UP FRONT

RICHARD PEARL

Staff Writer

U

H-H-H-H!" comes the
grunt from the pint-
sized player as he
smacks the tennis ball across
the net with a two-fisted
backhand.
No, it's not Jimmy Connors
of the United States. It's
8-year-old Barry Kaufman of
Israel, who has idolized Con-
nors ever since he saw the
world tennis star play in
Israel.
Barry, who adopted the
grunt to be more like his hero,
is one of the 100,000 Israeli
youngsters — Arab as well as
Jewish — who have learned
the net game as result of the
founding of the Israel Tennis
Centers Association (ITCA) in
1976.
Kaufman, a Beersheva
youngster who plays at the
ITCA facility in Ashkelon,
was one of five Israeli
youngsters participating in a
demonstration and fundraiser
last Friday evening at the
Bloomfield Hills home of Dr.

and Mrs. 'Terry Podolsky.
Coach Gali Magin, 27, guid-
ed the five through several
fast-paced tennis drills to
demonstrate how youngsters
are taught.
"Tennis is merely the vehi-
cle we use to give quality of
life to the children of Israel,"
said Seymour Brode of
Franklin, president of the IT-
CA. "We'll bring in as many
as 200 youngsters a day on
buses to centers such as Haifa
and it's all free. All you have
to be is a child" to participate.
Besides providing tennis
and instruction — including
free rackets and balls — the
centers offer counselling in
fitness, nutrition and hygiene,
social services, rehabilitation,
libraries and tutoring.
"We teach them manners,
how to win and how to lose,"
said Ruth Kadar, an Israeli
who chaperoned Barry and
four other youngsters.
"In our libraries, we teach
them how to learn. In our
classes, we teach them how to
eat properly. We are molding
leaders and citizens at these
centers."

Bob McKeown

Young Israeli Netters
Boost Tennis Centers

Watching Israeli youngsters Barry Kaufman and Dudi Bitran are Darrell Rogers, Jack London, Meryl and Terry
Podolsky and Denny Rogers.

The Israel Tennis Centers
Association can look at a
number of accomplishments,
said Brode.
• With the support of con-
tributions from Jews and non-
Jews around the world, it has
built tennis centers at Kiryat
Shemonah, Haifa, Tiberius,
Ramat Hasharon, South Tel
Av iv/Jaffa ,
Jerusalem,
Ashkelon, Arad and Dimona.
• The more than 120 courts
include a 5,000-seat stadium

at Ramat Hasharon and a
1,200-seat stadium in
Jerusalem.
• Three new centers are on
the drawing boards at
Dimona, Beersheva and
Jerusalem.
• Programs for mentally
handicapped and paraplegic
children are offered and ITC
coaches conduct tennis clinics
at kibbutzim and other areas
throughout Israel.
• Those who learned tennis

at ITCA facilities as children
are returning as
coaches.
• lennis has beaten out soc-
cer as Israel's No. 1 par-
ticipatory sport.
• Israel has begun produc-
ing world-class tennis players,
including Amos Monsdorf,
ranked 24th worldwide.
"Davis Cup tennis in Israel
was a joke until a few years
ago," said Brode, who owns

Continued on Page 14

ROUND UP

Israel Scientist
Wins GM Prize

Professor Leo Sachs of
Israel's Weizmann Institute
of Science was awarded the
$130,000 1989 Alfred P. Sloan
Prize of the General Motors
Research Foundation for the
most significant basic
research advance in the
understanding of cancer.
Sachs, head of the genetics
department at the Weizmann
Institute, showed in his
studies that the process of
malignancy can be reversible
and that the growth of
leukemia cells can be
controlled.

Case Of The
Missing Torah

New York — "Ah, Watson!
Something has gone astray in
Abu Dhabi!"
"Abu Dhabi, Holme0
Whatever are you talking
about?" Watson, puffing his
ubiquitous pipe, moved closer
to his mentor.
"It appears an Iranian
woman recently decided to
send a 150-year-old 'Thrall
scroll to her brother in
Brooklyn as a contribution to
a new Persian synagogue,

Beit Knesset Omid, in
Queens, N.Y"
"You don't say?"
"Yes, I do. But it appears it
never arrived, Dr. Watson."
"Never arrived? Egads!"
"The woman hired a courier
to smuggle the scroll by boat
to Abu Dhabi, capital of the
United Arab Emirates. From
there, it was to be forwarded
to the United States.
"But it's illegal to export a
lbrah from Iran, so UAE of-
ficials in Abu Dhabi con-
fiscated the scroll."
Watson grimaced. "Don't
tell me that's the end of the
story, Holmes!"
"No, it's not. For I have
discovered that Rep. Charles
Schumer of New York is pur
suing the missing lbrah. He
recently appealed to
Secretary of State James
Baker and the State Depart-
ment to take action on the
matter."
"We must stay on top of this
case!" the doctor cried.
"Indeed, we shall," Holmes
said, stroking his chin. "In-
deed we shall."

Fungus, Rabbis
And Scholarships

It isn't every place that a
blind Jewish graduate stu-

dent who wants to be a rabbi
can find a scholarship tailor-
made to fit his needs.
Yet workers at the National
Scholarship Research Service
have done just that.
Located in San Rafael,
Calif., the service has
discovered more than 200,000
obscure scholarships
available throughout the
world. Among these are a
graduate fellowship for Ph.D.
candidates studying fungus,
and scholarships for
graduates of Mt. Cannel, (Pa.)
High School who don't drink,
smoke or play rough sports,
for any student with the last
name Anderson, Baxendale,
Borden, Bright, Downer, Pen-
noyer or Murphy, for creative
writers aged 22-35 who are
not communists and for aspir-
ing parapsychologists.
The organization has
located a number of scholar-
ships open solely to Jewish
students. While the majority
are fairly run-of-the-mill, the
National Scholarship
Research Service has manag-
ed to find several less than
routine funding possibilities.
In addition to the scholarship
for blind Jews, the office has
identified scholarships for
Jewish women studying in
Boston, for American Jews

Researcher enjoys a ride in a
flight simulator at a school of
aeronatical engineering: Could
this be you?

studying for one year in Israel
and for Jewish students who
have graduated from Har-
risburg, Pa., area high
schools.
And then there's always the
ever-popular scholarship for a
Jewish orphan interested in
pursuing graduate studies in
aeronautical engineering.
Any applicants?
For information, contact the
National Scholarship
Research Service, (415)
456-1577.

Something Funny
Is Going On

Tel Aviv (JTA) — Two men
were shipwrecked on a desert
island. The first ripped off his
clothes to make flares and

wrote HELP in the sand. The
other did nothing.
"What's the matter with
you?" the first cried. "We're
stuck on this desert island
and you're just sitting there!"
"Don't worry," the second
man said. "I haven't made my
UJA pledge yet. They'll find
me."
If they're lucky, they won't
hear that one at the Third In-
ternational Conference on
Jewish Humor, which is being
held at lel Aviv University
this week. Lecture topics in-
clude "Philip Roth and Woody
Allen: Freudian Poetics and
the Humor of the Oppressed"
to "Fundamental Features of
Jewish Humor and Space."

Home Covered
With Swastikas

The Anti-Defamation
League is investigating an in-
cident last week in which a
West Bloomfield home was
covered with swastikas.
The home, located in the
Maplewoods subdivision at
Maple and Farmington roads,
was struck by lightning on
June 9. Several days later,
swastikas were discoverd on
the side of the home.

Compiled by Elizabeth Kaplan.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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