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CONEY ISLAND

Greek and American Cuisine
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

154 S. Woodward, Birmingham
(248) 540-8780

Halsted Village
(37580 W.12 Mile Rd.)
Farmington Hills
(248) 553-2360

6527 Telegraph Rd.
Corner of Maple (15 Mile)
Bloomfield Township
(248) 646-8568

4763 Haggerty Rd. at Pontiac Trail
West Wind Village Shopping Center
West Bloomfield
(248) 669-2295

841 East Big Beaver, Troy
(248) 680-0094

SOUTHFIELD SOUVLAKI
CONEY ISLAND
Nine Mile & Greenfield
15647 West Nine Mile, Southfield
(248) 569-5229

FARMINGTON SOUVLAKI
CONEY ISLAND
Between 13 & 14 on
Orchard Lake Road
30985 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills
(248) 626-9732

HERCULES FAMILY RESTAURANT
• 33292 West 12 Mile
Farmington Hills
(248) 489-9777

Serving whitefish, lamb shank,
pastitsio and mousaka

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6/18
1999

92 Detroit Jewish News

III

rejection of ideology, particularly by
the left. It is not by chance that Ehud
Barak chose to run under the amor-
phous banner of One Israel rather than
of Labor, even though Labor proudly
led the Zionist Movement and later
the State of Israel for many decades.
Now he and his colleagues are as
anxious to discard ideological alta
taken, old junk, as clothing from that .
era. And as they do so, both the living
symbols of the past — such as tickets
to the IPO — and the ones, such as
that of agriculture, for which today's
youth have no frame of reference, have
become museum pieces.

Winger's mother, in what the
actress termed a rebellious move to
escape the Orthodox world of her own
parents, relocated their family from
Ohio to California. There, the
teenaged Winger continued to wrestle
with her identity. She decided to go to
Israel, where she spent time on a kib-
butz, worked on an archaeological dig,
and joined the Gadna paramilitary
teen group.
Next stop was college back in the
United States. Then, her world was
altered forever when she was in a seri-
ous accident. While healing both body
and spirit, she delved into the world
— Nechemia Meyers of meditation and Eastern philosophy,
still seeking life answers. She decided
Israel Correspondent
to pursue an acting career.
Her first big breakthrough was in
the film Urban Cowboy. But, if director
Remember actress Debra Winger,
James Bridges hadn't fought to hire her,
Shirley MacLaine's spirited daughter
she might not have gotten the part;
in the film Terms of Endearment? We
Michael Eisner, then vice-president of
haven't seen much of her on the big
Paramount, said he didn't want her —
screen lately. Winger is still her old
"I was too Jewish," Winger recalled.
spunky self, but these days, her ener-
From there, it was on to Academy
gies are focused on being a mom — a
Award nominations for her roles in
good Jewish mother.
Terms of Endearment, An Officer and a
Winger recently delivered a stirring
Gentleman, and Shadowlands.
talk before more than 500 women at
She has continued to make films —
the annual VOICES fund-raising din-
including Everybody Wins, Leap of
ner sponsored by the Women's
Faith and Forget Paris, but life has
Division of the Jewish Federation of
taken her in another direction.
Greater Hartford.
"I moved 3,000 miles back to follow
With her stylish hairdo and profes-
my own path," said Winger, who resides
sional attire, Winger looked like all
in Westchester County, N.Y., with her
the other women in
actor-husband Arliss
the room, but there's
Howard. She now speaks
no denying her star
to audiences about the
quality.
awakening of her Jewish
Striking and still
identity.
smoky-voiced, she
While she termed the
impressed the
Conservative Judaism she
Connecticut audience
was exposed to growing
with her intelligence,
up as "worthwhile," it
insight, and her cor-
was not enough, she said,
rect Hebrew pronun-
to "feed me later in my
ciations.
intellectual pursuits ... in
The mother of
my quest for spiritual
three boys, with the
awakening and the rear-
eldest, Noah (her son
ing of my children."
with actor Timothy
After a lengthy search,
Debra Winger: From movie star
Hutton), preparing
she has found a home at
to the bar mitzvah boy's mom.
for his bar mitzvah,
the Conservative
Winger, 44, has been
Congregation B'nai
on a lifelong quest for spirituality and
Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of
Jewish identity.
Manhattan, where she is rediscovering
She recalled her early memories of
her roots.
walking to shul with her beloved
"There's so much attached at origin
grandparents, where she encountered
to our religion," she said. It has taken
her first struggle with religion. Her
most of my life to uncover the rich-
grandparents were Orthodox Jews,
ness of that."
and as Winger watched the men pray-
Today, she is just another mother in
ing separately from the women, she
the bar mitzvah parents group, strug-
remembered thinking, The men seem
a lina b with the same issues of how to
b
so much closer to God."
put the "mitzvah" back in bar mitzvah

and not spoil her children. Speaking
bluntly, she earned the applause of the ;,-/
crowd with her comments about child
rearing.
"This is my party," she said she told
her son, who is being raised with strict
limits on TV and video games.
"I got you to 13!"
Still coping with the loss of her
mother three years ago, Winger con-
cluded, "The years ahead are up to me
... to keep questioning yet also feel a
connection with my past. It's a
strength, a continuity that I am not
able to deny."

— Lisa S. Lenkiewicz
Connecticut Jewish Ledger

A Jewish Journey

Mel Torme: Saying good-bye to
"the Velvet Fog."

Torme Tribute

Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner
and actor Cliff Robertson were among
the friends of Mel Torme who paid
tribute to the masterful pop and jazz
singer at memorial services in Los
Angeles last week.
Torme, who died June 5 at age 73
of complications from a stroke he suf-
fered in 1996, was born to Russian
Jewish immigrant parents on
Chicago's South Side.
Immigration officials had changed
the family's name from Torma to Torme.
In an interview some years ago,
the singer recalled that he and his
family would sit on the front stoop
after Sabbath dinner and sing for the —/
neighbors.
About 300 fans attended the funer-
al, sitting on the lawn of the
Westwood Village Memorial Park,
while about 200 family and close
friends were inside the chapel.

— Tom Tugend
Jewish Telegraphic Agency