ENTERTAINMENT Israeli Musicians Are Due Here For JCCenter Concert THE 1111P101 LUNCHEON SPECIALS Beginning At $3.95 Fine Northern Italian Cuisine ... Lunch and Dinner Special Parties Up To 150 . . . Sweet 16s, Showers, Bar Mitzvahs, Etc. • Lite Dining Menu • Live Entertainment Thurs.-Sat. VEAL CORDON BLEU Medallions of Veal Lightly $ Breaded, Baked and Stuffed With Cheese, Ham, Artichoke Hearts and Covered With A Cordon Bleu Sauce. 95 Special to The Jewish News 851-4094. Authentic Lebanese Food OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Mondays Thru Thursdays 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 12 Mid. Sundays 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. SUNDAYS AND MONDAYS ONLY Lunch or Dinner CORNISH HEN Stuffed With Lamb, Pine Nuts and Rice Excellent Wine List Special Vegetarian Dishes Cocktails Catering And Carry-Out 7295 Orchard Lake Road, South Side of the Robin's Next Shopping Center Reservations Accepted: 737-0168 Your Host: Walid Eid 86 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1988 Efrat Schecter Rina Dokshinsky 4 Zvi Plesser Hagai Shaham The Immigrant' Presents New View Of Coming To U.S. MICHAEL ELKIN Includes Tossed Garden Salad, Anna Potatoes & Vegetable du Jour 12 Mile and Orchard Lake Road • Farm. Hills America-Israel The Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the Jewish Community Center will pre- sent four young artists from Israel in a concert on Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. at the Maple/Drake Building. Israeli A.I.C.F. scholarship alumni include Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Daniel Baren- boim and Miriam Fried. The concert will feature, following their Carnegie Hall debut, Hagai Shaham, violin; Efrat Schecter, flute; Zvi Plesser, cello; and Rina Dokshinsky, piano. They have participated in international music festivals, performed as soloists with major symphony orchestras and have been in recitals throughout the world. They have received numerous scholarships and awards. The program will include pieces by Bach, Handel- Halvorsen, Faure, Haydn, Bartok, Kreisler and Gliere. The public is invited. There is an admission fee. For infor- mation, call the Center, 661-1000, ext. 348. T he Immigrant: A Hamilton County Al- bum is filled with Polaroids of persecution and pogroms. Turn the page and find young Haskell Harelik fram- ed in the dim light of an im- migrant who faces uncertain- ties as a new arrival in this country from turn-of-the- century Russia. Flash forward to another photo, this one depicting the arrival of his wife, Leah, who has left behind the anxiety of anti-Semitism and security of family for what she hopes is a more accepting new land, tolerant of her old-fashioned ways. And now, flip to the end of the album for a composite pic- ture, that of an America both negative and positive, a coun- try that has developed thanks to the efforts and struggles of such people as the Hareliks. But don't close the book yet. The story's just beginning. The Immigrant is a compell- ing and successfully staged piece of history, the history being that of playwright Mark Harelik's family. In his work, Harelik takes au- diences on a journey to the wild West of turn-of-the- century Texas, where his grandparents arrived, spur- red on for a need for a new life. But The Immigrant is no rIbvye with a Ibxas twang. And Haskell and Leah are not intended as ghetto greenhorns. What playwright Harelik has done is imbued a play about his grandparents with grand splashes of color, Southwestern style. Let Harelik spin a tale or two for you now. "When The Immigrant was playing in- Washington, D.C., last sum- mer, a lot of friends and ac- quaintances I've made in the Jewish community visited me the same time I had relatives in from Texas," says the Hamilton County native. he was, There acknowledges, a palpable dif- ference between the two groups. The Easterners, he recalls, marveled at how relaxed and comfortable his Texas kin were, "where those from the East tend to be bred toward conflict, anticipating anti-Semitism and yet sur- prised to encounter it." What Harelick encountered as a native of Hamilton Coun- ty was a town of catholic beliefs and tolerance. "I grew up in an environment of non- conflict," says Harelik. "I never had a reason to feel ashamed of being Jewish. In fact, it surprised me when I encountered friends from the East who hid the fact that they were Jews:' their shoved They Jewishness in a closet, lock- ing away their heritage. Some of those friends, recalls Harelik, came to see The Im- migrant and felt like strangers in a strange land. "They were surprised at seeing davening on stage," says the playwright. "They found themselves getting red in the face from- embarrass- ment." Harelik faces facts in talk- ing about his play. He knows he is part of a new trend in American theater, one stress- ing ethnicity. "What this means is that the American Jewish experience has become less dark for out- 41 421