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from page 64

Shomer Shabbat

Despite his talent, promoting Salita
might not always be such a walk in the
park. He's observant, and will not
fight on nearly 70 holy days a year,
including Friday nights.
"It hasn't been an obstacle," Salita
says. "[Arum's] really working great
with the schedule. He still manages to
put me on big cards."
Being put on those big cards might
help Salita get the exposure to achieve
a secondary goal of his — to get Jews
more passionate about boxing.
"I'd like to bring it back a little bit
to how it used to
be," he says.
"'Because I read
when Benny
Leonard and Barney
Ross fought, people
would storm out of
the ghettos and talk
with each other,
and people would
gather around their
radios to see how
they were doing. It
was a big deal. The
whole community was for them."
Detroit's own Emanuel Steward,
one of the world's most respected box-
ing trainers and part of HBO's broad-
cast team, has seen Salita on those big
cards and has been impressed.
"He's the real thing," Steward says.
"He's a very good fighter. I guess he's
got a big black following because he
trains at Gleason's Gym [in New York
City] sometimes, and the black people
there absolutely love him. What
you've got with Dmitriy is basically a
real solid, fundamentally sound fight-
er."
Salita's black following shouldn't be
a surprise considering his slick abili-
ties. "It's a city style," Salita said. "A
black style. There's no other way to
say it.
"My gym is located in the ghetto.
So everybody listens to [rap] music
and everybody interprets it differently,
and it helped me to develop my own
style."

still lives and where Yuri learned to
box.
Asked to compare his style to Salita's,
Foreman is a little cagey. "It's Yuri-
style," he says, laughing. "It's Yuri
Foreman-style."
Like Salita, Foreman, 22, possesses a
formidable amateur background. He
won three national titles in Israel before
moving to New York and capturing the
Golden Gloves.
"Nobody likes boxing in Israel," says
Foreman. "So boxers are only Arabs
and Russian immigrants."
Fortunately for the highly skilled

Both boxers are "real solid.
The fact
they're Jewish is
incidental."

Learning In Haifa

Hopefully, New York is big enough for
Salita to share with another potential
Jewish superstar, Yuri Foreman. While
living in Russia, an 8-year-old Foreman
saw Mike Tyson fight Donovan
"Razor" Ruddock on TV and fell in
love with the sport.
Like Salita, he was 10 when his fami-
ly immigrated, although the Foremans
went to Haifa, where Foreman's father

9/27

2002

66

— Emanuel Steward

Foreman, people do like boxing in the
U.S. and will even pay a lot of money
to watch it. Foreman recently signed
with ex-HBO boxing-czar-turned-pro-
moter Lou DiBella, who plans to pro-
mote him heavily in the Jewish com-
munity.
"His following among Jews will
grow," DiBella says. "I mean, come on
— he enters the ring to the theme
from Exodus."
In Haifa, there were no gyms, so
Foreman and his 30 teammates, all
Arabs, practiced boxing in the street.
"My teammates were my friends," he
says. "We were going to international
competitions together. I was staying in
hotels with them. They were Arabs; I'm
a Jew. But we never had [any disagree-
ments.] We were friends."
Both Foreman and Salita are friendly
enough, it seems, unless you're one of
the unfortunate people standing across
from them in the ring. And they've got
more in common than wearing the
Magen David on their trunks.
Tragically, both of their mothers have
recently passed away. Perhaps that mis-
fortune will drive Foreman and Salita
to succeed just as it did Oscar de la
Hoya, a fighter they both admire.
Hall of Fame trainer Steward, for
one, sees bright futures for both boxers.
"[Foreman's] terrific, too," he says.
"They're both real solid. I was very,
very impressed with them.
"The fact that they're Jewish," he
adds, "is incidental." El

Matthew N. Shane of Birmingham
has been appointed to financial ana-
lyst at the Lutz Companies, a com-
mercial real estate mortgage banking
company in Farmington Hills.

Mickey Alterman and his sister
Soozee Alterman have created two
new businesses from the former
Royal Carpet Distributors in
Warren. The Altermans have opened
Flooring Warehouse to the public for
all types of residential and commer-
cial flooring, and Sanford Services to
provide heated, secure, long-term or
short-term warehouse services. The
businesses are at 20750 Hoover
Road at Eight Mile; telephone (586)
756-2400 or (248) 765-2400.

Matt Friedman of West Bloomfield
has been promoted to vice president
of Marx Layne & Co., a marketing
and public relations agency.
Friedman is part of the agency's
management team, responsible for
supervising account staff, facilitating
strategic planning, implementing
operational initiatives and managing
organizational development. He con-
tinues to direct account teams that
serve and counsel clients in the com-
munications, education, legal, finan-
cial and transportation industries.

board position of volunteer coordina-
tor for the Coalition for the
Advancement of Jewish Education.
She is the director of education at
Temple Israel and has been program
chair for CAJE, where she oversaw the
scholarship and mini-grant programs.

Gail Etta Spevak, former Detroiter
and a certified public accountant, has
joined the O'Connor Group in
Scottsdale, Ariz.

Attorney Julie I. Fershtman of
Farmington Hills will complete her
term as chair of the State Bar of
Michigan Representative Assembly
at the State Bar of Michigan annual
meeting. She completes her term as
commissioner of the State Bar of
Michigan Board of Commissioners
in which she served on the executive
and public policy committees. She is
of counsel to the law firm of Fink,
Zausmer & Kaufman PC and focus-
es her practice on business litigation,
insurance law, employment and
equine law.

Frederick J. Hortick of Bloomfield
Hills has been pro-
moted to senior trust
analyst at Comerica
Bank.

Jonathan Liebman of Southfield,
president and CEO of the Specs
Howard School of Broadcast Arts in
Southfield, has been appointed to
the board of direc-
tors of the Career
College Association
based in Washington,
D.C. Liebman is
president of
Michigan Association
of Career Schools
and a member of
Workforce and
Ioanthan
Education
Liebman
Committee of the
Oakland County
Business Roundtable. He is incom-
ing chair of the Southfield Chamber
of Commerce.

Marc Katz of the
Royal Oak Area
Optimist Club and
the University of
Detroit-Mercy
Frederick
Optimist Club has
Hortick
been elected to the
position of governor-
elect of the Michigan District
Optimists. He has been a school
board member in the Berkley school
district for the past 12 years and has
held positions of secretary, treasurer,
vice president and president. He is
serving as treasurer for the second
time. He is co-president of the Tri-
Community Coalition of Berkley,
Huntington Woods and Oak Park,
and has served as treasurer and vice
president of the coalition.

Friedman Real Estate Group and its
sister company Finsilver-Friedman
Management Corp. have relocated to
a new headquarters building in
Farmington Hills, 34975 W. 12 Mile
Road. The expanded facility includes
a large marketing and design area, as
well as renovated executive office
suite and training facilities.
Fran Pearlman of West Bloomfield has
been appointed to the newly created

Stacy Doctoroff of
Huntington Woods
has opened a new
party planning serv-
ice, Lil' Pumpkins
Parties. For informa-
tion, call (248) 790-
4665.

Stacy
Doctoroff