UP FRONT
Local Groups Use Education
To Assist Ethiopian Jews
Joshua, solved the problem.
Michigan Association for
Ethiopian Jews President
Jack Edelstein has been
fighting the plight of Ethio-
pian Jews since the
Michigan chapter was form-
ed about seven years ago.
Edelstein, who is engaged
to an Ethiopian Jew, has
been helping the cause for
more than 10 years, said
AAEJ Executive Director
William Recant. As a child
of two Holocaust survivors,
Edelstein was touched by
the need he saw in Ethiopia
and wanted to help. Now a
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
F
Drs. Jay Levinson, Morris Brown, Martin Levinson and Jeffrey Obron
boogie to their own version of `Surfin': "Great Care the Sinai Way."
Sinai's Heritage Ball
Nets $400,000
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
inai Hospital of
Detroit raised an
estimated $400,000
with its first solo fund-
raising effort held last week.
The figure is almost three
times the initial goal, offi-
cials say.
Money raised from the
Heritage Ball will be placed
in the hospital's medical en-
dowment fund held by
United Jewish Charities,
which already holds about
$2 million, said Pola Fried-
man, Sinai corporate three-
for of public and community
relations. Friedman said a
committee will be formed to
discuss ways to use the funds.
The ball, held at the
Westin, came one year after
administrator Robert
Steinberg took over the helm
of the hospital, which like
other health care institu-
tions across the country has
been plagued by insufficient
government reim-
bursements. When
Steinberg replaced long-time
administrator Irving
Shapiro, he vowed to start a
Continued on Page 20
ive years ago, David
Loeffler and his wife,
Sandy, were among a
handful of area residents in-
terested in the problems fac-
ing Ethiopian Jews.
Today, recently formed
local groups like the Op-
pressed Jewry Committee of
the Jewish Community
Council, are teaching people
the harsh realities facing
Ethiopian Jews and how to
help their African chaverim.
Committee Chairman
Judy Silberg Loebl said
although she knows Jews
throughout the world are
oppressed, Ethiopian Jews
need the most help.
"We feel at this point they
are the most endangered
group," Loebl said. "They
will disappear if no one does
something about it."
Loeffler, who visited
Ethiopia in March 1985 to
bring medical supplies and
clothes, said Ethiopian Jews
are the "poorest of the poor"
in a poverty-stricken coun-
try.
Both Loeffler and Loebl
said many people believe
Operation Moses, which
airlifted about 7,500 Ethio-
pian Jews from Sudan refu-
gee camps into Israel in
1985, and a subsequent
airlift called Operation
"We feel at this
point they are the
most endangered
group. They will
disappear."
researcher at the University
of Michigan, Edelstein has
traveled to Ethiopia three
times.
Edelstein estimates 20,000
Jews remain in Ethiopia. As
part of the American
Association for Ethiopian
Jews (AAJE) — one of two
national groups working to
help Ethiopian Jews - the
Michigan association tries to
reunite Ethiopian Jews with
their relatives in Israel.
Edelstein will speak about
Ethiopian Jewry on Nov. 7
at Congregation Beth
Abraham Hillel Moses in
West Bloomfield.
The subcommittee's prime
purpose is education, not
fund-raising, Loebl said.
Other groups like the AAEJ
and the North American
Conference of Ethiopian
Jewry collect money.
The speakers, showing
Ethiopian art exhibits and
providing other educational
programs encourages people
to help, she said. For exam-
ple, the group recently had a
photo exhibit at the Jewish
Community Center.
Loeffler said another pro-
gram designed to bring at-
tention to Ethiopian Jews is
the AAEJ twinning pro-
gram, in which American
boys and girls share their
b'nai mitzvah with Ethio-
pian Jews.
"We try to encourage peo-
ple to go to missions to
Ethiopia," Loebl said.
Although Ethiopia needs
doctors, untrained people
can also do things like apply
needed salves and pass out
vitamins.
While Loeffler said he en-
joyed his trip to Ethiopia,
"It's certainly not for every-
one. Educational efforts and
fund-raising are also
necessary."
Because Ethiopia is a
Communist country, getting
Continued on Page 20
ROUND UP
Nothing Phoney
About This Link
Tel Aviv (JTA) — A direct-
dialing telephone link bet-
ween Israel and Morocco was
inaugurated this month
with a telephone conversa-
tion between Minister-
Without-Portfolio Raphael
Edri in Tel Aviv and Robert
Asseraf, a leader of the
Moroccan Jewish Communi-
ty.
The phone link between
Israel and the Arab world
and other countries that
have no direct phone com-
munications with Israel was
established two years ago by
the Tel Aviv-based Solan
Communications firm
through an international
communications center it es-
tablished in London.
The system, using existing
normal telephone links,
began its operations to pro-
vide phone links between
residents of the ad-
ministered territories and
relatives and friends in the
Arab world.
New Organization
Resolves Disputes
Washington, D.C. — A new
organization has been form-
ed for Jewish individuals or
businesses seeking an alter-
native to civil litigation to
resolve their disputes.
Called P'SHARA Jewish
Dispute Resolution, Inc., the
service offers mediation or
arbitration that takes into
account both Jewish and
civil law, as well as general
considerations of equity and
fair play. P'shara is the
talmudic term for media-
tion/arbitration.
The concept for P'SHARA
evolved from actual cases in
which Jewish individuals
resolved their business
differences without resor-
ting to civil litigation. The
group includes attorneys
with backgrounds in civil
litigation and Halachah.
For a fact sheet or infor-
mation, contact P'SHARA,
Suite 800, 1250 Connecticut
Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
20036.
Michigan Helps
Tourism To Israel
A 12 percent increase in
tourism from Michigan
helped propel a 4 percent
overall increase in tourism
from the Midwest to Israel
between January and July
1989 and January and July
1988.
Amnon Linn-Lipzin,
Midwest region director of
the Israel Government
Tourist Office, said
Michigan generated 3,500
trips to Israel, compared to
about 3,000 in the previous
period. Overall travel from
the United States to Israel
from January through July
totalled 162,000 — up 5 per-
cent compared to the prior
period.
because many treife (non-
kosher) microscopic bugs
find a home in them. The
moshav grows the lettuce in
greenhouses, protected from
insects by insecticides.
Lettuce Now Eat
Kosher Greens
Japan Has A Yen
For Diamonds
.
Jerusalem (JPFS) — The
age-old halachic dilemma of
how to make lettuce kosher
appears to have been
New kosher lettuce: No insects
need apply.
resolved by a religious
moshav in the Gaza Strip.
Lettuces are a problem
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Israel
this month began its first
joint business venture in
diamonds with Japan. A fac-
tory opened in Beit She'an,
where Israelis will finish off
rough-cut diamonds for ex-
port to a major Japanese
jewelry maker, Tasaki Shin-
ju Co. Ltd of Kobe.
Last year, Israel exported
more than $500 million wor-
th of polished diamonds to
Japan. The new plant is ex-
pected to boost that to $700
million.
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5