Left: Raquel Kinsky, 4, ofWest Bloomfield checks to
make sure her dough is ready for the oven.

Left below: Alrya Epstein, 7, of Pontiac pokes holes
into the dough.

Children were invited to decorate
their matzah magnets with sparkly
rhinestones, feathers, cool cut-out
shapes, pipe cleaner bits and markers.
Bowls dripping with glue, by mid-
afternoon thick as honey, were used to
hold it all together.
You would think Gail Greenberg,
senior staff associate for the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
and the woman responsible for plan-
ning the Matzah Factory, might need a
bit of glue to keep herself together by
this point. She started organizing the
Matzah Factory months ago, and it
has been nonstop work (and great fun,
she says) since then.
"We started sending invitations in
December, and within five weeks we
had signed up almost 1,000 kids," she
said. (Sundays are open to the public;
weekdays are for prearranged groups).
Soon afterward, another 200 were
on board. Another 300 are expected to
just drop in. But Greenberg was hav-

ing the time of her life. The Matzah
Factory has always been a "wonderful,
exciting, fun experience," Greenberg
said.
This year, the planning staff decided
to extend that fun to guests' homes.
Each family who came to the
Matzah Factory received a bag of
goodies that included an activity book,
filled with games (like a word search
in English and Hebrew) and learning
(like the importance of giving at
Pesach, including a list of charitable
organizations).
The Matzah Factory will continue
through this Sunday, when it will be
open from 1-5 p.m. Made possible
with the support of Barbara and
Douglas Bloom of Birmingham, the
Matzah Factory is presented by
Federation's Alliance for Jewish
Education, Jewish Experiences For
Families, Shalom Street and the
JCC.

Top: Rabbi Amzalek shows Benjamin Espstein, 6, of
Pontiac how to shape matzah dough.

Above: Lexie Finkelstein, 21/2, and Jenna Sliverman, 3,
both of West Bloomfield, place their matzah creations
on baking rods.

JINT

4/14

2005

39

