Living The Chat'

JCC's Apples and Honey celebration brings out life's sweetness.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

AppleTree Editor

llyI

arlowe Susselman, 9, of Canton has
been in-line skating for s0000 many
years ... but not exactly.
"I like in-line skating," she said. "I've been
doing it since I was like 5, only not a lot because I
had, like, these plastic roller blades."
They were Barbie roller blades, her mother
explains.
But on Sunday, Marlowe was out there with the
best of them, a shiny helmet atop her dark hair,
going around and around the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
Marlowe loved the in-line skating, and she loved
the hayride, and she loved the Shalom Street activ-
ities, she said. Altogether, she was having a terrific
time at Apples and Honey and Lots, Lots More.
The annual event is sponsored by Federation's
Alliance for Jewish Education, the JCC, Jewish
Experiences For Families, the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, the JCC Great Outdoors
Nature's Way, and the Jewish News. This year's
theme: "Living The Chai Life."
Featured events included in-line hockey (or just
in-line skating to most), arts and crafts, a concert
with the Nelsongs and visits to the JCC's Shalom
Street, among others.
A hay wagon waited out front, ready to take
everyone to the Center's Great Outdoors Nature's
Way. There, a program coordinated by Sara
Bernstein featured activities that combined Jewish
values, such as protecting the environment, with
the chance to actually engage in a bit of garden-
ing.
Apples and Honey was chaired by Margery
Klausner and Susan Langnas Feber.
"I think families are pleasantly surprised by how
much is going on," said Gail Greenberg, senior
staff associate for JEFF. "They're finding out a lot
of new things about the Center and about the hol-
idays, and there's really something for everyone of
every age to do. People are leaving happy."
It was all fun, but the skating clearly was the
place to be.
The skating event was called Hack-afot,
reminiscent of hakafot, circuits made
around the synagogue on Simchat Torah.
The circles on the skating rink "remind
us of our never-ending commitment to
tzedakah," much as the hakafot "are a way
to remind us of the never-ending Torah cycle,"
Greenberg said.
Children were encouraged to ask for pledges for
each lap they skated, with money raised going to
PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Israel.
PACT is a citywide intervention program in
Netanya that aims to help Ethiopian Israeli

preschoolers and their families.
The organization, which hopes
to make contact with each of
the more than 1,100 Ethiopian-
Israeli children in Netanya,
includes cultural and social
enrichment activities, place-
ment in preschools and pro-
moting better nutrition, health
care and parenting skills.
Among those skating or just
hanging out near this hot spot
were Sage Ozdarski, 8, of
Canton, and Jason Hutnick, 5,
of Plymouth. Jason was in con-
stant motion, moving deftly —
and indeed very quickly — on
his skates, even as he answered
questions as to what he liked
best about the day's events.
"The funnest was the skating,
and the arts and crafts," he said.
Which arts and crafts project
specifically? "That
one over there," he
called, skating off
into the sunset — or
at least to the oppo-
site side of the
room.

Crafts And More

Jeremiah and
Johanna Feiner,
charming 5-year-old
twins from
Bloomfield Hills,
were having a great
time making yads. A
yad is used to point
to each word as one
reads from the
Torah, and some
have been known to
be ornate, finely shaped works of art.
So, too, were the yads being made by
these children. Each boy or girl took a
handful of sparkling, multicolored glit-
ter and placed it in a plastic tube, then
topped it with a bit of felt.
Other arts-and-crafts projects includ-
ed making Simchat Torah flags, each
with a picture of a boy and girl to color.
Olivia Gordon, almost 6, of Franklin was doing
a beautiful job with her flag. Earlier that day, she
had attended Sunday school at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, where she learned all about
Simchat Torah, she said.

COIF ER
ST ORY

10/ 8
2004

50

Above: Deby Leboth and Davi
Lebow, 10, of West Bloomfield
take a hayride.

Left: Emily Rosenberg, 7 of West
Bloomfield, enjoys apples and
honey

Staff photos by Angie Baan

Most of all, though, Olivia was looking forward
to making a stuffed Torah of felt. That actually
was the most fun .thing at Apples and Honey, she
said, "though I didn't get to do it yet. I'm going to
next."
And if all that skating and crafting made you
hungry, you could eat your way to happiness.
To make their creative delicacies — edible Torah
scrolls — children took a graham cracker, pretzel
sticks and yummy, gooey marshmallow fluff.
Afterward, children became scribes by writing
with melted chocolate sauce on their edible
Torahs. ❑