Helene Friedman,
Pam Fishman, Eileen
Warshaw and Elyse
Tuttleman show off
their Forrest Gump
shirts

IsRAEL _DIcrEsr

Specially compiled by The Jerusalem Post

—

$1 EQUALS 3.0210 NIS (shekels) - Close Price 10/11/94 —

Should Shekel Be Devalued?

Israel's ever-growing gap be- cent against the dollar since the
tween galloping inflation and beginning of the year.
the crawling devaluation of the
An over-valued shekel makes
shekel has generated a flurry exports more expensive, and
of calls by economists for a therefore less competitive. It also
one-time devaluation to help reduces the cost of imports,
reduce a ballooning trade which in turn reduces the corn-
deficit.
petitiveness-of Israeli products.
Inflation, which is roaring
Economic Models director
ahead at an annual rate of 14.5 Ya'acov Sheinin was the latest
percent, is causing the shekel to join the fray. He called on the
to be overvalued. It has lost government to devalue the
only 5.9 percent against the shekel by 3-5 percent as soon
currency basket and 1.1 per- as possible.

WACO 88801

Holidays Help Shrink Deficit

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fliocrat

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agreement with Paramount was for a "reason-
able" amount. And it took just a week for the
deal to be completed.
In addition to the T-shirt and sweat shirt style
which has "Forrest Gump for President" on the
front and "He doesn't know why he's running"
on the back, there's also an "Official Ballot" style
and a "Forrest Gump '96" style.
Ms. Fishman said she came up with the "He
doesn't know why he's running" slogan in a
dream after watching the movie and decided to
pursue the venture with Paramount.
A phone call led to the licensing agreement
and the formation of the company.
If you think the nerve center for the Just Be-
tween Friends operation is in a plush office in a
skyscraper in a downtown business district,
think again.
It's in a typical suburban home on a quiet,
tree-lined street in Southfield.
Working with the six Just Between Friends
partners are 14 reps scattered around the coun-
try whose job is to make sure the shirts get into
stores in their territories.
Because of extensive local and national pub-
licity and a "Forrest Gump for President" peti-
tion drive launched by Just Between Friends,
the "800" phone line at the home office has been
ringing off the hook for the past couple of weeks.

One man called from Texas

and wondered if any "Forrest
Gump for President" lawn signs
were available.
Getting the clothing produced
and into the first stores required
more work than the Just Be-
tween Friends partners ever
dreamed. Now, the happy prob-
lem is keeping up with demand.
"It seems like there's always a
million things to do," said Ms.
Fishman, who noted that four of
the six partners also have full-
time jobs and most have families
which also keep them busy.
So far, neither Mr. Hanks nor
Forrest Gump director Robert Ze-
meckis have responded to communications and
T-shirts sent by Just Between Friends. Talk-
show host Rush Limbaugh responded with a dis-

There are three
styles of T-shirts
and sweat shirts.

appointing form-letter postcard after he was
mailed a T-shirt.
On a philanthropic note, Just Between
Friends donated several shirts to the Starlight
Foundation of Southern California Make-A-Wish
Fair.
"Everybody loves Forrest Gump because he
represents the old-fashioned morals we see so
rarely now," Ms. Warshaw said when asked to
explain the character's popularity.
"He sticks by his friends no matter what hap-
pens and he just doesn't know how to lie." ❑
'a For more information on the "Forrest Gump
for President" T-shirts and sweat shirts, call 80°-
443-9879.

The Israel trade deficit shrank
56.5 percent last month to $397
million as the holidays limited
the number of business days and
reduced the volume of imports by
27.6 percent, the Central Bureau

of Statistics reported.
Exports decreased a slight
3.5 percent to $1.052 billion
from $1.09 billion in August,
while imports fell to $1.448 bil-
lion from $2.001 billion.

Elbit Says Tanks For Contract

Elbit Fort Worth (EFW), a
Texas-based subsidiary of Is-
raeli company Elbit, has won a
$5 million contract from the
U.S. military to update Con-
duct of Fire Trainers (COFT),
simulators used in the instruc-
tion of tank maneuvers.

EFW will update a previous

covr product to Bradley M2-

A1/M3-A1 armored vehicles.
The contract is the second
which Elbit has won in this
field. Elbit purchased its Fort
Worth site from General Dy-
namics last year.

Regional Bank Plan Pushed

Despite United States opposi-
tion, the Israel Foreign Min-
istry is pushing ahead with a
plan to establish a Middle East
development bank because the
bank is the financial anchor for
the government's $25-billion
proposal for regional projects.

Foreign Ministry economic
department director Oded Eran
said even though the United
States disagrees, "there is room
for dialogue based on the uni-
fied proposal (from the coun-
tries in the region)."

Good, Bad News For Teva

Teva shares fell three percent
on the NASDAQ exchange in
New York and 5.5 percent on
the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
despite test reports that a drug
manufactured by the Israeli
company reduced the number
and severity of attacks in pa-
tients with relapsing-remitting
multiple sclerosis (MS).
The test results were an-
nounced at the American Neu-
rological Association meeting

in San Francisco and at a press
conference that linked Califor-
nia with Israel via video con-
ference.
The neurological association
meeting also heard good news
about
Betaseron (interferon beta
la, which is produced by Bio-
gen Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.).
Analysts believe Teva's stock
market decline is short-term
due to competition from Biogen.

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