UP FRONT I

14-Year-Old Miracle Worker
Holds Second MDA Carnival

MICHAEL WEISS

Jewish News Intern

M

Jeff Lazar is working to raise $5,000 at his second annual
MDA carnival in September.

Glenn Triest

Jewish Inmates Win
Right To Pray Together

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

M

ichigan corrections
officials are dis-
cussing whether to
appeal last week's federal
court ruling that allows
Jewish inmates to travel
among its three complexes for
weekly congregate Shabbat
services.
The Michigan Attorney
General's office and the
Department of Corrections
will study the opinion of the
Sixth Circuit Court of Ap-
peals in Cincinnati and make
a decision within 30 days,
said Ted Hughes, an assistant
state attorney general.
The opinion of the three-
judge panel overturns a lower
court ruling that permitted
the Department of Correc-
tions to prevent Jewish in-
mates from holding weekly
services because of potential
security problems.
Hughes said the order takes
effect immediately. He said it
also allows prisoners to
celebrate an annual Passover
seder together. _He reiterated
the department's concerns
that anytime inmates are
moved, security concerns are
heightened.
"Obviously, the three judge
panel looked at it differently,"
Hughes said.
Jackson's estimated 12
Jewish inmates have not been
allowed to hold a congregate
Shabbat service in the chapel
since the prison was broken
down into three complexes

four years ago. Only men
assigned to the maximum
security unit where the
chapel stands have been per-
mitted to pray without guards
in a sanctuary.

The original case, Whitney
vs. Brown, was filed by former

Jackson inmate Harry
Whitney, who since has been
transferred to another state
prison. He and other inmates
claimed religious discrimina-
tion. They said constitutional
rights were being denied
because separate services
prevented them from having .
a minyan, which requires 10
Jews.

Attorney Michael Bar-
nhart, who took the case as
pro bono work, appealed the
lower court ruling on behalf
of the four prisoners. He
presented his arguments to
the three-judge panel in June.
Barnhart was out of town
and could not be reached for
• comment.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Bob
Shafran of Jackson's Temple
Beth Israel, who leads
separate weekly Shabbat ser-
vices for Jewish inmates at
the prison, said he will not
implement the congregate
service before reading the opi-
nion and discussing it with
Barnhart and corrections
officials.
"This will make life a little
nicer there," Shafran said.
"Everybody (prisoners) fell off
their chairs when they heard
the news. Now they are
cautiously optimistic."

❑

ost teen-agers spend
their summers go-
ing to camp, travell-
ing with family or hanging
out with friends.
Not Jeff Lazar. He's busy
working to raise $5,000 at his
second annual carnival for
the Muscular Dystrophy
Association, to be held Sept.
3 at the Crowne Pointe Office
Center in Oak Park.
14-year old Lazar has been
helping the mentally and
physically disabled since the
age of 5, when his older
brother's BBYO chapter held
a softball marathon to benefit
the MDA. Young Jeff walked
door-to-door collecting coins .
in a bucket.
"He walked up to the pit-
cher's mound carrying this
20-pound bucket of coins. He
collected over $500 that first
year," -recalled his father, Al.
The following year Lazar

started earlier and raised
$1,000. Since then, he's col-
lected every summer, raising
more money each time.
In addition to collecting
money, Lazar works directly
with handicapped children.
"When I was younger there
was a POHI (Physically and
Otherwise Health Impaired)
unit in my school, and I
helped out with the 9- and
10-year-olds," he said.
Lazar also has worked with
Special Olympics and at
SCAMP (Special 'Education
Camp). In his spare time, he
babysits for developmentally
disabled children.
"I don't want to sound too
critical of children, but I don't
like to babysit for normal
kids. At times regular kids
can be so rough and rowdy.
With handicapped kids I get
to really like the kids," he
said. "It's also more - of a
challenge. You can't fall
asleep on the couch or watch
TV when you're babysitting a
kid with Down's Syndrome."

"Jeff has always been sen-
sitive to other kids' pro-
blems," his father said. "I
don't know where he gets it.
Certainly not from his
parents. Once when our
daughter was in the Mayo
Clinic her roommate began
having an epileptic seizure.
My wife and I ran out in the
hall and started screaming
for a nurse. We were in a
panic. Meanwhile, Jeff started
stroking her forehead and
calming her down. It was
amazing."
Once, while he was a
counselor at Rainbow Camp,
an epileptic girl started hav-
ing a seizure while swimm-
ing. Lazar pulled her out.
"That was the first grand mal
I'd - ever taken care- of," he
recalled.
Last year, Lazar came up
with the idea of holding a car-
nival for MDA. However, he
was told he could not use
money he had collected for
Continued on Page 16

IROUND UP

Authorities Seek
Accused Nazi

Akron, Ohio — Justice
- Department officials are seek-
ing an accused Nazi who own-
ed an injection molding firm
company in the Akron suburb
of Green Township.
Frank Denzinger, owner of
Pioneer Plastics Corp., is ac-
cused of serving as an SS
guard at six concentration
camps including
Mauthausen, Auschwitz and
Buchenwald.
Born in Yugoslavia, he
entered the United States in
1956 and became a naturaliz-
ed citizen 16 years later. He
is believed to 'have escaped
abroad.

Putting New Flavor
into Jewish Life

Does a jar of kosher pickles
represent all the flavor in
your Jewish life? Priority-1
wants to know.
Based in New York,
Priority-1 has implemented a
number of new outreach pro-
grams to promote Jewish
identity through Jewish
education. The programs are
available throughout the
United States, including
Detroit.
The curriculum includes
Jewish philosophy, Jewish

ethics, selected biblical and
talmudic studies, a crash
course in basic Hebrew and
the relevance of Judaism to
contemporary man and
woman.
For information, call
Priority-1, 1 -800 -
33-FOREVER.

'Lubavitch City'
Post Office Opens

"Lubavitch City," a year-
round post office, opened
Monday in Kalkaska, Mich.,
40 miles southwest of
Traverse City. The date cor-
responds to the 20th day of
the yahrzeit of Rabbi Levi
Yitzchak Schneerson, the
Lubavitcher Rebbe's father.
Also located at the site is
Camp Gan Israel/Esther
Allan.

Greenberg Gets
To First Base

New York — Former Detroit
Tiger Hank Greenberg was
named first baseman of an
"All-Time- All-Star Jewish
Major League Baseball
Team" chosen by customers of
the Stage Deli in New York.
Other players named were
Rod Carew, second base; An-
dy Cohen, short-stop; Al
Rosen, third base; Cal
Abrams, Elliot Maddox and
Art Shamsky, outfield; Moe

Hank Greenberg:
An All-Time All-Star.

Berg, catcher; Ken Holtzman
and Sandy Koufax, left-
handed pitchers; and Larry
Sherry and Steve Stone,
right-handed pitchers.

Hugh Sanders: Of
Rubs And Rabbis

Hugh Sanders, the platza
man at CMI Health and Ten-
nis Club and at the schvitz,
has decided to take on a new
endeavor.
Sanders will leave for the
Chabad House of Evanston,
Ill., to give himself a religious
rubdown. For the next three
years, he will study to become
a Lubavitcher rabbi.

Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

5