1UP FRONTI
Detroit Symphony Boosted
By A New Friends Group
ELIZABETH KAPLAN
I
G. FeinblattlMe d ia
Staff Writer
A boy selling olives is the only person on the street during a recent general strike in Ramallah.
Official Says Demography
Is Critical Israel Problem
ELIZABETH KAPLAN
Staff Writer
P
hil Baum, national associate
director of the American Jew-
ish Congress, is not a man to
cushion his views with subtleties.
Appearing before a crowd of
several hundred last week at Shaarey
Zedek for the AJC annual meeting,
Baum said the media has "debased
and demeaned" the American public.
News reports offer brief glimpses of
complex issues, he said, "And we are
made to nuture ourselves on these
nuggets of reality."
Baum was slighty more reserved
toward his next subject, Israel's Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Shamir is the much-touted oppo-
nent of an international peace con-
ference. Last year, the AJC endorsed
such a forum, but not without condi-
tions Baum reiterated in his talk
here. Those conditions are the exclu-
sion of the Palestine Liberation
Organization and no referral to the
sponsoring parties, which means that
the convening members of the con-
ference — including the Soviet Union
and the United States — would not be
able to render decisions should Israel
and its Arab neighbors reach an
Continued on Page 16
t started when everything else
stopped.
The Detroit Symphony Or-
chestra was in the midst of a 12-week
work stoppage. Concert-goers were
upset. Musicians were upset.
Brenda Pangborn was upset, too,
But rather than just complain about
the fact that Detroiters were faced
with the discord of the stoppage
rather than the harmonious strains of
Beethovan and Dvorak, Pangborn
took action. She created the Friends
of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra,
Inc..
"Our goal," Pangborn said, is "to
keep the DSO where we want it to be
— as one of the top, major orchestras
in this country"
One of the Friends' top priorities
is educating the community about the
symphony and developing the DSO
audience. It is the third DSO aux-
iliary group, joining the Women's
Association and the Symphony
League.
The Friends is open to anyone, but
patrons must be willing to back up
their interest with action. All
Friends' members must hold a season
subscription of at least six concerts or
have contributed at least $200 to the
symphony.
Pangborn was elected the group's
president at the first meeting.
It takes less than five minutes
with Pangborn to understand her
cohorts' confidence in her. Her
description of organizing the Friends
contains no references to weeks of
sharpening pencils and coordinating
schedules. Once agreeing to take
responsibility for the Friends,
Pangborn went right to action.
She invited 60 acquaintances to
her home last December. Many she
knows through her businessman
father, the late Nathan Freedland.
Others she knows because of her own
involvement in the music world and
through her husband, Robert, prin-
cipal percussionist and assistant prin-
cipal typanist with the DSO.
"So I was in a unique position to
pull all these sides together," she said.
One of those present at the first
meeting, and who also helped
organize the Friends, is Doug Mann.
A member of the group's board of
directors, Mann said he helped
organize the Friends because he saw
the need for "an independent body to
assist the orchestra and help it get in
a better position from an artistic and
financial point of view."
Board member Bobbie Segal has
been with the Friends since its
creation.
Her reasons for joining are simple.
"Detroit would be an unacceptable
place to live without an orchestra;'
she said. "It's one of our teams. We
have the Lions and the Pistons and
the Tigers and we need the symphony,
too?' .
Initially, Pangborn admitted, she
wondered whether the group would
succeed.
"But after the first meeting, when
people agreed to meet the following
week, I felt pretty secure. There was
such commitment there."
Continued on Page 18
ROUND UP
Troy To Vote
Name Change
.
The Troy Jewish Congrega-
tion plans to vote on a name
change in the fall. The five-
year-old congregation now
has 115 members and does
not feel it needs its location in
the name any longer, accor-
ding to Iry Wengrow, the
synagogue's president.
Wengrow said the congrega-
tion wants a Hebraic name
that tells their philosophy.
The choices include: Mat Am
(people's congregation), Mat
Haverim (friends' congrega-
tion), Bet Haverim (house of
friends), and Shir Tikvah
(song of hope).
The congregation recently
hired Rabbi Arnold
Sleutelberg, whom they will
share with Temple Beth El in
Traverse City. Details of the
arrangemeent have yet to be
worked out, Wengrow said,
but Rabbi Sleutelberg begins
his duties Aug. 1.
Librarians Ask
Midrasha Fund
The Jewish Library
Association has asked the
Jewish Welfare Federation to
halt proposed cutbacks of the
Midrasha Library and to fund
the library separately as a
community project.
The Midrasha Library is
funded by United Hebrew
Schools, which has proposed
cutting library hours from 40
to six hours a week.
"We're unhappy about the
closing and the loss of library
hours, but it is all that can be
done until alternate funding
is obtained," said Federation
President Dr. Conrad Giles.
He said the Federation might
consider reevaluating its
source of funding in upcom-
ing years.
Arafat Invited
TO Parliament
Brussels (JTA) — Palestine
Liberation Organization
chairman Yasir Arafat has
been invited to visit the
Parliament of Europe in
Strasbourg.
He will be there Sept. 13
and 14, when the
518-member assembly, the
European Community's
legislative body, is in full
session.
The invitation, the first
ever to a Palestinian leader,
was extended by the Socialist
bloc, the largest single faction
in the parliament. Rudi
Arndt of West Germany, the
faction leader, explained why.
"After having had a very
useful meeting with Shimon
Peres, we thought it would be
appropriate to hear Yasir
Arafat's opinion, as chairman
of the PLO, on the situation
in the Mideast," Arndt said
Tuesday.
Israeli Moslems
Join Pilgrimage
Jerusalem (JTA) — The
Israeli government has
facilitated the annual Haj,
the pilgrimage to Mecca that
is the religious duty of every
Moslem male at least once.
On Sunday, 5,300 Israeli
Moslems crossed the border
into Jordan to begin the two-
day bus journey to Mecca,
Saudi Arabia.
Strike Ends
In Israel
ml Aviv (JTA) — Magen
David Adom employees
returned to work Tuesday
afterhoon, ending a 24-hour
strike that had left Israel
without ambulances.
The walkout ended when
the Finance and Health
ministries agreed to make
some $440,000 immediately
available to the paramedical
and first-aid society.
Magen David Adorn is
heavily indebt.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5