COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAU

Where Baby Is Number One

Aar
Baby-sitting at the temple fea-
tures a general supervisor and
a staff of 28, serving 200 children
during the 3-day period.
So, how did they do it?
The answer is contained in
the High Holiday Baby-sitting
Guide, written by members of
the Temple Israel Sisterhood.
The project began in the mid-
1980s after the congregation ex-

perienced a large increase in
members 35 and under, most of
whom had young children.
When the temple sisterhood,
which arranges for High Holi-
day baby-sitting, found that par-
ent volunteers simply weren't
enough, they hired a few paid sit-
ters. But soon, this, too, needed
to be expanded.
Overseeing the care of 200
children is exactly as complicat-
ed as it sounds. An elaborate
drop off/pick up system is used
to insure the security of the chil-
• dren, both for preregistered chil-
dren and walk-ins. Long-term
advance planning is needed both
for food preparation and orga-
nizing activities to keep the chil-
dren entertained.
Sisterhood members also co-
ordinated services — one for 3-
4 year olds, another for those
aged 5-7 — which are arranged
so as to require the least amount
of moving children around and
for services not to be interrupt-
ed by commotion from babies
and toddlers.
For information about the
High Holiday Baby-sitting
Guide, contact the Sharon,
Mass., Temple Israel Sisterhood,
(617) 784-5726.

A1001101.01.11010.

What Brings Converts To Judaism?

F

uture relationships with
family members and
friends represent a major
concern of the prospective con-
f vert to Judaism, according to a
new booklet Becoming Jewish —
A Handbook for Conversion pub-
lished by the Rabbinical Assem-
bly.
Author Rabbi Ronald Isaacs
of Temple Sholom in Bridgewa-
ter, N.J., estimates that some
10,000 persons convert to Ju-
daism each year, a figure he be-
lieves could increase as "more
and more people search for a
faith and as interfaith dating in-
creases."
Chapters in his book include
the history, background and pro-
cedures of a conversion, family
and friends, raising children,
outlines of Jewish holidays and
prayers, and suggested reading.
Rabbi Isaacs, who has coun-
seled numerous converts, urges
his colleagues to practice an
open-door policy to gentiles seek-
ing counseling as prospective
converts. One especially sensi-
tive area is dealing with the con-
vert's parents, with whom the

issue of conversion should be
openly discussed.
He also advises families to cel-
ebrate together on non-religious
holidays, such as birthdays, civic
holidays, Thanksgiving, Fourth
of July and anniversaries.
Becoming Jewish costs
$15.95, which includes postage
and handling, and may be or-
dered through KTAV Publish-
ing House, Inc., 900 Jefferson,
Hoboken, N.J. 07030.

The Why Behind The Blue And White

W

How Many Jews
In Malta?

T

he United States is first,
with more than
5,835,000 Jews, and Is-
rael is second, with some
4,300,000.
But who knows how many
Jews live in Malta?
About 50, according to the
Jerusalem Post.
Other Jewish population es-
timates around the world:
* Trinidad and Tobago has
50.
* Jamaica has 800.
* Kenya has 330.
* Chile has 17,000.
* Curacao has 600.
* Ireland has 2,000.
* India has 5,600.
* Zaire has 200.
* Zambia has 85.
* Barbados has 50.
* South Korea has 50.
* Egypt has 240.
* Singapore has 300.
* Zimbabwe has 1,200.
* Monaco has 1,000.
* Paraguay has 900.
* Italy has 34,500.
* Turkey has 23,000.
* Brazil has 150,000.
* Poland has 6,000.
The American Jewish Year
Book gives some additional fig-
ures:
* Argentina has 213,000.
* Paraguay has 900.
* Venezuela has 20,000.
* Central America has
49,700.
* Germany has 42,500.
* Portugal has 300.
* Spain has 12,000.
* Estonia has 3,500.
* Ukraine has 325,000.
* As of 1988, the former Yu-
goslavia had 4,300.
* Ethiopia has 1,500.
* South Africa has 114,000.
* Tunisia has 2,200.

ould it be the same if Is-
rael's flag had vertical
stripes or a triangular
white banner, enclosing a Star of
David and two horizontal blue
lines?
It could easily have been either
of those, according to Alec
Mishory of Israel's Open Uni-
versity.
A recent issue of Open Letter
describes Mr. Mishory's findings
on the &aerations preceding the
choice of which flag design to use
for the new state.
Just days after
Israel was declared
a state, a commit-
tee announced a
competition for the
design of a new flag
of Israel. Five months and 164
proposals later, it passed the de-
cision on to the Provisional Coun-
cil of the State, which opted for
the already-in-use flag of the
Zionist Organization.
(Among the proposals reject-
ed: a flag with vertical blue
stripes, and a flag featuring sev-
en gold stars.)
The familiar blue-and-white
flag, Mr. Mishory writes, was de-
signed by David Wolfson, an as-
sociate of Theodor Herzl and an
i organizer of the first Zionist Con-
; gress.

"By order of our leader, Herzl,
I came to Basel to make prepa-
rations for the Congress and to
assure its success," Mr. Wolfson
wrote. "Among the many ques-
tions confronting us is: What flag
should adorn the Congress hall?
We have no flag — this thought
is very disturbing. A flag must be
created, but what colors should
be chosen? Will our nation dis-
cern colors, a nation careful not
to feast its eyes on idols or pic-
tures?
"Then I got
an idea: We do
have a flag,
white and blue,
the tallit, in
which we wrap
ourselves to
pray. A tallit is our symbol."
On Oct. 28, 1948, the Provi-
sional Council of the State offi-
cially designated the new flag,
including the following stipula-
tions:
It must be 220 centimeters
long and 160 centimeters wide.
It should be white, with two
dark-blue stripes, each 25 cen-
timeters wide.
In the middle of the white
background between the two blue
stripes should be a Star of David,
composed of six blue lines, each
5.5 centimeters wide.

Photo by RNS/Reuters

T

en years ago, High Holi-
day baby-sitting at Tem-
ple Israel in Sharon,
Mass., was handled by a hand-
ful of parent volunteers.
Today, that operation func-
tions with the sophistication of
a major business organization.

Bavarian Prime Minister Max Stribi lays a wreath at Dachau in March, 60 years after the
Nazi death camp was opened.

Nazi Investigator Wins Award

ustrian
President
Thomas Klestil recently
warded the country's
Grand Decoration of Honor to
Elliot Welles, director of the
Anti-Defamation League's task
force on Nazi war criminals.
A Holocaust survivor, Mr.
Welles is a native of Vienna who
lived there until 1942, when he
and his mother were deported
to the ghetto in Riga, Latvia.
Two years later, when he was
16, Elliot Welles was sent to the
Stutthof concentration camp in

Poland and from there to one of
the satellite camps of Buchen-
wald. He escaped several
months before the end of the
war, after which he returned to
Vienna, searching in vain for
surviving relatives. He immi-
grated in 1949 to the United
States.
Mr. Welles, who joined the
ADL in 1978, develops infor-
mation to assist official investi-
gation and prosecution of Nazi
war criminal cases in the Unit-
ed States.

