Staff Notebook
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Hadassah tutor Cyrille Friedman with Ealy Elementary
School students.
Robert Naftaly joins Jennifer Granholrn's gubernatorial
transition staff as transition budget director.
Gareth Armstrong talks to Wayne State University
theater students.
Hadassah In Literacy Video
In August, the Rollingers presented a similar
check to the Dr. John J. Mames Chapter of
American Friends of the Magen David Adom for
Israel, helping to support emergency, medical,
health, blood and disaster services.
The Rollingers and others, who found a way to
help Israel and meet a community need with the
Expo, are already thinking about next year.
"We'd hope that there would be no need for one,
but we're starting to think ahead to next summer and
planning the event once again," said Robert Rollinger.
Until then, for a comprehensive listing of Israeli
goods and services available on the Internet, visit the
sites vvww.shopinisrael.com or vvww.jevvish.com.
Words From A Master
A
video production team from Hadassah's national
office in New York City came to Detroit Nov.
14 and 15, to film a segment of their video
on Hadassah's Read*Write*Now! Partners Tutoring
Program.
..
The crew filmed Hadassah tutors and their students
at Fnly Elementary School in West Bloomfield and
Roosevelt Elementary School in Ferndale, two of the
six public schools where Greater Detroit Chapter of
Hadassah has literacy volunteers.
Developed in cooperation with the U.S. Department
of Education, ,Hadassah's program includes volunteers
from more than 1,100 chapters around the country.
Only six chapters were selected to be part of the video.
The film, designed to promote literacy programs
and development, also included Hadassah's partner
in this venture, the Detroit Jewish Coalition for
Literacy, sponsored by the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
— Sharon Luckerman
r
Israel Expo Offers Tally
final numbers are in from the Ben Yehudah
Street Shopping Expo held Aug. 11-13 at
the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park.
Spearheaded by Robert and Susan Rollinger of
West Bloomfield and supported by dozens of vol-
unteers, the Expo attracted more than 7,000 folks
who put more than $150,000 into the coffers of
the more than 50 Israeli merchants whose items
were offered.
The $5 entry fee charged for adult admission to
the Expo added up to just under $6,000. With the
JCC donating space and staff, and gratis promotion-
al support coming from American Jewish
Committee, the proceeds far outstripped expenses.
True to their word, organizers ensured that all
funds collected have gone to help Israel. The final
distribution was a check for just under $3,000 —
50 percent of the proceeds — given to the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Israel
Emergency Campaign at the Oct. 20 Super
Sunday fund-raiser. The Rollingers were pleased
to be able to present the check that the
Federation had asked them to hold until then.
11 / 22
2002
14
— Don Cohen
R
Naftaly On Granholm Team
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Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, has
been appointed transition budget director to the
gubernatorial transition team of Governor-elect
Jennifer Granholm and Lieutenant Governor-elect
John Cherry.
"His area of focus will be the state budget," says
Chris Dewitt of the transition team. "He will be
looking at what shape the state's finances are in
right now — trying to get a handle on the best
way to address the issue as we head into Governor-
elect Granholm's administration."
A primary focus of the transition team, headed
by Lynn Jondahl of Okemos, a former state legis-
lator and current executive director of the
Michigan Prospect for Renewed Citizenship, will
be to develop a plan to address Michigan's budget
crisis.
Naftaly was director of the Michigan
Department of Management and Budget for the
State of Michigan from 1983-87.
"Bob and Governor-elect Granholm have known
each other for a number of years," Dewitt says.
"She has a great deal of respect for him and for his
knowledge of state government and finances in
general. She Was very, very pleased he agreed to fill
in during this transition time."
The appointment will run through Jan. 1, 2003.
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman
A
ctor Gareth Armstrong has news for people
who think that Shylock, the play he's been
presenting at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre,
is a one-man show.
Although the Royal Shakespeare Company alum-
nus is the only actor on the stage, Shylock is a two-
person show, Armstrong told theater students at
Wayne State University Nov. 4.
"The audience is the other player."
Depending on the mood of the audience,
Armstrong, who wrote as well as directed the two-
act show, changes his delivery and even his lines
from performance to performance.
"The one advantage of writing your own script is
you can change it," he said. "There are little bits of
speeches, whole lines that you can take out when
you see how it's going.
"There are little bits of comic pieces — if you see
the audience likes it, you put in more."
Shylock combines scenes from William
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with a running
commentary on the action, British theater history,
the background of anti-Semitism and a little clown-
ing around.
One student asked why Armstrong had chosen
Shakespeare's minor character of Tubal as the play's
mouthpiece, instead of Shylock himself.
, "He's more or less a blank page," Armstrong
answered. "I thought it would be easier. And not
having Shylock, who comes with so much baggage,
gives you the opportunity to be more universal.
"He's the only other Jewish man in all
Shakespeare, so he represents all Jews, all actors.
"Also, he's quite appealing. And it's very impor-
tant, when you're the only one On stage, to be
appealing."
Armstrong, who has performed Shylock more than
3509 times since the play's 1999 debut, told the stu-
dents not to be frightened of Shakespeare — as a
journeyman actor himself, "he's on our side."
— Diana Lieberman
Shylock's run ends this weekend at JET at the
Jewish Community Center in West Bloom-
field. (248) 788-2900
ks,
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