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Open For Business
From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
Golan Fund sends two economic emissaries to the Detroit area.
1991
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer
R
onnie Lotan has lived in
Israel's Golan Heights since
1968, running both a kib-
butz and one of Israel's
most successful tourist attractions.
Although he has never been involved
in local or national politics, he now is
on the campaign trail — not for him-
self, but for his community.
Loran is presidenr of Keren Golan,
the Golan Fund, Inc., a nonprofit,
nonpolitical organization. The fund
seeks investments and grants to
strengthen the 33 communities that
make up the Golan.
On April 25, Loran and Nathan
Thaler, the fund's United States
national director, met with Jewish
business and community leaders at the
Max M. Fisher Federation Building in
Bloomfield Township.
The event was arranged by attorney
Michael Traison, senior principal of
the Detroit law firm Miller, Canfield,
Paddock and Stone and president of
the America/Israel Chamber for
Economic Development, Inc.
The Golan's population comprises a
pluralistic Jewish population of about
18,000 and another 18,000 Druzim,
members of an ancient eclectic
monotheistic religion. Since Israi..1
acquired the land in the aftermath of
the 1967 war, the nation's government
has spent "billions of Israeli shekels
supporting the region," Lotan said.
"Why we are here is to get more
than the limit of government financ-
ing," he said.
The Golan Fund was founded in
Israel in September 2000. The fund's
United States operation, a 501-3C
not-for-profit organization, began in
January 2001. Other international
branches are in the planning stages,
Lotan said.
Some of the Israeli industries already
in the Golan are farm-related, such as
dairy, wine and produce. There's also a
large water-bottling plant and factories
for producing plastics, aircraft parts
For the first time in 30 years, a
kosher restaurant opened in
Warsaw, Poland.
American Jewish organizations
organized relief efforts for the 1 mil-
lion Kurds who fled northern Iraq.
Detroiters Tami, Robyn, Jaimi
and Sara Tarnow were among the
stars in the Berkley Ice Show.
1981
The long-lost son of the Jewish
painter Amadeo Modigliani was
found in a small village near Paris
where he served as the parish priest.
Rabbi Leizer Levin, president of the
Council of Orthodox Rabbis of
Greater Detroit, declared May as
Metropolitan Detroit Kashrut Month.
10'71
Nathan Thaler and Ronnie Lotan explain details of the Golan Fund to Detroit-area
business and communal leaders.
and specialty electric motors.
Thaler, whose 20 years of fund rais-
ing for the Jewish people includes
work with the Anti-Defamation
League and Rambam Medical Center,
recently returned to the Golan on his
first visit since 1983. He said he was
highly impressed with the changes
since his last visit.
"The industrial part of the Golan is
very expandable," he explained.
"Basically, the whole area is a national
empowerment zone."
In addition to promoting industry,
the Golan Fund also seeks to build a
technical college. At this point, higher
education is limited to a newly built
teachers college.
When asked about the stability of
the region, Loran said the outside
world tends to confuse the Golan,
where people live in peace, with the
hotly contested West Bank areas.
"If the worst should happen, and the
area would go back to Syria, then you
would have a factory in Syria," he said.
"Syria has no argument with the
United States."
Thaler added: "The people I met [in
the Golan] were very adamant they are
there to stay."
Among those in the audience for the
Golan Fund presentation was Joel
Bussell, vice president of marketing for
the Michigan-based Motron Inc., a tech-
nical marketing consulting company.
After the meeting, the West
Bloomfield resident said he agreed that
"the chance for Jerusalem or the Golan
Heights ever being taken by Syria are
slim to none."
However, he said, "This thing [the
Golan Fund] is embryonic. They
haven't got it refined enough to attract
any prudent business people, unless
they are very altruistic."
Traison called the effort to increase
industry in the Golan "a sound idea.
"Looking at it from a political as well
as economic viewpoint, I certainly see it
as a viable effort. I would recommend
people take a good, hard look at it." ❑
For more information on the
Golan Fund, e-mail Nathan
Thaler at nthaler@optonline.net
David Lewis, Socialist member of
parliament from Toronto, is the
first Jew to be elected head of
Canada's New Democratic Party.
David C. Garlock of Southfield
was awarded a $1,000 National Merit
Scholarship to study mathematics.
Walter Farber, educational director
of Congregation B'nai Moshe since
1944, announced his retirement.
1901
A United Arab Republic MIG jet
fighter was shot down near the
Sinai border in the first air clash in
five months.
Detroiter Sol I. Stein was appoint-
ed to the board of directors of
Metropolitan Hospital and Clinics.
1951
New York columnist George E.
Sokolsky complained that a new dic-
tionary of American expressions
omitted the words "bagel" and "lox."
Detroiter Jacob Savin, owner of
Michigan Box Co., planned a trip
to revisit Israel, where he was a pio-
neer settler 28 years earlier.
Roberta Peters, 19-year-old
soprano, was signed to an exclusive
long-term contract with RKO
Pictures.
—Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant
Di
5/4
2001