This Week
For Openers
The Internet Mud
ven big-shot officials at Israel's U.S.
embassy aren't too busy to help ordinary
Jews with a problem. Last week the staff
demonstrated that — using the Internet as the
mitzvah medium.
The story involves a mysterious box that postal
officials delivered to the embassy early in the
week. The parcel -- with no sender ort'recipient
address — contained Jewish religious books. The
Post Office apparently concluded the Israeli out-
post in Washington was a better place to leave it
than the dead-letter office.
Lenny Ben-David, the embassy's deputy chief
of mission, guessed what the contents signified: a
young couple's Jewish library. So he decided that
the quickest way to locate the rightful owners was
to put out some feelers on the Internet.
In an e-mail to several friends and relatives in
this country and Israel, he described the contents
of the box and the few clues he had — including
an inscription on one of the books.
He also notified the Orthodox Union in New
York and an online bulletin board in Efrat in
Israel.
"The contents are clearly part of a young cou-
ple's library," Ben-David wrote.
"Please help me find them! These seforim have
come too far to go ownerless."
- Ben-David expected that in a few days he
might find some leads. Instead, tips began flood-
ing his e-mail inbox.
And friends asked other friends, who supplied
other pieces of the puzzle.
Within two hours, Ben-David had the name of
the owner of the precious materials — Yehudah
Goldberg of Baltimore. Days later, tips were still
flooding Ben-David's e-mail inbox.
"The Talmud teaches that if someone finds an
object with distinct characteristics in the public
domain, he or she should go to the market and
proclaim 'I found this object,"' Ben-David wrote
in a followup e-mail.
"Well, I think we've discovered that there is a
modern-day international Jewish market for pro-
claiming lost objects, and it works within a matter
of hours!" Ell
James Besser/Washington Correspondent
58000
World Jewish Population
Top Ten Countries
E
$
JARC
Merle and Shirley Harris
Children and
Family Division
>
'4Z4
* The estimated p op
of world Jewry today is more than 13
million. We say "etimated" because of the impossible task of identi-
fying so many unaffiliated Jews in the diaspora.
Source: virtualjerusalem.corn
Services for children with special
needs and their families.
Yiddish Limericks
Your quality looks pretty lax.
Seems building's not one of your knacks.
Look, Noah, you rebel,
This ark's peck un shvebble*,
I give it just fairtzi g ter , max!
• •
* (idiomatic) spit and putty; shoddy
(literal) down and matches
** 40 days
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
quotables
Services Currently
Available
"I hate to use the word, but nobody should be
making a killing."
I
Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation
League, on plans by some Jewish leaders to ensure
I that class-action lawyers who sued on behalf of
Nazi-era slave laborers receive only a fee that's
I "dignified and fair."
—
✓ Outreach, support,
information, referral and
advocacy for families
"This was the only way they could get a Jew on
1 the show. Mr. Koufax would've been here, but
he had some last-minute Chanuka shopping."
1
Comedian Jon Stewart, at Sports
Illustrated's 20th Century Sports Awards show. Abraham Foxman
✓ Educational and social
programs for families
✓ In-home respite care with a
trained JARC staff person
—
GRAPEJEWZ BY Mendel
BEFORE TALK ING GJITN bOU
ABOUT CONVERSION, I'M
OBLIGATED To EXPLORE SOUR
MOTIVATION. Gii-1 Y ARE YOU
CONSIDERING CONVERT/NC,
TO J-UPP 15 M?
BECAUSE
EVERY
CHILD
IS PART
OF OUR
COMMUNITY
sOOR SENSE OF
CoMmUNIT2,
RABBI! COME
THE tAi61 you
QUICK! VIE
ALL GET
EXECUTIVE
ALONG...
COMMITTEE IS
HAVING ANOTNGR
FOOD FIGHT!
Am?)
etorl
✓ Case management with a
person-centered focus
✓ Aides so children with
special needs can
participate in organized
recreational activities with
their non-disabled peers
✓ Comprehensive supports to
help a small number of
children with special needs ,
successfully attend
religious schools
Call JARC at
P '
4f- '14
248-352-5272
28366 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034
jarc@jarc.org
www.jarc.org
t WW:t
1/7
2000
5