1 - -AliefiliribisiiiMatiaair4444**404.4 4 Michigan Council for the Arts 1200 Sixth Avenue Detroit. MI 48226 Michigan Council for the Arts and the Jewish Community Center UP FRONT present Margalit Oved I.B. Singer 7:30 p.m. May 19, 1987 Jewish Community Center 6600 W. Maple Road • W. Bloomfield,MI 48033 Ticket Price $5.00 Dance Workshop Wednesday, May 20, 1987 — 7:00 p.m. JPM Branch • 15110 W. Ten Mile Road • Oak Park, MI 48237 Cost $5.00. For Information Call 661-1000 ext. 341 Isiah Thomas' Smile Thursday Night "Midtown Cafe" Diamond Engagement Rings at Astreins 25%FF All Diamond Engagement Rings A) Reg. $3500 SALE $2625 B) Reg. $3000 SALE $2250 C) Reg. $2500 SALE $1875 ASTREIN'S We feature original designs not available elsewhere 120 W. Maple • Birmingham • 644-1651 Mon.-Sat. 10-5:30 • Thurs. & Fri. 'til 9:00 AE/MCNISA Accepted 22 Friday, May 15, 1987 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Continued from Page 5 for the deaths of Rabbi Adler, John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. "People," he said, "want to destroy the givers. We must always expect the haters, the takers, to re- appear!' Singer was the first Yiddish writer to address the Swedish Academy in Yiddish at the awarding of the Nobel Prize. "I spoke Yiddish to goyim," he said proudly, "and it was the first time that goyim listened and did not spit in my face!' The nearly-bald author's pen- sive mood began to brighten during a brief question-and- answer session after his speech. His lighter, more humorous nature became evident as he responded to why he went to the United States instead of Israel in 1935 when he left his native Poland. "The British wouldn't let me (go to Israel). I didn't have 1,000 British pounds to show them!' More importantly, his brother was already living in New York. Singer also became more positive about the future of Yid- dish. "Humanity is multiply- ing. In the next 100 years we should increase from four billion to eight billion people, and every one of those peole will need a topic for a Ph.D." The riddle of Yiddish, he said, is so close to the riddle of Jewishness "that I am sure Yiddish will continue?' During a press conference Tuesday morning in his hotel room, Singer was a gracious host while his secretary served breakfast. He recently discovered several uncompleted manuscripts in his apartment and "the publishers are in- terested." The 20-year-old material was put aside at the time "because I was too lazy to work on them." He has also completed a new book of short stories that will soon be offered to a publisher. The 1978 Nobel Prize chang- ed his life by making more demands on his time. "Many people who were not my friends suddenly became my friends," he recalled with a twinkle in his eye. Often he enjoys the travel associated with speaking engagements, "but sometimes I curse the day I accepted these engagements!' Singer said he would like to write a large novel about America and its immigrants, but he feared he would be unable to do the necessary research. "After all, I was not here during the great waves of immigration!' Writing con- tinues to be his first love. "I do not write every day, but I get up every morning with the desire to write. "The rules of writing are the same for children's books as they are for adults," Singer said. "Every book must tell a story. It must have some suspense . . . just like the Bible and life itself!' As a child, the first book he read was a Yiddish translation of Sherlock Holmes, the fic- tional British detective. "After that, I followed a man on the streets because he looked suspicious to me!' Dressed in a navy blue suit and matching gym shoes, Singer covered a wide range of topics - links in the chain: • "Since I won the Nobel Prize, people stop me on the street. Women want to kiss me. What have I done to deserve this?" • "If we had no other message than the Ten Com- mandments, then that could be the message for 10,000 years!' • "Yiddish is my mother language. I have spoken it since childhood. The people I write about speak Yiddish!' • "If people had to run from the United States, there would be no place to run to anymore. But I'm 100 percent sure that it would never happen!' • "I want to be remembered as a man who always tried his best?' • "I'm going to go home and do my work if my wife, Alma, lets me. She likes to go. and buy things!' Singer writes with a fountain pen, not a typewriter or a computer "which would confuse me. But good fountain pens are becoming hard to find?' • "I don't get involved with causes" but he knows that they exist. "Now that men throw bombs that also fall on women's heads, women have become in- volved in politics!' • His birthday is officially Ju- ly 14, 1904, but the real date is the third week in Cheshvan, which would place his birthday in November. "People didn't register the date right away," he explained. "A few years would go by and my father would forget a few things and my mother would forget a few things. So the date is July, but I found out that the real date is in Cheshvan." • "Hebrew was a dead language for thousands of years, and then it was renewed. I believe the same thing will happen to Yiddish!' Then the chain will be com- plete for Isaac Bashevis Singer. .Lethal Germ Fights Cancer Ramat-Gan — Professor Nehama Gilboa-Garber, a biochemist at Bar-Ilan Uni- versity in Ramat Gan, Israel, has discovered a substance contained in one of nature's most dangerous bacteria, extracted it and used it to immunize mice against cancer. The finding could lead the way to conquering a germ that has thus far been imper- vious to the most powerful antibiotics. It may also prove to be a dramatic break- through in the fight against cancer in humans.