UP FRONT
Project Chametz Asks Jews
To Help Hungry At Passover
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
Donna
C
Tay-Sachs Screening
Finds At-Risk Couple
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
D
etroit's community-
wide Tay-Sachs
screening in January
tested more than 400 persons
to see if they were carriers of
the Jewish genetic disease
and a young couple planning
to be married was found to be
at risk.
Some 301 Detroiters were
tested in the Jan. 15 general
screening and during subse-
quent tests at Sinai Hospital.
One hundred thirty addi-
tional persons were tested us-
ing the Dor Yeshorim ap-
Sixteen individuals
were found to be
carriers of the Tay-
Sachs gene and
one couple is at
risk.
proach favored by the Or-
thodox Jewish community.
The Dor Yeshorim method
assigns particpants an iden-
tification number. A couple
planning to marry sends their
numbers to New York and are
told if they might produce a
Tay-Sachs child. Individuals
are not told if they are Tay-
Sachs carriers.
Tay-Sachs is a genetic
disease that most commonly
afflicts Ashkenazi Jews. Both
parents must be carriers of
the recessive Tay-Sachs gene
to produce a Tay-Sachs child.
A baby with Tay-Sachs usual-
ly dies by age 4 or 5.
Robin Gold, a genetics
counselor at Sinai Hospital,
said 16 carriers, including the
at-risk couple, were found
during the general testing.
Three results were
inconclusive.
The couple found to be Tay-
Sachs carriers were counsel-
ed at Sinai and will do some
form of pre-natal testing
when they decide to have
children, Gold said.
Gold said screenings the
size of the Jan. 15 effort nor-
mally uncover 10 carriers.
She attributed the higher
numbers in January to the
volume of persons tested
again after a period of years.
Technological advances have
made the new tests more
accurate.
Gold is coordinating efforts
to conduct Dor Yeshorim Tay-
Sachs tests annually for 12th-
grade students in the Beth
Yehudah Schools. Sinai may
also organize a general
testing program.
"We'd like to organize the
synagogues to sponsor this,"
said Gold. "We'd like to find
sponsors to keep it a cost-free
event." Smaller screenings at
the synagogues would be
more manageable, Gold said.
The
community-wide
screening in January had a
side benefit of boosting com-
munity awareness. Sinai
Hospital normally tests two
or three individuals for Tay-
Sachs each week, but as
many as 10 have been tested
weekly after the January
screening.
"Overall," Gold said, "peo-
ple felt pretty positive about
the way the communty-wide
screening was handled. And
from my perspective, finding
that one couple makes it a
very successful screening." ❑
hametz — the non-
Passover foodstuffs
that Jews clean from
their houses before the holi-
day — will this year help feed
the hungry people of Detroit
under a special program an-
nounced by the Jewish Com-
munity Council.
Project Chametz will collect
non-perishable foods and
distribute them to area soup
kitchens and pantries. It has
won the approval of the
Detroit area's rabbis in its
pilot year.
On April 16, 17 or 18, area
Jews will be asked to bring
any opened or non-opened
food — such as canned goods,
breads, cereals and rice — to
either the Maple/Drake or the
Jimmy Prentis Morris Jewish
community centers or the
United Hebrew Schools at 12
Mile and Lahser. Donated
food will be distributed to the
hungry by the Hunger Action
Coalition.
"This year, in a time when
so many in our community
are hungry, we Jews have an
opportunity to make a dif-
ference as we celebrate our
holiday of deliverance from
hardship,". said David Gad-
Harf, JCCouncil executive
director.
Added Susan Moiseev,
chairperson of the Council's
Domestic Concerns Commit-
tee, "It's an exciting project
and an effective way, we
think, to educate our com-
munity about the tradition of
chametz as well as the pro-
blem of hunger and those less
fortunate."
