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COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Something Fishy Is
Going OR At The JNF
Wild flowa
E
ugene Lerner says his
friends went for the idea
"hook, line and sinker."
The idea is a Jewish Na-
tional Fund fishing mission,
planned for Feb. 24-March 6.
Dr. Lerner, of Chicago, is a
longtime fishing aficionado
who says, "From the Galilee to
the Jordan River to Eilat, Is-
rael offers a surprising num-
ber of opportunities to fish."
In fact, Israel has a signifi-
cant fish industry. Fish farm-
ing helps support several
kibbutzim, including
Kibbutz Neve Ur in
the Beit She'an Valley,
which exports fish to
Europe and America.
Mission partici-
pants will visit Eilat,
Lake Kinneret, Kib-
butz Neve Ur and
the Jordan River,
among other sites.
For information,
contact Mort
Naiman at 1-800-
542-8733.
Noa
J
azz great Pat Metheny is
putting the finishing touch-
es on a new album, to be
released next month, by Israeli
singer Noa.
Noa (born Achinoam Nini) is
one of Israel's most popular
singers; her "Noa" album will
mark her debut in the United
States.
Ms. Nini, 24, is the daughter
of Yemenite parents who settled
in the Bronx soon after their
daughter was born. As a teen,
Achinoam begged her parents
to let her return to Israel, where
she has now resided for several
years.
Ms. Nini's musical career be-
gan in the Israel Defense Forces,
where she was assigned to an
entertainment unit that toured
the country's military bases. The
former sergeant performed with
the Israeli army for two years.
In 1990, guitarist Gil Dor
asked Ms. Nini to sing at a jazz
festival in Tel Aviv. One year
later, she recorded her first al-
bum, on the last day of the Gulf
War. The album has since gone
gold in Israel.
It was Mr. Dor who first con-
tacted Pat Metheny, whom he
met while studying at Boston's
Berklee School of Music, about
Ms. Nini. She later called Mr.
Metheny, but with great hesi-
tation. "I felt uncomfortable call-
ing this famous musician, so I
waited until my last day (while
visiting in the United States)
and left a message on his ma-
chine and forgot about it," she
says. "Miraculously, he returned
the call."
Ms. Nini, who plays guitar,
piano and percussions, describes
her music as a blend of pop and
jazz. She incorporates her dance
background (she trained at the
Alvin Ailey and Martha Gra-
ham dance centers) into her con-
certs.
Among the songs on "Noa,"
which will be released on Gef-
fen Records, are the autobio-
graphical "Wild Flower" and
"Uri," based on a piece by the Is-
raeli poet Rachel, recalling her
longing for the child she could
never have.
C o mg r attl ea ti o m s , O etimia4
I
he results are in!
Congratulations to
Blumah Gourarie, 8, of
Oak Park, who won the "Guess
how many dreidels are in the
container?" contest at last
month's Dreidel House at
Crosswinds Mall.
Guesses as to the number of
dreidels ranged from 7 to 1,110.
There were actually 535 drei-
dels in the container; Blumah
came closest with 550.
The Dreidel House is spon-
SP
4
4 44)„.
Chanukatt "
sored by the Lubavitch
Women's Organization of
Michigan.
Eugene Lerner, co-chairman of the first JNF Fishin' Mission
to Israel, in his favorite repose on Knee Lake in Canada.
No Secrets
A
n Arizona imagery ana-
lyst recently confirmed
the presence of a base for
Jericho missiles, said to be a
central part of Israel's nuclear
defense, hidden in a cave just
outside Jerusalem.
Harold Hough analyzed the
images using photos provided
by Russian and French satel-
lites. The launch facility, ac-
cording to a recent article in
Aviation Week & Space Tech-
nology, comprises "bunker stor-
age area, a network of roads
and a hill marked with caves
that are used as preparation
sites prior to missile rollout and
launch."
The cave is near both the Tel
Nof Israeli Air Force Base and
a reported missile factory
where the Jericho missiles are
built. "Early this year, the U.S.
Guess Who's
Coming To
Dinner?
A
mong the guest speak-
ers at this week's
Arab-American In-
stitute-sponsored 1994 Nation-
al Leadership Conference is
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-
Conn.
"Making Democracy Work at
Home and Abroad" is being held
in Washington, D.C., and also
features Henry Siegman, exec-
utive director of the American
Jewish Congress, and Secretary
of Commerce Ron Brown. Con-
ference highlights include "De-
mocratic Reform and Institution
Building in the Arab World"
and "Arab Americans in Gov-
ernment."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman
Central Intelligence Agency's
foreign broadcast informa-
tion service released a Russian
intelligence service report on
proliferation that said Israel
had stockpiled the most
modern missile potential in
the Near and Middle East
region, most of it built locally,"
the magazine reports. Israeli
officials did not comment.