Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1990-03-15

              2J[ W/yServing Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community for OVer 40 Years     \Jf\\
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VOL. 68 NO. U
MARCH 15, 1990-ADAR 18, 5750
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals
Gallery Players Sets
World Premiere Play
Gallery Players of the Leo
Yassenoff Jewish Center is
presenting the world premiere of "Great/Grand
Mothers/Daughters," a new
play by Doreen Dunn, March
14-25. All performances are
being held at the Roth/
Resler Theatre located in the
Center at 1125 College Ave.
Tickets can be purchased by
calling the Gallery Players
Box Office at 235-2058, Monday through Friday, between noon and 5 p.m.
The play is being presented as part of Women's
History Month in Ohio Spanning 200 years, it reveals the
universal and sometimes
startling views of American
life by ten women. Five actresses portray the great-
grand-daughters in act two
of the 19th century .women
they play in act one. All of
the ten stories in "Great/
Grand Mothers/Daughters"
are based on true incidents.
Playwright Dunn says, "Historic events often force cataclysmic change on individual lives. Just as often, this
change and its resulting
legacy go unrecorded. I have
taken ,this opportunity to
bring these stories to life in
the form of the individual
storyteller and the oral tradition on which they are based."
ed."
"Great/Grand Mothers/
Daughters" is directed by
' Teri Devlin, former artistic
director of Gallery Players.
The cast includes Karen
Kennedy, Colby Paul, Catherine Randazzo, Linda
Schuler and Jane Wellington. Christopher G. Clapp,
Gallery Players technical director, and Otterbein College theatre student, J.
Christopher Wojcieszyn are
collaborating on the design
of the show, which will include a multi-level set and
the use of photographs projected on large screens depicting the changes in location arid atmosphere during
the 200 years the play spans.
Sculptor Alfred Tibor puts the finishing touches on
"Zachor" the Holocaust memorial which he created
for Temple B'nai Israelin Clearwater, Fla. Photo by   ..
David Kapolovic. '
Sculptor Puts Finishing Touches
On "Zachor' Holocaust Memorial
Columbus Sculptor and
Holocaust survivor Alfred
Tibor is currently applying
the finishing touches to
"Zachor," a 22-foot high
bronze Holocaust memorial
commissioned by Temple
B'nai Israel in Clearwater,
Fla.
The sculpture, now housed
at Columbus Art Memorial,
will be shipped • to Clearwater in late March. Dedication ceremonies are set for
April 22, Yom HaShoah (day
of Holocaust remembrance),
in Florida.
Temple B'nai Israel commissioned the piece in De-
Soviet New American To Join
Columbus Twin For Service
Shabbat morning, March
31, almost a year after Dimi-
try Similgor was included in.'
Bar Mitzvah prayers as
Aaron Gilbert was called to
the Torah, Dimitry and
Aaron will come to the Torah
again. Their twinning, in
1989, was symbolic. On
March 31, they will stand together, in person, to recite
the blessings over the Torah
at Congregation Tifereth Israel.
Dimitry Similgor, a
Refusenik last year, is now a
resident of Toledo, Ohio.
After having been twinned
with Aaron Gilbert, his family was given permission to
leave and has settled in the
Toledo community. The Gilberts, having written to the
Sirnilgors at the time of the
twinning ceremony, were a
contact that the Sirnilgors
made shortly after arriving
in America.
The Similgor and Gilbert
families will participate in
services on March 31. Members of the Toledo Jewish
community will be coming to
Columbus for the event. New
Americans in Columbus will
CONTINUED ON PACE 16
cember, 1988 after conducting a nationwide search for a
Holocaust memorial design.
Tibor made the clay original
of the work in his eastside
Columbus studio. Southern
Ohio Bronze Art Foundry" in
Athens cast the finished
sculpture. -
When in place, "Zachor"!
will rise 22 feet from the
center of a concrete Star of
David. It will sit atop a black
granite pedestal emblazoned
with the word "Zachor,"
which is Hebrew for remembrance.
The design depicts a
cluster of seven Holocaust
victims being engulfed by
fire. One figure, an elderly
man, is handing the Torah to
a younger man who is miraculously raised above the
flames. The young man
alone is saved, while the remaining six figures (representing six million lost) are
destined to die.
The dying old man passes
the Torah, the foundation of
Jewish faith, on to the younger man who finds it a source
of saving strength. The design also encompasses a gas-
fed memorial flame contained within a 24-inch
bronze disc which will be lit
each year on Yom HaShoah.
