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From Focus Photo to JEST.'
Ex-Detroiter Realizes Dream
LISA JACKNOW ELLIAS
Special to The Jewish News
In fashion...it's
all a matter of taste.
Don't conform - inform.
Designer fashions as individual as you are.
60
Inside
• 31409 Southfield Rd.
Emile Salon
642-3315
Holocaust, World Leaders,
Nuremburg Trials, Social Diseases
& much more, alluded to in the
Torah are unravelled by the Computer
• Harvard mathematicians
amazed at their research
• Random probability of codes
nearly impossible
Special Lecture
The Computer Unlocks the
Secrets of the Bible
With the aid of computer technology, there is a whole
dimension of Torah knowledge currently available, which
until now was only revealed to certain Sages, Mystics and
Kabbalists through the generations.
Perhaps it is because we live in a generation of such
severe doubt and confusion that we have been permitted
this deeper layer of insight into Torah's hidden light in order
to bolster our faith.
But whatever the reasons may be, the fact remains that
an awesome fountain of added knowledge is now available
to us.
Join us for this special
audio-visual presentation
Guest Lecturer
Rabbi Ezriel Tauber (Monsey, N.Y,)
Sunday Morning
January 31, 1988
10:30 A.M.
Donation $5.00
Continental Breakfast
will be served
Jewish Community Center
6600 W. Maple, West Bloomfield
For further information call Rabbi Silberberg
626-1807 or 855-6170
Sponsored by Jewish Community and
Bais Chabad Torah Center of West Bloomfield
A PROJECT OF THE YEAR OF HAKHEL
40
FRIDAY JANUARY 221988
F
or almost 30 years,
Sheldon Klimist har-
bored a dream. In 1980,
he decided the time was right
to make that dream come
true. Klimist gave up a thriv-
ing Southfield law practice
and a home in Bloomfield
Hills and, with his wife, Inez,
moved to Israel.
Klimist, 57, was in the
Detroit area recently, to visit
relatives and relax after tak-
ing the Israeli bar
examination.
"I was a product of a Zionist
youth movement, and I had
been to Israel as a young man
for a year-and-a-half in the
early 1950s: Klimist recalls.
"I formed some strong at-
tachments and always
wanted to go back. It was a
good time to go. Our children
were grown, now it was our
turn. You can always wait,
hang on, make another dollar.
It was important for me to
feel that we were going at a
time when I was still active,
able to do things and make a
contribution. I don't approve
of going there to die."
The Klimists live in a
duplex in the French Hill
neighborhood near Mount
Scopus. When they made
aliyah, the Klimists left three
children, Susan Solomon of
Oak Park, Nora of San Fran-
cisco and Ibny. They also have
two grandchildren. Their
daughters were not thrilled
with the decision, the
Klimists say, but have ac-
cepted it. Tony moved to
Jerusalem to join his parents
in 1986.
Klimist had no firm plans
when he made the move to
Jerusalem, other than the
knowledge that he wasn't in-
terested in practicing law. So
he turned a hobby,
photography, into a profes-
sion. He started a
photography school and open-
ed "Focus," the first one-hour
photo developing lab in Israel.
Two-and-one-half years ago,
Klimist and his wife took
another interest and turned it
into an ongoing concern.
They started an English-
speaking repertory theater
company called "JEST,"
Jerusalem English Speaking
Theater. The group recently
represented Israel at a drama
festival in Ireland.
"My wife and I were travel-
ing up the coastal road from
Los Angeles to San Francisco,
and when we stopped in
Sheldon Klimist: One hour photos, English-language theater and a keen
interest in civil rights.
Monterey, we saw a repertory
theater group," Klimist ex-
plains "We said to each other,
`Hey, why can't we do this?'
When we got home, we put an
ad in the Jerusalem Post ask-
ing for resumes, and received
60 or 70 replies. Within two
weeks, 40 to 50 people were in
our living room:'
The company is made up of
people from the United
States, Great Britain,
Australia, South Africa, with
a few Israelis, Klimist says.
The Klimists coproduce such
plays as You're a Good Man,
Charlie Brown, Woody Allen's
Don't Drink the Water, and
Middle of the Night by Paddy
Chayefsky. Inez Klimist
works with the sets and
costumes. In April, JEST will
host an amateur theater
festival in Jerusalem. Groups
from six cities in Israel, along
with a guest company from
Ireland, will participate.
Recently, Klimist decided
that he wanted to practice
law again. A labor lawyer in
the United States, he spent
six months as a clerk to the
president of the Israeli Na-
tional Labor Court as a
prelude to taking the bar ex-
amination. He plans to work
in public interest law, civil
rights, civil liberties and for
constitutional and electoral
reform.
Klimist's interest in civil
rights has made him a keen
observer of the recent unrest
in the West Bank and Gaza.
"lb say that I'm upset, con-
cerned and worried is an
understatement," he says. "I
do not share Mr. [Prime
Minister Yitzhak] Shamir's
lack of concern in treating it
as if it is not that serious. It's
very serious. It's very
threatening in terms of the
long run, the values of the
state. It's eating us up and
destroying us. The country is
divided now, just like during
the Lebanon War. That was
the first war in our history
that was not a war of consen-
sus. The same is true, now.
"The primary issue always
must be Israel's security and
survival," Klimist adds.
"Along with that, however, is
the question of what kind of
Israel it's going to be. Today,
there is a threat to our sur-
vival, but not in the same
sense as before. Then, the
threat was from without.
Now, it is from within,
because of what this occupa-
tion is doing to us.
"There is no such thing as
a humane occupation,
although we try to be just.
This is a genuine resistance.
It is indigenous on the West
Bank, Gaza, Arabs in other
parts of Israel. Our kids are
trained to defend us against
an external enemy. Here, we
have 18-year-old kids
shooting other 18-year-old
kids within our country."
Changes in the Arab world
could make negotiations
possible, he believes, although
"rejectionists on both sides,
Arab and Israeli, are feeding
on each other and standing in
the way."
In spite of his feelings about
the situation, Klimist is
angry about the way it has
been portrayed in the
American media.
"There is a double standard