THE FINEM pfDETVOIT! ENJOY THESE FINE RESTAURANTS DURING Sporting Events • The Opera • Theatre • Or Just Because What They're Saying • • • " o, while I look back and wonder at the early Canfields, I look in wonderment about tomorrow. And Sthough Charlip and his execuitve chef, Dave Robertson, have taken great strides in making this sun- washed aerie a crowd contender. Oh, there is no denying that its owner, Barton Charlip, is a gracious, low key charmer—and a hard worker to boot. And enthusiastic about the turnaround of the mid-to-downtown Detroit corridor, of which he's a vital link? No question." Jane Rayburn, Detriot News Restaurant Critic, Thursday, May 7, 1992 1435 Randolph 313-961-0707 0 2114 :0 0 0* ZO 3E" 3E 110 3E. JED 267 Joseph Campau (at Franklin) 313-259-0909 624 Brush Street 313-962-7067 4265 Woodward 313-832-3200 100 W. Montcalm 313-961-1929 THE RATTLE MAKE CLUB 300 River Place • 313-567-4400 THE DE TROI T J EWIS H NEWS 4421 Woodward 313-832-5700 100 A BARBEQUE GRILLE UPSCALE, INNOVATIVE FOOD FOR THE SOUL 546 E. Lamed 313-965-1700 * * * * th e * * * * Caucus * Club The Rhinoceros 265 Riopelle • 259-2208 150 W. Congress • 313-965-4970 The Mother Tongue Debate NECHEMIA MEYERS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS I he absorption of Ethiopi- an youngsters has been too successful in at least one respect. Some of them now speak almost only Hebrew. So they are unable to communi- cate well with parents and grandparents, the majority of whom are limited to Amharic. To overcome this problem, a new pilot program teaches Amharic to boys and girls from Ethiopian families in Afula, a small town east of Haifa. Their instructor is 22-year-old Adonia Tarkai, who came to Israel five years ago and will soon earn a degree in social work at Haifa University. Shoshana, one of the girls in his class, says that her mother and father were proud of her when she began speaking to them in good Amharic. A knowledge of the language is also of practical importance. "Many parents," Ms. Tarkai points out, "take their children along with them as interpreters when they go to a medical clin- ic or a National Insurance office. But if the youngster can't ex- plain in Amharic what he has been told in Hebrew, the whole exercise is almost useless." While teaching immigrant children their mother tongue is appreciated, there is no interest in Israel in the kind of bilingual schools that exist in some parts of the United States, places where many subjects are taught in a language other than Eng- lish. The situation is more com- plicated, however, in the establishment of educational in- stitutions that teach in Hebrew but give pride of place to the cul- tures that the immigrants brought with them from their countries of origin. On the one hand, the Shas party has created a highly suc- cessful network of Orthodox schools that highlight the reli- gious traditions of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East. On the other hand, at- tempts to set up a parallel net- work of secular educational institutions for Oriental Jews have been an abject failure. The Kedma School in Tel Aviv's slummy Hatikva Quarter is a case in point. Sami Shitreet, the moving spirit behind the school and its first principal, took as his example the black ed- ucational institutions created by Afro-Americans in Harlem. An Nechemia Meyers writes from Rehovot, Israel. opponent of integrated schools, he wanted an institution where Oriental Jews would learn to ap- preciate their own culture and also be exposed to progressive political attitudes. In pursuit of the latter goal, he decided that Holocaust Memorial Day at Ked- ma would be devoted not only to honoring the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazis, but also to recalling the fate of Armenians, gypsies, ho- mosexuals and others. As might have been expected, this created an uproar because, so critics argued, it downgraded the significance of the Holocaust. In atypical reaction, Limor Liv- nat — then a Knesset member and now minister of communi- cations — declared: "This is the state of the Jews and not of the gypsies or the homosexuals, and I'm not ashamed to say so." How far should Israel go to preserve native cultures of citizens? More important to the school's future, the residents of the Hatikva Quarter made it clear that they wanted nothing to do with Shitreet's "leftist ideas." Support dropped and the school will probably close this year. Professor Amnon Rubinstein, who helped to create the Kedma School while minister of educa- tion, still believes that it was a good idea. "[Israel]" should not be a melting pot but a place where a variety of cultures can exist side by side," he said. But that ignores that success in Israel, as in other advanced countries, depends on master- ing "Western skills." While it is good that Israeli youngsters gain a knowledge of Ethiopian or Mo- roccan culture, that is no sub- stitute for a thorough grasp of Hebrew and English, of genet- ics and computers. ❑ Publicity Deadlines The normal deadline for local news and publicity items is noon Thursday, eight days prior to issue date. The deadline for out-of-town obituaries is 10 a.m. Tuesday, three days prior to issue date. All material must be typewritten, double-spaced, on 8'h x 11 paper and include the name and daytime tele- phone number of sender.