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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.

