The
Charlotte
Jewish
NEWS
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Vol. 3 No. 2
Charlotte, North Carolina
February 1981
Record Amount
Goes to UJA
In . response to the urgent
needs of Israel over $240,000
was received and transmitted to
UJA during the month of
December 1980.
Ira Schulman, Cash Collec
tions Chairperson for the
Federation, reported this figure
with the comment, “When the
needs are greatest the generous
pledgers of Charlotte can be
counted on to become the
generous givers.” Even as he
spoke with pride of what has
been accomplished, Mr.
Schulman went on to report
plans for a year-round cash
collections effort. “Just as im
portant as the campaign to
solicit pledges is the campaign
to collect cash,” said Schulman.
“In the past five years Charlotte
has become outstanding in its
ability to turn pledges into
dollars. We are rated one of the
best in the country and we in
tend to stay that way.”
Mr. Schulman cit^ a recent
letter firom Akiva Lewinsky,
IVeasurer of the Jewish Agency
in Israel. Mr. Lewinsky said, in
part:
“The reasons for this urgency
are frighteningly simple and
clear. It is not only that needs
here in Israel are so much
greater and certain situations so
much more critical than they
have been for some time. It is the
simple, brutal fact that the word
“same” as applied to cash
means “less”, at least fifteen
percent less. ‘Same’ means that,
dollar for dollar, we are com
pelled to provide at least fifteen
percent less aid, less service,
simply to do less.
“I do not dare even to think
about receiving less cash in ab
solute terms.
“There are plenty of people —
wonderful young Israelis and
new immigrants — ready to
move into settlements, four and
five applicants for every place.
But we need the cash.
“I could go on and tell you of
the painful, sometimes bitter
discussion we had about cuts in
the number of kids we could take
into Youth Aliyah, about
providing even the same level of
community services when the
Government was cutting such
services drastically. Maybe you
have read the news reports on
the unhappiness in the
neighborhoods of the big cities
and in the development towns,
over unfulfilled expectations.
The people there certainly have
a right to their expectations.
These families have been
waiting 20, 25, 30 years for a
better life. With the Government
cutting back in every area of
human needs, they look to the
Agency and to Project Renewal
for help.
“A lot of this help we can
provide — if we have the cash.”
Yiddish Theatre Back
by Popular Demand
>
Ari FVihrman
A must-see show full of
laughter and song will be
presented March 3, at 8 p.m. at
Temple Beth El by the Yiddish
Musical Comedy Theatre. It is
sponsored by the Yiddish group-
Jewish Community Center. The
cast starring Chayele Ash and
Ari Fuhrman, a husband-wife
team, thrilled Charlotteans
when they appeared here last.
The program is called “A Gut-
Yom Tov, Yidn” and is in
celebration of IOC years of mass
Jewish immigration from
eastern Europe and the 80th an
niversary of The Workmen’s
Circle. There are Yiddish
humor, sketches and Yiddish
and Israeli songs. It is of special
appeal to all Yiddishists!
Others in the cast are
Abraham Fuhrman, Ari’s
brother, who is an accomplished
singer; Leah Shinderovsky, a
well-known Russian singer;
Edythe Kesilman, the accom-
Chayele Ash
panist, is a concert pianist.
Chayele Ash was bom to
parents who were well known
performers in Yiddish Theatre
in Bessarabia. She began her
career at the age of six. In 1941
Ms. Ash studi^ directing with
the great Michoels and in 1945
performed in the D.P. camps
and liberated towns of Poland.
Ms. Ash came to Israel in 1948
where she organized and
starred in its first Yiddish
TTieatre. Since 1962 she has
resided in Philadelphia where
she founded the Yiddish
Musical Comedy Theatre which
has toured all over the U.S. and
Canada. Ms. Ash has appeared
on local television programs in
“Mame Ix>shn.” She toured
Great Britain in 1956 and South
Africa in 1960-61 and most
recently returned from a
successful tour in South
(Continued on Page 7)
Your Money Wisely Spent
by Marvin Bienstock
At this time of year the
“News” devotes a great deal of
space to informing the Jewish
Community about the new
Federation Campaign — the
1981 campaign. Perhaps it is a
sign of faith that there isn’t a
cascade of letters and calls to
the Federation office saying,
“Before you ask for new money,
we want to know what happen
ed to the 1980 campaign
dollars.”
Far be it from me to under
mine “faith,” but since there is a
wonderful answer to the unask
ed question I am going to give
you that answer in the hopes
that it will strengthen your faith
and your commitment to giving.
It takes all year to do the
groundwork for allocations.
There are new requests to be
reviewed, old recipient
organizations to be annually
reassessed and there is the ever
present discussion of local needs
vs. Israel.
