UP FRONT
Neighborhood Project Does
More Than Distribute Loans
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
M
New Project Sherut
Matches Groups, Donors
Each week, beginning to-
The Jewish Community
day, The Jewish News will
Council, in cooperation with
The Jewish News,has estab- publish in the Amazing
Marketplace section a list of
lished Project Sherut to mat-
items needed by various
ch community organiza-
tions' needs for goods and
organizations. The list ap-
services with donations from pears on Page 102 of this
week's Jewish News.
the public.
emorizing a phone
number led Ed and
Susarm Codish to a
new home.
Susann Codish had seen a
flier at Young Israel of Oak-
Woods about interest-free
loans offered by the
Neighborhood Project. She
couldn't write it down
because it was Shabbat, so
she memorized the seven
digits.
With the help of a loan
from the Neighborhood Pro-
ject, the couple, who moved
to Oak Park from New
Jersey in August 1988 to
teach at Akiva Hebrew Day
School, bought the home
they had been renting. In so
doing, they became the
300th family who used
Neighorhood Project loans
towards their down payment
on a home.
To mark the occasion,
Neighborhood Project
presented the family with a
mezuzah.
Started three years ago by
the Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion to revitalize the Jewish
neighborhoods in Oak Park
and Southfield, the
Neighborhood Project offers
incentive loans to Jewish
families moving into those
communities.
When community leaders
noticed in 1985 that Jewish
neighborhoods in Southfield
and Oak Park were shrink-
ing, Federation borrowed an
idea from Cleveland and
Baltimore to create Detroit's
Neighborhood Project the
following year.
Larry Ziffer, Federation
planning director, said, "We
"We're not trying to
create any kind of a
ghetto. We just
want people to
know there is a
vital community
here."
hoped to do something that
we didn't know could be
done.
"We hoped to get the word
out that this was a stable
and viable community. We
wanted to encourage Jewish
families, especially young
families, to move into the
community. We wanted to
encourage people who had
been living in the communi-
ty to stay," Ziffer said.
Although the number of
loans has slowed since the
project's first year,
Neighborhood Project Direc-
tor Rhoda Raderman said
compared to similar pro-
grams, Detroit has helped
more families purchase
homes.
In Cleveland's Heights
Area Project, loans have
been made to 370 families
since 1971, Raderman said.
Although Baltimore's Chai
Neighborhood Housing Pro-
gram does more than give
out loans, it has granted 60
loans to area families and
assisted another 140
families in securing loans.
Since the program began
in December 1986, the
Neighborhood Project has
approved more than $1.3
million in interest-free
loans, Raderman said. The
loans provide each family
with up to $6,000 for a down
payment or closing costs for
a house.
In its first year of opera-
tion, 144 Jewish families
received loans through the
project. From January 1988
to December 1988, the
number dropped to 78
families. Last year, the pro-
ject provided loans for about
70 families planning to buy
in Oak Park or Southfield.
Although it appears the
numbers are falling, Marion
Continued on Page 18
ROUND UP
Guarding Women's
Rights In Israel
Jerusalem Move over, F.
Lee Bailey. Here comes the
Israel Women's Network
Legal Center.
The center, funded in part
by the Jewish Agency for
legal center brought the first
sex-bias case to the Supreme
Court of Israel, suing the
Labor Ministry for refusing
to allow women to take a
computer-printing retrain-
ing course. It also has
prepared law texts on
women's rights.
Among the legislative and
public proposals suggested
by the organization is a pre-
nuptial contract acceptable
to Halachah.
A New Way
To Learn Judaism
Two volunteers at the Israel
Women's Network Legal Center
research a case.
Israel, is working to imple-
ment equality of the sexes,
which is guaranteed in
Israel's Declaration of In-
dependence.
Headed by Hebrew Uni-
versity's Frances Raday, the
What could be more cool
than driving down the main
drag in town, your car's hood
down and the breeze blowing
in your neatly coiffed hair,
and something really hip
playing loudly on your car's
cassette player?
But don't ruin the image
by playing something like
rock music. Now available
on cassettes: Jewish learn-
ing.
The Aish HaTorah Torah
Education Center is offering
a number of correspondence
courses in such subjects as
Bible, prayer, Jewish
philosophy, Jewish history
and kashrut. Available in
beginner, intermediate and
advanced levels, each three-
month course includes
reading and/or audio
cassette assignments.
For information, contact
Aish HaTorah, 900 Forest
Ave., Lakewood, N.Y. 08701,
(201) 370-9053.
visit to Moscow, where they
participated in the all-Soviet
Jewish Congress.
The representatives also
visited a new Jewish day
school in Riga, Latvia,
where 400 students are
enrolled; met with four
Jewish members of the
Soviet Congress of Deputies;
and discussed the plight of
refuseniks with Yuri
Reshetov, director of the
Human Rights Bureau of the
Soviet Foreign Ministry.
B'nai B'rith Opens
Soviet Units
JDC Open Mailbox
Aids Romanians
Washington — Nine provi-
sional B'nai B'rith units are
set to open in the Soviet
Union, B'nai B'rith officials
report.
B'nai B'rith members laid
plans to open the units,
which will be established in
Alma Ata, Baku, Birobidjan,
Dnepopetrovsk, Odessa,
Grodno, Kiev, Kishinev and
Kokand, during their recent
New York (JTA) — The
American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee has
established an Open
Mailbox for humanitarian
aid to Romania.
All contributions will be
used for medical supplies
and assistance to the
thousands of civilians in-
jured in the revolution that
overthrew the 24-year
regime of dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu.
Donations may be sent to
the Open Mailbox for
Rumania, American Jewish
Joint Distribution Com-
mittee, 711 Third Ave., New
York, N.Y. 10017.
Drink To This
Israeli Export!
Something new from Israel
is a-beering on the American
scene: Maccabee Beer.
The Pilsener brew recently
was shipped for sale in New
York, Washington,
Philadelphia, Las Vegas,
Baltimore, Los Angeles and
San Fransciso.
Imported by Tempo Beer
Industries of New York,
Maccabee Beer has been
featured on New York ads
portraying a Chasid dancing
with a bottle on his head.
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5