Thi s Week

For Openers

A

Israelis Love Their Smokes

nytime, anyplace is the right moment
to light up a cigarette in Israel.
This includes a driver smoking next
to his home-heating fuel truck, which
is clearly marked "flammable" — as oil is being
pumped into the tank of a building.
It also includes the arrival lounge at Ben-
Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv and the central bus
station of many cities — even though signs
inform visitors that smoking there is against the
law. The Rehovot bus station has a room for
smoking, but people still light up elsewhere in
the station. A friendly security guard even lit the
cigarette of a young woman.
The Israeli Cancer Association released figures
last May that about 28 percent of the population
smokes, accounting for 10,000 smoking-related

Charles Reisman is a Detroit-area attorney who is a
frequent visitor to Israel.

Yosef publicly condemned smoking and
deaths yearly.
tobacco companies last summer.
To understand these statistics, one
Yeshivot banned smoking in study halls
only needs to enter an independent
decades ago. Some are threatening new
upscale Jerusalem clothing store. Upon
disciplinary measures against smoking.
opening the door, one is greeted by a
Shaare Zedek Medical Center in
cloud of smoke from the male sales
Jerusalem had a poster in Hebrew punning
clerk smoking in the front, the female
the phrase "Do not open your mouth to
sales clerk smoking in the center and
Satan." It changed "Satan" to sartan —
the tailor smoking in the back. Clerks
Hebrew for cancer. The poster reads, "Do
in small stores blow smoke in cus-
not open your mouth to cancer" with a
tomers' faces while waiting on them.
CHARLES
picture of a cigarette.
Smoking transcends all of Israeli
REISMAN
International No Smoking Day was cele-
society. Rich and poor, men and women,
Special to the brated last May with public service ads
Ashkenazi and Sephardi, secular and reli-
against smoking. However, the attitude
Jewish News
gious — all have their smokers. Only
towards smoking is not the same here as it is
Orthodox women rarely smoke.
in
the
United
States and Canada. As a member of a
Hadassah Hospital has run limited anti-smoking
North America-based United Jewish Communities
programs in the past. Besides the standard no
mission to the Jewish state commented, "It looks
smoking signs, the branch in Har Zofim has
like Israel is singlehandedly paying for the tobacco
notices from Israel's leading Orthodox rabbis
settlement in the United States."
against smoking. Shas spiritual leader, Rav Ovadia

❑

Quotables

"There has been serious damage to
some of Prague's Jewish treasures. But
in a sense, we are grateful because the
damage could have been much worse
if the river Vltava's banks had burst."

— Tomas Jelinek, chairman of the
Prague, Czech Republic, Jewish commu-
ni t y, after the worst floods in 100 years
caused an estimated $4 million in dam-
age to Jewish holy sites, as quoted by
JTA.

"Sometimes, I think we care about the
Palestinians more than Yasser Arafat
and his gang."

— Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, Israel's coor-
dinator of government affairs in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, in response
to the growing levels of malnutrition in
the Palestinian areas and who bears the
blame, as quoted by JTA.

"Supporting the growth of opportunities
to recruit and prepare a new generation
of young people as future Jewish profes-
sionals and lay leaders is absolutely one
of the most important things the _com-
munity can do. As we establish the
Jewish institutions that will carry us
through the 21st century, these are the
folks who will provide the leadership."

— Ron Wolfion, Ph.D., vice president,
director, Whizin Center for the Jewish
Future, University of Judaism, Los Angeles
and co-founder of Synagogue 2000.

A

ccording to Hebrew scrip-
ture, of the 12 sons of
Jacob only one, Joseph,
received a double portion
of territory in the land of Israel.
Which two sons received only a half-
portion and why?

— by Goldfein

•a.m1cIpos ur JalliEa paTep1
Aims E Lir sluaDouu! jo IgiOn-ep Jptp
JoJ luaunis!und su U0p.I0d-JTEIT E .41110
pug uouims :Jamsuy
pQApDal

Shabbat Candlelighting

"I feel that the Shabbat candles light up
the poor people's way."

— Jacob Miller, 11, of West Bloomfield,
a seventh grader at Warner Middle School, Farmington Hills

Sponsored by Lubavitch

Yiddish Limericks

"The whole PTO can resign
In protest," said Principal Klein.
"The bare midriff's out!
Let 'em all scream and shout.

Es gayt mere in pupik arine!"

Women's Organization.

To submit a candlelighting

message or to receive

complimentary candlesticks

Candlelighting

Candlelighting

Friday, Aug. 23: 8:04 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 30: 7:52 p.m.

and information on Shabbat

candlelighting, call Miriam

Amzalak of Oak Park at

(248) 967-5056 or e-mail:

amzalak@juno.com

Shabbat Ends

Shabbat Ends

Saturday, Aug.24: 9:06 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 31: 8:54 p.m.

— Martha Jo Fleischmann

* (idiomatic) It doesn't bother me at
all.
(figurative) It goes into my bellybut-
ton.

%•
••.

,„0

• '

8/23

2002