NOTEBOOK STREET WISE With Style Magazine You can now purchase copies of the colorful, in- formative Style fashion magazine from these con- venient locations: This Cohen's For You Matt Cohen introduces kosher beer, brewed in Israel, to the United States. — SOUTHFIELD — PHIL JACOBS Special to The Jewish News Spitzer's R Harvard Row abbi Jacob Simcha Cohen raised his glass when his son, Matt, was born, and assumed that he would continue the fami- ly tradition and become a rabbi. Twenty-six years later, Matt is not a rabbi, but many people are raising their glasses because of him. That's because Matt Cohen is the president of Maccabee, a kosher beer brewed in Israel that is now being distributed to markets such as Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore, with Detroit a possibility later this year. "Eighteen generations of rabbis, and now we have a beer baron," said Matt's father, who is president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis. "But we're not sorry or disappointed in his choice. We're proud of him and his ac- complishments. He's a sharp young man." The younger Cohen, who lives in New York and manages his business with his father-in-law, Tempo In- dustries board chairman Moshe Bornstein, said that he wasn't going out of his way to avoid the rabbinate. He saw the improvement of the Israeli economy as his calling. "I was looking to do some- thing altruistic for Israel," Cohen said. "I believe Israel, which receives so much aid from the U.S., cannot con- tinue to live off of America. I think it has to establish itself through its own means. "You have Panama and Eastern Europe all needing U.S. dollars, and America is going to have to aid these democracies. I'm worried that the government will start skimming from the top for something, and right now Israel has the biggest piece of that foreign aid pie." Cohen added that the best way for Israel to improve her economy was to make a name for herself on the American market. "We're :--- Phil Jacobs is an assistant editor for our sister paper, the Baltimore Jewish Times. Richard Pearl of The Jewish News contributed to this report. . American Newstand AMERICAN DESIGNERS: Spring Excitement Tel 12 Mall - LANDING YOUR FIRST JOB -- Fashion SFacts I . N. Oft The Masculine ue Mystiq Diamond Market 26020 W. 12 Mile Seven-Eleven Franklin Rd.' South of Twelve Mile Smith Drugs Border's Book Store 9/Lahser Southfield & Thirteen Mile Phil 'B' Pharm. Efros Rx Evergreen & Twelve Mile Greenfield & Ten Mile — W. BLOOMFIELD — Efros Rx Bloomfield Apothecary Orchard Lk. & Maple Drake & Walnut Lake Downing Rx Walnut Lk. W. of Inkster Moshe Bornstein, left, chairman of the Board of Tempo Industries, and Matt Cohen, president of Maccabee Beer. taking Israeli money and spending it in America for one reason only, to make sure that these dollars come back. Maccabee beer is brewed by Tempo Industries Ltd. in Netanya. Tempo, which was founded in 1954, owns 97 percent of the beer market in Israel. The beer is being marketed to the young, pro- fessional upscale beer drinker. It sees as its corn- petition names such as Corona, Moosehead and Beck's. Maccabee won a 1989 international beer competition in France out of 900 brews. Last year Maccabee im- ports reached 92,000 cases. This year, the company is hoping to import half a mill- ion cases. The beer is also the only Israeli beer to carry kosher certification. "We're trying to enter the American secular market," said Cohen, who studied at Ner Israel Rabbinic College in Pikesville, Md., and a yeshiva in Los Angeles. "It's tough because we are pro- moting Israel, and Israel is not known as a beer brewing nation," observed Cohen. He said Maccabee will be available in Chicago and St. Louis in three months. A Detroit distributor is being sought. Promoting itself as a tren- dy beer, Maccabee uses a loud, sexy television ad campaign, largely in New York, and the slogan, "Do Life." One TV ad portrays a young woman flirtatiously circling an ice bucket with the beer sitting on the hot, desert land. The overvoice comes on and says, "Life is like beer. Sometimes it's the wait that heightens the ecstasy." Another ad has a Chasid dancing with a Maccabee bottle on his head. "We're looking for people who are willing to spend a little more money because they are looking for some- thing a little extra, a little different," said Cohen. "When you are marketing a product from Israel, you have so much more public opinion to deal with. Middle East problems show up in our sales. Israel is a high profile country, and that has helped and hurt us. Look, when China cracked down on the students, sales of the Chinese beers interna- tionally went down. "But with this beer, we're telling people to support what Israel stands for, and we're also telling them to en- joy themselves." — BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Devon Drugs Telegraph and Long Lake — OAK PARK — Seven-Eleven Lincoln Rx Lincoln E. of Greenfield Coolidge & Lincoln Bornstein Bookstore Oak Park Book Center Greenfield & Ten Mile Nine Mile & Coolidge — BIRMINGHAM — Metro News Telegraph & Maple — FARMINGTON HILLS — Efros Rx Seven-Eleven Grand River & Drake Orchard Lk. & Thirteen Mile Warren Rx Country Ridge Market Middlebelt & Fourteen Mile Haggerty and 14 Mile Rd. — NOVI — Border's Book Store Novi Rd. & 1-96 THEJEWISH NEWS No ge4A " *"/1 (‘41' ❑ THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 19