COMMUNITY
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
F
Ashley Bloom, Alexandra Rabiinowitz and Jeremy Sasson, children
from the Jewish Community Center's Child Development Center, show
off the VCR the center won for its participation in the Scott Paper Co.
educational drive, "Learning Tools for Schools."
Travers Will Perform
At Campaign Closing
The 1989 Allied Jewish
Campaign will conclude with
an event for all Campaign
volunteers and contributors
on April 12 at Thmple Israel.
The 7 p.m. program will
feature singer/human rights
activist Mary Travers. A
cocktail buffet will precede the
program, and a dessert recep-
tion will follow. There is a
charge for the evening, and all
attendees must have made
their contribution to the 1989
Campaign.
Campaign Chairmen Jane
Sherman and Paul Borman
said volunteers will be mak-
ing an effort to enroll every
member of the community in
the fund-raising drive.
Several "Countdown to
Closing" telethons have been
scheduled to record as many
pledges as possible by April
12. "The more pledges we
have by the Campaign closing,
the more accurate the
numbers will be when it
comes time to allocate Allied
Jewish Campaign funds," said
Borman.
Sherman added than when
a contributor makes a pledge,
they have the option of defer-
red billing. "They'll have un-
til December to pay it off," she
said.
This year, Borman and
Sherman will announce the
recipient of the 1989 Corn-
munity Achievement Award to
the Campaign division which
has recorded the highest
percentage of pledges over the
past three months. The name
of the winning division will be
permanently displayed on a
Mary Travers
plaque at the Jewish Welfare
Federation's Fred M. Butzel
building.
The highlight of this year's
closing - event will be a talk
and performance by Mary
Travers. Long recognized for
her efforts on behalf of Soviet
Jewry, Travers' song "Light
One Candle" became the
theme for the Soviet Jewry
rally in Washingotn, D.C., in
1986.
As a member of the Peter,
Paul and Mary folksinging
group, she has entertained au-
diences around the world.
Affiliated with the
Washington-based Interna-
tional Center for Development
Policy, Travers has traveled
and spoken extensively on
behalf of human rights. She
visited the Soviet Union,
where she met with a number
of Jewish families.
our Detioit-area men
are forming Michigan's
first chapter of the
Friends of the IDF (Israel
Defense Forces), the
American fundraising part-
ner to Israel's Association for
the Well-Being of Soldiers
(Aguda Lema'an Hachayal).
The organization, unof-
ficially known as the "USO of
Israel", provides social,
recreational and educational
services to the Jewish state's
men and women in uniform
and also provides summer
camps for IDF widows and
orphans.
Morton L. Feldman is chair-
man and director of the
Detroit-based Friends of the
IDF State of Michigan. Other
founding members of the
chapter are Jay Abramson,
vice president; Harvey Kline,
secretary and Jerry Gold,
treasurer. Friends of the IDF
has chapters in New York,
Los Angeles, Miami and
Chicago, with new chapters in
Cleveland, Minneapolis, St.
Louis and San Diego.
"I feel it is necessary to lend
our support to the IDF at this
time because it has become
increasingly clear to me how
lonely and difficult being a
defender of Israel in the
Defense Forces has become,"
said Feldman.
"Before, Israel was a David
in a sea of Goliaths. Now, sud-
denly, according to the world
media covering the intifada,
Israel is the Goliath, and
that's simply not true. I feel
so deeply that we need to do
whatever we can to help
Israel's troops keep their
morale up, what with this
terrible situation that exists."
Feldman is chairman of
Classic Optical, the largest
importer of Israeli-made op-
tical frames in the United
States, serves on the boards of
both the American-Israel
Chamber of Commerce and
the Michigan Region-AIPAC
(American Israel Public Af-
fairs Committee) and has
been active in Jewish federa-
tion work both in Detroit and
New York.
"It would seem to me these
lonely soldiers are getting a
bum rap for really defending
themselves against warfare.
Really, despite the intifada,
there's no lessening of the
threat of war along the
Lebanese border, or with
Syria and the Golan Heights.
"Detroit is known nation-
wide as one of the most
generous communities in the
country and this cause is so
important because the
defense of Israel is the No. 1
insurer of the survival of
Israel. These young men and
women every day put their
lives on the line for the
defense of their country," he
said.
"In this era of budget cuts
and talk of budget reductions,
it becomes increasingly more
difficult to provide human
services for the IDF.
"We realize there's no lack
of worthwhile causes to. put
Morton Feldman:
IDF bum rap.
our efforts toward, and that's
one of the big reasons we've
established realistic fundrais-
ing goals for the IDF,"
Feldman said.
Noting that the national
Friends of IDF goal is $2
million for 1989, and figuring
the Michigan Jewish popula-
tion at 75,000, Feldman said
the new chapter's goal would
be to raise an average of $1
per person. "Of course, if our
first member contributed the
first $75,000, all we'd do is
double our goal to help these
people in Israel who need our
help so desperately," Feldman
said.
He said in the last few
years, about 135 Detroiters
have contributed to Friends of
the IDF projects. These
include:
• summer camps for
soldiers on leave for rest and
recreation, from $2,400 for a
platoon of 30 soldiers to
$15,000 for a battalion;
• hitchhiking stations
enabling IDF members to
stay out of the weather while
awaiting rides, $5,000 if built
with solar lighting;
• gymnasiums at military
bases, $7,500 each;
• USO-type clubs on bases,
from $6,000 to $15,000;
• furniture for the clubs,
$4,000 per room;
• summer camp at Netanya
for widows and orphans, ser-
ving 2,500 people in five one-
week periods, $100,000.
The IDF helps fund a
soldiers' home in Haifa for ag-
ed and incapacitated IDF
members. A planned addition
will cost $1.5 million,
Feldman said, and two new
homes are planned, one in
Eilat ($4.5 million) and the
other in Tel Aviv ($10
million).
Feldman, who served in the
U.S. Army as a radar
specialist in the mid-1950s,
recalls being stationed on a
"lonely base in the North Sea
for 1 1/2 years with 50 other
men." He also lost a cousin
during Israel's War for In-
dependence — one of 80
Americans killed in 1948. ❑
Hillel Names Chairmen
Of Annual Fund-Raiser
Hillel Day School an-
nounces Barbra Chaitin,
Martin Gene and Sonia Pone
are the chairmen for its an-
nual dinner May 10 at Adat
Shalom Synagogue. The din-
ner is the culmination of the
school's annual giving
campaign.
All three dinner chairmen
are Hillel parents and active
board members. Mrs. Chaitin
is chairman of Hillel's special
events committee and the
Sinai Guild financial
secretary. Gene is active with
many of Hillel's fund-raising
endeavors and volunteers his
time with the Jewish Federa-
tion Apartments.
Mrs. Pone is an executive
committee member of Hillel,
a board member of Congrega-
tion Shaarey Zedek and is ac-
tive with the Jewish Associa-
tion for Retarded Citizens and
the Professional Division of
Jewish Welfare Federation.
Mrs. Sadie Cohn will be the
honoree. Rita Haddow and
Judge Avern Cohn are
honorary chairmen. Special
guest speaker will be Dennis
Prager.
For information, call Mar-
cia Fishman, 851-2394.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
45
OMMUNIT
Four Detroiters Organize
Friends Of IDF Organization