Community
Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs
WOMEN ON THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE
Something For
Everyone
Friedman Rocks
On Cable Show
SAJE adult education
courses begin Feb. 11.
HARRY KIRSBAUM
St4fTWriter
hen Seminars for Adult
Jewish Enrichment
kicked off its latest
semester on Feb. 5
with "Not a Moment's Regret:
Reflections of an Unabashed
Zionist," a lecture by Rabbi Daniel
Gordis of Jerusalem, SAJE leaders
hope to continue their success at
bringing "something for every-
body.
One of the topics emphasized is
the Middle East this year with three
or four classes, said Doris
Blechman, who co-chairs with Susie
Citrin.
But 17 new instructors will pro-
vide a °Teat mix, including K av
Maga (an Israeli form of self
defense), Jewish cooking, Kabbalah
and a course taught only in
Hebrew.
More than 600 students have reg-
istered for seminars and classes in
past seasons, she said. The fee for
classes is $25 per course or $40 for
unlimited courses that run
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays, Feb. 11-March 13 in
the Jewish Community Centers in
West Bloomfield and Oak Park.
Borders Books and Music in
Farmington Hills, Birmingham and
Beverly Hills will feature titles from
suggested reading lists submitted by
SAJE instructors.
At the same time, Borders will
conduct "Borders Benefit Days,"
Feb. 14-16, when the bookstore
chain will contribute 15 percent of
all sales from the three locations to
the SAJE program.
The courses are sponsored by the
Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit, the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit,
the Detroit Jewish News, Federation's
Alliance for Jewish Education and
the Agency for Jewish Education.
❑
For course information and regis-
tration, call SAJE at (248) 432-
5577.
Beginning the week of
Feb. 9, "B'nai B'rith
Presents" will cable-
cast the B'nai B'rith
Youth Organizantion's
Jewish Heritage
Night, titled "Jewish
Music That Rocks,"
Josh
Friedman
featuring Josh
Friedman, as he
teaches words and
meanings of new and traditional
Hebrew songs to Michigan regional
BBYO teens.
"B'nai B'rith Presents" is a regular
weekly series produced by Steve &
D.D. Fisher of A.A.A. Productions in
Oak Park and is cablecast on a region-
al Public-Access cable network. For
exact channels, dates and times, call
your cable company's local-access
office or call the B'nai B'rith Great
Lakes Regional office, (248) 646-
3100.
JAMD Offers
Scholarships
The Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit will offer four
$1000 merit-based scholarships for
the 2003-2004 school year. A stu-
dent may apply for more than one
merit scholarship, but no more than
one prize may be awarded per student.
The deadline for merit submission is
March 1. Call Dana Rhodes, (248) 592-
5263, for a scholarship application.
The scholarships are offered in the
following categories: distinction in
general studies; distinction in Jewish
studies; distinction in extra-curricular
activities; distinction in chesed (acts
of kindness and community service).
JAIVID current and prospective stu-
dents may also apply for a 2003
Community Caring Program
Scholarship. This program was estab-
lished in 1995 by a group of com-
munity leaders in the Detroit metro-
politan area. It is dedicated to pro-
viding assistance to students in need
of tuition assistance for tuition or
enrichment experiences.
Seventy-five $1000 scholarships
will be awarded to eligible students
who live in Southeast Michigan.
Applications must be received by
March 10. Call Matt Berg, (248)
592-5263, for information and an
application form.
Women have fought long and hard to win rightful places in male dominated
professions such as the sciences--all the more so by Jewish women. Those
who overcame cultural sexism and prejudice during past years include
Nobel Laureate Gertrude Elion. Owing largely to shortages of male
biochemists during World War Two, she gained entry into research
programs that would eventually yield drugs to help cure some 80% of all
childhood anemia.
Biomedical investigator Rosalyn Yalow, another Nobelist, had
earlier learned shorthand for an optional secretarial career should all else
fail. The steno pad was abandoned when, on the strength of her academic
brilliance, she was admitted to the laboratory and developed the medically
invaluable radioimmunoassay (RIA). Others like them succeeded in win-
ning high repute for their gifts to world society:
LISE MEITNER
(1878-1968) b. Vienna, Austria Historians
speculate that Hitler's Germany could have
assembled an atomic arsenal before the war's end
had it not persecuted and driven out its physicists
of Jewish descent. Meitner was among them,
escaping the Austrian Anschluss and settling in
Sweden in 1938. The former student of Max
Planck (developer of the quantum theory) had 4itk_
since co-discovered the isotope protactinium and studied particles emitted
by uranium under neutron bombardment. While employed at the Nobel
Institute in Stockholm, Meitner learned that two German colleagues she left
behind had split the uranium atom through such bombardment, releasing
enormous amounts of energy.
She instantly grasped the immensity of the discovery--that the
world was on the threshold of its atomic age. Consulting with her physicist
nephew, Otto Frisch, then working in Denmark under Niels Bohr, Meitner
was the first to explain and calculate the vast power of the nuclear reaction.
She also joined Frisch in coining the term "atomic fission," and provided
a theoretical foundation for designing the atomic bomb. The part time
resident of the U.S. and England, as well, was honored for her
achievements with the prestigious 1966 Enrico Fermi award accorded to
her by the American Atomic Energy Commission.
RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI
:: (1909-99) b. Turin, Italy The daughter of an
engineer also suffered repression in her early
career as a medical researcher. Fascist rulings
forbade Jews to teach-at Italian universities or
: practice medicine. She sought safety in Belgium,
but was once again uprooted--this time by the
Nazi invasion which drove her back to Italy to
pursue research in her private Turin laboratory.
At the German takeover in 1943, the intrepid scientist fled to Florence
where she hid until the war's end.
Levi-Montalcini had long been drawn to the study of neurology,
intrigued with the anatomy of nerve cells and what influences their
function. Resuming her investigations in Turin and then at Washington
University' in St. Louis (1946), she arrived at a landmark co-discovery
which led, in 1986, to a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine--the fourth
woman to win the award in that category. Levi-Montalcini had confirmed
that a constituent of mouse tumors implanted in chicken embryos
stimulated the growth of nerve tissue.
The "nerve growth factor," as it was named, plays a pivotal role in
spurring the growth of nerve cells and tissues in the peripheral nervous
system. In turn, her findings may in time further advance efforts to build
up the body's defenses against diseases of the nervous system such as
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The dual citizen of the U.S. and Italy also
received our nation's premier award in its field: The National Medal of
Science.
- Saul Stadtmauer
•• • '• • •
COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION- OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
2/ 7
2003
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson
Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org
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