page 4—THE NEWS—August 1979
A* *%m
4th of July Celebration Huge Success
Fun, food and games made the 4th of July at the JCC an outstanding day.
Jim Oddo, the swimming coach, started the festivities with games and water
races for both adults and children. The penny toss was especially exciting for
the younger set. There were prizes, candy and a watermelon feast for everyone
to enjoy. A special thanks goes to Jim Oddo, his staff and Linda Kaplan (who
made hundreds of ribbons) for helping to make the afternoon so successful.
At 5:30 p.m. Jimmy, of Deli-Town, prepared a delicious kosher friend chicken
boxed supper. Over 100 people stayed for supper and everyone agreed it was a
delightful way to spend the 4th of July.
Hickory Assists
Russian Families
In a completely new and
novel approach to Russian
Resettlement the Charlotte
Jewish Federation establish
ed a cooperative venture
with the small Jewish com
munity of Hicko^ for the
purpose of resettling a new
family.
The project actually had its
beginnings with the successful
resettlement of the Barkan
family in Charlotte. After es
tablishing himself as an
engineer Mark accepted a posi
tion in Hickory and moved his
family there. In the late summer
of 1978 he approached the
Charlotte Federation for
assistance in bringing to this
country his parents and grand
mother.
Sally Schrader, coordinator of
the Russian resettlement
program, and Harry Lemer dis
cussed the idea of approaching
Hickory Jews for assistance.
Harry made an initial phone
call and was greeted with
cautious interest. Both Sally
and Harry agreed to meet with
the 30 or so families who form
the congfregation in Hickory
and outline the specific tasks
and responsibilities which they
would need to undertake. The
meeting proved a complete
success even though it was held
under the pressure of having the
older Barkans' arrival
scheduled for the following
week.
Within days the Hickory
Jewish Center, as that syn
agogue is called, had assembled
enough furniture to outfit an
apartment, located drivers to
transport the newcomers
around and even uncovered a
firee “English for Newcomers”
program being taught in the
area. It would be pleasant to end
the story on a note of complete
success, but things didn’t quite
turn out as Hickory had hoped.
The insurmountable problem
proved to be employment. The
older Mr. Barkan is a
professional sign painter and
his skill was not in demand. It
was Charlotte and Sally
Schrader’s turn to reenter the
picture. She located a job with
Guerra Signs based on the
responsiveness of Mr. Guerra
who is himself a refugee from
Cuba. The Barkans moved to
Charlotte where they are now
contentedly settled in.
How does the Hickory com
munity feel? They have regrets
of course that they couldn’t re
tain the family, but they have
left the door open to talking
about the next possible family of
Russian Jews whom they might
assist.
Federation
Gets HEW Grant
The Charlotte Jewish Federa
tion is the recipient of a major
grant for matching funds to
assist in the resettlement of Rus
sian Jews. Charlotte was one of
the very first of the small cities
to extend its hand in welcome to
these immigrants, and more
than 15 families have planted
their first American roots in the
soil of our city.
The U.S. government an
nounced earlier this year that it
had awarded a grant of 16
million dollars to be ad
ministered through the Council
of Jewish Federations to those
cities which qualified for
matching funds. Matching
funds means that the federal
government will repay either
the direct dollars expended or
the contributions in time or
materials given by volunteers
toward resettling Russian Jews.
Under the terms of the agree
ment which Charlotte was
awarded, the federal govern
ment will pay up to $7500
toward the resettlement of 12
families during the year ending
October 1, 1979.
Seven of these families are
still part of our community, and
an eighth has moved into the
general area after beginning
their American experiences in
Austin, Texas.
TTie Charlotte Jewish Federa
tion is one of only 100
Federations to have received
such a grant. There are almost
300 Federations throughout the
United States.
Building Committee
Alters Approach
The building committee is enthusiastic about the community
Sian now under discussion which will include a new home for the
ewish Community Center. It represents a long desired hope and
has the potential for providing the members of the Center with
many of the facilities needed and wanted but not within the reach of
the current building committee budget.
This new prospect, however, has forced the committee to alter its
approach and to narrow considerably the scope of its plans to
renovate the existing building. Prior to the announcement of the
new effort, the current and future needs of the Center were carefully
assessed. We worked closely with Omni Architecture, the firm
chosen to develop plans for the renovation, and approved two
schemes which were presented to the board at its June meeting. It
was the unanimous decision of the committee and the board to
shelve these plans in light of the new developments and to work on a
more limited scale.
