I UP FRONT Residents Hope Federation Will Approve JPM Pool KIMBERLY LIFTON Staff Writer hree times each week, Ed Ross swims a mile at the South Oakland YMCA in Royal Oak. When he lived near Northwestern Highway and 12 Mile Road in Southfield, he swam at the Maple/Drake Jewish "Community Center. After his workout, he thumb- ed through books and magazines at the JCC library. But when he moved to Oak Park two years ago, the distance from his , home to West Bloomfield was too great, and the Jimmy Prentis Morris branch of the JCC offered no exercise facility. He joined the YMCA. "I liked the JCC facility a lot bet- ter," Ross says. He has been lobbying with a group of Oak Park and Southfield residents for a $2 million enhancement proposal for the JPM facility, which includes a pool, locker rooms and a multipurpose area. JCC officials say they have been looking for acceptable proposals for the past two years, and that they favor the enhancement plan. Yet residents, who recently spearheaded a petition- writing campaign to show support for the plan, are wondering whether the Oak Park facility will ever be improved. "It seems like it will become a reality," Ross says. "But it carries with it a big question mark." Oak Park resident Paul Levine helped lead the petition drive T because, he says, previous requests for improvements had been turned down. "I don't have a lot of faith with the Center proposal;' Levine says. "There is a lot of politicking." Levine and Ross are just two of many Oak Park, Huntington Woods and Southfield residents anxiously awaiting a decision on the fate of the two-part plan. The board of governors of the Jewish Welfare Federation is expected to review the proposal for the first time on Thursday. Federation President Dr. Conrad Giles says the proposal likely will go back to committees for revisions after the meeting. Marty Oliff, assistant vice presi- dent of the JCC, says Federation leaders will seek an _endowment to finance the project if it is accepted by the board of governors. He is op- timistic that the board eventually will approve the proposal. JCC President Richard Madden could not be reached for comment, but has said stabilization of the Oak Park Jewish community has increased chances of other improvements. The Federation's two-year-old Neighborhood Project, he said, also enhanced the city. Madden has said the JCC board never opposed construction of a swim- ming pool at the JPM site, but said other community needs seemed more necessary. He is concerned that operating costs — estimated at $100,000 to $300,000 a year — would be a burden for the JCC. tr, a, a) 0 Jewish Community Council staff members and delegates participated in Monday's parade and program commemorating the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hundreds participated in the Southfield event honoring the slain civil rights leader. Ann Arbor Allows Donors To Earmark Contributions SUSAN LUDMER-GLIEBE Special to The Jewish News T he United Jewish Appeal/ Jewish Community Associa- tion of Washtenaw County has changed its allocations policy. Begin- ning with the 1989 campaign, pledges to the Ann Arbor UJA can be ear- marked for local programs, the Israel and overseas fund, or the general fund. Donors can also give separate- ly to Project Renewal. For years there's been an ongoing discussion within the Ann Arbor com- munity about the efficacy of the allocations procedure. While some people have been vocal about sending all UJA funds to Israel others have felt that such monies should remain closer to home. "We're sure that it will be helpful to the Jewish Community Center," ex- plains Nancy Margolis, Washtenaw JCC director. This year and last the JCC received $16,000 from the United Jewish Appeal/Jewish Corn- munity Association. Margolis hopes that the new policy will up the Continued on Page 12 ROUND UP Department To Talk To Arabs The State Department will hold talks with Arab- American organizations that met with the Palestine Organization Liberation in Tunesia, a Department of- ficial said this week. A spokesman for the Department's Near East and South Asia Bureau, under whose auspices the meeting will be held, would not discuss details of the talks, saying only that they had nothing to do with PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat's plans to come to the United States. Arafat recently accepted an invitation from American- Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) President Abdeen Jabara of Detroit to speak at the ADC's annual convention. State Department officials would not discuss whether Arafat will be allowed to enter the United States because, a spokesman said, "The question is hypothetical. He has not re- quested a visa." the Soviet Union since the USSR severed diplomatic relations with Israel 21 years ago. That's The Way The Ball Bounces New York (JTA) — Family and supporters of Anne Henderson Pollard claim she was abruptly transferred from medical treatment in a Connecticut hospital Satur- day and returned without forewarning to a prison facili- ty in Rochester, Minn. Pollard, whose family says she suffers from a rare digestive disorder, is serving two concurrent five-year prison terms for being an ac- cessory to her husband, Jonathan Pollard, a former civilian Navy defense analyst sentenced to life imprison- ment for spying for Israel. The family says Pollard was Tel Aviv (JTA) — The cham- pionship Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team scored a historic triumph last week, defeating the CSKA Red Army champions, 97-92, on their home court. The Israeli victory brought Maccabi a step closer to the European Cup Tournament finals. The Russians are eliminated, even if they win their rematch with Maccabi in Tel Aviv next March. The contest was the first Israeli athletes have played in Pollard's Wife Back To Prison taken from her bed at Dan- bury General Hospital and that intravenous tubes were disconnected from her body by prison guards in order to remove her from the bed. No eyewitnesses were available to verify Anne Pollard's removal from . the hospital. The hospital and a physician that Pollard's fami- ly says treated her favorably were enjoined from talking to the news media and referred all calls to the Danbury prison. Pollard was transferred last week to Danbury General from Danbury Prison Camp, a minimum security prison. Her family said a prison doc- tor diagnosed her as being dehydrated and malnour- ished. A Danbury prison spokes- man said the transfer was made to enable Pollard to have correct medical treat- ment. Reagan Honors Max Fisher President Ronald Reagan on Wednesday honored 35 Americans — including Max Fisher — with the Presiden- tial Citizens Medal in a private ceremony at the White House. Fisher, a Detroit-based in- dustrialist, was among the honorees cited for "outstan- ding service to their country and fellow citizens." The honorees also included arms reduction negotiator Max Kampleman, William F. Buckley Jr., James Brady, Malcom Forbes and Charlton Heston. Fisher is honorary chair- man of the 1989 Jewish In- augural Advisory Committee for George Bush. It is the first time Jewish Sabbath services have been part of the official inaugural program. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 5