Simple Math: 1,000 Homes
Needed For Detroit Maccabiah
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
uestion: when does 5
x 3 = 1,000?
Answer: when
plans are drawn for Detroit
to host the 1990 Jewish
Community Centers North
American Maccabi Youth
Games.
Five years after some 800
young Jewish athletes par-
ticipated in the 1984 Youth
Games here, the effort has
begun to find housing for
almost three times as many
teens. According to Detroit
Maccabi officials, about
1,000 homes--twice that of
1984--will be needed by next
August to house an expected
2,200 youngsters from
around the world.
If the mathematics are
suspect, the need for the
housing isn't.
"We think the key to a
successful Games is the
warmth of the home
hospitality," said Barbara
Robinson, housing co-
chairman with Carol Eisen-
shtadt for both the 1984 and
1990 Games. "The reason
the people--the Maccabi
organizers and the par-
ticipants--want to come back
to Detroit is the community
has in the past demonstrated
its warmth."
Plans call for the Aug. 19-
26 Games to open with
special ceremonies at the
Palace of Auburn Hills,
followed by athletic competi-
tion in and around the
Maple/Drake Jewish Com-
munity Center, as well as
social and cultural ac-
tivities. Visits to the Detroit
Zoo, an Israeli night at the
Center and a memorial ser-
vice and walk on behalf of
the Israeli athletes
murdered at the Munich
Olympics are planned.
Host families will be asked
to house two or more
athletes, provide round-trip
transportation to either
shuttle-bus stops or the
Maple/Drake Building and
provide all breakfasts and
some dinners for the
athletes. No official ac-
tivities are scheduled for
Shabbat, so families and
guests will be together Fri-
day night and Saturday.
Shuttle bus pickup points
will be Temple Beth El, Adat
Shalom Synagogue, Livonia
Jewish Congregation,
Jimmy Prentis Morris
Jewish Community Center,
United Hebrew Schools,
Bloomfield Hills Library,
West Hills Middle School
and Plymouth Road-U.S. 23
in Ann Arbor.
The housing committee
will send speakers to
meetings of all Jewish com-
munal organizations in the
area to discuss the Games
and answer questions,
Robinson said. Additional
information and host hous-
ing application forms are
available from the Maccabi
office, 661-1000, Ext. 296.
"We did it before, so we have
■ 1111111•111=1111111 ■ 111 ■ 11 ■ 11
Chow Mein Is Just
The Beginning
;= z3
New York -- Somewhere out
there at Procter & Gamble, a
mashgiach is working fast
and furiously. He has to
work hard to keep up with
the many new kosher items
Procter & Gamble, along
with other major U.S. food
producers, is creating.
Marketing consultant
Martin Friedman, in a re-
cent issue of Adweek, writes
that at least 4.5 million con-
sumers are buying kosher
foods because such products
"are associated with better
health and more stringent
quality control." Another
1.5 million Jews buy kosher
products for religious
reasons, Friedman says.
Among those responding
to the increased interest in
kosher food are Campbell
Soup, Pepperidge Farm,
Ronzoni, Procter & Gamble
and Canada Dry, which re-
cently kashered whole sec-
tions of their plants.
Kosher products have in-
creased from 1,000 in 1977
to 17,500 in 1989, according
to Friedman. Among new
kosher foods available are
chicken chow mein, French
gourmet puff pastries,
flavored imitation cream
cheese and a no-cholesterol
cheesecake.
A Sign
Of The Times
Our Way, the National
Conference of Synagogue
Youth's outreach program
for the hearing impaired, is
distributing to the Jewish
deaf directions for signing
and saying the prayer said
after eating apples dipped in
honey on Rosh Hashanah.
no doubt we can do it again,"
she said. "We have the con-
fidence we will host the 1990
Games with all the warmth
and tender, loving care as in
the past.
