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DETROIT

Yeshivah Student Seas Victory
In Stamp Designing Contest

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

omething fishy was
going on at the post of-
fice, and a certain
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah stu-
dent was determined to be a
part of it.
The something fishy was a
contest to mark the annual
Stamp Collecting Month.
Students in grades 1-6 were
invited to draw a poster of
sea animals, the theme of a
new postage stamp, for the
Southfield post office. One
winner from each grade was
to be selected, along with a

S

grand prize winner from all
the submissions.
Saadya Cohen, a 5th
grader at Beth Yehudah,
heard about the contest from
his teacher, Mrs. Bracha
Hochheiser. He decided he
would have a whale of a good
time with the contest and
began his project with a
thorough study of sea
creatures.
First, 10-year-old Saadya
turned to a book about sea
life to decide which animals
he would draw. He opted for
"the ones I liked" — a pipe
fish, a hammerhead shark, a
starfish, a sea horse, a whale
shark and a sawfish.

Next, he gathered his
tools: cardboard and scissors,
construction paper and felt
pens. Just cutting out the
figures took one day, Saadya .
said.
Then he pasted and drew
and arranged everything
until he got it exactly right.
His final work looks like a
stamp, complete with ridges
on the sides.
Then he took his drawing
to his teacher, who sent it in
to the post office contest.
Then he waited.
Several weeks later the
school principal, Rabbi
Rephael Skaist, came to
Mrs. Hochheiser's room. He

Sinai Hospital Strives
To Remain Solvent

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

s problems with the
volatile health care
industry continue to
escalate throughout the
country, Sinai Hospital —
one of the community's last
independent health care in-
stitutions — is striving to
remain solvent.
The massive Henry Ford
Health Care Corp. called off
merger talks with the finan-
cially struggling facility in
July, forcing Sinai officials
to consider other options.
Shortly after, Sinai
reopened negotiations with
the Detroit Medical Center.
The health care institutions
discontinued merger talks in
September 1989 while Sinai
concentrated on a Ford-Sinai
affiliation.
In the past decade,
hospitals have been plagued
by insufficient funds from
Medicaid and Medicare
reimbursements, part of the
reason health costs to the
consumer have soared. Like
other facilities, fewer
government reim-
bursements have hurt Sinai.
Now Sinai officials are
hashing out details with the
DMC. President Robert
Steinberg has declined to
discuss details, saying he
will release more definitive
information next month. It
is too early, he says, to say
whether programs will be
cut or whether departments
will be slashed.
At the hospital's 38th an-

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14

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1990

nual corporate meeting this
week, held at the Skyline
Club in Southfield, attention
was focused on awards and
achievements — not the
hospital's future.
Mr. Steinberg spoke few
words, saying only that it
hasn't been easy at Sinai. He
quickly turned the subject to
Dr. Harry August, a 92-year-
old psychiatrist who launch-
ed Sinai's psychiatric
department, and who just
announced his retirement
from his consulting post.
"We all know the problems
of the health care industry
and the problems of Sinai
Hospital," said Chairman of
the Board Merle Harris.
"We are looking at alter-
natives. We don't know what
direction we will take. There
is nothing to report.
"We are not opening. We
are not closing. We are not
merging," Mr. Harris said.
"We are continuing to
operate. We have 350 pa-
tients every night. There are
a lot of rumors floating
around. They are all
rumors."
At Sinai's main facility in
Detroit, some are concerned
their departments will be
cut — with or without an af-
filiation with another facili-
ty.
"I don't think people need
to worry about departments
being cut," said Sinai Vice
Chairwoman Carolyn
Greenberg, adding the corn-
munity must concentrate on
the hospital's strengths and
not its weaknesses.
Mrs. Greenberg, who

received the Max Osnos
Award for distinguished
leadership at the meeting,
spoke about the two
Heritage Balls, which netted
a combination of over
$600,000 and about the
outreach programs to the
Jewish community — among
them are a program at Hillel
Day School and annual latke
party for children.
She talked about Sinai's
role in supplying medication
for Tamarack Camps and of
the hospital's service to the
Soviet newcomers. Sinai
physicians and dentists,
Mrs. Greenberg said, have
given at least $500,000 of
free medical service to these
new residents.
Other award recipients in-
cluded: Marvin Fleischman,
a Sinai board member since
1983; Roberta Blitz, former
Sinai Guild President and
recently elected board mem-
ber; and Dr. Norman
Rosenzweig, who this year
retired as the hospital's
chairman of the psychiatry
department after 29 years of
service to the hospital.
Officers elected to the
board were: Mr. Harris,
chair; Mrs. Greenberg, vice
chair; Mr. Fleischman, vice
chair; Marvin Novick, vice
chair; Richard Roth, vice
chair; and Robert Sosnick,
vice chair.
New trustees serving
three-year terms were: Dr.
Milton Goldrath, John
Haddow and Jerry Soble.
Mrs. Blitz was elected a new
trustee serving a one-year
term.

❑

Marc Reinerth of the Southfield Post Office holds the winning entry with
Rabbi Rephael Skaist and Saadya Cohen.

announced: "We have a con-
test winner from this class."
"Everybody started
whispering my name,"
Saadya said. "They all liked
my picture."
Postal workers liked
Saadya's picture, too. His
drawing was chosen the
grand prize winner from
more than 100 entries from
10 local schools.
The next day Saadya was
honored at a ceremony at the
school, where he received a
certificate and a mug show-
ing the post office's new sea
creatures stamps.
The stamp hardly marks
Saadya's first artistic
endeavor. He's been drawing

for years, his favorite subject
being funny faces. He also
likes drawing items around
his house because "we have
a lot of neat things to copy."
One of his favorite subjects
is an antique telephone in
the family's Oak Park living
room.
While some artists offer a
lengthy narrative when
discussing the creative pro-
cess, Saadya is a man of few
words when it comes to his
art.
Explaining the artistic
course that led to his grand
prize, he said simply: "I
looked into a book; I picked
out a few pictures, and that's
it."

❑

Southfield Garage Sale
To Aid Donor Search

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

onathan Cohen knows
fighting cancer is not
only a medical and
emotional battle, but a fi-
nancial one as well.
To help Mr. Cohen and his
family take on the financial
battle, a massive garage sale
has been organized for Sun-
day, Dec. 2, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
at the Southfield Lathrup
High School. First diagnosed
with leukemia last
December, Mr. Cohen, 20, a
Southfield Lathrup High
School graduate, went into a
brief remission with the help
of chemotherapy. But when
the disease returned a few
months later, doctors told
Mr. Cohen's family his only
hope was finding a bone
marrow donor.
Mr. Cohen is now in remis-
sion again thanks to
chemotherapy treatments,
but eagerly awaits the day a

j

Jonathan Cohen

donor will be found, said his
mother, Mrs. Charlene
Ehrlich.
The search for a compati-
ble donor has been com-
plicated, long, and so far,
unsuccessful and costly.
Although insurance will
pay for Mr. Cohen's medical
bills, it will not pay for the
donor search. Mrs. Ehrlich
has already spent almost
$20,000 of the $25,000 she