"One of the goals the coun-
cil has," said Moiseev, a
member of Congregation
Beth Shalom who also is a
judge in Southfield's 46th
District Court, "is the pro-
blem of hunger and
homelessness, and this is a
good way to get the Jewish
community involved."
"Participating in Project
Chametz," added Gad-Harf,
"is a perfect way to bring to
life the message of Passover —
`Let all who are hungry come
and eat.' "
According to Jewish law, no
chametz — or leaven — may
be in a Jewish household dur-
ing Passover. All chametz is to
be removed from the house on
the evening of the 14th of
Nisan (April 18 this year).
The traditional method of
disposal is to sell it to a rabbi
who in turn sells it to a non-
Jewish buyer.
"As far Halachah is con-
cerned, (Project Chametz) is
no problem" as long as the
chametz is out of the house by
that Tuesday evening, said
Rabbi Mordechai Wolmark of
the Council of Orthodox Rab-
bis of Greater Detroit. "It's a
means of donating to the poor.
"Our main concern was
Halachah. Once we were
satisfied on that, we felt it's
a community project worth
endorsing."
However, he noted, people
having chametz they will
want to keep after Passover,
"that they will have to sell to
the rabbi" so that they can
buy it back.
Rabbi David A. Nelson of
Congregation Beth Shalom,
president of the Michigan
Board of Rabbis, said the
board supports Project
Chametz.
"I'm very supportive of any
program that will help the
homeless and the hungry,"
Rabbi Nelson said. "After all,
that's the key message of our
Passover ritual.
"And," he added, "we want
to create textbook people, and
the only way is to implement
the words of the ritual."
Said Rabbi Norman Roman
of Temple Kol Ami, the
Michigan Board's vice presi-
dent: "It's a very worthwhile
project and an interesting
way of allowing the tradi-
tional mitzvah to be inter-
preted for our times and
situations." He added the
Reform movement has been
promoting hunger projects for
some time.
The area's rabbis are ex-
pected to announce Project
Chametz from their pulpits.
Congregational action com-
mittees and youth groups are
being urged to participate.
Temples and synagogues are
recommended as preliminary
drop-off sites, with members
then taking collections to one
of the three main sites.
One box at each main site
will be for closed packages,
the other for previously open-
ed items. Opened goods such
as bread or cereal should be
placed in closeable, clear
plastic bags and plainly
marked. 1:1
ROUND UP
Soviets Make
Big (Air) Waves
Tel Aviv — The Soviet
Union is interested in work-
ing with international in-
telligence agencies to fight
terrorism, Israel television
recently reported.
Vitaly Ponomarev, deputy-
chief of the KGB, was cited as
the author of a statement,
broadcast on Moscow Radio's
Hebrew service, that said,
"We are willing, if there is a
need, to cooperate with the
American CIA, British in-
telligence, the Israeli Mossad
and other services in the
West."
Meanwhile, Jewish broad-
casts are now being heard
throughout the Soviet Union.
Subjects covered in the pro-
grams include Jewish history
and culture.
Previously, the Soviets had
jammed radio frequencies so
that Hebrew broadcasts could
be heard only in Moscow, Len-
ingrad, Kiev and Odessa.
Police Probe
Tel Aviv Killing
Tel Aviv — Police are in-
vestigating the murder this
week of an Israeli man by a
30-year-old Palestinian from
the Jabaliya refugee district.
The attacker reportedly
stabbed and killed the Israeli
as he was getting out of his
car on a central Tel Aviv
street. He stabbed another
two men before police ar-
rested him.
Synagogue Ruins
To Be Restored
East Berlin — All that re-
mains of Germany's largest
synagogue is ruins. Yet from
those ruins will come a new
synagogue, social and
cultural center.
The ruins are being rebuilt
and restored in East Berlin,
where an international com-
mittee is organizing the
project. -
The center, to be called the
New Berlin Synagogue-
Centrum Judaicum, will also
be home to the archives of the
Jewish community.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5