Families...
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Yad Ezra provides kosher food packages to 1,000 families
every month. The families helped by Yad Ezra include:
the elderly
working poor
disabled
single parents
new Americans
those in emergency situations.
With your help, all families in our community can enjoy a
nutritious and satisfying meal.
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A weekday meal for 3 small families
$ 18.00
A Holiday meal for 4 small families
$ 36.00
A Shabbat meal for 5 small families
$ 50.00
A Holiday meal for 4 large families
$ 72.00
A year of Holiday meals for 1 family
$ 100.00
A year of Holiday meals for 2 families
$ 200.00
A year of Shabbat meals for 1 small family
$ 500.00
Enclosed is my check in the amount of
as a tax deductible contribution to Yad Ezra to help feed the
Jewish hungry. Your contribution is eligible for a 50% Michigan Tax Credit
(subject to certain limitations).
Name
Address
City
State
Zip
Phone
Make checks payable to Yad Ezra or
charge your contribution to your VISA/Mastercard or Discover. (Minimum sug-
gested donation - $18.00)
Card No.
Exp.Date
Signature
Name
Mail to: 26641 Harding ■ Oak Park, MI 48237
Tributes and Memorials available.
YAD EZRA
feeding Me Tew/gif fililfgry
For more information
call 248-548-3663
BASSONOVA
ALL WOOL SUITS $75
ALL WOOL VEST & PANT OUTFITS $60
Cy Lisnov
BLACK & WHITE GAB & CREPE BLAZERS $50
FLORIDA FIBRANES $35
WOOL GAB SKIRTS $35
EVERY SATURDAY 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
COMFORT INN • FARMINGTON HILLS
(12 Mile Just East of Orchard Lake Rd.)
(248) 471-9220
[Mon-Fri call (810) 754-6360]
11/20
1998
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single, instead of waiting for the secu-
rity of rwo incomes. One help Charlip
cites are loan options, such as FHA, a
decades-old government loan that
allows homeowners to put down as lit-
tle as 1.5 percent of the purchase
price.
The required down payment on a
conventional loan starts at 5 percent,
but buyers no longer have to have a
small fortune stashed away to qualify
for a loan. Banks average the last two
years' income together to find an
affordable level.
"I didn't think we'd get into any
house as soon as we did," said Doug
Cohen, who with his wife, Allyson,
last summer purchased a generous,
new Waterford home with at least
1,500 square feet plus a walk-out, yet-
to-be-finished basement. "I never
thought we'd get into this house. It's
new, big, beautiful, nice — this is a
sweet house! That's something adults
do, who are established — not young
married couples with debt."
Cohen's not alone in his thinking.
Many young adults are excited to
become homeowners, thanks to the
benefits the Jewish community offers.
The Neighborhood Project, spon-
sored by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit through the
Hebrew Free Loan agency, is another
avenue that helps get Jewish young
adults into a home. By providing
interest-free loans to buyers who are
involved in the Jewish community and
who purchase property in Oak Park
and parts of Southfield, the Project is
trying to repopulate once-very-Jewish
neighborhoods. So far, more than
1,000 families have received interest-
free loans totaling more than $5 mil-
lion. Of those, 62 percent were under
age 35.
Margery and Howard Klausner,
who are Orthodox and wanted to live
within walking distance of Young
Israel-Oak Park, took advantage of the
Neighborhood Project when they
bought their home.
The Klausners looked at houses for
about a year before they found what
they wanted. They had very specific
requirements that limited where they
could look. "There was a certain sub-
division we wanted," said Margery.
"We were looking at any house that
came up in a half-square-mile radius."
Hectic work schedules made find-
ing the time to look at houses diffi-
cult, too, as they both work evenings.
"We'd see houses separately and talk
David Kushner is a freelance writer
based in Brooklyn.
about it two days later," she says. "We c
didn't look together because the house
may have been sold by the time we
got to looking at it."
However it happens, young Jews
are happy to be homeowners. Without
having to follow rules set forth by a
landlord, they're free to style their
home as they like — whether painting
the walls or knocking them down.
"My master bathroom was completely
purple," said Chessler. "It had to go."
Yet, while shopping for furniture
and decorating is fun, not everything
about becoming a homeowner is
enjoyable. Take the actual search for
the house of your dreams — although
many start out enjoying the hunt, they
admit the process is frustrating and
time-consuming.
"It's fun at first, but after you find
the first one you want and it falls
apart you're like, 'Oh, I don't want to
do this anymore.' The stress isn't over
until you sign the paperwork, and the
house is yours," said Chessler.
Out Of
The Closet
Searching for space
in a city that has
none to offer.
DAVID KUSHNER
Special to The Jewish News
New York
n big cities like New York,
everyone is out of the closet.
Literally. We have no closet
space. If we're lucky, we've got
enough room to hang a dozen shirts
and pile up a few unruly stacks of
shoes. Fluffy winter coats are a night-
mare, taking up at least seven shirts
worth of space. It's better to leave
thick clothes on a hook in the living
room. Either that, or just donate
them to Salvation Army each spring.
The problem for guys gets even
more complicated when living with
someone else. Especially a girlfriend 7---'
or wife. Before I moved in with my
girlfriend, I was sharing a my closets
with a couple of lunkhead friends.
Guys are easy. We just throw our
stuff in the back of the closet and let
it rot where it lands. Since we don't
really have that much stuff to begin
with, the potential for macho territo-
I