I UP FRONT I
Newspaper
FRANK MENDAL'S
Continued from Page 5
BLOCK. BUSTER
Finishing the labeling of Fonarik are, from left, Fanny Sheinker, Lev
Kuperstein, Dr. Luba Berton, Sheyna Erlikh and Tanya Polsky.
FtSHICINtOLI
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parking garage. Store located at ground level.
Open Mon. to Sat. 9:30-5:30 (Fri. till 8) Sun. 12-4.
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16
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1989
typefaces designed by former
Detroit Soviet immigrant ar-
chitect Vladimir Taytslin,
tries to offer the Jewish
newcomers helpful informa-
tion and insights about their
new culture as well as views
of contemporary Soviet
issues, said Dr. Berton.
The paper contains basic in-
formation: announcements of
meetings, lectures, concerts,
synagogue services and
births and deaths, plus ar-
ticles explaining holidays —
Jewish and nonsectarian;
cooking recipes, both tradi-
tional Jewish and American;
reviews of concerts and Rus-
sian language films and ar-
ticles on a variety of subjects
written both locally and bor-
rowed with permission from
other Russian-language
publications.
Because many of the
readers are age 50 and up, the
births are usually of grand-
children. Also, birthdays are
listed, usually in the an-
nouncements of the New
World Club, which holds a
monthly party honoring all
those celebrating birthdays
during a month.
The birthday parties pro-
vide a humorous insight into
the acculturation process,
said Dr. Berton. When it was
announced that the
American style was for
celebrants to bring a cake, the
response, said Dr. Berton,
was, "What, me bring a cake?
If you're inviting me, you
bring the cake!"
"Eventually, we sold them
on the idea that this is fun.
We • started a contest to see
who bakes the best cake, with
the winner getting their
name in the paper."
The paper, which costs
about $480 per year to print,
is financed by $5 per year
subscriptions plus revenue
from unsolicited advertising,
with the balance of expenses
covered by the Center's Rus-
sian acculturation fund. Paid
circulation is about 275-300.
Free one-year subscriptions
are offered newcomers.
The Center also provides
paper and typewriter ribbons
and mails Fonarik bulk-rate
from Maple-Drake after ad-
dress labels from the Jewish
Welfare Federation are ap-
plied by the paper's staff in
one of the staffer's apart-
ments — usually in Highland
Towers near 10 Mile and
Greenfield.
Fonarik has a staff of five
volunteers — Tanya Polsky, a
Russian language and
literature teacher who work-
ed five years for Pravda, the
major Soviet Union morning
daily; Fanny Sheinker, a
former editor for the Russian
young people's daily paper
S'mena or New Generation;
Sheyna Erlikh, former
bioligist who likes to write
about Israel and politics;
Lubov Kumming, a German
language teacher who is the
paper's children's articles con-
tributor; and Lev Kuperstein,
a Russian attorney who
reports on activities of the
local Russian Jewish war
veterans' club.
Mrs. Polsky, 70, who met
Dr. Berton when the latter
was an exchange English
,teacher at a Soviet universi-
ty in Kiev, was the first staff
member, and is today assis-
tant editor to Dr. Berton. Mrs.
Polsky, using an IBM Selec-
tric typewriter with a Cyrillic
— or Russian-language —
typeface, types the articles,
writes headlines and places
stories and illustrations.
"I am so, so satisfied with
this kind of job," said Mrs.
Polsky, who also teaches Rus-
sian literature to other im-
migrants at the Jimmy Pren-
tis Morris Center.
Mrs. Sheinker, 78, who
covers the New World Club,
also is happy working on
Fonarik because her work in
Russia was so heavily edited
that "all I recognized was the
byline."
Other contributors to the
I