bors and our friends," Ms.
Schlang said.
JVS has hired a corpo-
rate consultant to help
out-of-work Jews revise
their resumes and find
opportunities. One-third
of those involved in the
program have found
employment but have not
attained their former level
of salary. Many of the jobs
lost will never exist again.
Mr. Dembs wrapped it
up simply, "We know what
the problems are. Now we
need to develop and pre-
sent the resources avail-
able to provide people
power to solve these social

50 YEARS AGO...
JHA Names Interim
Operating Committee JNF Conference
Draws Leaders

KIMBERLY LIFTON STAFF WR TER

I

n a move aimed at
restructuring the
Jewish Home for Aged,
its board of directors
this week created an
interim committee charg-
ed with overseeing day-to-
day operations for Borman
Hall, Prentis Manor and
Fleischman Residence/
Blumberg Plaza.

O

Alexander Re Elected
Oakland GOP Chief

KIMBERLY LIFTON STAFF WR TER

im Alexander, Oak-
land County's first
Jewish Republican
Party chairman,was
reelected last week to a
third two-year term.
Mr. Alexander won the
election in a unanimous
• vote. He was nominated
! by Robert Anderson, who
had been asked to oppose
Mr. Alexander's candida-
cy. The two men met
before the election,
worked out their differ-
ences, and Mr. Anderson
decided to back Mr.
- Alexander.
"Many peo-
ple thought I handled the
• job in a way it should not
I
have been handled," Mr.
Alexander said, adding he
may have been too visible
and too public in his
chairman role. "I took
positions that tended to
‘) divide the party."
Throughout the race,
there had been specula-
tion that Mr. Alexander
would not be reelected. He
came under fire from some
members of the GOP after
he publicly endorsed
attorney Andrea Fischer
in the race for Michigan
Republican committee-
i= woman.
Party chairs generally
do not endorse candidates
in such races.
Betsy DeVos of Grand
Rapids won the race over
Ms. Fischer and past GOP
• Committeewoman Ronna
Romney.
"We (GOP leaders) have
been able to sit down and

j

r

Jim Alexander

talk and reach consen-
sus— even after all of the
tone and the rhetoric over
the last several months,"
Mr. Alexander said.
Now, Mr. Alexander
said, he will be less visi-
ble; and he will work to
build consensus within
the party. In his new
term, Mr. Alexander will
not endorse candidates.
"First on my agenda is
to reelect John Engler and
defeat Don Riegle
(Democratic U.S. sena-
tor)," Mr. Alexander said.
"We must broaden the
base of the party to
include more people on
the grass-roots level. And
we will recruit some of the
finest candidates we
can."❑

The nine-member com-
mittee, which includes
JHA executive board mem-
bers Jack Schon, Julie
Levy and Michael
Perlman, is expected to
meet every seven to 10
days.
The 60-member board
meets quarterly.
In addition to the board
members, the committee is
comprised of Cindy Sch-
wartz, a former employee
who helped map out plans
to create Fleischman; Phil
Schaengold, Sinai Hospital
chief operating officer;
Robert Naftaly, Federation
board member who recent-
ly chaired two JHA fast-
track committees; Dr. Dan
Guyer, psychiatrist; Jer-
ome Halperin, a CPA who
chaired the Federation's
committee brought into
JHA last fall to study its
financial management;
and CPA Harvey Kleiman.
Markey Butler, appoint-
ed as JHA interim execu-
tive director following the
recent resignation of
Arnold Budin, will report
to the committee.
"This is one step toward
ultimately restructuring
the board at the Home,"
Mr. Perlman said. "We
have an interim operating
committee until we go
through proper legal
steps."
Mr. Perlman said the
board hopes to create a
new system of overseeing
the Home, similar to the
arrangement made at
Sinai Hospital during its
restructuring.
Sinai downsized its
large board of directors. In
addition, Sinai has created
a foundation, aimed at
fund-raising and promot-
ing the hospital.
Problems have been
mounting over the past
decade at JHA, which has
faced trouble in the areas
of finance and resident
care. The situation wors-
ened in August when the
212-bed Borman Hall
failed a state survey.
The following month,
Borman again failed a
state survey. With the
help of fast-track special-
ist Ms. Butler, of Ann
Arbor, Borman earlier this
month got a relatively

JHA page 16

SY MANELLO SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

T

he upcoming JNF
Rally was the main
focus of attention
on this Friday 50
years ago. The "Land for
Freedom" conference set
at the Book-Cadillac
Hotel was to draw dele-
gates from across
America including some
very prominent people:
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver,
Senator Albers Barkley,
Judge Louis Levinthal,
president of the ZOA.
The emphasis was on
preparing the land of
Palestine for the settle-
ment of Jews upon the
conclusion of the war.
Not everyone shared
this goal, however. An
American Council for
Judaisni was formed in
New York to oppose the
establishment of a
Jewish State in
Palestine; Rabbi Elmer
Berger of Flint was the
executive director of this
group of non-Zionist rab-
bis.
A summary of news
reports did show the
encouraging signs of pos-
itive world attitudes
toward Jews. Mexicans
staged protests over
Jewish massacres in
Nazi-occupied Europe;
Costa Rica pledged aid to
victims of Nazism; the
Danish king said that
anti-Jewish laws would
not be enacted.
The community had at
least two important pro-
jects claiming attention.
Under the chairmanship
of Mrs. Maurice Landau,
an effort was made to
complete the J.H.
Ehrlich Memorial Forest
in Palestine. Morris
Blumberg, president of
Congregation Shaarey
Zedek, chaired a recep-
tion to honor Dr. Louis
Finkelstein to raise
funds for the Jewish
Theological Seminary.
On the national scene
there were prominent
names in the news; one
was a local man.
Journalist and editor
Pierre van Passers was
voted one of the most
eminent friends of the
Jewish people. Arthur
Sulzberger, publisher of
the New York Times, was

named by President
Roosevelt to the central
committee of the
American Red Cross and
was believed to be the
first Jew so elected. Dr.
William Haber, former
professor of economics at
University of Michigan
and then-chairman of a
sub-committee of the
National Resources
Planning Board, con-
cluded a long-view pro-
gram for American social
security; his plan was
structured "to free every
American family from
want, from the cradle to
the grave."
Recognition was not
reserved for the nation-
ally prominent. At a pro-
gram sponsored by the
Sholem Aleichem
Reading Circles, Moishe
Dombey read Yiddish
selections; Tzirl Soifer
presented a sketch;
Doris Dombey, accompa-
nied at the piano by
Rena LaMed, gave a
recitation. To see if you
are as well read now as
we thought our readers
were then, here are some
sample questions from
the Quiz Box; the
answers appear at the
end of this column.
1)Name four American
Jewish women novelists;
2)Who translated the
works of Sholem Asch
and I.J. Singer? 3) What
have Waldo Frank and
Louis Untermeyer in
common?
There were many joy-
ous events recorded at
this time. Among them
were the bar mitzvahs of
Dale Boesky and Ste-
wart Kepes; the wed-
dings of Lois Love and
Sidney Cohen; Florence
Moss and Arnold Ros-
man.
Here are your ans-
wers, but you knew
already, didn't you? 1)
Hurst, Ferber, Zug-
smith, Slesinger; 2)
Maurice Samuel; 3) They
have written biographies.
This column will be a
weekly feature during
The Jewish News'
anniversary year, look-
ing at The Jewish News
of today's date 50 years
ago.

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