Chafetz coaches Erin Weingarten, 8, of
Bloomfield Township: "I think about •
being out there and everyone watching me
and clapping andfieling good about
myself when Im done," said Erin.
Merrick Weingarten, 6, of Bloomfield
Township with Coach Seth Chafetz,
enjoys spins: "You go fast."
triple jumps and building stamina in
her freestyle performances so she can
meet her big goal — competing on the
international circuit.
"Being Jewish has helped me. It's
been a source of inspiration," said
Amanda, who- celebrated her bat mitz-
vah at her family's synagogue, Temple
Israel. "It inspired me to succeed
because I wanted to show that Jewish
girls have a place in figure skating."
Skating taught her the value of hard
work, how to balance success and fail-
ure and the importance of competitive-
ness, she said.
Adelson is learning those lessons
with the help of her coach, Seth
Chafetz, 44, a former mayor of
Birmingham (2002-2003). Chafetz
earned silver and bronze medals in
pairs and free-style skating events at
the regional level when he competed
from 1979-1984.
"He taught me the importance of
looking inside myself to achieve what I
want to do," said Amanda, who will be
a senior at Wylie E. Groves High
School in Beverly Hills next year.
clubs operated like country clubs with
restricted memberships. When more
municipal rinks opened up their doors
in the 1960s and 1970s, people with
different backgrounds jumped into the
sport.
Precision techniques, power,
endurance, tenaciousness and guts are
just a few of the qualities of today's
top-rated skaters, Chafetz said.
"Chutzpah is important for a skater,"
he said. "There are so many talented
skaters out there, you need an edge. It's
the gutsy skater who when everything
is on the line can rise to the occasion
and skate to his or her best ability, and
then some, who wins."
While Adelson is on the brink of
international success — Chafetz fore-
sees her moving up to senior-level
competitions next year — three of
Chafetz's other students are poised to
be the stars of 2014.
Chafetz describes the Weingarten
family of Bloomfield Township —
including Erin, 8; Merrick, 6; and
Tori, 4 — as "talented" and "hard-
working" kids who love skating.
Erin said she would like to skate in
the Olympics one day. "I think about
being out there and everyone watching
me and clapping and feeling good
about myself when I'm done," she said.
If she earns a gold medal, Erin will
know whom to thank. "We have great
instructors, and we wouldn't know
how to skate if they didn't help us," she
said.
Performing a camel spin has been
Erin's greatest challenge so far. "You
have to straighten your leg and do like
a spiral and spin around fast." Her
favorite move is going from a scratch
spin to a backspin. "You spin around
really fast and my hair flicks every-
),
where.
Erin hopes to learn more skating
techniques in the future. "There are
Cutting A Fine _Figure
In the past, Jewish skaters were a rare
sight on the ice. Today, many of the
sport's stars are Jewish, said Chafetz.
They include Sasha Cohen, who
earned a silver medal in the 2004 U.S.
National and World championships
and a fourth-place finish in the Winter
Olympics in 2002.
Sarah Hughes, whose mother is
Jewish, won a gold medal in figure
skating in the 2002 Olympics before
she retired from amateur competitions
at the end of the 2003 season. Two-
time U.S. National Senior bronze
medalist Dan Hollander from
Michigan also is Jewish.
At one time, Chafetz said, skating
people who get lifted up and spun
around," she said. "It sounds fun, and
I'd like to do it."
For Merrick and Tori, spins have
one major attraction. "You go fast,"
said Merrick.
The Weingartens' parents started
taking their children to skating les-
sons so they would stay fit and
healthy.
"I really just want them to enjoy
it," said Cindy Bakst Weingarten, 38.
The family belongs to Adat Shalom
Synagogue, where the children attend
religious school.
The Weingarten family puts to
shame the old bromide that sports
and Jews don't go together. Hockey,
baseball, waterskiing, tennis, softball,
soccer and tae kwan do have been
favorite activities for family members
over the years, including Cindy's hus-
•
band Mark, 42.
Cindy acknowledges that ice-skat-
ing is one of the more expensive
sports. Private lessons, costumes and
off-site conditioning can rack up
thousands of dollars in bills each year.
But while skating costs may be
high, Linda Adelson says her daugh-
ter's payoff is even higher. "Her hap-
piness is everything," she said.
"She has the natural ability, and she
still has the smile on her face. When
the smile leaves her face, that's when
it's time to change course."
The day Amanda brings home an
Olympic medal would be an especial-
ly joyous occasion for the whole fam-
ily, said Linda.
"We'd probably need a lot of
Kleenex," she said. Li
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