"Zachor" is the third large
memorial design completed
by Tibor. Others are housed
CONTINUED ON PAGE «
Prominent leaders of American-Jewish communities met in New York City recently
to pledge their commitment and support for Soviet Jews settling in Israel. Gifts exceeded $60 million, which is the largest amount ever raised at any single UJA event in
history. Present at the historic meeting were (standing 1. to r.) Lewis Rudin, New York
City; Peter,May, New York City, UJA National Chairman-Elect Marvin Lender, New
Haven; Chairman of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors Mendel Kaplan,
Jerusalem and South Africa; UJA National Vice Chairman Andrew Tisch, New York
City; William Davidson, Detroit; Laurence Tisch, New York City; Charles Bronfman,'
Montreal; UJA National Chairman Morton Kornreich, New York City; Tinted Israel
Appeal Chairman Henry Taub, Bergen County, N.J.; UJA National Vice Chairman
Joseph Wilf, Central New Jersey; Charles Goodman, Chicago; UJA President Stanley
Horowitz, New York City; (seated) UJA Honorary National Chairman Max Fisher,
Detroit; Harvey Meyerhoff, Baltimore; UJA Honorary National Vice Chairman Leslie
Wexner, Columbus; UJA Honorary National Vice Chairman Irving Schneider, New
York City; Alan Greenberg, New York City; Charles Hoffberger, Baltimore; Milton
Petrie, New York City, and UJA Honorary National Vice Chairman Jerold Hoffberger,
Baltimore. 7
RAISES LARGEST AMOUNT EVER AT SINGLE UJA EVENT
Wexner Hosts National Fundraiser
WASHINGTON, (JTA) -
Jews have no future in.the ,
Soviet Union, where their
situation is in a state of urgency "which may become
an emergency," an official
of the United Jewish Appeal
warned last week.
The reason is "a virulent
historic strain of anti-Semitism, which has never disappeared but had gone underground and now has surfaced", as Soviet society has
become more open, said
Raphael Rothstein, UJA's
vice president for operations.
This urgency is bringing
support for UJA's special
campaign, Operation Exodus, which Rothstein said is
"well on its way" to meeting
its goal of $420 million, to
meet the needs of the expected 100,000 Soviet Jews
immigrating to Israel this
year.
Rothstein said that at the
first major fund-raiser for
Operation Exodus1, a recent
breakfast in New York sponsored by businessman Leslie
Wexner of Columbus, more
than $60 million was pledged,
the largest amount .over
raised at a single UJA event.
Rothstein spoke at a news
conference at the National
Press Club, where^he pinch-
hit for Marvin Lender of
New Haven, Conn., chairman of Operation Exodus,
who was delayed by snow.
Lender, Rothstein and five
other UJA officials recently
went to the Soviet Union Romania and Israel to assess
the needs of the Jewsh emigration process. In February, 5,746 Jews arrived in
Israel, and 4,713 came in
January.
Operation Exodus will
next take 150 Jewish activists to the Soviet Union on
March 25 for 26 hours of intensive meetings, and then
fly to Israel for the Prime
Minister's conference on
aliyah.
These people will then take
what they have learned to
their communities, as
numerous fund-raising programs will be held through-,
out the United States.
Another major event will
be an Operation Exodus
Freedom Seder in Washington on April 3. Rothstein said
members of Congress will be
present and will be thanked
for their years of efforts in
behalf of Soviet. Jewry and
urged to continue the struggle.
In addition, Soviet Jewry
was a major focus when
2,500 persons attend the UJA
Young Leadership- conference in Washington March 11
through 13.
Federation Board Unanimously
Approves Plan To Conduct
'Operation Exodus' Campaign
Members of the Columbus
Jewish Federation Board of
Trustees unanimously
agreed on Feb. 28 to move
ahead with plans to conduct
a special "Operation Exo-
Ben Zox
dus" fundraising campaign.
This move followed a special
board of trustees meeting on
Feb. 22, which focused exclusively on the issue of Soviet
Jewish emigration to Israel.
At the Feb. 22 meeting,
firsthand reports on the special Council of Jewish Federations General Assembly
held earlier in February in
Miami were given by
Miriam Yenkin, a Federation past president.
Federation President Benjamin L. Zox said that "not
only is the magnitude of the
Soviet Jewish situation enormous, but anti-semitism in
the Soviet Union is rising
rapidly. World Jewry is being asked to save Jewish
lives," he said.
In noting this is a historic
time for world Jewry, Zox
emphasized the importance
of meeting the challenge
ahead.
The  Board of Trustees
members  accepted  that
' challenge one week later on
Feb. 29, when they endorsed
Federation leadership to of-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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