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The Neighborhood Project
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is celebrating its
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birthday,
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and it won't be a party without
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See amazing feats
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of magic by
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Michael Jacobson &
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Jacobson's World
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of Magic
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Showtime: 3:30 p.m.
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View a photo
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Jewish •
exhibit showing
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Community •
10 years of
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Center •
neighborhood
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Jimmy •
growth
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Prentis •
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Morris • •
Bring the
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family for
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clowning
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around
W. 10 Mile • •
Oak Park • •
Balloons
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9e.
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E1GHBOR1-100D
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PR OJECT
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Co-sponsored by The Jewish News & the Jewish Community Center
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lOth
Please join us
Sunday, March 16
3 - 5 p.m.
The Biggest
Birthday
Cake in the
Neighborh ood!
N
moDd
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777
Reaching The Area's
Most Eligible Customers.
THE D ETRO
want to know what's hip and happening with Detroit's
Jewish young adults and singles? (heck lie Rene!' Every
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1.0•°"
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THE JEWISH NEWS
s.
The O.J. Of Israel?
The charges surrounding Aryeh Deri make for an
ongoing scandal in Israel.
NECHEMIA MEYERS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
nesset Member Aryeh
Deri, head of the Shas
Party, is Israel's O.J.
Simpson. To be sure, no
one has accused him of murder,
but he has been on trial for sev-
eral years for serious corruption
charges and now is in the mid-
dle of Israel's biggest scandal to
date.
It all concerns the attempt,
purportedly masterminded by
Mr. Deri, to secure the appoint-
ment of an attorney-general who
would see to it that Mr. Deri was
punished, if at all, with no more
than a slap on the wrist.
Some say this scandal may
topple the Netanyahu govern-
ment, but Mr. Deri is certain
that it will only benefit him and
his party, which speaks for the
Sephardim in general and the
Orthodox Sephardim in partic-
ular. For while Ashkenazim gen-
erally regard him as a crook, a
large percentage of the people in
his constituency believe that he
is an innocent victim of a plot
cooked up by the Ashkenazic es-
tablishment.
Arye Deri is not
convicted, but
remains a
paramount hero for
many Sephardic
Jews.
Mr. Deri is not the only Shas
leader accused of corruption. So
are several others. "But," says
Mr. Deri, "the more charges that
are filed against us, the more
Knesset members we will elect."
And that isn't just empty boast-
ing. In elections to the last
Knesset, when Mr. Deri was al-
ready on trial and a fellow Shas
leader was already in prison, the
party won 10 seats in compari-
son to the six it held in the out-
going Knesset.
In fact, Shas has been orga-
nizing a series of rallies in sup-
port of Mr. Deri.
At a recent one, which began
with a full-volume rendition of
the song "Israel Need Not Fear,"
Mr. Deri told the audience: 'The
media hate us. You have no idea
how much they hate us. They
charge us with responsibility for
every mishap."
He then went on to declare:
"This country is now divided into
two camps — our camp, which
Aryeh Deri still faces charges of bribery
and fraud after several years.
grows from day to day, and the
camp that is trying to harm us.
We will fight back by building
more synagogues and more
mikvot [ritual baths]."
It may seem strange that so
many Israelis of Sephardi origin
still see local society in terms of
"them" and "us," of Sephardim
who are discriminated against
by Ashkenazim. After all, Israel
has a deputy prime minister of
Iranian origin (Moshe Katzav),
a foreign minister of Moroccan
origin (David Levy), a defense
minister of Kurdish origin
(Yitzhak Mordechai), an inter-
nal security minister of
Yemenite origin (Avigdor Ka-
halani) and a justice minister
whose mother is of Yemenite ori-
gin (Tzahi Hanegbi).
Moreover, Sephardi Jews are
no less prominent in Labor, the
main opposition party. Yet, the
fact that many Sephardim have
reached the top doesn't end the
resentment felt by those who are
at, or near, the bottom. And so
long as a substantial percentage
of such disgruntled people be-
lieve in the innocence of Aryeh
Deri and cast their votes for
Shas, that party will be courted
by Labor and the Likud alike —
even if Mr. Deri himself ends up
in jail. El
Publicity
Deadlines
The normal deadline for local
news and publicity items is noon
Thursday, eight days prior to is-
sue date. The deadline for out-
of-town obituaries is 10 a.m.
Tuesday, three days prior to is-
sue date.
All material must be type-
written, double-spaced, on 8 1/2 x
11 paper and include the name
and daytime telephone number
of sender.