COMMUNITY

Detroit Jews To Send
Menorahs To Minsk

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

C

hanukah in Minsk
will be a little
brighter this year
thanks to the Detroit Jewish
community.
Nearly 600 Chanukah care
packages will be sent to Jew-
ish families in Detroit's
sister city, Minsk, in a pro-
gram spearheaded by the
Soviet Jewry Committee of
the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan
Detroit and The Jewish
News.
Each package, which con-
tains a menorah, candles
and a dreidel, will be sent to
the Minsk synagogue in
time for Chanukah, said
Linda Foster, a Jewish
Community Council staff
member involved in the pro-
ject.
Jewish families in Detroit
can provide Jewish families
in Minsk with their first
Chanukah by clipping a
coupon found in this issue of
The Jewish News. It costs
$15 to send a care package to
the Soviet Union.
School children are also
encouraged to participate in
the project, said Mrs. Foster,
who has informed area syn-
agogue and day school offi-
cials about the care
packages.
"We want to establish a
link between the Jewish
community of Detroit and
the Jewish community of
Minsk," said Ellen Labes,
chairman of the Soviet
Jewry Committee. Accor-
ding to the latest estimates,
at least 40,000 Jews remain
in Minsk.
Although Jews in record
numbers have left the Soviet
Union, millions of Soviet
Jews are unable to leave,
said Linda Foster of the
Jewish Community Council
staff. Even if the exodus of
Soviet Jews continues at the
current emigration rate of
500 a day, it will take almost
15 years until all the Jews
who wish to leave are able to
do so, she said.

Part of the mandate of the
Soviet Jewry Committee is
to help those Jews in the
Soviet Union who are unable
to leave or who have chosen
to stay rediscover their Jew-
ish identity, Mrs. Foster
said.

"For the past 70 years,
Jews have been prohibited

from practicing their re-
ligion or observing their
holidays," Mrs. Labes said.
"We want to give them the
means to celebrate the
miracle of Chanukah as we
do over here."
"We feel it's really impor-
tant while things are still
open to give them as many
books and religious articles
as we can," Mrs. Foster said.
"Everything they get has to
come from the outside right
now."
"We hope the entire com-
munity will support this pro-

Campaign Shabbat,
Super Sunday Set

ject," said Mrs. Labes. "The
people I have talked to about
it have thought it was a
marvelous idea."
The care packages are the
first of what Mrs. Foster
hopes to be many links to
Minsk.
A Detroit delegation has
planned an exploratory trip
to the city for Dec. 19, she
said. After speaking to Min-
sk Jews, the delegation will
try to determine what other
projects Detroiters can
undertake to help the Minsk
Jewish community.

❑

Alyn Hospital Unit
Hosts Event Wednesday

Detroit Friends of Alyn
Hospital in Jerusalem will
hold its first annual fund-
raising event at the home of
Steve and Arlene Victor, 6044
Wing Lake Road, on Wednes-
day, Nov. 28, at 7:30 p.m.
Rabbi Chuck Diamond,
education/youth director of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek,
will speak of his many visits
to Alyn with synagogue
youth groups from Temple
Israel in Great Neck, N.Y.,
and Congregation Shaarey
Zedek.
Alyn is Israel's only long-
term orthopedic hospital and
rehabilitation center for
physically handicapped
children. The need for addi-
tional funding has led to a na-
tional effort in the United
States to create local chapters
for support.
Fully 25 percent of the
hospital's operating budget
and any capital costs must be
supplied by donations.
Officers for the chapter are:

Congregation Beth Tefilo
Emanuel Tikvah. At Con-
gregation Beth Shalom, Rab-
bi David Nelson will recite
"Tzedakah Tales." Rabbi
Chaskel Grubner will talk
about the Campaign at Con-
gregation Dovid Ben Nuchim.
Other participating rabbis
and synagogues are: Rabbi
Reuven Drucker, Young Israel
of Greenfield; Rabbi Noah
Gamze, Downtown Syna-
gogue; Rabbi Elimelech
Silberberg, Congregation
Bais Chabad of West Bloom-
field; and Rabbi Arnold
Steutelberg, Congregation
Shir Tikvah.
In January, Temple Beth El
will have a program about the
Campaign, focusing on the
resettlement of Soviet Jews.

