rds

s keep children
I and out.

RUTH LITTMAN STAFF WRITER

TH E DETRO IT J EWIS H NEWS

Yitzchak Skaist,
right, and
Eliyohu Irons
search for their
favorite rabbis.

14

ho's Babe Ruth?
Who cares? For many
local Jewish youth, the
question pales in signifi-
cance to: Who was Ray
Yitzchok Hutner?
Little Yitzchak, 8,
beams as he shuffles
through a four-inch stack
of rabbi cards — "like
baseball cards, but bet-
ter" — to find the beard-
ed, wisened visage of
Rabbi Hutner.
"I was named after
him," says the young
admirer of the late rabbi,
who served as rosh yeshi-
va at Chaim Berlin school
in New York.
As son of Rabbi
Raphael Skaist, principal
of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah,
little Yitzchak is one of

many children who collect
rabbi cards. Each card
provides information for
history enthusiasts like
Eliyohu Irons, an 8-year-
old student at the
Yeshiva.
"I have more than 247
at home," Eliyohu says.
"They teach you what the
rabbis do and did. My
parents don't let me col-
lect baseball cards."
Is he resentful? Eliyohu
shakes his head: No way.
"Rabbi cards are better
than baseball cards," he
says. "They show the rab-
bis' sparkles. The spark-
les come from their souls.
They don't do sins and
they're always learning."
The cards keep young
collectors in the learning

mode, too. Yitzchak and
Eliyohu memorize the
rabbis' names and claims
to fame. But many of the
rabbis depicted on the
cards are obscure. In
these cases, the boys con-
sult books in their school
library to unearth more
information.
Rabbi Skaist applauds
this extracurricular ac-
tivity for promoting good
values and an interest in
history. So does Bea
Kriechman, principal of
Adat Shalom Hebrew
School. Rabbi cards and
the newly produced Torah
cards are a hit with
teachers as well as youth.
"(Some of our) teachers
use them as a reward,"
Mrs. Kriechman said.
"Then the children save
them for other purposes.
The cards are lovely. It's
a wonderful idea."
The Torah card idea,
which hit the market
about three months ago,
originated with a frus-
trated father in New York
City.
"My son played with
baseball cards just one
time too many," says
Avrumi Gross, owner of
Torah Gems Inc. "He was
organizing the baseball
cards in order of teams,
then positions, then birth
dates. And he was (orga-
nizing) them face up."
When Mr. Gross real-
ized his son had memo-
rized the birth dates of
the players, wondered
if he could put that much
time to better use."
Avrohom Plotnik, co-
owner of Spitzer's Hebrew
Book Store, says rabbi
cards, which date back

about three years, are
still more popular among
kids than Torah cards, –1
which depict biblical
scenes.
"Torah cards are not as
big of a rage as rabbi
cards, but they are popu-
A
lar," he said. "No doubt
about it."
Forget about Babe
Ruth. In Borenstein's • 4
Book and Music Store,
Avrom Borenstein sells a
card of Ruth, wife of -4
Boaz. The card shows
Ruth draped in a colorful
veil while gathering gold-
en wheat. The back of
this card, like others, pro-
vides dates, descriptions
and other information rel-
evant to the Torah story,
including Kaballah.
Mr. Gross says 110 "4
Torah cards have been
produced so far. They are
printed in Israel and 1
researched by S. Wein-
berg, a Torah scholar he
hired. The cards are .1
geared for elementary
and junior high school ""4
Jewish students of all .4
denominations, said Mr.
Gross. They differ from '
rabbi cards because they .4
parallel classroom curric-
ula more closely, he said.
"We just felt that this is
what they teach in the
schools. This, we felt, had
more of a mainstream
approach," Mr. Gross '1
said. "It's nice to see that
children in all different
denominations still have
the same Torah cards."
Shuffling through their 4
rabbi cards, Yitzchak and
Eliyohu pause long
enough to say they just
might give Torah cards a
shot.❑