The Allocations Committee
begins by asking members of
the Federation Board to act as
evaluators for both the new and
previous organizations. The
board member who accepts
such a responsibility reads
mountains of information from
his/her assigned organization
as well as from the Council of
Federations who publish an
nual evaluatory material. Often
the evaluator receives phone
calls or visits to discuss the func
tions and the financial needs of
the particular organization. Ul
timately the "evaluator must
make either a written report or
an inperson 'presentation to the
committee. All this work and ef
fort is the same whether the
allocation is $100 or $25(X).
Women’s
Division
by Gail Bienstock
At the invitation of the
Women’s Division of Charlotte
Jewish Federation, Gail Evans
and Ruth Katz, Global
Research Services, spoke to an
enthralled audience of ap
proximately 100 at Temple Beth
El on “Super Powers in Crisis”
— an American Jewish Perspec-
tive. They highlighted
differences in policy and beliefs
between the Russians and the
Chinese and examined the
naivete of China and the USA
and its effect on the Mid-eastern
policy. Overall implications for
the American Jew was then dis
cussed.
Ms. Evans having recently
returned from a brief stay in
China, reported viewing com
plete subterranean cities built
there as bomb shelters against
Russian invasion. The desire of
the Chinese to establish close
agricultural ties with Israel, is
evident she admitted, but fear of
“further shaking up the equa
tion in the Middle East” makes
cooperation with Israel a
current impossibility. The
Chinese fear Mideastern
aggrandisement of Russian
(Continued on Page 7)
The Allocations Committee
reserves the hardest work for
itself. Members of the Com
mittee are assigned as
evaluators for the major local
recipients: The Blumenthal
Home, the Hebrew Academy,
JCC, Hillel and B’nai B’rith
Youth Organization. As
Evaluators they go through the
same process as the board
members but amplified many
times. There are board meetings
of their assigned Institutions to
be attended, special meetings
with professional staff and lay
leaders, budgets to be reviewed,
etc.
The major local recipients
also make in person presen
tations to the total Allocations
Committee. Hours are spent dis
cussing current needs as well as
future plans. The questioning is
direct and the answers honest.
Often the Committee has more
to offer than possible funding.
The Committee can often recom
mend and arrange for national
resources to be made available
to the recipient agency in the
form of consultation or printed
material.
The mtmihSi of prfiliminavy
work pass aiJ too quickly and
culminate in 8 to 10 hours spent
on two consecutive evenings.
"I’he end product is a detailed
series of recommendations to
the Board of the Federation. At
the meeting where these
recommendations are presented
there often occurs a unique
benefit of this intense process.
No board member may serve as
evaluator for a particular
organization for more than one
year. Over the past 4 years of
this system a number of board
members have come to know
and understand three to four
different organizations. When a
question arises about a recom-
mended allocation, the
necessary information may
come from anyone seated
around the table.
LOCAL V8 ISRAEL
As the Charlotte Community
has grown so have our Jewish
institutions and their needs. At
the same time the needs of Israel
have expanded rapidly. For
some communities this has pos
ed a perplexing problem in
choosing priorities. Charlotte
has found a way to resolve both
qbligations withowt hurting
(Continued on Page 7)
Project Box Score
In an 11 hour marathon session held in early January the
members of the Architectural Search Committee heard
presentations by 8 architectural firms. Each discussed their
areas of special competence and their prehminary thoughts
about the Community Project. Each member of the committee
rated the 8 candidates independently; based on these ratings
the committee recommended that the board of the foundation
commission the firm of Wilber, Kendrick, Workman and
Warren, Architects, to proceed to prepare a masterplan of the
Community Project suitable for presentation to the entire
community. The board at its Jan. 19th meeting unanimously
accepted the committee’s recommendation. The members of
this committee are Leon Levine and William Gorehck (co
chairpersons), Harry Swimmer, Mark Bernstein and Sher
man Levine.
Under the chairmanship of Abe Luski, a unique program
designed to involve several hundred people is moving from the
planning stage into implementation. In a preliminary series
of meetings the Presidents, Rabbis and Directors of the 5 Com
munity Project institutions met and designated a number of
areas in community life including adult education, children’s
education, the aged, sports, arts, community relations, family
life, etc. Each institution agreed to select people for each of
these community life areas. In addition, the other
organizations and institutions in the community will be asked
to select people in each of the areas they consider applicable to
their goals and purposes. The goal of this entire program is to
develop positive lines of communications throughout the com
munity in all areas of Jewish life and to provide opportunities
for idea sharing and brainstorming between people of similar
interests. The ultimate hoped for benefit is stronger individual
institutions and organizations able to respond to the needs
and desires of their memberships.
— In the News i —i— ■ i
Academy News p. 5
Books in Review p. 3
Bulletin Board p. 6
Candlelighting p. 7
Community Calendar p. 8
Dry Bones 8
Editorials
For the Record p. 3
JCC Activities p. 5
Random Thoughts p. 3
World Beat p. 4