Broadcaster
At YAD Event

Israeli broadcaster Freda
Keet will address a Young
Adult Division major gifts
meeting on behalf of the 1991
Allied Jewish Campaign,
6:30 p.m. Dec. 3.
The reception, for Cam-
paign contributors of $2,500
or more, will take place at the

Volunteers Needed
For Super Sunday

Anaruth Bernard:
New chairperson.

Anaruth Bernard, chairper-
son; Pamela Lippitt, vice
chairperson; Herbert
Lazarus, treasurer; Clara
Faxstein, secretary; and Reva
Lazarus, tributes.
For information about the
Nov. 28 event, call Anaruth
Bernard, 569-5605.

Women Host Lyons

A joint meeting of the
Detroit Chapter B'nai B'rith
and the Tikva Chapter
Women's B'nai B'rith will be
held noon Nov. 25 at Sutton
Place. Rev. James Lyons will
speak.
Rev. Lyons is founder and
director of the Ecumenical In-
stitute for Jewish-Christian
Studies. He is a member of
the Holocaust Memorial
Center and the anti-
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith and the Committee of
Bridges for Peace.
Lunch will be served. There
is a charge. For reservations,
call Ethel Kantor Kort,
355-4594; or Gussie Zuckers-
tein, 355-4072.

Federation/Campaign
Shabbat has been scheduled
in Detroit-area congregations
Nov. 30-Dec. 1.
The annual observance
focuses on the Jewish Welfare
Federation and its Allied
Jewish Campaign, which
benefits 60 health and
welfare agencies both in
Detroit and overseas.
Federation and Campaign
leaders who will speak at
area congregations Nov. 30
are: Robert Aronson, Birm-
ingham Temple; Edie Slotkin,
Temple Israel; Alan Yost,
Livonia Jewish Congrega-
tion; and Larry Jackier, Tem-
ple Kol Ami.
Speaking Dec. 1 are: Dr.
David Harold, Congregation
B'nai David; Lauren Liss,
Congregation Beth Abraham
Hillel Moses; Jane Sherman,
Adat Shalom Synagogue; Joel
Tauber, Congregation Beth
Achim; Larry Ziffer, Temple
Emanu-El; Tom Wexelberg-
Clouser, Young Israel of Oak
Woods; Mark Schlussel,
Young Israel of Southfield;
and Paul Borman, Congrega-
tion Shaarey Zedek.
Rabbi Leizer Levin will
speak on "Tzedakah Now" at

James Lyons

Board members of the
Jewish Welfare Federation,
its agencies and planning
divisions will be among the
hundreds of volunteers phon-
ing their fellow Detroiters on
behalf of the 1991 Allied
Jewish Campaign on Super
Sunday, Dec. 2.
Represented at Super Sun-
day will be the Agency for
Jewish Education, Fresh Air
Society, Hebrew Free Loan
Association, Jewish Com-
munity Center, Jewish Com-
munity Council, Jewish
Family Service, Jewish
Federation Apartments,
Jewish Home for Aged,
Jewish Vocational Service,
Resettlement Service and
Sinai Hospital. The agency
shift will take place from 2 to
4:45 p.m.
Hundreds of volunteers, in-
cluding new Americans, Pro-
ject Discovery teens,
Neighborhood Project
families and synagogue
members also will par-
ticipate. More volunteers are
needed for three available
shifts: 9:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.,
11:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 7-9
p.m.
To volunteer for Super Sun-
day, call Leonard Milstone at
Federation, 965-3939.

Freda Keet

home of Doreen and David
Hermelin.
Ms. Keet is a prize-winning
television and radio program
editor and director with
Israel's national television
and radio service. She also is
responsible for nightly infor-
mation programs in English
on short wave radio bands.
Mitchell Bleznak, Gary Ran
and Craig Singer are organiz-
ing the event. Susan Alter-
man and David Victor are
chairmen of the YAD
Campaign.
For information, contact
Shelley Milin, 965-3939.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

57

