he Family Reunion Picnic
should have been renamed
"Kids o' Plenty" because
most of the 3,500 people
roaming the West Bloomfield grounds
of the Kahn Jewish Community
Center on Sunday were of the knee-
high variety.
As the picnic kicked off the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit/United Jewish Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit's ongoing cen-
tennial celebration with carnival
games, pony rides, kosher food and
musical entertainment outside, the
12th annual "Apples & Honey"
Shabbat and holiday exhibits were set
up in the JCC lobby, with coordina-
tors dressed up in period costumes.
Neil Alexander and the Klezmer
Fusion Band, Cantor Stephen Dubov
of Temple Beth El and The Contours,
a Motown band, took to the stage for
the adults, while children tried their
feet at a climbing wall, learned to
make apple cider, enjoyed the Mask

T

Puppet Theatre or watched a rabbi
make a shofar.
Observing her son Ryan easily scal-
ing the rotating climbing wall set up
outside, Sue Rosenfeld of West
Bloomfield said that Ryan "loves this
stuff. He must be a monkey man from
a previous life."
As part of the Apples & Honey
exhibits, sponsored by the Agency for
Jewish Education's Jewish Experiences
For Families, Rabbi Aaron Davidson
of Oak Park made shofars as a line of
children waited. In his 10th year of
running the Apples & Honey shofar
factory, the rabbi said the most grati-
fying thing to him was "strengthening
the love of Judaism by showing how
things work." Apples & Honey also
included the opportunity for children
to make candles and Simchat Torah
flags
The Federation/UJF nine-month-
long centennial celebration marks the
100th anniversary of organized phil-
anthropy for Detroit Jewry.

.

❑

Opposite page:
People wait in line as Rabbi Aaron Davidson
of Oak Park makes shofars.

This page, clockwise from top left:
Ryan Rosenfeld, 5, attacks the climbing wall under the
watchful eye ofJack Veresh of Rochester Hills.

YisrO el and Adam Mondroe from Oak Park dip candles.

Leeft to right: Elise Bratley, Apples 6 . Honey chair, and
Debbie Rosenberg and Alissa Pianin, all of Jewish
Experiences For Families, pose in period costumes.

Five-year-old Hannah Rosenberg of
Huntington Woods mimics the Shabbat dolls.

10/2
1998

Detroit Jewish News

15

