A Lot Of Fun...

Below: Noah Davis, 5, of Huntington Woods is very serious about his Israeli flag.

Right: Aviva Miller, 16, of Oak Park shows her father Greg the "hair" for the dolls.

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She just smiled. "That's fine," she said. "This is
for the kids."
At the back of the room on the floor was a huge
inflated map of Israel. It was at least 20-feet long,
surrounded by an edge of dark blue. Your tour
guide: Robert Torgow of Southfield.
This walking trip began at the bottom, in Eilat,
and continued through Masada and Jerusalem all
way the to the Golan Heights region. Along the
way, Torgow would quiz visitors about what they
knew and point out interesting spots.
Even tiny feet could make this trip without trou-
ble. Soon after he arrived at the JCC, 2-year-old
Darren Hollander of Farmington Hills ran straight
to Israel, wearing what must have been the best shirt
of the day: his grandmother, Laura Hoffer, had
affixed flags of Israel, which she made with strips of
blue fabric, to the front and back of Darren's shirt.
At the end of the trip to inflatable Israel, guests
were invited to send a message to Israelis. The words
were written on cardboard cut in the shape of a

hand, and bore phrases like, "We can't wait to visit"
and "Best wishes for peace."
After children had made dolls and had a chance to
relax after their trip to Israel, they could make mag-
nets, like Tamar Brown, 8, and Samantha Zwick, 9,
both of Southfield and members of Young Israel of
Southfield. The girls worked carefully to place stick-
ers (a peace sign with an Israeli and an American
flag) and bits of glitter and multicolored sequins and
stars on the front of their magnets.
Helping out was Gail Greenberg, senior staff asso-
ciate for the Jewish Federation, who had been work-
ing since early morning but was still amazingly
pleasant.
Making the magnet and the doll making were
really cool," according to Daniel Ginzburg, 9, of
West Bloomfield and a member of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, and his friend, Bella Wishnivetski,
9, whose family belongs to Temple Israel.
The walls of the gym were decorated with pictures
of Jewish communities throughout the world, echo-

CC

ing the paper doll themes, while the Jewish Parents
Institute offered a sweet treat of licorice to all the
guests.
And as visitors entered the gym, they saw a video
introducing children of Israel — Hadas, who likes
to play the piano, and Maxim, who likes to vacation
in Eilat.
Seth Greenberg, 12, of Oak Park and a member
of Congregation Shir Tikvah, had been thinking a
lot on Sunday about the children of Israel.
"I was thinking about how President Bush asked
American kids to give $1 to help all the kids in
Iraq," Seth said. "And so I thought I would ask
American kids to give 18 cents — 18 because of life
— for Israeli kids, and then I'd collect it and send it
to help out."

(Keep tuned to AppleTree for more details of Seth's
drive).