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 'Due at signing 1st payment $323.52, refundable sec. $350 lease, administration fee $450 plus title, plates, due at signing $1182.52. Includes plate transfer fee, etc. 248-624-0400 On Maple Rd., West of Haggerty - OPEN SATURDAY 1 0-4 WWW. dwyerandsons.com 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.