Ohio Jewish chronicle. (Columbus, Ohio), 1987-09-24

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VOL.65   NO.40
SEPTEMBER 24,1987-TISHREI1
Devoted to American
and Jewish (deals.
Jabotinsky Award
Winners Announced
NEW YORK, Sept. 15
(JTA) — Soviet Jewish refusenik Ida Nudel, Israeli
diplomat SMomo Argov, Israeli scholar and writer Dr.
Israel Eldad and the late
American civil rights leader
Bayard Rustin are the recipients of the 1987 Jabotinsky
Award, it was announced
here last week.
The $100,000 award, also
referred to as Defender of
Jerusalem Award, will be
conferred at a ceremony
Oct. 28 at the Museum of
Modern Art, Eryk Spektor,
chairman of the Jabotinsky
Foundation said in a press
conference at the Sheraton
Centre Hotel.
Alleged Rabbi Con Man
Appears In Washington
WASHINGTON (JTA) -A
man claiming to be a rabbi
allegedly swindled dozens of
people last fall and winter
and seems to have resurfaced here, busy as ever.
The Washington Jewish
Week reports that a man
calling himself Rabbi Herbert Opalek allegedly rented
apartments this summer
without paying rent or security deposits and took money
from people to buy cultural
or football tickets without
producing them.
The rabbi is described as
in his early 40s, short, and
pudgy with reddish-brown
hair, glasses and sometimes
a beard. He reportedly is
conversant in Jewish scholarly matters. His alleged
crimes have occurred here
and in Virginia and Maryland.
A man who said he is a
cousin to a Rabbi Herbert
Opalek, whose description
matches that of the alleged
con man, said he had not
seen his cousin in a year and
couldn't contact him.
In addition, Rabbi Hillel
Klavan of Washington noted
that a Rabbi Herbert Opalek
taught in the area and led
Georgetown's Kesher Israel
synagogue for 34 years until
he was murdered in 1984.
The Washington Board of
Rabbis circulated a letter
last fall warning of the
scams.
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Australian Soviet Jewry Activist
In Moscow For Rosh Hashanah
MELBOURNE (JTA) -
Australian Soviet Jewry
activist Isi Leibler has
accepted an official invitation to spend Rosh Hashanah
in Moscow as a guest of the
capital's Jewish community
center. The invitation has
aroused interest in international Soviet Jewry circles
because it is understood to
be the first of its kind since
the proclamation of a glasnost era by Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev.
Although the Soviets, even
pre-glasnost, had occasionally invited rabbis as
their official guests, Leibler
is believed to be the first noh-
rabbinical leader involved in
international Jewish affairs
to receive a formal invitation in the Gorbachev era. /
Where other Jewish
leaders have visited the
Soviet Union in recent years
it has usually been at then-
request or by arrangement
— not as a result of an
official invitation,
i The Moscow community
center houses the Moscow
Synagogue under the direction of Chief Rabbi Adolf
Shayevich and is a government-sponsored body asso-i
ciated with the Ministry of/
Cults and the Council of Religions  of. the  USSR.  The
Leibler invitation therefore
would have been sanctioned
at a senior government
level, ^
Leibler's invitation came
from Boris Gramm, president of the community center. Together with Shayevich, Gramm was in Budapest last May at the same
time as the historic conference of the World Jewish
Congress where he met
Leibler, president of the
WJC's Asia-Pacific Region.
Leibler is an executive
member of the International
Council of the World Confer
ence of Soviet Jewry (known
as the Presidium). With an
involvement which dates
back to the early 1960s, he is
recognized as one of the
founding members of the international Soviet Jewry
movement.
According to international
analysts, the invitation
should be seen as a hopeful
indicator of a more positive
outlook by the pro-glasnost
elements in the Soviet leadership; It is also being
linked to the visit to the
Soviet Union in December by
Prime Minister Bob Hawke.
'Celebration Of Life'
To Feature Programs
For Community Adults
"Celebration of Life," a
three-day community event
at the Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Center, will recognize the accomplishments of adults who
have experienced and enjoyed what life has to offer-
The celebration is set for
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 8, ,9 and 10.
Planning for the event has
been underway for several
Temple Israel To Celebrate Rabbi Folkman's Birthday
Rabbi Jerome D. Folk-
man, rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel, will be delivering
the sermon at the Friday,
Sept. 25, Sabbath Service on
the occasion of his 80th birthday. In honor of his 80th
birthday, the Temple will be
providing a very special
Oneg Shabbat following the 8
p.m. service.
Rabbi Folkman served as
senior rabbi of Temple Israel from 1947-1973. Prior to
his coming to Columbus,
Rabbi Folkman served Congregation) Temple Emanuel
in Grand Rapids, Mich., and
Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, Mich.
His honors and citations
are numerous. He has been
chosen as one of the ten outstanding citizens of Columbus by the Citizen-Journal,
he is the recipient of the
B'nai B'rith Sanford Lakin
Award for outstanding contributions to the cause of
Judaism and {the general
community, the State of Ohio
Governor's Award, Outstanding Citizenship award
from the Central Ohio Chapter of the Public Relations
Society and the Distinguished Citizenship Award
from the OSU Alumni Association.
Rabbi Folkman was  a
member of the Board of
Governors of the Hebrew
Union College, the Executive
Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis,
Board of Trustees of Union
World Jewry, the International Authors and Writers
Who's WZzoahd Who's Who in
the Mid-West.
Rabbi Folkman and his
wife, Bessie, are the parents
of three children and nine
grandchildren.
The Temple Board of Trustees invites Temple members and interested community members to celebrate
Rabbi Folkman's 80th birthday.
Federation Receives National Award
For Annual Campaign Achievement
Rabbi Jerome Folkman
of American Hebrew Congregations, Board of Trustees of Grant Hospital,
Board of Trustees of Better
Business Bureau of Central
Ohio, Board of Trustees of
Franklin University and
Board of Trustees of Hospice
of Columbus.
Rabbi Folkman has been
the author of several • books
including Marriage Has
Many Faces, Design for
Jewish Living and The Cup
of Live and numerous articles in scholarly journals
and popular magazines. He
is also listed in Who's Who in
The Columbus Jewish
Federation has been named
the large community recipient of the national United
Jewish Appeal's Pinchas Sa-
pir Award, given annually to
the best Jewish Federation
campaign in the United
States.
The award-winning campaign, conducted in 1986,
was led by 1986 General
Campaign Chairman Dennis
Mellman and 1986 General
Vice-Chairpersons Norman
L. Traeger and Judith Swedlow. The 1986 Campaign surpassed its goal of $5,400,000
by raising $5,600,000. This
record achievement followed the previous year's
(1985) success of (4,850,000
and $505,000 for Operation
Moses, the emergency effort
for the rescue and resettlement of Ethiopian Jews
within Israel.
"Our community has set a
high standard of quality,
progressive campaigning
over the past few yeras.
Hundreds of volunteers
spent many hours developing and conducting our
award-winning campaigns
... national recognition for
a job well done gives our
total community a well
deserved sense of pride,"
commented Federation
President Miriam Yenkin.
"Columbus has experienced the largest per capita
growth in the past four years
among all non-sunbelt
American communities,"
explains Federation Executive Director Alan H. GUI.
"We view this prestigious
award as representing more
than just one year, but as an
acknowledgement of the fact
that Columbus' Jewish Com-
r (CONTINUED OH PAGE 13)
months, reports the Center,
and community center members from all over Franklin
County and as far away as
Cleveland will be enjoying
the festivities.'./     ;
The event will focus on the
resources, talents, challenges and progress of the
Older adult. Sponsored by the
Adult Department of the
Jewish Center, "the festival
will showcase the range of
accomplishments made by
community members in
many aspects of their lives,"
stated Lynne Aronson Selcer, co-chairwoman of the
event's planning committee.
"The purpose is to promote a
fuller life for all adults," she
continued.
Among the many events
planned for the three-day
celebration are workshops,
entertainment, craft displays, bobby demonstrations, a dance featuring
music of the '30s, '40s, '50s
and '60s and a talent show, in
addition to a Sunday brunch,
which will feature a style
show with models from the
Jewish Center community/
Keynote speaker Marni
Nixon, guest star in Gallery
Players' Taking Ky Turn,
will address those at the
brunch. Nixon is known as
the "Ghostess with the
Mostest" for her off-camera
dubbing of the voices of
Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood
and Audrey Hepburn in their
award^winning performances of The King And I,
West Side Story and My Fair
Lady.
Taking My Turn, an off-
Broadway musical revue
based on writings by people
in their prime, will be presented by Gallery Players in .
the Center's Roth/Resler
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