COMMUNITY
New ADL President
Decries JAP Problem
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
L
Rabbis Erwin Giffen, Jack Rajchenbach, Morris Esformes, Leib Bakst, Sidney Glenner and Binyomin Rogov
were among the participants in the name dedication ceremony June 11 for Yeshiva Gedolah Ateres
Mordechai in Oak Park.
Glenn Triest
Jerusalem Day Winners Listed
Robin Herman's pre-
kindergarten class at the
Jewish Community Center
took the "best of show" award
at the Detroit Zionist Federa-
tion's "Acclaim Jerusalem in
Poetry and Prose" competi-
tion held during the Yom
Yerushalayim (Jerusalem
Day) Celebration this month.
During the program,
Deborah Goodfriend, an 11th
grade student at Southfield-
Lathrup High School read her
poem, "Next Year . . .," which
took top honors in the writing
portion of the compeition.
A paper construction of
Jerusalem's Old City was
created by Zachary Abram-
son, David Alekman, Jodi
Beals, Michael Glazier, Jared
Next Year .
DEBORAH GOODFRIEND
I see the rain falling steadily from the sky.
As I look out my bedroom window.
Everything is so grey, so dismal.
I close my eyes, head resting on folded arms.
The image in my mind is of another rain.
A rain that fell on streets made of stone.
"Jerusalem" — I whisper the name of the city.
It is a prayer, a wish, a hope, a dream.
Whenever that name is spoken, it evokes in me a feeling of
awe.
I remember time spent there:
The children laughing in the streets;
The fearless soldiers in their green uniforms;
The merchants with their friendly faces;
The frenzy of the city on Friday afternoons;
The peacefulness during Shabbat;
The incredibly blue sky without even one cloud;
The feelings one had towards absolute strangers;
The chirping of the birds as the sun rose over the Kotel;
The stone-paved strets that our ancestors walked;
The Orthodox families whose lifestyle and dress I eventually
thought of as ordinary.
The feeling when I prayed, that this is "home."
The rain still falls, yet.
Lifting my head, I no longer see the gloominess.
Instead, I now hear the peaceful sound of the rain as it hits
the roof.
Although I had to leave my homeland,
I will never forget my promise to return.
It is my prayer, my wish, my hope, my dream.
I whisper again: "Jerusalem,
Next year in Jerusalem!"
Goldberg, Elizabeth Gordon,
Alliaon Lange, Sara Levey,
Marcy Long, Michelle
Markzon, Yoni Meir, Ben
Michalson, Max Milstein,
Kacee Must, Lauren Nest,
Maya Ozery, Matthew Rosen,
Justin Rydzewski, Jessica
Wax and Matthew Schneid.
An Insrael Investment Bond
worth $200 upon maturity
was given to the class.
Other winners in the paint
category included Sean Tee-
ple, best of second graders,
Temple Emanu-El; Ryan
Beal, best of fourth graders,
Hillel Day School; Dena
Rothstein, best of fifth
graders, Akiva; and Regina
Pruss, best of sixth graders,
Akiva.
The competition was judged
by art teachers Marcia Freed-
man and Gail Mally Mack.
A DZF campaign to have
Jerusalem recognized as the
capital of Israel, organized by
Hymie Cutler, was kicked off
at the observance. Postcards
urging congressmen to work
toward this end were
distributed during the pro-
gram.
DZF Board
Backs Chinese
The board of the Detroit
Zionist Federation last week
adopted a resolution suppor-
ting the efforts "by Chinese
students and workers to
democratize their country's
political process and con-
demns the repressive and
bloody actions taken by the
Chinese government."
inda Soberman became
aware of the growth of
the Jewish American
Princess problem when she
tried unsuccessfully to have a
JAP T-shirt removed from a
store in a Florida shopping
mall.
The T-shirt, she said, car-
ried the words, "Don't Worry,
Be JAPPY"
Soberman, newly 'elected
president of the Michigan
Regional Advisory Board of
the Anti-Defamation League,
tried to get the store owner to
remove the window display.
The woman responded, "Most
of my customers are Jewish
and they love it. I have no in-
tention of removing it."
"We started the JAP joke
and have continued it," Sober-
man told the B'nai B'rith
Centennial Lodge at its an-
nual ADL dinner last week.
"The Christian community
picked up on it," thinking it
was an acceptable term
"because Jews use it to laugh
at themselves."
She called the term "sexist
and divisive" because it labels
Jewish women as "whiny,
materialistic, undersexed and
self-centered.
"Just because people like to
look a certain way, dress a
certain way and like to shop"
doesn't mean they should be
called JAPs, she said. "To be
a JAP meant you had attain-
ed a certain amount of af-
fluence. But the joke became
a double-edged knife."
The problem is so pervasive,
Soberman said, that Jewish
students use it unthinkingly
to describe fellow Jewish
students. "It's running ram-
pant around the country."
Soberman was elected to a
one-year term as Michigan
Linda Soberman:
Owner refused.
advisory board president.
Also elected were vice
presidents Norman H.
Beitner; Barry J. Goodman;
Fran Gross; Alan Hurvitz;
Ruth Lando; Sheri T. Schiff;
Nancy B. Schonberg and
David Wallace. Michael H.
Traison was chosen as
secretary and Gene A. Farber,
treasurer. El
Single Parent Group
Established In Israel
New York — Ten percent of
Israel's 60,000 families are
headed by a single parent
who often has the sole respon-
sibility for the care and
upkeep of the children.
Small wonder that the
poverty level in these single-
parent families exceeds the
national average by more
than six percent. In an age
when modern wisdom dic-
tates that parenting should
be shared, little exists in the
way of help for the parent
who has no one to share with.
At least one organization in
Israel has elected to address
the problem. At a recent press
conference in Tel Aviv,
Na'amat Israel, the Organiza-
tion of Working Women and
Volunteers, announced the
establishment of an umbrella
agency to serve all single
parent families in Israel.
Called Mehad, the aency will
provide an organizational
support system while work-
ing to advance the necessary
legislation and regulations to
improve the social status and
security-of these family units.
Gloria Elbling, national
president of Na'amat USA
(formerly Pioneer Women/
Na'amat), sister organization
to Na'amat Israel, outlined
the scope of Mehad:
"On one level, the agency
will help parents establish a
mutually supportive network
to help one another ease some
of the burdens of single-
parent responsibility. Mehad
will also act as a political lob-
by to advance the cause of
single-parent families and
educate the public about their
special needs."
A single-parent family law
is being drafted.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
41