Rio will be sun'n'surf fun
to the 'max' for the
world's Jewish singles, if
ex-Flint resident Kronick
has her way.

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DAVID HOLZEL

Special to The Jewish News

M

axine Kronick has
been busy lately,
writing post cards
from Rio de Janeiro.
Thousands of them.
The addressees are repre-
sentatives of Jewish corn-
munities around the world.
And each post card is an in-
vitation for single Jews to
join the former Flint resi-
dent in Rio for what she calls
the "First World Jewish
Singles Happening."
Slated for mid-February
1991, the eight-day-long
happening "is going to be a
fun, exciting, Club Med-type
experience with the best of
everything," Kronick said in
a telephone interview from
Flint during a two-week trip
to the United States to pro-
mote the event.
Why was Brazil, and not
Israel, chosen as the gather-
ing place for Jewish singles?
The answer lies in Kronick's
own experiences in Israel. A
New York native, Kronick
spent 20 years in Flint. In
1987, she left a position as
coordinator of special events
for the city of Flint and
fulfilled a life-long dream by
making aliyah.
A veteran of the dinner

theater stage, local politics
and public relations,
Kronick, who also produced
her own radio show and
documentary film, saw
herself as a take-charge per-
son who gets things done. As
such, she was unprepared for
the work ethic in Israel,
where efficiency is foreign,
tasks are accomplished at
glacial speed and Yihieh
beseder (It'll be OK) is the
standard response when a
venture is on the brink of
failing.
Perhaps more than a bit
naive, Kronick had a dream
not to turn the desert green,
but to start from the bottom
and eventually become
tourism minister.

"All I wanted to do was do
my little thing," she recalls.
"It didn't work that simply."
Two consecutive projects
for which she had been hired
were cancelled. She found no
outlet for other tourism pro-
jects she had in mind. Israel,
she discovered, is not the
place for a woman used to
getting her way.
"Women's rights are far
from anything we would
consider acceptable in
America," she says.
She did meet Israel's more
colorful personalities, artists
and raconteurs. She staked a

place for herself on the Tel
Aviv beach. Yam (sea) was
one of the few Hebrew words
she learned.
Last July, friends in Israel
introduced her to Lisabelle
Schueke, a 23-year-old Jew
whose family had come to
Brazil from Syria. Schueke,
who owns and operates Belle
Tours in Rio de Janeiro,
began brainstorming with
Kronick. The First World
Jewish Singles Happening

"Physically, Rio's
probably the most
exquisite place
you'd ever put your
eyes on,"
Maxine Kronick

was the result. Schueke
would sponsor the event.
And she gave Kronick a hef-
ty task: coordinating the
happening. By October,
Kronick was in Rio.
Ironically, she finds Brazil,
wrapped in its Latin
machismo, a place where she
is treated like a professional.
While plans and prices are
not yet finalized, Kronick —
herself single for the past
eight years — says the hap-
pening will feature five-star
hotels, guided tours, parties

and other events that will
take advantage of Rio's
abundant sun and surf.
"There's a lot of beachiness
in this," she says.
The happening's main
event is to be a visit to Car-
nival, Rio de Janeiro's non-
stop samba dance competi-
tion that brings the entire
city into the streets.
The fiftysomething
Kronick says she hopes sin-
gles of all ages will par-
ticipate in the happening.
She plans to separate par-
ticipants so they can so-
cialize with others in their
age group, and she says an
equal number of men and
women will be accepted.
There will be no lectures,
"nothing intellectual. It's an
opportunity to spend a week
with people and share cul-
tures," she says.
Isram is the U.S. sales
agent for the singles happen-
ing. For information, call
Isram or check with your
local travel agent.
In the United States, sin-
gles events often are
stigmatized as gathering
places for nerds. Kronick
says this is not the case
among some European and
Latin American corn-
munities which are tightly
knit and frown upon inter-
dating. So those who will

participate in the happening
will represent the broad
cross-section of their com-
munities, she says.
And what better place for
the world's Jewish singles to
meet than Rio, Brazil's
second-largest city with
seven million residents?
"Physically, it's probably the
most exquisite place you'd
ever put your eyes on,"
Kronick says.
While physically ex-
quisite, Rio reflects the
unattractive social disparity
of the third world. A city of
tremendous wealth, half its
citizens dwell in slums.
If the 1991 singles happen-
ing is a success, Israel might
be the site for a future event,
she says.
And while she calls Rio
paradise, "it doesn't have
the magic [of Israel.] When I
look at the beach, it's not my
beach."
Kronick raised four chil-
dren before she and her hus-
band divorced. "I changed
my life totally," she says of
the years since. The biggest
change was coming back to
herself.
"I went from suburban
America, left all that to be a
person who was my own per-
son. A totally free person. In
Israel, I climbed mountains
every Saturday."

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

81

GENERATIONS

SINGLE LIFE