Assuming that even under the best of circumstances the JCC will
inhabit its present facility for the next two or three years, several
improvements must be made. The roof is in desperate need of
patchwork and repair; the electrical and mechanical systems must
be rehabilitated; the interior of the building must be made more
presentable. The central focus of the committee’s efforts are to
develop a set of plans to make the building functional from a
mechanical and electrical standpoint and to dress up the interior,
but to do these things as economically as possible. We are now get
ting prices for repairs and for interior improvements. We plan to
paint most of the rooms, remove some of the eyesores and eliminate
some of the kitchen equipment to make that room more functional
for general programming.
llie committee hopes that these improvements will be completed
by the end of the summer. We will try to disrupt programming as lit
tle as possible.
—Harold Josephson
“Better to be unborn than un
taught, for ignorance is the root
of misfortune”
—Plato
“What is patriotism but love
of the good things we ate in our
childhood”
—Lin Yutang
Seniors Protest!
Recently CPCC was chosen from among WOO colleges by the Kellogg Foundation to prepare a
special program on continuing education for all ages: Councilwoman Pat Locke assumed the primary
responsibility for the effort on behalf of CPCC. Dr. Heygemeyer, President of CPCC, referred Ms.
Locke to the JCC and to Chai as an example of quality education for the older voluntary students. In
her remarks (which follow) Mrs. Garelik mentions the possible loss of funding for the Chai program.
She is referring to efforts on the part of some state legislators to phase out such classes. The likelihood
of that happening to Chai has been considerably reduced with CPCC's recognition of the value and
importance of Chai’s program.
Editors
I am speaking on behalf of the
group of seniors at the Jewish
Community Center. For close to
four years this group has been
the beneficiary of an outreach
program of CPCC which is
providing two instructors to the
Center where the group con
gregates every Monday mor
ning. About one third receives
instruction in drawing and pai
nting; the rest approximately 25
to 30 seniors participate in a dis
cussion of current events. The
program has been a splendid
success all around; it doesn’t
only provide the participants
with a schedule for the day, it
causes them to get interested
more than usual in the news
events during the week and
makes them pay attention to
material which they will bring
up for discussion the following
Monday. The members of the art
class almost without exception
bring work which they have
done at home for the instructor
and colleagues to be seen and
admired.
I understand that there are
plans to abolish programs like
the one described here. The idea
seems to be that since senior
citizens can attend classes
scheduled at the college proper,
tuition free; the supplying of in
structors for special programs
like ours presents unnecessary
expenses which could be
eliminated. I hope that I shall be
able to convince you that there
are very important con
siderations which this reason
ing does not take into account.
Why were these programs
creat^ in the first place? The in
tention was to get old people
who lack incentive and drive,
who are too set in their ways and
reluctant to venture out on their
own, out of their doldrums; to
give them some new interest
and diversion; to make them
leave their rooms and their
loneliness behind at least for a
while. Tuition free college
courses are a wonderful oppor
tunity for senior citizens who
are physically and emotionally
able to take advantage of them.
But one must not overlook that
attending classes at the college
not only means one has to get
there - which in most cases is an
insurmountable problem in
itself - but also that one has to
compete with the younger
students even if one doesn’t
work for credits. I am speaking
from experience - it can be quite
tough sometimes and depress
ing especially to people who
haven’t got much self-
confidence to start with. This is
another reason why this
program in question is so
valuable. The participants more
or less belong to the same age
group, they meet in familiar sur
roundings with no need to com
pete with anyone. The instruc
tor adjusts to their level not the
other way around.
Furthermore, one has to con
sider that with very few excep
tions these people are afflict^
by the ailments typical for their
age group - mostly by arthritis,
heart trouble, etc. No, courses at
the college do not solve the
problems which these people
have - loneliness, depression
and sickness. And, I am con
vinced that if the cushion of the
present setup should be
withdawn there will be plenty of
suffering. I doubt that it would
produce the hoped for savings.
If only one person deprived ol’
this small bright epot in his or
her drab life would have to be
forced to enter a nursing home
the accruing expenses to the
state would be considerable, not
to speak of the cost in human
misery. -Martha Garelik