• • •

COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Jewish 'Wheel of Fortune,'
Noah's Ark and a Shtetl

L

et's face it. Art and
antiquities, the stuff
most museums are
made of, do not exactly
appeal to the younger set.
But one muse-
um, to be es-
tablished in
New York,
will more than
appeal to chil-
dren of all
ages. It's call-
ed the Jewish
Children's
Museum, a
project of the
Lubavitch
organization
Jewish Children Inter-
national - Tzivos Hashem.
The museum will open
with 100 exhibits depict-
ing different segments of
Jewish life, such as scenes
from history, the Torah,
Talmud, and Jewish cus-
toms and traditions. A
"shtetl" of the 19th centu-
ry will feature artisans, in
traditional garb, making
parchment for Torah
scrolls and tefillin boxes,

and a sofer writing a
Torah. Children will be
able to participate in a
live game show (a Hebrew
version of such programs
as "Wheel of
Fortune" and
"Concentra-
tion"), make
their own arts
and crafts,
and join in
special holi-
day activities.
Included in
the exhibits in
the history
wing will be a
multimedia
production combining
video screen shots, com-
puter animation and
three-dimensional effects,
showing the six days of
creation. A full-sized
Noah's ark, built accord-
ing to biblical specifica-
tions, also is planned.
The Jewish Children's
Museum also is set to
include a theater and a
Holocaust wing. It will
open in 1994.

Six Cyclists Make Their Way
NCJW Produces
St. Petersburg To Israel
Work-Family Guide From
and the American Jewish
he first surprise for

A

s part of its ongoing
campaign to help
working Americans
with child and elder-care
needs, the National
Council of Jewish Women
has published Working

with Employers and Other
Community Partners: A
Work-Family Guide.
The public education
campaign was launched in
1989 as part of the NCJW
Work-Family Project. It
was initiated in response
to statistics showing that
80 percent of the care
given to the elderly is pro-
vided by family members.
The guide assists orga-
nizations in networking
and needs assessments,
and offers practical advice
on securing financial and
in-kind support.
For information, contact
NCJW, 53 W. 23rd St.,
New York, N.Y. 10010, or
call (212) 645-4048.

Army Appoints
Female Rabbi

C

in Middle Eai
in America) •
Yet CAMERA charges'
x.
that the ALA has ignored
the fact that "Weit Bank
and Gaia Arabg 'actually;
`el-lief a freer presS than
do their brethren in the
Arab world," and has not
rebuked any Arab 'gov
ernments, "every one of .
which exercises Censor-
h . p."
Furtherthore the ALA
"made no mention of the
context in which Israel
might be 'required for
security reasons to cur-

to air
of
A.bb a E b
that it was pfo
an organization
vested self-intere
program Content.
The series was pro-
duced. by Israel Heritage,
a nonprofit organization
based in New York and
established to fund the
series. Contributors
include a wide array of
individuals.

.

hana Timoner, 41,
last week became
the first Jewish
woman appointed to a
long-term post as a chap-
lain in the U.S. Army.
Ordained three years
ago at the Academy for
Jewish Religion in New
York City, Rabbi Timoner
will serve at Fort Bragg,
N.C. She is a native of
New Haven, Conn., where
her grandfather, Abraham
Greenberg, also was a
rabbi.
Rabbi Timoner comes
from a strong military
background. Her mother,
Mary Surasky, joined the
Canadian army in the
1940s — choosing Canada
because no women's army
corps yet existed in the
United States.

six Jewish men who
rode their bicycles to
Israel came in their home-
town.
"We were amazed that
we could move through
the city with Jewish sym-
bols, with everybody see-
ing that we are Jews and
taking it in their stride,"
said cyclist Arkadi
Minchin.
The
middle-aged
Russians organized their
recent tour to learn about
Jewish life between St.
Petersburg and Jeru-
salem. They passed
through Latvia, Belaruss,
Ukraine, Lithuania, Mold-
ova, Romania, Bulgaria
and Greece. At every stop,
they displayed a banner
that read "From St.
Petersburg to Jerusalem."
Isaak Gutman orga-
nized the tour with the
help of the local chapter of
the Maccabi World Union

Joint Distribution
Committee.
"For years we were
scared to say we are
Jewish," Mr. Gutman
said. "Now it's a different
story."
Throughout their jour-
ney, the cyclists wore blue
shorts and white Maccabi
T-shirts bearing the
Magen David. They car-
ried the flags of Israel, the
Maccabi and Russia.
Cycling 100 kilometers
a day, the group made its
first stop in Daugaupils, a
Latvian town with some
3,000 Jews. They went to
the synagogue and met
with members of the com-
munity. On Yom Kippur in
Bucharest, the cyclists
attended services led by
Moses Rosen, chief rabbi
of Romania. The service
was the first some of the
men had attended.

Solar Blankets For Ripe Melons

J

TA) — Agricultural
scientists at Ben-
Gurion University of
the Negev are introducing
a new technique that will
enable melons to be grown
in winter for export.
The new system is
based on the theory that
what is good for humans
should help the growth of
the fruit and thereby
bring in high prices in
Europe. Israeli cantaloupe
and honeydew melons sell
for premium out-of-season
prices at the best hotels
and gourmet restaurants
in Europe.
Professor Dov Paster-
nak of Ben-Gurion's
Institute for Agriculture
and Applied Biology
explained that the tech-
nique uses "passive solar

energy" and "solar blan-
kets." Solar energy would
reduce the cost of heating,
thereby bringing down the
price of the melons.
The method of "solar

blankets" uses plastic
pipes full of water heated
by solar energy by day. At
night, a "thermal blanket"
of plastic sheeting is
placed over the crop, pre-
venting the heat from dis-
sipating, and keeping the
inside temperature about
13 degrees Fahrenheit
above the outside temper-
ature.