18
Friday, May 25, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
CLOSE-UP
THE
K'EsNR2YE"TH
JEWISH NATIONAL
FUND OF DETROIT
invites you to attend the
TESTIMONIAL DINNER
honoring
NORMAN and ESTHER ALLAN
IN RECOGNITION OF THEIR LEADERSHIP IN THE
BUSINESS AND CIVIC LIFE OF OUR COMMUNITY
Ivan
Continued from Page 16
business honors.) "Because all of this
other stuff," he says, and then his
voice drops off and he is silent for a
moment.
Bloch grew up in the Fullerton-
Broad Street (near Dexter-Davison)
area of Detroit. When he was ten, his
family moved to the Warrington-
Cambridge (near Seven Mile Road
and Livernois) section of Northwest
Detroit. He attended Winterhalter,
Pasteur and Mumford High School
("didn't everybody?" he asks). His
wife, the former Linda Ehrlich, grew
up in th same area. Both went to the
yeshivah, although they didn't know
each other there. She went to day
school, he to afternoon.
When Bloch was still a nighclub
singer, he once played the Metropole
Supper Club in Windsor at the same
time his friend Jack Jones was ap-
pearing at Detroit's old Club Alamo
on Livernois. In those days, Windsor
nightclubs closed at midnight on
Saturdays (they now stay open an
additional hour) and after his show,
Bloch went over to Detroit to see
Jones. Instead, in the audience, he
: saw Linda. She was there on a date
with a close friend of Bloch's. "I asked
her to marry me right then," Bloch
recalls. "I fell in love with her while
she was on a date with this other
guy."
Did she accept?
"She didn't," Bloch replies and
laughs. "She said, "Get away from
me, you're out of your mind.' " Later,
she reconsidered. The Blochs have
been married 20 years and have two
children: son Brian, 17, and daughter
Amy, 15.
"My wife is incredible," Blo
says. She went to law school five
years ago and during all this time
that I was producing plays, she corn-
muted to New York with me, raised
two kids, and attended classes. She
graduated from Wayne State Uni-
versity with honors and next month
becomes a law clerk to Michigan
Supreme Court Justice Patricia
Boyle. I'm proud of her."
When the Tony nominations
were handed out a few weeks ago,
Bloch picked up all 14 of his. Bloch
says, "I was standing with them in
my arms — they give you these very
pretty green portfolios — and the
cameras were clicking away, when
this woman from People magazine
came up tome and said, 'My God,
you've got so many awards.' Then she
came back about a minute and a half
later and said, "Excuse me, but
what's your name?' I just sat there
kind of stunned. Then I told Linda,
Well, at least I was a star for 90 sec-
onds.' "
Fire ruins T'chiyah, furnishings
BY HEIDI PRESS
Local News Editor
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1984
ADAT SHALOM SYNAGOGUE
29901 Middlebelt Rd., Farmington Hills
Dinner 7 p.m.
Cocktails 6 p.m.
DR. MILTON M. SHIFFMAN,
Dinner Chairman
Associate Dinner Chairmen:
LAWRENCE M. ALLAN .
RABBI SAMUEL PRERO
SHERMAN SHAPIRO
JACK ZWICK, President, JNF Detroit
EDWARD ROSENTHAL, JNF Regional Director
DONATION: $100.00 per person
FOR RESERVATIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION
CALL THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND OFFICE
557-6644
Smoke and water dam-
aged the Ark, chandeliers
and pews and part of the
building of Cong T'chiyah
last week in a fire at the St.
Mary's Community Center
in Greektown. The syna-
gogue is located on the third
floor of the building, located
on St. Antoine and Monroe
Sts.
According to Judy Harris,
a founding member and
past president of the con-
gregation, most of the dam-
age suffered by the syna-
gogue was caused by smoke.
The congregation's Sifrei
Torah were smoke damaged
and the Torah covers were
completely ruined.
The Eternal light was de-
stroyed, the Ark, which was
on permanent loan from
Temple Israel, and the pews
suffered water damage.
Ms. Harris said many of
the furnishings for the syn-
agogue, which are insured,
came from the former
Fransworth St. synagogue.
She said the synagogue was
turned into a church in the
1940s, and in recent years
when it was slated for de-
molition the Cong. T'chiyah
membership rescued and
bought many of the identi-
fiably Jewish artifacts.
In addition, the congrega-
tion rescued three crystal
chandeliers from the former
synagogue, one of which
crashed to the floor and was
destroyed in last week's fire.
Ms. Harris said plans are to
have the other two cleaned
and their wiring checked.
The synagogue library
had some smoke damage,
and the prayerbooks will be
salvaged, she said. The con-
gregation is seeking to bor-
row prayerbooks and Bibles
for a month.
Ms. Harris added that the
synagogue had just been re-
painted two days before the
fire. The seven-year-old
congregation's first wed-
ding had been planned for
June.
Services will continue in
the building in a conference
room which was unaffected
by the fire.
Persons who wish to help
restore the synagogue and
the ritual items should call
Ms. Harris, 393-9493; or
President Harold Gurewitz,
393-1089.
Mexico Jews 'treated equal'
Washington (JTA) —
President Miguel de la
Madrid of Mexico has told a
delegation of American
Jewish Committee leaders
that "Mexico has a perma-
nent attitude of friendship
and respect for the Jewish
people" and considers itself
"a friend and defender of Is-
rael."
De la Madrid, who is in
the United States on a state
visit, met with the AJCom-
mittee delegation shortly
after his recent discussions
with President Reagan. It
was his only meeting with a
Jewish group during his
visit.
In response to a state-
ment of welcome from
Theodore Ellenoff, chair-
man of the AJCommittee's
Board of Governors,
President De La Madrid
said, "Mexico is consistent
in its historical philosophy
toward the Mexican Jev
community. We in Me
appreciate all the diverse
groups that compose our
society."
Reaffirming his state-
ment of last October in
which he repudiated anti-
Semitism in Mexico, de la
Madrid said: "We are
friends of the Jewish com-
munity in Mexico, and we
deeply appreciate the cul-
ture from which they stem.
Jews in Mexico are fully
Mexican and are equal in
every way in Mexican
society."