I LOCAL NEWS I

Christmas Project
Helps A Synagogue

XMAS DAY SALE

LILA ORBACH

Special to The Jewish News

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EVERYTHING

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11:00 - 4:00

6692 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield

Y /SA •

Mon.-Sat. 10-5:30
Sunday 11-4

An The West Bloomfield Plaza
851-4410

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XMAS DAY SALE
5 HOURS ONLY
11-4 PM

50% OFF ALL SHSTBEOROTS

15% OFF NEWSPRING SHOES

*Previous Sale Items & Layaways excluded

SHOE GALLERY

15 Mile and Orchard Lake Road —West Bloomfield Plaza

851-5470

16 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1988

T

was the week before
Christmas . . . and
members of Temple
Beth El in Traverse City are
helping the whole town
prepare for the holiday.
Not until Christmas Eve,
when the local mall closes
down and parents and
children go home to await
Santa's arrival, will the Jews
of Traverse City finally get a
rest.
By Saturday night, Temple
Beth El's team of volunteers
will have wrapped literally
thousands of gifts.
In the last 10 years, the
temple's gift-wrapping pro-
gram has brought in
thousands of dollars and turn-
ed out more than 20,000
perfectly (well, almost perfect-
ly) wrapped Christmas
presents.
And why not?! For Temple
Beth El, a congregation of 50
families, the Christmas gift-
wrap is its No. 1 fund-raiser.
lb join this small congrega-
tion you don't have to know
how to wrap a gift, but it
wouldn't hurt.
Last year the congrega-
tion's efforts brought in
$5,000 for the temple —
enough to keep it going
through the winter and even
a little extra to give to
charity.
It's safe to say that without
Christmas, Temple Beth El
might not survive.
"It's a great idea," said Ann
Zipser, who moved to Traverse
City from Birmingham.
Zipser is a C.P.A. who gift
wraps on the side. "People
really seem to appreciate it."
During the Christmas
season, Zipser and the rest of
the crew have wrapped
everything from the conven-
tional toaster to a 10-foot-
long, stuffed snake. For Tem-
ple Beth El of Traverse City,
'tis the season to be wrapping.
Each year around this time,
when the rabbi finishes his
sermon and the congrega-
tional announcements are
completed, a plea is made to
the congregation for more
volunteers for the gift-wrap.
Afterall, Christmas is just a
few days away.
From Thanksgiving week-
end to Christmas Eve, the 30
or more volunteers roll up
their sleeves. With 10 years of
experience behind them,

Lila Orbach is a television
reporter for station WWTV in
Traverse City.

these people know how to
wrap.
Armed with a half-dozen,
industrial-sized rolls of
Christmas wrapping paper,
scissors and enough bows and
ribbons to last them into the
next century, they set up shop
just outside of Sears. (The spot
is donated by the mall.)
With Christmas so close,
the lines begin early in the
morning and don't end until
the mall closes. The majority
of customers are men who
claim that, for whatever
reason, they never mastered
the art of gift wrapping.
For them, the Beth El booth
is an early Christmas gift.

"You're saving me so much
time and heartache," said one
tired shopper who'd spent six
hours and $800 getting into
the Christmas spirit. The
man dropped his packages off
(15 of them) and within the
hour they were wrapped and
ribboned. "Make sure you're
here next year,' he said, ad-
ding, "Merry Christmas."
There's little doubt the Beth
El booth will be back in ac-
tion next year. After years of
bake sales and rummage
sales that only kept the tem-
ple open through the summer,
the gift-wrap seems to be the
answer.
Now the temple chronicles
the years by the most popular
Christmas gifts they wrap-
ped. There was "the year of
the microwave," "the year of
the computer, V.C.R."
The program is so suc-
cessful in this town that other
churches have called and
written Beth El asking how
they do it.
"Christians are busy get-
ting ready for their holiday
and couldn't handle the
volunteer job at this time of
year," said Terry Tarnow, ex-
ecutive director of the
Traverse City Arts Council
and the engineer of the gift
wrap project. "It's a lot of ef-
fort and it's real stressful. We
have to work real hard. But
it's real rewarding to know
you've done it and the temple
will go on."
For the volunteers, it real-
ly is hard work. But, if they
want a temple, they have lit-
tle choice. Raising dues is out
of the question. The majority
here have left their high-
paying jobs down state in
favor of the slower, small-town
life style.
Julie and Dan Wolf left
Detroit for Traverse City this
fall. They wanted a change of
scenery and an escape from
traffic jams. "So instead of

