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The Power Of E-Mail

Restaurant owner denounces rumor;
Jewish groups caution against sending unsubstantiated messages.

From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1991
Sen. Jack Faxon, D-Farmington Hills,
introduced legislation to ban smoking
in all public restrooms in Michigan.
Congregation Beth Shalom
closed its afternoon Hebrew school
in West Bloomfield.

1981
Congressional Democrats were
miffed at not being invited to the
White House dinner honoring Israeli
Prime Minister Menahem Begin.
Michigan Friends of Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion was formally organized at a
luncheon meeting at Franklin Hills
Country Club in Farmington Hills.
Kevin Wartell, a native Detroiter,
was appointed cantor of Temple
Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, N.T.

Owner Dean Hachem of West Bloomfield inside The Sheik with his staff Behind him is Manager Peter Mankoush of Dearborn.

SHARON LUCKERMAN

Staff Writer

liAT

hen tragedy strikes as it did in America on
Sept. 11, cell phones and e-mail — cheap
and quick — bring us closer to loved ones no
matter where they are. The new technology
also brings an abundance of information. Maybe too much.
Information — true and false — is constantly circulating
via the Internet. In Detroit, for example, an e-mail passed
quickly and widely through the Jewish community alleging
employees at an Orchard Lake Village Middle Eastern
restaurant cheered at news of the terrorist attacks on New
York City's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Arlington,
Va., and rural Pennsylvania; the restaurant owner told the
Jewish News the allegation is false.
The information provided was third-hand. Few, if any,
checked the facts before forwarding the e-mail, says Don
Cohen, former director of the Anti-Defamation League's
Michigan Region and a consultant for the Jewish
Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit. "And no
eyewitness has been located," he says.

9/21

2001

30

"When there aren't immediate answers, rumors fill the
gap," says Dr. Janet Langlois, associate professor of folklore
studies at Wayne State University in Detroit. "Sometimes,
the rumors can turn out to be true, while other times,
they're not, and only fan the fires of the tension."
Dean Hachem, the Lebanese American owner of the
Sheik restaurants in Orchard Lake Village and Livonia,
received calls from customers telling him about the e-mail.
Hachem, disturbed by the e-mail's effect on his reputation
and on his business, came to the Jewish. News office Sept. 13
to talk about the e-mail.
When he first heard about the tragedy on Sept. 11,
Hachem, wanting to avoid any possible misunderstandings,
says he called his manager at the restaurant to warn
employees against discussing the terrorist attack in the
restaurant or "they're fired."
He also told employees they were not to speak Arabic at
the restaurant because "customers may become nervous or
suspicious if they do," he says.
Though he wasn't at the restaurant at the time of the

POWER OF E-MAIL

on page 31

1971
Detroiter Dr. Sam M. Sniderman
was appointed superintendent of
the Oak Park schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Irving Dworkin of
Farmington gave $3,000 to the
Wayne State University's Wayne State
Fund to purchase an artificial kidney
unit to be used at Children's Hospital
of Michigan.
Detroiter Irwin I. Cohen marked
his 75th birthday.

1961
Congregation Beth Moses received
the gift of a S4,000 Israel Bond
from Detroiter Rubin Shave.
A new translation of the works of
Sholem Aleichem was published in
Peking, China.
The Israel Petroleum Council granted
offshore drilling rights to the Canadian
prospecting company Sancana_

1951
Sugar Ray Robinson, world mid-
dleweight boxing champion, pre-
sented a check for S10,000 to
Hebrew University Medical School
and Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
The oldest Jew in South Africa,
Moses Meier Kitay, died at age 106.
Darryl F. Zanuck's film David
and Bathsheba opened at the
Madison Theater.
—Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant

