$2.00 DEC. 5-11, 2013 / 2-8 TEVET 5774
A JEWISH RENAISSANCE MEDIA PUBLICATION

theJEWISHNEWS.com

David
Einhorn of
Oak Park
and Joanne
Alvin
of Royal
Oak at
Latke
Vodka

» The 'Turkey Bowl'

Family hosts its annual
Black Friday football game. See page 12

» Living Larger JSL's Prentis Apartments sees first
new one-bedrooms occupied. See page 18.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

metro

» Latke Vodka Celebrating the holiday and
friendship with a NEXTGen tradition. See page 35.

>> cover story

The Menschkins

Praying Or
Preying?

by Harvey Rachlin

YOU'RE MY

MAMMA•..

Local families receive calls,
postcards from groups
trying to convert Jews.

Robin Schwartz I Contributing Writer

Mameloshen LIVFs

Yiddish language is alive and thriving in Metro Detroit.

Esther Allweiss Ingber I Contributing Writer

A

ffectionately called the mameloshen
("mother tongue"), Yiddish was the
spoken language of European-based
Ashkenazi Jews over several centuries leading up
to World War II. Written with a Hebrew alpha-
bet, Yiddish is a mixture of German dialects that
encompasses Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic and some
Romance language vocabulary.
Millions of Jewish Yiddish speakers died or
were displaced in the tragic German devastation.
Zionists in Palestine disparaged Yiddish as a rem-
nant of the Galut — the countries where Jews were
most persecuted. The pioneers instituted a spoken
Hebrew for the proud nation they were becoming.
Against that historical background, many were
and still are ready to write off Yiddish. And yet ...
a survey of the Metro Detroit community, extend-
ing to Ann Arbor, uncovered speakers, teachers
and others interested in perpetuating Yiddish lan-
guage and culture.
Three-year-old children learn the language at
two Lubavitch elementary schools in Oak Park,

while students in Ann Arbor take Yiddish classes
at the University of Michigan. An elderly man at
Hechtman Apartments in West Bloomfield, admin-
istered by Jewish Senior Life, recites Shakespeare
in Yiddish. Twenty-four Oakland County women
recently celebrated 30 years for their conversation
group. All of them, and more, belie the supposition
that Yiddish is either a dead or dying language.
Sid Simon of Farmington Hills, whose parents
took the Forverts Yiddish newspaper, is certain that
"for the foreseeable future, there is going to be an
active interest in Yiddish language, literature and
performances."
As an example of the Yiddish contribution to
world literature, Simon cited the "Tevye" character
of famed Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. The
impact of Tevye includes the Tony Award-winning
musical Fiddler on the Roof, performed "in count-
less countries" and a popular film version in 1971.
The setting is 1905 Czarist Russia in the so-called

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Printed In

Michigan

1942 - 2013

Covering and
Connecting
Jewish Detroit
Eve y Week

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8 08805

T

he voice on the other end of the phone line
sounded upbeat and friendly. "Hello, I'm calling
for Mr. Tom Cantor;' a woman said. "We're calling
to find the Jewish people in the community. We want to
send a free gift."
The Bloomfield Hills woman who answered that call
was taken aback. She didn't know anyone by the name of
Tom Cantor. Why was someone calling her house to ask
if Jewish people live there, and what was this "free gift?"
She asked not to be identified, but she shared her concerns
with the Jewish News.
"I got the call right around Rosh Hashanah," she
explained. "I told the caller I wasn't interested and I hung
up, but it bothered me for days."
The woman was so disturbed by the out-of-the-blue
phone call, she contacted the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Metropolitan Detroit and
other agencies to report the incident.
Heidi Budaj, the Anti-Defamation
League's Michigan Region director, says
the ADL also received several complaints
from worried local residents.
"The truth is, historically, these calls
seem not to be intended to find Jewish
people in order to target them for physi-
Heidi Budaj
cal attacks:' Budaj explained. "Instead,
they are part of a campaign to find Jews
and convert them to Christianity."
So, who is Tom Cantor? According to his website, he's
the founder of the California-based Israel Restoration
Ministries, a missionary group on an international cam-
paign to convert Jews. His online bio calls Cantor "a suc-
cessful Jewish businessman who came to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ in 1970." It goes on to say he's president and
CEO of Scantibodies Laboratory Inc. in California, "one of
the largest privately held bio-tech companies in the world."

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