UP FRONT I
Ethnic Center Plan
Faces Mixed Reactions
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Stall Writer
M
ounting opposition
to a Chaldean
group's recent pur-
chase of Shenandoah Golf and
Country Club has met with
mixed reaction among Chal-
dean and Jewish community
leaders.
The golf club's sale to the
Chaldean-Iraqi Association of
Michigan is facing resistence
by its West Bloomfield
neighbors, many of whom are
Jewish, who said buying the
club and expanding it into an
ethnic center might destroy
the peaceful neighborhood
community. Neighbors fear
an ethnic center will bring ex-
cess traffic and noise.
CIAM members said plans
include keeping the golf
course public. No plans are
under way to enlarge the ex-
isting club house or to build
banquet facilities. Possible
additions would be an in-
door/outdoor pool, basketball,
tennis and raquetball courts,
a health center and a small
cultural center for Chaldean
artifacts.
The homeowners' group,
Shenandoah Golf and Coun-
try Club Estates, fears the
facility will turn into a large
complex like the Jewish Com-
munity Center at Maple and
Drake roads. They said they
don't want development in
West Bloomfield.
Shenandoah sits on 145
acres at Walnut Lake and
Drake roads with a building
about 25,000 square feet. The
JCC is situated on 132 acres
with a 200,000-square-foot
building.
"We are concerned with
quality of life," said
homeowner's attorney Geof-
frey Fieger, also a vice presi-
dent of the Organizations
United to Save the Township
(OUST). Many of the
homeowners also are
members of OUST.
Fieger said current plans
are acceptable to the
homeowner's group. But he
said the group is afraid CIAM
might alter proposals.
Although the homeowners'
group says its main concern is
limiting growth of West
Bloomfield, some Chaldeans
are concerned the Chaldean
group's purchase is bringing
out more than speculation of
overdevelopment. They fear
underlying prejudices against
their community could hold
up their plans.
"We are trying to live
together like brothers and
sisters," said CIAM member
Joseph Nadhir. "Somebody
out there is really prejudice.
They are not really concern-
ed with growth."
Mike George, CIAM presi-
dent and co-owner of Melody
Farms Dairy, said he has
received many letters of sup-
port for the ethnic center
from members of the Jewish
community.
He said the issue is not
religion, heritage or culture,
but a small group of people
Continued on Page 18
Consultants Submit
JPM Upgrade Draft
MICHAEL WEISS
News Intern
A
committee of The
Jewish Community
Center board of direc-
tors last week received a draft
of a feasibility study for
enhancements to the Jimmy
Prentis Morris branch in Oak
Park.
The study, undertaken at
the JCC's request by the
Jewish Welfare board, is
meant to provide an indepen-
dent assessment of a JCC pro-
posal to upgrade the JPM
facility, including a swim-
ming pool, expanded meting
and classroom space and
general refurbishing.
The Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion, which would be called
upon to provide the additional
funds needed to operate and
maintain an expanded facili-
ty, and to assist in the raising
of approximately $3 million
needed to carry out its con-
struction, tabled the JCC pro-
posal pending the results of
the JWB study.
JCC Executive Director
Morton Plotnick said this
week the committee is
reviewing the draft and is
"giving it a lot of considera-
tion." He declined to com-
ment on the results of the
study, saying the committee
decided not to release any in-
formation "until we've reach-
ed our final decision."
JCC President Richard
Maddin also declined to com-
ment on the contents of the
draft except to say the com-
mittee may release a report
by the end of the month.
❑
Brig. Gen. Shaki Erez, head of civil administration in the West Bank, visits with students in an elementary
school. Between 90 and 95 percent of elementary and 12th-grade West Bank pupils recently returned to
schools.
ROUND UP
Jewish Writers
Are Recalled
New York City and Jewish
leaders joined today in a
memorial service for 24 pro-
minent Soviet Jewish writers
and cultural leaders
murdered 37 years ago in the
purges of Josef Stalin.
Also participating in the
event, which was sponsored
by the office of Mayor Edward
Koch, the Workmen's Circle
and The Jewish Forward,
were members of the Moscow
Jewish Art Theater under the
directorship of Solomon
Mikhoels. Mikhoels was
among those murdered in the
purges.
MY most
IMPORTANT RELArioN SNIP
IS wiTH MY FAM, BecAvsg
I CAN AL ,A , S CeME BAC t
To THrm wHEN r,y Boy,s,e,
Me D.. MY FRIENDS
ARE 5iCK OF ME OR I DoNT
HAVE A/JYTlUN6 gErrEk To DO
A teen-ager grapples with shalom
bayit in Keeping Posted.
moniously with parents and
siblings. As the opening of the
magazine notes, "Shalom
bayit does not come easily; it
requires work."
Keeping Posted
About Peace
Them Bones,
Them Bones,
Them Old Bones
These are battles even Gen.
George Patten wouldn't want
to wage: who gets to sleep on
the top bunk, who gets the
last piece of cake, who gets to
use the car.
But now, young men and
women can learn how to find
that most elusive of all
treasures — shalom bayit,
peace in the home — by
reading the latest issue of
Keeping Posted, the monthly
magazine published by the
Reform Union of American
Hebrew Congregations.
In articles, cartoons, short
stories and essays, the issue
focuses on how teen-agers can
learn to live more har-
Tel Aviv (JTA) — If bones
could talk, this one would cer-
tainly have a lot to say.
A tiny mouth bone
discovered in excavations at
the Kabra caves on the
Carmel coast has convinced
scientists that prehistoric
man, unlike the monkey, was
able to talk, according to
Aviv University Professor
Baruch Ernsburg, a member
of an international research
team working at the excava-
tion site.
A complete skeleton of a
prehistoric man, estimated to
be about 60,00 years old,
previously was found at
Kabra.
Yehuda Amichai
To Speak Here
Israel's leading poet,
Yehuda Amichai, will be the
guest speaker at Wayne State
University noon Sept. 11, and
1 p.m. Sept. 12 at the B'nai
B'rith Hillel Foundation.
Amichai will read from
English in his poems, which
explore the alteration of
Jewish perspectives in the
20th century, the loss of
religious orthodoxy and the
nature of Jewish identity.
UCSJ Goes
For The Gold
New York — Yes, it's really
true! You can build up that
MasterCard bill so high that
credit card officials will call
and say they have never, ever
in the history of all credit
card-dom ever heard of a bill
so massive AND STILL NOT
LOSE ANY SLEEP!
How? you're certainly
wondering.
A new MasterCard allows
consumers to help Soviet
Jews each time they use their
cards. The Gold MasterCard
is issues through the
Southeast Bank of Miami,
Fla., which will make con-
tributions to Union of Coun-
cils for Soviet Jews each time
users charge a purchase.
Happy charging!
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5