Lubavitch Buy 40 Acres
Next To Jewish Center

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

Wendy Robbins, Judy Nolish, Terry Brown and Jack Nolish hold the main attraction.

Thai On Latkes' Party
Becomes Woods' Tradition

"When we moved into this house
we did it with the understanding of
Special to The Jewish News
the latke preparation," said Nolish.
you were
were in the vicinity of "That's why we had everything wired
Huntington Woods last Sunday, in the kitchen to accommodate seven
you must have smelled the latkes. skillets. Those skillets have never
The aroma was coming from the 18th seen anything besides latkes and
annual latke party at the home of oil:'
Throughout the Nolish house,
Jack and Judy Nolish.
guests
were comfortable and enjoying
"I guess you could say that this is
something that has become a tradi- the food.
"This is my 13th or 14th year,"
tion in our lives," said Judy, clad in
an orange latke T-shirt. "It started said Paul Mischakoff of Southfield.
"I only ate five latkes this year.
out as a small get-together, and look
The most I ever had was 18 one year,"
what we've got now."
What they've got is a community he said.
"Great latkes," said Stan Finkel-
event that attracts hundreds.
Huntington Woods resident and a stein. "I know they're going to sit in
long-time friend, Terry Brown, took my stomach all night?'
Herb Ruttenberg of Huntington
the role of chief latke maker 18 years
ago. "After watching Jack try and Woods said he's been coming to the
figure out how to make latkes, I event for eight years, having only
couldn't bear it, and began doing it missed one. "We had to go to a bar
mitzvah," he recalled. "Honestly, I
myself," he said.
With a latke-stained apron, chefs would have rather have been at this
hat, seven skillets and a large mixing party. It's become a tradition in our
bowl filled with shredded potatoes, family. It is something to look forward
onions and other ingredients, Brown to, meeting old friends, kibbitzing,
and his kitchen crew now turn out and having a good time?'
more than 600 latkes for 500 people.
One of Judy's friends from college,
Under the Brown helm on Sunday Miriam Meadow said, "The parties
were first-time volunteers Jim and have really changed, because we all
Donna Brennan of Huntington used to be so young. Now we all have
Woods. "I'll tell ya, I feel like Julia kids." Laughed Judy, "I know at our
Child," said Donna while shredding 35th latke party, my daughter Rachel
poatoes.
is going to say, 'Mom, you watch the
Judy Nolish makes purchases for kids and I'll make the latkes: "
the event all year round, but actual
The person who holds the record
preparations begin a week prior to the for being the youngest latke-goer is
party, which is always held the first Lani Boch, now 10, of Huntington
Sunday of Chanukah.
Woods.
This year, Nolish purchased 25
"Her mom and dad brought her
pounds of onions, 240 pounds of pre- when she was only three weeks old,"
peeled potatoes, 30 pounds of sour said Nolish.
cream, nine liters of wine, 17 dozen
As Sunday's 18th annual "Get
eggs, 73 pounds of applesauce, 42 Chai on Latkes Party" wound down,
pounds of oil, and 230 goodie bags the Nolishes and Browns were
filled with chocolate Chanukah gelt already preparing for upcoming
for the kids. The Nolishes, Brown parties.
and his wife Wendy Robbins also con-
"Our 20th is really going to be
tribute three percent of the total cost something special," said Judy.
to Mazon, the Jewish response to "Special shirts, trivia, and a whole lot
hunger project.
of things."

DEBBIE L. SKLAR

I

Michigan Lubavitch on Monday
exercised a two-month-old option and
purchased 40.5 acres of land adjacent
to the Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield.
Rabbi Berel Shemtov, director of
Michigan Lubavitch, declined to
discuss details of the purchase and
said plans for the site have not been
finalized. The organization is propos-
ing to build a synagogue, education
center, day care center, library and
rabbinical college on the site — to be
known as Lubavitch lbwn — and may
construct housing units for some of its
staff.
The site west of the Jewish Com-
munity Campus has 400 feet of fron-
tage on the north side of Maple Road.
The property has two attached sec-
tions: 400 feet wide by 1,000 feet deep
and 1,000 feet wide by 1,500 feet.
Rabbi Shemtov said the organiza-
tion decided to expand after the
Lubavitcher Rebbe in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
issued a call on Rosh Hashanah "for

a year of building and a year of educa-
tion." Shemtov said the site is being
purchased by land contract and would
be paid for through local fundraising.
The project would not affect other
Lubavicth insitutions in Farmington
Hills and West Bloomfield, the rabbi
said. Congregation Mishkan Israel in
Oak Park, he said, is changing but is
not declining. "We are losing people
(at Mishkan Israel), but replacing
them with young families. Where the
average age used to be 60, it is now
20:'
A building timetable has not been
established, but Lubavitch plans a
formal ground-breaking ceremony
next spring. Last Friday, 20 directors
of Chabad Lubavitch institutions in
Michigan participated in an in-
augural ceremony at the site and
hung lanterns on a makeshift
Chanukah menorah.

Rabbi Shemtov said the organiza-
tion is looking forward to Lubavitch
Town. "We feel it is complementary
to the Jewish Community Center" in
terms of programming. "We hope to
be good neighbors?'

Arabs In West Bank
Want End To Intifada

Tel Aviv (JTA) — The vast majori-
ty of Palestinians in the West Bank
are fed up with the uprising in the
territories and want to get on with
their normal lives, according to a
study made by two lecturers at Bir
Zeit University on behalf of Oxford
University in Britain.
The survey, conducted among
2,100 Arab residents of 50 localities
in the West Bank, showed that 80 per-
cent believe the intifada, which began
a year ago, has not achieved its goals.
Among married men, 92 percent
said they were bored by prolonged
idleness at home forced on them by
the uprising.
Of 730 Arab merchants question-
ed, 594 reported serious loss of income
this past year. Ninety-six percent said
they closed their shops for fear of
reprisals, not because they wanted to
observe the commercial strikes
ordered by leaders of the uprising.
The survey found that 60 percent
of Palestinian laborers were fired
from their jobs in Israel because of
prolonged absences due to the
uprising.
Eighty-five percent of those ques-
tioned said they suffered a drop in liv-
ing standards. Their families could af-
ford to eat meat no more than once a
month.
The frequent closure of univer-

sities, such as Bir Zeit near
Ramallah, that have become centers
of Palestinian nationalism, has Arab
students worried. The survey found
that 95 percent of high school
graduates plan to go to college abroad
if the universities in the territory are
not reopened.
That would mean the departure of
about 8,000 students, the lecturers
said.
Finally, more than 80 percent of
Palestinians in the Ramallah region

Ninety-six percent said
they closed their shops
for fear of reprisals, not
because they wanted to
observe the commercial
strikes.

who possess U.S. citizenship have
rented their homes and gone to
America.
Yediot Achronot reported, mean-
while, that the average number of
monthly attacks, which reached
about 200 during the first months of
the uprising, has declined con-
siderably in recent months.
This was attributed to vastly im-
proved intelligence gathering by Shin
Bet, Israel's internal security agency,
which has led to important arrests.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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