UP FRONT

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

D

ressed in a freshly
pressed blue suit,
white shirt and red
paisley tie, Charles sits at
the table rocking to the
rhythm of the music. His
eyes are fixed on the piano
player. .
Seated across the table,
Marilyn talks about being
Jewish.
"I only wish I had a Jewish
star," she says.
And at a table on the other
side of the room, Maureen,
sporting her pink, silky par-
ty dress and newly
manicured fingernails, just
smiles, talking to other
guests and relishing the spe-
cial Passover food. '
"I like everybody," she
says. "I feel good."
The 27th annual seder for
Jewish mentally disabled at-
tracted 170 festive par-
tygoers last week. They
came from group homes in
the inner city. They came
from Kadima Jewish
residential care and support
services for the mentally ill.

They came from the Jewish
Association for Retarded
Citizens. They came from
Project Outreach of the Jew-
ish Vocational Service.
These are the Jews out of
the mainstream who come
together twice a year — at
Chanukah and Passover —
due to the efforts of the Co-
operative Council of the
League of Jewish Women
and Rabbi Solomon Gruskin,
organizer of the first com-
munity seder for the mental-

"This has given
them a whole new
life."
Nettie Deutch

ly disabled. Cost to put on
the luncheon is estimated at
$3,000.
"This is a wonderful thing
to do," says Nettie Deutch,
who chaired the seder. "This
helps these people become
much more outgoing."
The group seder concept
started at the urging of
Rabbi Gruskin, former state
chaplain for area psychiatric
hospitals. The de-

institutionalization policies
which began in the late
1960s made his job a bit
tougher, as he visited as
many patients as he could no
matter where they were
moved. Some remained in
hospitals; others were
released to group homes;
some were set up in adult
foster-care homes. They
were spread all over Detroit.
If Rabbi Gruskin located a
patient who needed a help-
ing hand, he found time for a
visit. He had a mission.
"He felt that if you took
them out and treated them
like human beings, their
lives would be much better,"
Deutch says. "This has
given them a whole new life.
They now participate. They
sing. They have come a long,
long way."
Over the years, the Coop-
erative Council — with as-
sistance from JVS — has
compiled a list of approx-
imately 200 persons living
in group homes and institu-
tions. They are constantly
trying to identify every men-
tally ill or retarded Jewish
person in the Detroit area.
"It is a shame that so

Religious News Service

Seder For Mentally Disabled
Brightens Holiday For Many

A typical seder table.

many of our people are in the
inner city," says Bessie
Chase, secretary for the Co-
operative Council. "These
people are lost. The majority
are forgotten."
But they are not forgotten
on Passover or Chanukah.
As lunch guests register
for the seder meal at the
Maple-Drake Jewish Com-
munity Center, Chase hugs
them. Volunteers from the
Cooperative Council's par-
ticipating groups seat the
guests and serve them lun-
ch. Entertainer Max Sosin's

enthusiasm is contagious.
The guests sing and dance
with him.
Before they depart, guests
take with them gift
packages, each complete
with home-made cookies for
Passover, a box of matzah,
candy, mandel bread, an ap-
ple and an orange.

Says Jack, 46, who has been
attending Chanukah and
Passover parties since 1985,
"I always enjoy coming to
these seders. It is really
nice."

❑

ROUND UP

JNF Is Helping
Ethiopian Jews

The Jewish National Fund
is spearheading a campaign
to help the Ethiopian Jewish
community of Israel.
Working with the Ameri-
can Association for Ethio-
pian Jews, the JNF is rais-
ing funds to create recrea-
tional areas where Ethio-
pian Jews can celebrate
their festivals, hold com-
munity events and provide
safe areas for children to
play.
The JNF also is helping
raise funds to create a
memorial for the 3,000 Ethi-
opian Jews who died trying
to reach Israel.
For information, contact
the JNF, (301) 589-8565.

Soldiers, Scientists
Dig For Answers

Tel Aviv (JTA) — Security
authorities have turned to
soil experts at the Technion-
Israel Institute of
Technology in Haifa for help
locating tunnels burrowed
under the border Israel
shares with Egypt at the
edge of the Gaza Strip.

The problem arose after
the discovery in recent
weeks of two tunnels connec-
ting the Egyptian and
Israeli sides of Rafah, the
southernmost town of the
Gaza Strip that straddles the
Sinai border.
Authorities doubt the
tunnels were dug for use by
terrorists, but rather as con-
duits for smuggling contra-
band, mainly drugs.
This is not the first time
tunnels have been found in
Rafah. In May 1984, security
forces found a 190-foot
tunnel dug from the Israeli
side of the town to the Egyp-
tian part. Then, too, au-
thorities deduced the tunnel
was used by smugglers.

New Shiva Guide
Is Available

The United Hebrew Com-
munity of New York, Adath
Israel of New York, the
largest Jewish burial organ-
ization in the United States,
has completed a 24-page
guide describing all aspects
of Shiva.
"The First Seven Days: A
Practical Guide to the Tradi-
tional Observances of Shiva

for Mourners, Their
Families and Friends," an-
swers such questions as
what is expected of friends
and family during Shiva and
what is required of mourners
at a Shiva.
Written by Dr. Meir
Winkler, former professor at
the Wurzweiler School of So-
cial Work of Yeshiva Uni-
versity, "The First Seven
Days" incorporates tradi-
tional customs and accom-
modates Jews of all affilia-
tions, according to David
Jacobson, executive director
of the United Hebrew Com-
munity of New York, Adath
Israel.
To obtain a copy of the
booklet, send $1 to cover
postage and handling to
United Hebrew Community
of New York, Adath Israel of
New York, 201 E. Broadway,
New York, N.Y. 10002.

Get To The Root
Of The Problem

Jerusalem — Sink your
teeth into this one: A senior
researcher at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem's
faculty of dental medicine
has developed a novel

method for implanting den-
tal root prostheses (synthetic
tooth roots) using a protein
preparation.
Professor Shmuel Shoshan
discovered that a collagen
solution can ensure, for the
first time, that roots made of
synthetic polymers and
implanted into a socket are
not rejected but become
firmly integrated with the
gums.
Dental prostheses made of
material foreign to the body
are often rejected when
implanted in the gums. To
avoid this, Shoshan uses
acrylic dental roots made as
exact replicas of the root of
the extracted tooth.
What a drilling discovery!

Military Leader
To Be Honored

Washington, D.C. — Joint
Chiefs of Staff Chairman
Gen. Colin Powell will
receive the Eisenhower Lib-
eration Medal in honor of his
service during World War II
at an April 24 ceremony in
the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
The U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Council gives the
award to individual Ameri-

Gen. Colin Powell

cans who played significant
roles in the fight against
Nazism and in the liberation
of the death camps.
Powell, the nation's
highest-ranking military of-
ficer, began his military ca-
reer in Germany as a pla-
toon leader and rifle com-
pany commander.

Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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