Top: Israelis Hagit Tauber, Tidhar Wald and Jonathan Shomroni
attend a physics class at Cass Tech.

Above: Hagit Tauber walks through the halls of
Cass Tech with hostess Karen Hamilton.

Israel-Detroit
CONNECTION

After a week in
Motown,
Israeli kids gain
a heightened
understanding of
black culture.

11/21
1997

8

JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer

everly Hills 90210. MTV.
Boys In The 'Hood.
Until last week, those
were the images that came
to mind for Israeli student Yasmine
Meroz when she thought of the
United States.
Now the slick Hollywood images
will be crowded out by memories of
her hosts, the Morrow family, and
walking through the lively halls of
Detroit's Cass Technical High School.

A high school junior, Meroz was
one of 15 Tel Aviv teenagers visiting
Detroit last week, through the
American-Israel Friendship League's
United States-Israel High School
Youth Ambassadors Exchange.
Although the program is in its
20th year, this is the first year
Detroit was a host city, through a
partnership between the Jewish
Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit and the
Detroit Public Schools.
The Detroit itinerary — which
came on the heels of a trip to

Washington, D.C., and a week with
host families in Santa Barbara, Calif.
— included talking to classes at Cass
Tech and Northern high schools, a
visit to the Museum of African- ,
American History, a Pistons game
and a dance with B'nai B'rith Youth
Organization teens at the
Maple/Drake Jewish Community
Center.
But there were also plenty of infor-
mal activities with host families.
Michal Isachar attended church for
the first time. Pazit Suissa learned
how to use America Online. Sunny