For Openers
A Little Wobbly, But Standing With Israel
S
ome people have an Israeli flag
hanging outside their homes and
some drive around with replicas
stuck on the bumpers of their
cars. But for the past several weeks, Nathan
Chomsky of Southfield had one he couldn't
leave home without.
His flag was actually an artistic reproduc-
- SHELLI
tion that was a permanent part of a cast he
LIEBMAN
wore on his leg — all the way up to his
DORFMAN knee.
When pain and discomfort didn't subside
Staff Writer
from a summer full of repeated ankle
twists, falls and
even a run-in with a golf cart, 9-
year-old Nathan ended up in the
Royal Oak office of pediatric
orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ira Zaltz.
Thinking about the several casts,
bandages and braces Nathan wore
on his ankle since the end of the
last school year, his mother had a
sudden thought. Hoping that this
would be "the last and final cast —
and injury," Susan Chomsky said,
"I wanted it to be outstanding."
She had a plan to turn the ordi-
nary cast into a portable, protec-
tive, replica of an Israeli flag.
"I asked that the cast have a blue
stripe, knowing that I would then
add the star later, for the full
effect."
The circular blue stripe that
wraps around the white cast was made with folded, blue
casting material, with the Star of David drawn on with
permanent marker.
She said her son takes in stride any injuries incurred
from being a vigorous, fun-loving boy. "He is an active kid
who has really been great about all this," she said.
A fifth-grade student at Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit, Nathan said his classmates have
come up with one consistent comment after seeing the
cast. "They all say it's cool," he said. "For me, though, it
reminds me all the time of what's going on in Israel."
Says Susan Chomsky, "You know the saying, 'Wherever
we stand, we stand with Israel.' Well, Nathan takes that
very seriously."
He already knows what he will
carry with him as a daily, physical
reminder of Israel after the cast is
removed.
"I will keep wearing a bracelet
that I got at my shul,
[Congregation] Beth Shalom,"
Nathan said of a memorial
bracelet purchased to help sup-
port victims of Israeli terror
through the organization
All4Israel. "It has the name of a
man who died in Israel from ter-
rorism."
The cast, too, will continue to
be a reminder, but in a more
covert way. "After it's taken off,
I'm going to bring it home,"
Nathan said. "And I'll keep it in
my closet, with two of my other
casts."
❑
Aistbe t 'cha
Don't Know
CD 2003
T
he death penalty was legal
in biblical times, with the
most commonly known
execution done by stoning.
There were three other even more
gruesome forms of execution sanc-
tioned in Hebrew Scriptures. Can you
name them?
— Goldfein
•uoTaEardupap
puu uorluInSuu.ns <guIumg :Jam.suy
Quotables
"I'm going to stand at the head of this
committee together with other
women to follow the cases of these
poor, miserable women and to make
sure that they are OK, that they're not
being neglected."
— Gila Finkelstein, a progressive
member of Knesset from the National
Religious Party, about Israeli women
blocked from a religious divorce for years
by their husbands; quoted in the Forward.
Yiddish Limericks
I feel the High Holidays beckon;
A time to think sweet thoughts, I
reckon.
So that's why, I hear,
For Yasser this year,
They're giving him hunik tsu leckee
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
Nathan Chomsky with his Israeli-flag cast:
* - (literal) honey to lick
(idiom) a rough time
Shabbat Candlelighting
"Lighting Shabbos candles is like a light at the end of the tunnel. After a long,
busy week with my children, we all stop and Mommy lights the candles. My
little children watch me cover my eyes and they copy me. Then we all say
`Good Shabbos' and dance and sing. It is the highlight of our week."
Correction: In last week's Yiddish Lim-
erick, the Jewish News misprinted the
term shmaltz groob [meaning fat pit (lit-
eral) and tub of money (idiomatic)].
Yiddish-isms
bubkes
— Sara Shaposhnik, Oak Park, mother
Sponsored by Lubavitch
'Women's Organization.
TO submit a candlelighting
message or to receive
complimentary candlesticks
and information on Shabbat
candlelighting, call Miriam
Arrattlak of Oak l'ark at
(248) 548-6771 or e-mail:
nuttnzabk@juno. COM
10/ 3
2003
10
1
Candlelighting
Friday, Oct. 3, 6:53 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, Oct. 4, 7:52 p.m.
Candlelighting
Friday, Oct. 10, 6:41 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, Oct. 11, 7:40 p.m.
.Something trivial, worthless, insulting-
ly disproportionate to expectations;
something absurd, foolish, nonsensical.
Source: From The iVelv Joys of Yiddish
by Leo Calvin Rosten, edited by
Lawrence Bush, copyright 2001, by
the Rosten Family LLC. Used by per-
mission of the Rosten Family LLC.