.
•
Fresh
Home Grown
PICKLES
lb.
• :z A";..4e
• "`
•
,79,,,
.% • › • Y..,
BROCCOLI
SUMMERTIME SPECIAL
VERNORS, COKE, 7 U P
_
Your Choice
2 Liter Bottle
$ 1
25 plus dep.
SEE OUR WIDE SELECTION OF DRIED FRUITS & NUTS
FRUIT
BASKETS
MADE TO
ORDER
OAK FARMS FRUIT MKT.
23101 COOLIDGE
(Oak Park Plaza)
homes in Israel, has pro-
vided a lot of the impetus
behind the nationwide
campaign that WSS
launched for the first time
recently.
"The organization is run
very individually, which is
its strength and its weak-
ness," said Mrs. Mendez.
She noted that the Ameri-
can organization has had
only two presidents in its
history — the founder, Rosi
Michael, and Mrs. Schar-
man. "When these figures
leave, there's a gap," Mrs:
Mendez said.
The parent group is
anxious to promote and
work with the younger
organization, Mrs.
Scharman said. She said
members were con-•
cerned about who would
carry on their work.
Mrs. Mendez, like some of
the other members of her
group, first found out about
WSS when her
grandmother moved into
one of its homes in Israel
and she saw its work
"First-hand," she said. She
thinks the attraction of Gila
to people like herself, in
their 20s or 30s, is that it
gives them the chance to
help and establish a link
with older people in Israel?
Another appeal for some
members of the younger
group, which includes men,
is that they can "work for a
small organization, without
the bureaucracy," Mrs.
Mendez added. The money
raised goes directly to Israel
to be administered by the
Israeli group. The Ameri-
can branch maintains a
small office in New York,
but there are "next to no ex-
penses here," Mrs. Mendez
explained.
Both Mrs. Scharman and
Mrs.. Mendez, the older and
the younger leaders, em-
phasized the sense of
"friendship" among the
members of the organiza-
tion and the "personal
touch" stressed at the in-
stitutions it supports.
Canada to Help Fund BGU
Friends Parley in Montreal
•
X-Large
14 Size
• Specials Good July 29 Thru Aug. 1
• OPEN 7 DAYS—Mon.-Sat. 8-9, Sun. 8-6
Mrs. Barth began the tra-
dition of working without
much fanfare. She "never
wanted publicity so that
relatives in the United
States didn't have to see
that their relatives (in Is-
rael) needed food," Mrs. Jel-
lin said. Mrs. Barth em-
phasized care with dignity.
Even today, residents at the
homes in Israel are
encouraged to bring their
own furniture and belong-
ings in order to personalize
their rooms, Mrs. Scharman
explained. '
WSS is the only organ-
ization here that supports
very important and high
caliber support for elderly
people in Israel, (and) fo-
cuses only on that," Mrs.
Scharman said. The institu-
tions it maintains stress
"individual needs and per-
sonal attention," she added.
"They are each small, not
institutional. When you
visit (one), you have the
feeling that it started small
and stayed small."
The organization cur-
rently has around 250
members, though it used to
have more than 800, accord-
ing to Mrs. Scharman. It
now receives "the builk of
its funds" from legacies plus
annual fund-raising
dinners, she said.
"The ladies are getting
older," Mrs. Scharman
explained. Many of the
members are suvivors of
the Holocaust and almost
all currently live in New
York.
This, plus the group's "in-
sularity" and the fact that
the members "stayed within
themselves," mean that the
organization is losing mem-
bers and notgaining any,
said Dena Mendez. Mrs.
Mendez is one of the leaders
of the Young Associates
organization, which was
founded three years ago to
help attract younger and
newer members to WSS.
The younger group,
which calls itself Gila, after
one of WSS's senior citizen
JUST NORTH OF 9 MILE
546-5598
MONTREAL (JTA) —
The Canadian government
has donated $60,000 to the
Canadian Associates of the
Ben Gurion University of
the Negev toward its spon-
sorship of the first "Right to
Food" conference to be held
in Montreal next May.
The check was presented
by Agriculture Minister
Eugene Whelan who de-
clared in the House of
Commons, "The Canadian
Associates of the Ben Gur-
ion University are to be
congratulated for taking
this initiative." He noted
that the conference "is in-
tended to inform the public
that hunger can be beaten
within the next generation
if countries use the means
at their disposal."
Whelan, who visited Ben
Gurion University in 1979,
observed that "the impor-
tance of extending food
production in the develop-
ing countries cannot be
stressed too much."
The aims of the "Right to
Food" conference are to
raise public awareness of
the plight of the world's
hungry and to identify what
has been done and what re-
mains to be done by both
governments and non-
governmental organiza-
tions. Prime Minister
Pierre Elliott Trudeau is
honorary co-chairman of
the conference.
PREVENT
,s3
Jam-
D)
GIVE TO
,
EkrinAgu-
ACE CONTRIBU ED BY T E PURL ISHER