"We're still getting feed-
back from athletes who were
here in '84. Some are still in
touch with their hosts and
now their younger brothers
and sisters are looking for-
ward to coming and meeting
the host families." The
homes will be needed to
"welcome these children
from around the world," said
Roma Gottesman, a member
of the Maccabi Games hous-
ing committee.
Noting youngsters will be
coming from across the
United States, Canada, Mex-
ico, and South America as
well as from Australia,
Israel and possibly the
Soviet Union, Gottesman
said it will be a chance to
show what Detroit and its
Jewish community are real-
ly like. "We want to make
them as comfortable as
possible," she said.
The Gottesmans, who live
in Farmington Hills, hosted
two boys for the 1984
Games, one from St. Louis,
the other from New York.
"They were part of the
family--we watched them
compete in their events and
we participated in the social
events that were part of the
Games," said Gottesman,
whose own two children
were too young to par-
ticipate at the time. "It was
Venezuela's volleyball team competes in the '84 Games in Detroit.
a great experience to be a
part of the Jewish communi-
ty and meet all these Jewish
people who are here for one
reason--the Maccabi Youth
Games."
In August, Stuart Got-
tesman was the Detroit
Maccabi team's raquetball
coach at the Pittsburgh
Regional Maccabi and son
David was a squad member.
Next year, daughter Julie
hopes to compete in gym-
nastics. But Roma Got-
tesman, who's been to two
Maccabi Youth Games, said
one of the biggest thrills is
watching all the young
Jewish athletes march in for
the opening and closing
ceremonies. "Each time, it's
an unbelievable feeling. It
makes your hair stand on
end."
"It's fun; it's exciting; we
look forward to meeting
different kids and their
families, if they come with
the youngsters," said hous-
ing committee member Judy
Rubin or Huntington Woods.
The excitement can be con-
tagious, Judy Rubin said.
"While I was out walking
my dog today, I recruited
two more families."
Even senior citizens can
help, said Irving Auslander,
76, of West Bloomfield, an-
other housing committee
member. "Most of them have
the room to take people in,
but they also have to see to it
that the kids get to the shut-
tle buses and back. It's time-
consuming, but the seniors
have time to do it," he said.
The Auslanders housed
two Nknezuelan boys in 1984.
45 W. 36th St., New York,
N.Y. 10018. (212) 244-2011.
Please indicate if you are
deaf or hearing impaired.
day marks the 56th anniver-
sary of the yahrtzeit of the
scholar Choftez Chaim, who
said that guarding one's
tongue was one of the
primary ways of attaining
divine mercy.
.
ROUND UP
Year
Our Way's Rosh Hashanah
greeting to the deaf.
The publication is part of
Our Way's series of prayers
and blessings in sign lan-
guage for various holidays.
Other Our Way projects in-
clude Jewish Tele Story, a
dial-a-story service for those
with TDD phones (212-947-
5953) and a magazine about
Jewish life.
To receive a free copy of
the Rosh Hashanah
brochure, send a long,
stamped, self-addressed
envelope to Our Way/NCSY,
Rosh Hashanah Pamphlet,
Combatting
Loshon Flora
He who speaks well of his
fellow man causes the angels
to speak well of him before
God, the Midrash says. Oh,
but avoiding loshon hora
(gossip) can be so difficult...
At 7:30 p.m. Sunday,
Machon L'Torah will host
Rabbi Moshe Francis, dean
of the Chicago Community
Kollel, who will discuss the
concept of loshon hora.
Rabbi Francis' visit here is
part of the first national
campaign, sponsored by the
Torah Projects Division of
Agudath Israel of America,
to combat loshon hora. Sun-
Arab Students
Complete Class
Haifa -- Twenty-four
students graduated this
month from Magen David
Adom's first first-aid course
taught in Arabic.
The Arab-Israelis, who in-
cluded teachers and nurses,
trained to teach first-aid in
schools, institutions, busi-
nesses and industrial plants
in Israel's Arab com-
munities.
Compiled by Elizabeth Ap-
plebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5