For Openers

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Jeopardy Whiz Kid

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hen Seth Disner hears the familiar Jeopardy!
theme song, it is all he can do to keep from
leaping for the buzzer, even in his own living
room.
Seth, a 17-year-old senior at the
Brentwood School in Los Angeles,
will be appearing on his favorite game
show as a contestant in the Jeopardy!
Teen Tournament, telecast Monday,
Feb. 4. He is one of 15 teenagers
selected from a group of 1,200 high
school students from all over the
United States. -
"Seth has a 'flypaper memory, — said
his father, Eliot Disner, who is a native
Detroiter. "He has the kind of mind
that retains everything."
Seth is not the first "quiz kid" in the
Disner family. His mother, Sandra, a
native Californian, was on the televi-
sion show College Bowl during her stu-
dent days at Wellesley College in
Seth Disner
Boston.
After learning he had made the cut
as a jeopardy' contestant, Seth began preparing by using his
mother's old College Bowl materials as a study guide.
Seth believes that his background as an actor in several
high school productions influenced the producers' decision
to select him.
"I think they liked my stage presence, and the fact that I
had a strong voice," he said.
Seth's father, Eliot Disner, grew up in Detroit and
Birmingham with his three brothers and his parents, Jerry

"What I want to teach is how to be a Jew, how to have a

0 2002

By Goldfein

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esides Hebrew and Yiddish, can
you name other Jewish languages
spoken today?

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Devora is the daughter of the late Sam and Mary Gordon
of Detroit.
"We're not too surprised that Seth got on Jeopardy," said
his grandmother, Devora Disner. "He's a very
well-rounded young man with a good mind.
We wrote and told him how proud we were of
him, even if he didn't win a thing."
Seth has an older brother, Perrin, 22, who
attends the University of Michigan, and a
younger sister, Madeleine, who is almost 12.
According to their father, Madeleine is not
phased by her brother's newfound fame,
although her schoolmates are very impressed.
"The whole experience was kind of surreal,"
said Seth. "During the breaks between ques-
tions, when the contestants look nervous, it's
because they really are nervous. It was a real
emotional roller coaster, but I'm very glad I did
it.''
Because the Jeopardy! show is taped in Los
Angeles, Seth had a lot of local audience sup-
port from classmates, teachers and family mem-
bers, which he found very helpful.
"At one point, about one-third of the audience was there
because of me," he said.
Seth was asked by NBC officials not to reveal the out-
come of his performance, but his grandmother said he did
"very well indeed." The initial show on Feb. 4 will be fol-
lowed by the semifinal rounds on Feb. 13-15. ❑
— Ronelle Grier, special writer

Quotables

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and Devora Disner, who now reside in West Bloomfield.

Jewish way of life — how to observe Shabbat and customs.
These are the things that in the end make a person feel that
he or she is a Jew. You may understand what it means to be
a Jew, but if you don't feel Jewish, what's the good of it?"
Rabbi Solomon Goldberg, retiring rabbi of the Rutland Jewish
Center in Vermont, as quoted in the Forward

"One of the reasons Chabad is so accepted here is that peo-
ple know its rabbis and community leaders are committed
to work here permanently, not coming and going like the

Jewish organizational officials sent to Russia from the U.S.
or Israel."
New York Jewish Week Editor Gary Rosenblatt, writing from
Moscow, where he spent Shabbat at the new Jewish
Community Center

) Learning JfYiy
vii
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SAJE classes are in full swing at the Jewish
Comalitnity:,Cent
er of MOtropolitan
Detroit.

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Selected newska.nd feature rkes from
the Detroit frw
ags4.
4 ';':

www.detroiteyvis

eW$.con

) What's E
Harry Hirsbaum?

It's Just What We Do: It's putting
emotions aside to cover the story.

www.detroitjewishnews.com/opinion

) Rocky Relationship

President Bush said last week that he is
"very disappointed" with Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat for
"enhancing terror."

wvvw.jewish.com

) Deciding On Arafat

The future of Yasser Arafat — or of the
Middle East without him — is shaping up
as the key agenda item when Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon meets President
Bush in Washington next week.
www.jewish.com

) Jerusalem Security

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has approved
a plan to prevent Palestinian terrorists from
carrying out attacks by building security
walls, fences and ditches to separate
Jerusalem's oudying neighborhoods from
areas under Palestinian control.
www.jewish.com

) Spectrum Of Violence

The recent attacks that turned downtown
Jerusalem into a horror gallery demonstrate
the randomness of Palestinian terror.
www.jewish.com

Mendel

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Yiddish Limericks

A hog farmer once known as Sy
Said, "Call me a sensitive guy,
But time and again,
It g7-izbehs* me when
My wife says I sell chazzerei.**"

— Martha Jo Fleischmann

* gnaws at; grinds at
" (literal) pig's feed; swill
(figurative) junk

W1

2/1
2002

