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Photos by Glenn Triest
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Jason Shevach: Namesake shoe store.
Remember when everyone came back from Israel
with a postcard and a T-shirt showing the Old City of Jerusalem?
You won't believe what they're bringing back these days.
Di You Bring Ale?
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
ason Shevach's visit to Israel
wouldn't have been complete
without the shoe polish.
A student at West Bloomfield
High School, Jason returned
last month from Israel where,
in between visiting with his
grandmother and other rela-
tives, he made a point of stop-
ping at a shoe store in Tel Aviv.
How could he resist? The
store's name was Shevach's.
"I just had to get something
there," Jason says. The only
question was what. He settled
on some Shevach's shoe polish,
which he describes as "quality
stuff."
Jason also picked up a T-
shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe
in Tel Aviv and a drink list from
the same place. His grand-
mother gave him an old 10,000
shekel bill to take home.
Just about everyone who has
been to Israel has brought back
the siddur (prayer book). The
postcards. The jewelry. The
book for the boss' children.
But more than a few Detroit-
area residents have filled their
suitcases with souvenirs that
could best be termed just a lit-
tle, well, different. Take Con-
nie Wolberg — seed fanatic.
Mrs. Wolberg is an agent
with Gateway Travel in South-
field. About twice a year she
takes groups from around the
country to Israel, where she
never fails to pick up a good
helping of her favorite sun-
flower seeds.
"I'm addicted to them," she
admits.
Sold at the Carmel Market
in Tel Aviv (Israel's version of
Detroit's Eastern Market), the
seeds are less salty than their
American counterparts and
their shells are tan rather than
black-and-white.
"I bring them back every
time I go," she says. "Then I
hoard them. Well, all right,
sometimes I do share them."
Mrs. Wolberg also returned
from Israel with a balalaika
tape made by a street musician.
Russian immigrants, she ex-
plains, not only play their
violins and clarinets on the
street; now, they're making
tapes of their music and selling
those, too.
Another musician Mrs. Wol-
berg favors is Issak Tavior, a
pianist who lives atop a moun-
tain in Hemdat Yamim near
Safat. Surrounded by massive
windows that provide "a 360-
degree view of forever," Mr.
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