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Compiled by Elizabeth Applelcoaurri

Something Soothing
For Pregnant Moms

Jewish Message On The Liberty Bell

kay, history fans, it's time
for...Interesting Quirks of
Jewish History, the column
your mother warned you about.
This week's topic: The American
Connection.
* Inscribed on the Liberty Bell, "Pro-
claim liberty throughout
all the land unto all the in-
habitants thereof," was
not uttered by Jefferson
— or Adams or Franklin. It
, t o comes from the Torah,
-,_ Leviticus 25:10. The pas-
sage is used in reference
j
to the Israelites' celebra-
tion of the Jubilee, the 50-year an-
niversary when the land was allowed to
'7= - = lie fallow, debts were forgiven and
` slaves were set free.
1
* The famous photo of Marines rais-
ID ing the flag at Iwo Jima was taken by
r
' Associated Press photographer Joe
' Rosenthal, who won the Pulitzer Prize
(
for his picture.
* Two leading social programs in the
I
)
i United States were named by Jews.
` r Judge Samuel Rosenman, a speech
( writer and adviser for Franklin Roo-
sevelt, came up with the term "New
Deal" to describe the president's plan

0

-

to revitalize the country after the De-
pression. And speech writer Richard
Goodman coined the "Great Society"
phrase used by President Lyndon John-
son.
* Luis de Torres, a Jew, was the first
of Columbus' crew to set foot in Amer-
ica. A close friend of
Columbus, Torres was
fluent in Hebrew—which
he tried to speak to the
natives when the trav-
ellers landed. He and
Columbus believed the
Indians might be a lost
tribe of Israel.
* President William Taft broke off
trade relations with Russia because of
that country's harsh treatment of Jews.
* A Jew founded Montgomery, Ala.;
two Jewish brothers helped found
Louisville, Ky., and Wheeling, W. Va.;
while Green Bay, Wis., started out in
1794 as a trading post operated by Ja-
cob Franks. Among American cities
named for Jews: Aaronsburg, Pa., May-
er, Ariz., and Solomon, Kan.
These fascinating facts come to you
from M. Hirsh Goldberg's The Jewish
Connection.

Reform Publishes
"Gender-Sensitive" Prayer Book

he Central Conference of Amer-
ican Rabbis recently released
the first "gender-sensitive
prayer book," Gates of Prayer for Shab-
bat, for the Reform movement.
The prayer book "enables women
and men to pray without having to be
conscious of masculine language,
which characterizes most prayer
books," according to a report in the fall
issue of Reform Judaism magazine.
The new prayer book was designed
in response to feminist concerns and
increased awareness of gender issues,

according to Rabbi H. Leonard Poller,
chairman of the CCAR's liturgy com-
mittee. It contains no references to God
as "He" and discusses the contributions
of both men and women in Jewish tra-
dition. "Avot" (Fathers), for example,
has been renamed "Avot v'Imahot" (Fa-
thers and Mothers); references to pa-
triarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
include the matriarchs, Sarah, Rebec-
ca, Leah and Rachel.
For information, contact that CCAR,
192 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y.
10016, or call (212) 684-4990.

p

Picture This

he Jewish Children's Regional
Service, funding families in sev-
en states in the South, is spon-
soring its second annual Photo Contest
of Children.
Prizes, to include plane tickets and
a camera, will be awarded based on
technique, sharpness, composition and
impact. Categories are professional col-
or, professional black and white, ama-
teur color, amateur black and white,
color snapshot and "Youth in Sports."
The theme of the contest is "Children
and Young People Under Age 25."
Submissions must be received by
Jan. 1, 1993. The entry fee is $10 a pho-
to, three submissions for $25.
For an application, write the Jewish
Children's Regional Service, 5342 St.
Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA., 70115,
or call (504) 899-1595.

T

Suriname Jews'
Quincentennial

msterdam (JTA) — The Jews
of Suriname, site of the oldest
permanent Jewish settlement
in the Western hemisphere, recently
held a commemorative week in the cap-
ital city of Paramaribo to marl( 500 years
since both the discovery of America by
Columbus and the expulsion of the
Jews from Spain.
Services were held alternatively in
the Sephardic and Ashkenazic syna-
gogues in the small country, located on
the northeast coast of South America.
Jews settled in the former Dutch ter-
ritory as far back as 1639. It is believed
they came from Holland and Italy. An-
other group came from England in 1652
or 1662, while a third wave arrived in
1666 from French and British Guiana.

regnant women get varicose

veins, bizarre cravings (one
Southfield resident admits to
waking up at 3 a.m. to eat soup con-
centrate straight from the can) and an
achy, breaky back.
At long last here's some soothing
news for expectant mothers.
The Lubavitich Women's Marriage
and Family Foundation is offering a free

Shir Lama'alot (The Song of Songs)
card, which traditionally has been placed
in Jewish women's birthing rooms and
in the cradles of newborns.
The card contains Psalm 121, which
state God's commitment to guard man,
along with prayers and traditional words
and phrases of the Kabbalah. It is said
to help ease the birth process and ex-
tend blessings for a long and healthy
life.
For a copy of the card, write the
Lubavitch Women's Foundation at 824
Eastem Parkway, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11213,
or call (718), 756-5270.

Speaking Yiddish In Tel Aviv

or the first time in its history,
Tel Aviv University—the largest
institution of learning in Israel
— has launched a program in Yiddish
teacher education. More than 40 public
school teachers just completed their first
semester in a pilot program for the new
course.
The teacher's education series is ex-
pected to lead toward the establishment
of a center for Yiddish studies at Tel Aviv

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University, to embrace all creative com-
ponents of Yiddish scholarship and cul-
ture including language, literature,
folklore and theater.
The director of the program, Profes-
sor Gershon Winer, cited an increasing
interest in Yiddish throughout Israel. He
noted the country has a dozen Yiddish
periodicals, a daily Yiddish radio pro-
gram, three theater troupes and Yiddish
culture clubs in every city.

Moldovan Jews Are Rescued

ast week, the Jewish Agency
completed the most recent
of its rescue efforts, flying
more than 700 Jews out of the con-
flict area of Moldova.
In April, when the Trans-Dniester
region declared its independence
from Moldova, Moldovan militia ini-
tiated hostilities against the break-
away state, leading to the flight of
2,000 Jews from the towns of Ben-
dery and Tiraspol to a Jewish Agency
transit station in Odessa An additional
400 Jews fled to Kishinev. As direct
flights could not be operated from the
Odessa station, the Agency trans-
ferred the refugees to Kishinev for the
flight to Israel.
The newly independent state of
Moldava once formed part of a larg-

er political framework known as Mol-
davia, created in the 14th century as
a principality of Romania. Thriving
Jewish communities have lived in the
area from the earliest times, with
Jews forming 46 percent of the pop-
ulation of the capital, Kishinev, in
1867. There were major pogroms
there at the beginning of the 20th cen-
tury.
The new area of conflict includes
a narrow belt along the east side of
the Dniester River and the town of
Bender)/ on the west. In early spring
of this year, the primarily Russian and
Ukrainian population, fearing the
eventual reunification of Moldova with
Romania, declared themselves inde-
pendent.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 11