The Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Center
of Metropolitan Detroit cordially invites you to the JCC
AppleTree
Tell Me Why
Annual Meeting
inaugurating our year-long
75th Anniversary
Thursday, June 21, 2001
Dessert Reception 7 p.m. • Annual Meeting 7:30 p.m.
D. Dan and Betty Kahn Building
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus
6600 W. Maple Rd. • West Bloomfield
Installation of Officers and Board of Directors • Presentation of Leadership Awards
Special Guest Speaker
Greta
Gita?
Was
Really
A look at a favorite author
and a popular actor.
PHILLIP AND ELIZABETH
APPLEBAUM
Special to the Jewish News
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Director of Jewish Life, JCC of Greater Baltimore, MD
JCC
Community for75
For reservations by June 11, call the
JCC executive offices, (248) 661-7600.
Me Center of Ow
years
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THEMOST EXCITING
6/1
2001
84
Q: Someone told me that the famil-
iar saying, "God helps those who
help themselves," is from the Bible.
Whose Bible: the Jewish Bible or
the Christian Bible?
A: Nobody's Bible. The basic idea in
this saying had been expressed in
various ways for hundreds of years
before it appeared in print.
English politician Algernon
Sidney, in his 1698 book, Discourses
Concerning Government, stated,
"God helps those who help them-
selves."
Algernon Sidney is not a house-
hold name, but Benjamin Franklin is
(at least, to most Americans). It is
from him that we receive the saying
found in the June 1736 edition of
Poor Richard's Almanac: "God helps
them that helps themselves."
Nothing biblical about it.
Q: I've heard of different families
claiming to be descended from the
Rambam (Maimonides). Is there
any way to prove this?
A: Thus far, all that can be relied on
is family tradition. There are both
Sephardic and Ashkenazic families
that claim descent from the
Rambam, and these family traditions
usually go back many generations.
Some even have Maimon as a last
name.
The Rambam (a Hebrew acronym
formed from the initial letters of
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) was the
most illustrious figure in Diaspora
Jewry of the Middle Ages. Born in
Curdoba, Spain in 1135, later in life
he settled in Fostat, old Cairo,
Egypt. He remained there until his
death in 1204. Physician to the sul-
tan as well as principal rabbi of
Egyptian Jewry, he was the author of
monumental works in Jewish law
and philosophy: Mishneh Torah
(1180) and Moreh Nevuchim (Guide
to the Perplexed) (1190), and also
Sefer Ha-Mitzvot (Book of
Commandments) and various other
writings in law, medicine, ethics and
astronomy.
From his first wife, the Rambam
had three children: Moshe, David
and a daughter (name unknown).
After his wife's early death, he
remarried and had one child,
Avraham (1186-1237), who himself
became a distinguished rabbi and
succeeded his father as nagid, head
of Egyptian Jewry.
For the next four generations,
Avraham ben Maimon's descendants
served as rabbis and leaders of the
Egyptian Jewish community: David
(1222-1300), Avraham (1246-1316),
Yehoshua (1310-1355), David (died
early 15th century). The paper trail
ends there and everything else con-
cerning the Rambam's descendants is
based on oral tradition only.
Q: I came across an article from the
Chicago American of Oct. 1, 1932,
that said Greta Garbo's real name
was Levinsohn and she is in reality
of Semitic origin. Is this true?
A: The clipping loyal reader I.C.
sent to Tell Me Why has a long
pedigree of its own. Chicago
American columnist Hazel Flynn
(whose column appeared, fortuitous-
ly on Rosh Hashanah), stated that
the information on Greta Garbo
came to her from a reader named
Meyer Zolotareff, who translated a
Yiddish article that ran in the
Philadelphia Jewish World of Sept.
23, 1932, reprinted from Der Tag, a
Yiddish newspaper of Paris, France.