1 4111111111111v ------- 4111111111111111111W' SINGLE LIFE MetroHillel PRE-PURIM SCUBA DIVERS' SCAVENGER HUNT* Saturday, February 2nd Beginning at 8:07 p.m. at Post-Grad Jewish Programming Shows Big Growth In Ann Arbor WAKEFIELD APARTMENTS CLUB HOUSE Southfield *BLACK TIE SCUBA GEAR IS OPTIONAL R.S.V.P. LISA SANDLER 577-3459 SANDY LOEFFLER 370-4257 clkedduag Tepot Specializing in Wedding Video "Helping You Get The. Most Out Of Your Special Day" • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • Birthday Parties • Weddings • Anniversaries 673-5460 JUST IN TIME FOR YOUR VALENTINE! GLAMOR PORTRAITS BY ASK ABOUT YOUR FREE NON-SURGICAL FACE LIFT ... APPEAR YOUNGER & REJUVENATE YOUR SKIN DMD photographic SEXY • PLAYFUL • PROVOCATIVE 20% OFF PORTRAITS DMD photographic 569-6550 Registration Open For All Classes! Directed by International Dancer-Choreographer Barry Douglas Offering . Programs In Ballet, Tap, Jazi,•Tahltian, Hawaiian, Pre-School Creative Movement and Ballroom Dancing! Also Offering,: Street Dancing and Lambadolg CLASSES OFFERED FOR I ALL AGES AND ALL LEVELS CALL HOW 681-4101 3080 Orchard Lake Road, Keego Harbor 92 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1991 RICHARD PEARL Staff Writer W hen it comes to pro- viding regular pro- gramming for its post-graduate Jewish singles population, Ann Arbor is like the old cigarette com- mercial. They've come a long way, baby. . And the impetus for growth has come both from the Jewish professionals and laypeople. Dan Rosen says when he moved to Ann Arbor from St. Louis nearly eight years ago, "it didn't seem like anything existed" socially for post- graduate Jewish single adults. "You'd meet people on the street and if it happened they had the same background — Jewish background — as you, it was sheer luck," says Mr. Rosen, a photographer. For a young Jewish profes- sional beginning a career in a university community with a sizeable Jewish graduate population, that wasn't too encouraging. Not that there wasn't anything to do in Ann Arbor. As Nina Gelman, 27-year- old editor of the Washtenaw Jewish News, puts it, "There's more than enough to do here." With a world-class univer- sity and its various educa- tional and cultural programs and the international diver- sity of its faculty and stu- dent body, plus the variety of restaurants and bars and special-interest clubs such as the Ann Arbor Ski Club, the community would seem a cornucopia of activities. The problem was, as Mr. Rosen, Ms. Gelman and others saw it, the undergraduates — in their case, the Jewish undergraduates — seemed to have the corner on the cor- nucopia. Not only could the undergrads meet in classes or in any of the variety of programs, concerts and clubs, they also had. the pop- ular B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation on campus. But, for the post-graduate set, there was "nothing specifically Jewish set up for meeting each other so- cially," says Ms. Gelman, a native of Ann Arbor who returned after graduating from Oberlin College in Ohio about six years ago. Since Nina Gelman: Pushed for singles group. then, however, the situation has improved considerably. The city now boasts three Jewish singles organizations — Hillel's Grads and Young Professionals group and the Washtenaw County Jewish Community Center's Outing Club, whose memberships overlap somewhat, and JCC Singles groups — to serve the three Jewish groups previously ignored: the post- grads, the young profes- sional who might have earn- ed a degree elsewhere and even the "post-post-". graduate. The Grads/Young Profes- sionals is an academic-year, U-M-based Hillel group for both singles and couples in their 20s and 30s while the Outing Club, which is not af- filiated with the university, runs year-round and has many members in the same age group as Hillel's, but who have no direct connec- tion with the university. The JCC Singles, on the other hand, was created from the former Ann Arbor Jewish Singles/Single Parent Network and is for single adults age 40 and up who are divorced, widowed or simply unmarried. The groups generally coor- dinate activities so as to avoid scheduling conflicts. Michelle Blumenberg, Hillel program director, says the Grads group has a mail- ing list of approximately 700, split about 50-50 bet- ween grad students and non- students, the latter in- cluding those beginning pro- fessional careers in the community. She "guess- timates" there are about 3,000 in Ann Arbor and says there is a constant turnover in participants. She created the Grads pro- gram in 1986 from bits and pieces of programming aim- ed at the graduate commun- ity because "most program- ming at Hillel was geared to the undergraduates." The program provides a social atmosphere for both singles and young marrieds and draws from Ann Arbor as well as Detroit, its suburbs and the Toledo area, she says. "Young adults don't usual- ly connect until they have children and join a temple or synagogue," says Ms. Blumenfeld, who is original- ly from Southfield. "It's like a young-adult division of a Jewish federation, but there's no fundraising," she says. Typical programs include a monthly "veggie" Shabbat potluck dinner with a speaker, usually held at the U-M Lawyers Club. Other events include a grad- student open house, a pic- nic/barbecue and Sunday brunches. A coffee house is being planned. The push for a non- university Jewish singles organization was begun six years ago by Ms. Gelman be- cause she found it "extreme- ly hard to meet Jewish peo- ple in the 21-35 age group who were not undergrads." And she wanted more organized activities for the singles. Steve Russman, a Southfield native and 1986 U-M graduate who has lived in Ann Arbor since his undergrad days, joined with Ms. Gelman in the effort. Mr. Russman, noting the population is transient, says he lost many friends through graduation. He also found Ann Arbor to be "kind of cli- que-y — a lot of people grow up and stay here." The result was the JCC Outing Club, which draws from some of the same population as the Grads/Young Professionals but is mostly a never- married group. It has its own monthly shomer Shabbat potluck, occasional melavah malkah on Saturday nights, and a variety of other events, including canoeing, ski trips, happy hours, movie-marathons with potluck dinners, bowling events, rollerskating and dinners at restaurants. Ms. Gelman says about 4 4 4 4 •