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TEL-12 MALL Telegraph at 12 Mile Rd., Southfield 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Daily Sunday—Mall Hours Sponsored by ... GREATER DETROIT CHAPTER BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY NATIONAL WOMENS COMMITTEE Proceeds benefit ... tTI Opening Nite AUG. 16 SALE AUG. 17 thru AUG. 23 Cr PREVIEW kb.. / . EVENING OOP" WED., AUG. 16 9:30 p.m.-Midnight Donation $3.00 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 1/2 PRICE TUES. & WED., AUG. 22nd & 23rd. 56 FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1989 undreds of private investors, including a considerable number of prominent Orthodox rabbis and laymen, were shocked to learn last week that a respected Jewish community figure with whom they had deposited their savings stands in default of $90 million in bank loans. The central figure in the complicated case is Alexander Spitzer, a 70-year old Holocaust survivor, who recruited most of his investors from the Orthodox circles with which he has been pro- minently identified for some 30 years. The shock follows an earlier one this year, when Spitzer, who runs a number of in- terlocking loan companies, was named a defendant in a landmark civil suit brought by the Los Angeles city at- torney. The suit charged 142 persons with racketeering and fraud in the financing of some of the worst slum hous- ing in Los Angeles. Among the private note holders and limited partners in Spitzer's companies, accor- ding to a front page story in the Los Angeles Times on on July 22 are Dr. Norman Lamm, president of the Yeshiva University in New York; his brother Maurice, former rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills and a past president of the Southern California of Rabbis; and author and film critic Michael Medved, presi- dent of the Pacific Jewish Center, an Orthodox con- gregation. A number of other investors came from the Soviet Jewish emigre community. Private investments in Spitzer's financial groups stand at $40 to $50 million, and all payments on these funds have been stopped, ac- cording to Joseph Eisenberg, a bankruptcy attorney representing Spitzer. Of the $90 million in defaulted bank loans, $60 million are owed to the Bank of America. However, most of the in- vestors have not lost con- fidence in Spitzer, who tried to reassure 150 of them at a friendly meeting on last Thursday and vowed to make good on his debts to the last dime. Medved, who has put more than $100,000 in one of Spitzer's loan companies, pro- bably spoke for most of his fellow investors, whom the writer and critic described as "a blue-ribbon array of some of the most prominent names in local traditional Judaism." "This has all come as a shock," Medved told the Times. I believe the charges against him (Spitzer) are pro- bably in error. I maintain a belief to the contrary that Alex — Mr. Spitzer — is an honorable man . . . I think it is not only right but prudent to allow him to work through his current difficulties — with our support." Spitzer himself said he blamed his problems on the suit in March by the city at- torney and public-interest lawyers, and he has declared that he never knowingly in- vested in slum properties. However, records in the case indicate that some of his big- gest borrowers came from the ranks of the city's most highly publicized slum lords. In the civil suit, several of Spitzer's loan companies are accused of issuing loans on slum buildings in excess of their true value to reap short- term gains in high loan fees and high interest rates. Last week, Spitzer reached a partial out-of-court settle- ment with the city attorney, but he remains a defendant in the law suit. State Dept. Wary Of Shift Washington (JTA) — The State Department warned last week against putting too much credit in news reports that the Palestine Liberation Organization has eased its conditions for accepting Israeli Prime Minister Yit- zhak Shamir's peace proposal. Such reports may be cir- culating to the media as "trial balloons or for other reasons," State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tut- wiler said. "History shows that one should not make judgment, policies or actions on what may be inaccurate or unauthorized statements," she said. "We deal with of- ficial statements and actions as they are related to us through official channels." But Tutwiler said the Shamir plan is being taken seriously both inside and out- side the Middle East. The PLO's more relaxed conditions were revealed in Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz.