NEWS TEMPLE ENIANU-EL and MIDRASHA-COLLEGE OF JEWISH STUDIES announces COURSE OFFERINGS MONDAYS, NOVEMBER 26-DECEMBER 17 ALIZA MARCUS JEWS AND ISLAM Special to The Jewish News We will examine highlights of Jewish history within Islamic lands, the influence of Judaism on Islam and vice versa. Special attention will be given to the Golden Age in Moslem Spain and to Jewish-Arab relations at the present time. Instructor: DR. IVAN STARR, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern 7:00-8:00 P.M. Studies, Wayne State University CONTEMPORARY JEWISH THOUGHT An introduction to four of the thinkers who have shaped Jewish thought in the 20th Century — Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel and Mordechai Kaplan. 8:00-9:00 P.M. Instructor: RABBI DAVID FEDER, Temple Emanu-El Non-Temple Members: $23 per class Courses Meet At: TEMPLE EMANU-EL 14450 West Ten Mile Road Oak Park, MI 48237 For further information, please call Temple Emanu-El at 967-4020 or the Midrasha at 352-7117 Make Your Special Moments Unforgettable.. . with the gentle, pleasing movement provided by our GLIDE-R-MOTIONTm rockers by DutAlier. Available in a variety of fabrics and styles. In stock for immediate delivery. Add comfort and beauty to your nursery You're At The Head Of The Class starting at 29997 Ottoman sold separately. HOURS: MON., TUES., WED., SAT. 9:30-6; THURS. & FRI. 9:30-9; SUN. 12-5 OAK PARK: 22130 COOLIDGE (SCHAEFER) AT 9 MILE TUES., WED., THURS., SAT. 9:30-5:30 ROSEVILLE: 31770 GRATIOT (NEXT TO FARMER JACK'S) MON. & FRI. 9:30-9; CLOSED SUN. ROCHESTER: 1406 WALTON BLVD. (HILLS PLAZA) ANN ARBOR: 200 S. MP IN The Complete Children's Department Store, Where Kids Come First Riddle With a Subscription To The Jewish News Call: 354-6060 erica THE JEWISH NEWS The Jabotinsky Society of Herut will present A PRE-CHANUKAH MUSICAL PROGRAM Israeli & English songs will be performed by Cantor Barry Ulrych We will also feature HY SHENKMAN - A Radio & TV Host Sunday, December 2, 7:00 p.m. Light dairy will be served Donation: $5.00 Jewish Community Center Ten Mile - Oak Park Branch WE WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT WE WILL HAVE A NEW YEAR'S DANCE PARTY AT CONG. B'NAI DAVID For tickets call: Simon Cieck 5648-3073 Sam Hornung 557-1847 118 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1990 Is Borough Park Hiding Something? American Red Cross Blood Services Southeastern Michigan Region I t is a neighborhood of neat, red-brick multi- family homes, a place where young boys with dan- gling earlocks chat in Yiddish, where women dressed modestly in long skirts and blouses push baby carriages as they buy fresh bread, smoked fish and fruit on 16th Ave. in the heart of Borough Park. Here, in the largest Or- thodox Jewish community in the United States, secular interests are pushed aside in favor of religious matters, and dozens of yeshivas and small synagogues sprout the names of East European Chasidic dynasties, rem- nants of pre- Holocaust Jew- ish life. This quiet, unobtrusive neighborhood, home to almost 100,000 people, at least 90 percent of whom are devoutly religious, rarely makes it into the news, part- ly because life rarely deviates from a pattern set through centuries of re- ligious and social tradition. So when 3 3-year-old Shulamis Riegler, six mon- ths pregnant, was arraigned Nov. 13 on charges of second- degree murder in the death of her 8-year-old son, allegedly from child abuse, the shock was great, the grief widespread and, among some the questions asked were many. "The problem is that you don't know what the degree of the problems are," said Egon Mayer, a sociology pro- fessor at Brooklyn College who has studied the com- munity extensively. "I'm willing to believe there are not many in- stances of parents killing their children, but I'm not willing to believe there aren't more cases of severe physical abuse of children and spouses," he said. On the quiet streets of Borough Park, most people refused to discuss the case with a reporter, and those who did spoke of the utter uniqueness of the event. "It's a terrible tragedy, one that hurts everyone, and whomever I discuss this with feels the same way I do — shocked," said a Borough Park businessman, who ask- ed that his name not be used. "But it makes you wonder, what's going on under- neath?" Yaakov Riegler, who died Oct. 14 after falling into an irreversible coma Sept. 29, on the holiest Jewish day of Yom Kippur, had spent, along with his two older brothers, three years bet- ween 1986 and 1989 under foster care, after his mother was put on probation for assaulting the oldest child, 13-year-old Israel. Last year, the children were returned to their parents for reasons that have not been made public, and during the past year, ac- cording to local news reports, teachers at Yaakov's public school had contacted the city's Human Resources Administration after seeing suspicious bruises on the boy. But in the overburdened, underpaid ways of HRA, contended Borough Park 'The problem is that you don't know what the degree of the problems are. councilman Noach Dear, the information was ignored, reports were perhaps falsified by disinterested staff members, and a boy died. "Such abuse is not ram- pant," Mr. Dear said em- phatically. "To say we don't have the problem of child abuse, well, it's not the magnitude it's being made out to be." The close-knit community, where shopkeepers greet their customers by name, prides itself on being self- sufficient, and privately organized services include a Jewish youth library, a substance abuse help group, organizations that feed and clothe the poor and an am- bulance service. Families tend to be big — it is not uncommon for a young mother to have five or more children by the time she is 30 — and median in- come in the neighborhood was estimated at $13,000 in one study, partly a function of the emphasis of education and religious observance over material pursuits. But people tend to be suspicious of outside agen- cies, both for religious reasons and because a large percentage of the population are Holocaust survivors, said community workers. Community workers