DETROIT Emigres Seek Fund To Aid Jews In USSR ALAN HITSKY Associate Editor W At First Optometry SPEC•TIQUE, we feature the finest designer eyewear names including GUCCI, LAURA BIAGIOTTI, GIORGIO ARMANI, BENETTON, LIZ CLAIBORNE and more at the GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICES! Come in and see the latest designs and the hottest colors! Examinations are available or bring us your prescription and SAVE! hile communal at- tention has been focused on the im- migration of Soviet Jews, two emigres in Detroit are focusing on Jews in the Soviet Union. Henry Frenkel, who has been in Detroit six months, and David Gilfman, a 15- year Detroit area resident, are trying to establish a local branch of Zedek, a Jew- ish charitable fund in the Soviet Union. The fund is an arm of Machaniam, a Soviet- recognized Jewish organiza- tion which is helping the Jewish community in Cher- nobyl, five years after the nuclear accident, and creating Jewish child care, art and adult education pro- grams in Moscow and Char- coy. Mr. Frenkel, 25, worked three years in Chernobyl after the accident, monitor- ing the radiation levels in food and water. His per- sistence in reporting dangerous levels of radiation almost led to his firing. He charged that radiation- contaminated foodstuffs were mixed with safe food and then shipped to areas away from Chernobyl for consumption. Soviet authorities, he said, finally moved the populace from the most dangerous areas of the city, but the new areas are still unsafe. Cher- nobyl's Jewish population was 70,000 before the acci- dent and 35,000 Jews still live in the city, he said. The Machaniam organiza- tion has given financial help and medicines to 50 elderly Jewish families in Cher- nobyl. After he left the city, Mr. Frenkel went to work for the organization. In his limited English, Mr. Frenkel said his main goal is to help the Jews of Cher- nobyl. "Thousands of people are still in the radioactive zones," he said. Machanaim wants to move as many as possible away from the city. Mr. Frenkel, with the help of Mr. Gilfman, his cousin, have contacted several community leaders for help. All have promised support and advice, but the two men are on their own to establish the Zedek Fund here. Mr. Gilfman, 22, is a graduate of North Farm- ington High School and is a business major at Wayne State University. Mr. Frenkel, 25, came to the United States six months ago with his wife, baby, and in-laws. His parents still live near Chernobyl. Persons wishing to help organize the Zedek Fund can call Mr. Gilfman at 661- 1552, or Mr. Frenkel at 968- 7828. NEWS I SOUTHFIELD 647-9790 30800 Southfield Road NIBBLES & NUm Wish Someone You Love LShanah Tova Tikatevu A Beautiful Tray Filled With Special Candy, Dried Fruits and Nuts. 737-8088 33020 NORTHWESTERN • W. BLOOMFIELD am. Outside Of Michigan is MI 1.800-752'.2133 Special Candy & Sugarfree Available • ORDER EARLY • Local & Nationwide Delivery 16 FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1991 Schach Says Herzog Defends Pork-Eaters Tel Aviv (JTA) — Presi- dent Chaim Herzog declined to react last week to an Or- thodox rabbi who accused him of besmirching Jewish values. "The president does not respond to personal at- tacks," was the terse state- ment issued by the Presi- dent's Office in Jerusalem after Rabbi Eliezer Schach of Bnei Brak denounced Israel's chief of state for defending "pig-eating" kib- butzniks. The nonagenarian Rabbi Schach, who hails from Lithuania, is spiritual men- tor of the Degel HaTorah (Torah Flag) party and an in- fluential authority in the larger, predominantly Sephardic Shas party. Both belong to the haredi bloc, the strictly Orthodox parties that provide Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Likud-led government with its comfor- table margin in the Knesset. Rabbi Schach's quarrel with the president arose after Mr. Herzog spoke in defense of the kibbutz movement, pointing out its pioneering role in founding the Jewish state. He felt called upon to do so earlier this year after the Bnei Brak rabbi publicly accused "pig-eating and pig- breeding" kibbutzniks of leading pious Oriental Jews away from traditional Judaism.