High Holiday Services

Northwestern Highway & Middlebelt Area

Bais Chabad of Farmington Hills invites those within walking dis-
tance to join us for the High Holidays. You will .. .

tion, as she revealed in a recent
article in the New York Times
Sunday Magazine. Sanctions,
she warned would result in the
regime's "retreat into a siege
mentality, more oppression
and more violence." In her
view, "the most practicable
way to get rid of apartheid and
to achieve a nonracial, demo-
cratic society in South Africa is
through an expanding,
flourishing economy which
would strenghten the blacks'
use of strike action and con-
sume" boycotts — their most
potent weapons."
•
•
It's hard to believe that
Simon H. Rifkind is 85 or that
it is more than 35 years since
he told me that he was resign-
ing from the Federal district
bench because he needed more
than a judge's salary to put his
two young sons through Yale.
Now, after a distinguished
career at the bar and service to
the nation and Jewish commu-
nity, Simon Rifkind is of coun-
sel in one of the biggest law-
suits in American corporate
history, resisting the challenge
to the award to the Pennzoil
Company of more than $10 bil-
lion from Texaco, Inc.
The issue largely revolves
around interpretation of New
York State law, with Texaco
claiming that the Texas judge
who heard the case originally,
had misinstructed the jury.
Not so, Judge Rifkind told the
appeals court. "If I may use a
simile from geometry, if the
charge were super-imposed on
the well-established law of
New York, it would be found to
be congruent in whole and
every part," adding, "indeed, a
perfect fit."
Judge Rifkind is not the only
octogenarian making news
these days. In Philadelphia,
Prof. Simon Noah Kramer, an
outstanding authority on the
Sumerian people who ap-
peared in Mesopotamia 5,000
years ago and were the first
people to write and read, is, at
the age of 89, still exploring
and describing the writings
and poetry of the subjects of
King Gilgamesh preserved
over the centuries on
cuneiform clay tablets.
Prof. Kramer's bibliography
lists 30 books and 203 articles,
most of them erudite studies
for other scholars. He has a
— book in progress and a half-
, dozen scholarly articles on
— Sumer, its history, religion and
ir mythology. "What else do I
have to do?" he asked an inter-
viewer.
The Ukrainian-born scholar
once hoped to have his ashes
buried at Ur, described in the
Bible as birthplace of the pat-
riarch Abraham, but he fears
that because of Arab bitterness
against the Jews, this will not
be possible. The Iraqis have not
invited him to return to Iraq
since 1948.

1-

•

Fifty years ago when this
writer first became acquainted
with London, one of the city's

phenomena was Burton's Fifty
Shilling Tailors — a chain of
clothing stores selling ready-
to-wear men's suits at what
was then about $12.50. Its
founder and director was one of
the few British Jews to be
given a knighthood for public
service which, translated,
means financial contributions
to the party in power and
philanthropic largesse.
Now, The Fifty Shilling
Tailors has become the Burton
Group, a chain of 1,500 spe-
cialty clothing outlets employ-
ing 30,000 people thoughout
the kingdom, and a significant
factor in the British commer-
cial world. And in keeping with
accepted practice — bestowal
of Royal awards on men of ac-
complishment in trade and in-
dustry — a knighthood has
been bestowed on Ralph Hal-
pern, the highly paid, hard-
driving Burton chief executive.
The knighthood, like most
royal honors bestowed today,
doesn't carry any special
privileges or provide any spe-
cial advantages except the
prestige of recognition and the
title, but it is eagerly sought
and esteemed as a sign of
recognition of accomplish-
ment.
The honor thrilled Halpern,
the hard-boiled businessman.
"I'm only third generation
English — the family came
from Vienna," he told a re-
porter, "so knighthood is most
special to me, a great honor."
Time was when the Honors
Lists were not long and the
Jewish press scanned them ea-
gerly for the few Jewish names
they might contain. Today,
however, in addition to the pa-
tents of nobility, the British
Empire awards list has been
vastly expanded so that more
than a thousand honors are
announced each year. Jews are
adequately represented in the
lists.
Most of the new lifetime
peers and knights dispense
with the pageantry and the
coats of arms and some don't
use the title. But Sir Ralph
Halpern will use his. "For 41
years I've been 'Mr.' and now
`Mr.' is gone, and I'm going to
miss it very ,much," he said
without too much regret.

• learn about and participate in the service.

• enjoy the expression of our prayers forged over centuries in Tomashow, Po-
land, surviving the Nazis and Siberia, by the scion of "Boole' Tefillah" of the
Trisker Chassidic centers in Poland - Jacob Bergstein

• feel at home in our charming setting and friendly atmosphere

• have child care available

For information call Harriet 851-4019

.......

. .

. „.

lr

•

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