DETROIT

AMY J. MEHLER

Staff Writer

adimir Vorobeychik
walked out of the
Resettlement Service
Warehouse on Tuesday with
a plastic bag stuffed . with
wool sweaters, a carton filled
with volumes of Readers
Digest and a worn, if
somewhat rideable, bicycle.
Others weren't so lucky.
Herb Schein, the
warehouse manager, turned
away several new American
families who had hoped to
find desks, chairs, sofas, end
tables and bookcases.
The Glicks, a family of four
from Kishinev, showed up at
the warehouse at Northland
shopping center around 1
p.m. They handed Mr.
Schein a list of household
items only to be told they'd
have better luck if they
returned another day. They
turned away, rather listless-
ly, and continued to look for
smaller, less essential items.
Mr. Vorobeychik, who left
Moscow with his wife and
two sons one month ago, said
his family still needs a vac-
uum cleaner and an iron.
Alex Kessler; who vol-
unteers at the warehouse,
said he'd seen one 90-year-
old man come back to the
facility 10 times until he
found what he was looking
for.
"We feel like we're letting
these people down," Mr.
Kessler said. "We tell them
about the warehouse and br-
ing them here, only to tell
them we don't have
anything for them and
they'll have to keep coming
back."
Mr. Schein said donations
are way down and Soviet
Jewish arrivals are up.
"They're coming all the
time, and even when we
have furniture in stock, it's
sometimes snapped up even
before it gets to the
warehouse."
There were two sets of
sofas on the warehouse floor,
but they were already
spoken for, Mr. Schein said.
Sandy Hyman, director of
Resettlement Service, said
the situation is reaching a
crisis point. There just isn't
enough furniture to go
around, she said.
"Ten new American
families arrived this week
and six of them are unan-
chored," Mrs. Hyman said.
"These families have no one

14

FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1991

here, so they are solely
dependent on the Jewish
community and their case
workers for their support
and basic needs."
Mrs. Hyman said any new
American may make a list of
needed items and bring it to
the warehouse after getting
approval from a counselor at
Jewish Family Service.
The warehouse, located off
parking lot E at Northland
Center, is open Tuesdays
and Thursdays from noon
till 2 p.m. Resettlement Ser-
vice volunteers will pick up
furniture and bring it to the
warehouse.
Mrs. Hyman said she's
seen the warehouse go
through different phases.
"It's gone through looking
really full to now, where it's
really empty," Mrs. Hyman
said. "We're now in some
very dire straits. We're ask-
ing the community to think
of us before giving away any
used furniture or household
appliances."
What the warehouse does
have are lots of clothes, Mrs.
Hyman said. There are racks
of used clothing — suits,
coats, jackets, pants, dresses,
shirts — and shelves of
weather-beaten shoes stack-
ed against the back walls.
But there are plenty of open
spaces near the front of the
warehouse where the fur-
niture is usually displayed.
Mrs. Hyman said when the
warehouse doesn't receive
enough donations, the
Resettlement Service must
pay for it out of the $1,300 to
$1,600 allotted to each new
American.
Anchored families — those
with local sponsors —
receive $1300. Unanchored
families recieve $1,600.
"We're not budgeted to
buy furniture," Mrs. Hyman
said. "When we need to buy,
we have to go to the stores."
She said the Jewish com-
munity needs to understand
that many of the new
Americans are from middle
to upper class backgrounds
and feel very uncomfortable
about taking goods.
"Like you, they're not go-
ing to want to take home
things that are on their last
legs, or so damaged or worn
you wouldn't want them in
your home either," Mrs.
Hyman said. "We're inter-
ested in pieces that are still
in fairly good condition."
To contribute furniture,
call the Jewish Family Ser-
vice, 559-1500. ❑

Photo by Glen n Triest

Emigres' Warehouse
Low On Furniture

Sofie Liberman and Malls Brayter "shop" for furniture at the Resettlement Service Warehouse.

Honigman, ADL Back Law
To Protect Gays And Lesbians

AMY J. MEHLER

Staff Writer

S

tate Senator David
Honigman, R-West
Bloomfield, said this
week he intends to introduce
a revised version of the
state's Ethnic Intimidation
Act in September that will
include the phrase "sexual
orientation."
Mr. Honigman, who was a
state representative when
he sponsored the bill in
1988, introduced it with the
phrase "sexual orientation."
After the bill passed the
House Judiciary Committee
and the full House of Repre-
sentatives, it failed in the
Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee.
Mr. Honigman said Oak-
land County Judge Rudy J.
Nichols, who was then
chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, would
not move the bill out of
committee unless the phrase
"sexual orientation" was
removed.
The bill, which passed Dec.
21, 1988, says that a person
is guilty of ethnic intimida-
tion if that person in-
timidates or harasses an-
other person because of race,
color, religion, gender and
national origin by causing
physical contact, damaging,
destroying or defacing per-
sonal property or threaten-
ing another person.

The bill makes ethnic in-
timidation a felony
punishable by imprisonment
of up to two years and or by a
fine of up to $5,000.
Mr. Honigman said his
new bill would reintroduce
sexual orientation and call
for criminal punishment.
Judge Nichols said he and
36 other state senators voted
against the bill in 1988.
"All persons so victimized
should be able to seek the
same vindication irrespec-

"Ethnic
intimidation is a
conspiracy to deny
someone their civil
rights."

Richard Lobenthal

tive of the group he or she
belonged to," Judge Nichols
said.
The judge said there was a
second, unprecedented con-
cept in Mr. Honigman's bill.
"It (sexual orientation)
would have for the first time
in Michigan legitimized or
sanctioned behavior com-
monly referred to as
homosexuality. It would
have done this by having
`sexual orientation' receive
the added benefit of the
statute simply by virtue of
one's membership in such as
class.
"In other words, the bill

not only protected specified
classes of people from being
victimized by this new type
of crime and penalty, but
created and established a
whole new class of people
heretofore unrecognized in
the State of Michigan."
Mr. Honigman, who also
sits on the board of directors
of the Michigan Region of
the Anti-Defamation League
of B'nai B'rith, patterned-
the bill after a national ADL
model. -
Richard Lobenthal, direc-
tor of the Michigan ADL,
said similar bills have al-
, ready been introduced in 31
states.
"ADL produced the model
bill, and each state modifies
it little by little," Mr. Loben-
thal said. "Ethnic intimida-
tion is a conspiracy to
deprive someone of their
civil rights. This bill was
written to protect people
from being victimized by vir-
tue of race, religion, eth-
nicity, national origin and
sexual orientation.
"It's part of the ADL's
overall mission to protect
people against discrimina-
tion and to combat pre-
judice," he said. "We have as
much interest in protecting
gay men and lesbian women
from being victimized be-
cause we believe it's correct
and because it protects
Jews."
Judge Nichols said that at
the time, he found "not one