UP FRONT
Bank Hapoalim Of Israel
To Open Branch In Detroit
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
Phonathon particpants included Soviet emigres Boris Sulla, Shayna
Erlikh, Yury Kalish, Leonid Sulla and Tanya Polsky.
Passage To Freedom
Nears Detroit Goal
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
D
etroit's two-month
campaign to help So-
viet Jewish emigra-
tion ended with a phonathon
this week and $2.25 million
toward the community's goal
of $2.5 million.
The funds pledged in
Detroit since mid-April are
nearly 10 percent of the na-
tional total. United Jewish
Appeal officials in New York
said $27 million has been
pledged, with an additional
$3 million expected by the
end of the month. The UJA
has a goal of $75 million for
Passage to Freedom by the
end of 1989.
The funds are being used to
finance the absorption of
Soviet Jews in the United
States and Israel.
Allied Jewish Campaign
chairmen Paul Borman and
Jane Sherman said they
"never expected the response
Don't Play It
Again, Richard
A hymn by Richard Wagner
was pulled from graduation
exercises at Cranbrook
Schools last week after
students complained about
the use of music by the anti-
Semitic German composer.
School officials said a
number of students, Jewish
and non-Jewish, expressed
concern about the planned
performance of "A Pilgrim's
Choice." The song was to have
been included in the gradua-
tion ceremony for upper
school boys at Christ Church
Cranbrook.
we got from this community."
Passage to Freedom began in
Detroit as the 1988-89 Allied
Jewish Campaign ended.
"The top leadership," said
Sherman, "went way beyond
what we expected." Major con-
tributors were asked to
pledge 20 percent of their an-
nual Campaign gift to the
Passage to Freedom drive.
Two meetings of major con-
tributors raised $1.8 million
of Detroit's total.
"It comes down to commit-
ment," said Borman. "This
community cares. We haven't
laid to rest the issue or
preference for some that the
Soviet Jews should go to
Israel. But the community
has understood that we must
first help get them out."
An additional $98,000 was
contributed by 61 Soviet Jews
now living in Detroit and
$104,000 was raised during a
synagogue phonathon May
30. Fifteen synagogues par-
ticipated in Passage to
Freedom.
Sherman called the
synagogue phonathon "one of
the most exciting things
we've ever done, with Reform,
Conservative and Orthodox
working together."
Sherman credited the com-
munity "for setting the pace
for the entire country. We
were not impacted (with a
massive influx of emigrants)
and we expected all kinds of
negative questions.
"But we did better here for
Passage to Freedom than we
did for Operation Moses (for
Ethiopian Jewry) and Opera-
tion Peace for Galilee (to help
Israel's economy after its in-
cursion into Lebanon in 1981
against the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization)." ❑
ank Hapoalim, Is-
rael's largest finan-
cial institution, is ex-
pected to open the first Israeli
loan production agency in
Detroit this fall, Hapoalim of-
ficials and state banking
regulators announced this
week.
be
will
Hapoalim
Michigan's fifth overseas
bank, joining Mitsui Bank,
Chicago-Tokyo Bank, Na-
tional Mortgage Bank of
Greece and Stopanska Bank
of Yugoslavia. Lloyds of Lon-
don, which opened a loan of-
fice in Detroit in 1985 and
recently closed, was the
state's first foreign bank.
"Michigan meets our
criteria for doing business.
We can advise local banks
when their customers deal
with Israel," said Eldad
Hezrony, Bank Hapoalim vice
president and branch
manager for the Chicago of-
fice. "We are looking forward
to coming here to do business
in Michigan and strengthen-
ing the bridge between the
Middle East and the
Midwest."
Hezrony said the bank's
goal is to financially assist its
Israeli customers with U.S.
trading and investment ac-
tivities, to help American
companies doing business in
Israel, to acquire good assets
through loans and to raise
funds at reasonable prices.
Bank Hapoalim's assets total
$31 billion.
Hezrony said Bank
Hapoalim will introduce its
Israeli customers to local
banks, investors and other
sources of funds.
"We see more and more
Israeli companies looking to
establish some facilities here,
mainly because of the
automotive and military in-
dustries, and we believe we
can find good assets here,"
Hezrony said. "We are not go-
ing to open a full-service
bank. We don't want to be the
main bank to any customers,
Israeli or domestic."
Michigan Banking Com-
missioner Eugene Kuthy said
he is delighted Bank
Hapoalim selected Michigan.
Kuthy said other foreign
financial institutions also
have expressed interest in
coming to the state, which in
October removed some bank-
ing inhibitions.
The state licenses foreign
banks to handle any financial
transactions except deposits
or trust services. A newly
enacted state law allows
foreign financial holding com-
panies in states that have
reciprocity with Michigan to
buy banks in the state. When
a holding company buys a
bank, it can offer day-to-day
services such as savings and
checking accounts.
Shelly Jackier, executive
director for the American-
Israel Chamber of Commerce
of Michigan, said several
Israeli companies are con-
sidering opening offices in
Detroit.
To date, five Israeli com-
panies = military supplier
Urdan Industries, robotics
supplier Robomatix Ltd., soft-
ware designer Tecnomatics,
machine maker Computeriz-
ed Machine Tools and com-
puter system company In-
Technologies — operate offices
in the northwest suburbs of
Detroit.
Gelman Sciences of Ann Ar-
bor, which produces filters for
laboratory and
manufacturing-process
customers, is the only
Michigan company with a
wholly owned subsidiary in
Israel.
Hezrony said Bank
Hapoalim most likely will
assist medium-sized corpora-
tions in areas such as mergers
and acquisitions and leverag-
ed buy-outs.
Like American banks,
Israeli banks offer a broad
sprectrum of credit services
ranging from individual con-
sumer loans to financing of
electric power stations. They
also provide special financing
of imports and exports.
Bank Hapoalim, 67 years
old, owns 70 subsidiaries, in-
cluding nine commercial
banks, two mortgage banks,
13 pension funds and seven
hotels.
Bank Hapoalim's home of-
fice is in Tel Aviv. It has 11
branch offices in the United
States and seven affiliates in
Europe, Canada and South
America.
United States offices are
located in New York, Los
Angeles, San Francisco,
Philadelphia, Boston and
Miami. Its U.S. agencies are
insured by the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corpora-
tion.
❑
Jason Tickton Dies; Led Beth El
Musically For 55-Year Term
HEIDI PRESS
News Editor
ason H. Tickton didn't
enter a room — he was
the room. As soon as he
came through the doorway,
anyone in the room was the
target of kisses, hugs and lots
of "darlings" and
"sweethearts" — not the
Hollywood kind, but the kind
that came from the center of
his soul.
But the effervescence that
flowed from this energetic
sprite was stilled as the long-
time Temple Beth El music
director died June 13. He was
74.
A native of Waltham, Mass.,
j
Mr. Tickton came to Detroit
as a child. He earned Master
of Arts and Master of Music
degrees at Wayne State
University and pursued
graduate studies at the
University of Michigan. He
played the organ at the tem-
ple for many years as well as
at the Detroit Institute of
Arts, Orchestra Hall and at
the Mormon Tabernacle in
Salt Lake City, Utah. He also
had performed with the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Because of his musical
knowledge and experience,
Mr. Tickton had the honor of
designing the 4,000-pipe
organ for the temple when it
moved from its Detroit locale
Jason Tickton
to its current Birmingham
home.
Mr. Tickton also held a long
Continued on Page 12
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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