UP FRONT
Support Group Is Helping
Jewish Alcoholics, Families
ELIZABETH KAPLAN
Feature Editor
T
he first step is overcoming
fear.
Alcoholic and chemically
dependent Jews are reticent to seek
help from a less than supportive
Jewish community, according to a
member o _ f the new JACS of Detroit,
Inc.
JACS, Jewish Alcoholics and
Chemically Dependent Persons and
Significant Others Foundation, Inc.,
of Detroit welcomes such individuals.
The group is open to any Jewish in-
dividual with an abuse problem —
from alcoholics to overeaters. — and
their family members. Participants
have anonymity.
The local chapter is affiliated
with the New York-based JACS, a
non-profit, volunteer organization
with offices throughout the country.
A spokesman for the local group
stressed that JACS is not alternative
but an adjunct program to
Alchoholics Anonymous, Narcotics
Anonymous and other recovery pro-
grams. It provides guest speakers,
serves as a referral service for in-
dividuals who want to join a 12-step
program and support group for Jews
with a substance abuse problems.
"Three aspects — mental, physical
and spiritual — must be addressed for
a successful recovery:' a local JACS
member explained. "Physically, you
simply must stop abusing the
substance; the AA meetings are for
mental needs. But the spiritual aspect
had always created a lot of confusion
for me. JACS afforded me a place to
go and deal with my spirituality?'
One of the founders of the local
group remembers his first experience
with a JACS-sponsored group.
Treated in New York for chemical
dependency, he went to a JACS-
affiliated group at the recommenda-
tion of his physician. He needed "a
spiritual connection" in his recovery,
he said. "I'd always thought of myself
as Jewish, but I didn't know what a
Jew was supposed to be?'
At the first meeting, he heard a
rabbi speak about recovery from
chemical and alcoholic dependence
and the Torah.
"It helped me put everything in
perspective," he said. "And it helped
me realize I wasn't the only Jew with
a chemical dependency?'
The local JACS group held its first
meeting last summer at Temple
Israel. Six people attended.
Now, more than 60 often par-
ticipate in the meetings, which are
held at 8 p.m. the first Thursday of
every month at the temple.
But the group members aren't
satisfied. They want to hold JACS
gatherings at other area
congregations.
"We need more education," one
group member said. "So many people
are uninformed about the problem.
They just don't know how to deal with
it?'
Another member of the group
noted that most of the Jewish com-
munity still regards Jewish alcohol
and substance abuse as a shande —
a shame. He found how strong that
sense of shame runs when the group
approached a major local congrega-
tion and asked to hold a JACS group
meeting there.
"We were told no for two reasons;'
the group member recalled. "First,
the rabbi said the meetings would be
`more appropriate elsewhere? Second,
he told us 'There's no problem here? "
Continued on Page 12
At the December convention of the Central Region of United Synagogue Youth, held in
Detroit, region president David Tessler, right, explains some of the group's work to visiting
Israelis Ronen Maital and, in back, Kinor Sheleff and Rivka Kossin.
Rabbinical Institute Offers
Aid for 'Frontline Troop&
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
S
ome 32 rabbis from Conserva-
tive congregations in the cen-
tral United States and Canada
have enrolled in the first Midwest
Rabbinic Training Institute, schedul-
ed Jan. 8-13 in the Butzel Conference
Center at Camp Maas.
The rabbis not only will study
traditional Jewish theological sub-
jects at the Ortonville site, but also
will attend sessions dealing with a
variety of professional skills.
The institute, sponsored by the
Jewish Theological Seminary of New
York, is patterned after the highly
successful rabbinic training institute
held last January in upstate New
York.
"We are providing a major con-
ference in which to work with people
who are the frontline troops in their
respective congregations;' said Steven
Shaw of New York, JTS director of
community education, adding that
only Conservative congregational
rabbis whO are also members of the
Rabbinical Assembly may attend.
Unlike such other professionals as
physicians and lawyers, who are con-
stantly updated on changes within
their fields, "there is no comparable
continuing education for Conser-
vative rabbis;' said Shaw.
"We are upgrading the skills of
rabbis who are often dealing with pro-
Continued on Page 12
ROUND UP
Hero Dies
In London
Jerusalem (JTA) — David
Delarosa, a 19-year-old
soldier who tried vainly to
rescue a woman and children
from a firebombed bus near
Jericho Oct. 30, died last
week in London.
He had sustained serious in-
juries to his heart and lungs
from smoke inhalation. Only
a heart and lung transplant
might have saved his life, and
he was flown to London for
that purpose. He succumbed
while waiting for a donor.
Delarosa was the fourth vic-
tim of the worst terrorist act
this year. The Egged bus
became a flaming pyre after
it was halted by a road bar-
ricade outside Jericho in the
West Bank and attached with
a Molotov cocktail.
Rachel Weiss, 26, of
Tiberias, and her children,
Netanel, 3, Rafael, 2, and
Ephraim, 10-months-old, died
in the smoke and flames.
To Kasher And
Not To Kasher
Saturday,
Beginning
Dunkin' Donuts at Ten Mile
and Greenfield in Oak Park
will no longer be under
kosher supervision of the
Council of Orthodox Rabbis,
according to Vaad Secretary
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg.
Meanwhile, the Dunkin'
Donuts on Northwestern
Highway will soon be under
the Vaad's kosher supervi-
sion, Rabbi Goldberg said. He
said the Vaad will kasher the
store next week.
Rabbi Goldberg said the
Dunkin' Donuts in Oak Park
lost its kosher standing after
the store introduced meat-
stock soups to enhance its
luncheon menu.
Shamir Halts
Work on 'Amos'
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir has
called a halt to further
development of Israel's corn-
munication satellite, "Amos,"
according to the daily
Ha'aretz.
Shamir vetoed the project
when it became apparent that
the government would have
to invest $120 million over
the next four years to get it off
the ground.
Gad Ya'acobi, minister of
economic planning and coor-
dination in the last gover-
ment, was unable to reach an
agreement with the Defense
Ministry on the project. The
Israel Defense Force objected
to digging into the defense
budget to pay for a corn-
munications satellite.
Soviets Approve
Commemoration
Kiev — For the first time, a
Soviet newspaper has granted
official support to the com-
memoration of the slaughter
of Jews at Babi Yar.
The Evening News of
Moscow covered a recent
memorial program for the
Jews killed at Babi Yar. An
Israeli diplomat was present
at the ceremonies.
Almost all those murdered
by the Nazis in 1941 at Babi
Yar were Jewish. Between
33,000 and 70,000 Jews were
said to have been slaughtered
there.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 5