Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 January 1981 — Page 8

II The Jewish Post and

By Dr. Jerome H Blass

The Social Calendar By JEAN HERSCIIAFT

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Yeshiva University held its second Hanukkah dinner devoted to its $100 million dollar campaign, the most ambitious and intense in its history, in the same grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which as last year glistened with silver tinsel in preparation for the Hotel’s gala New Year’s Ball. And while Yeshiva’s top man Dr. Norman Lamm had many coveted awards to make to century benefactors and guardians it chose to open its program as a showcase for 2 a very talented young artist, as well as dazzling entertain-

<>: ment for the 1,500 guests.

2 DANIEL HEIFETZ, violinist, who won the 1980 Moscow | Tchaikowsky Violin Competition, an American Jew, prefaced his selection with a brief account of five weeks in Moscow, “where despite the fact that I won the competition, I experi-

enced anti-Semitism. ”

He told of Moscow TVs filming of the competition and how when he told the host that his first selection to perform was Ernest Bloch’s “Negun” he was requested to play another. “When I continually declined to change, the host reluctantly announced to the large attended theater audience, “Bloch’s Negunah. ’’ But, the next day when the TV tape was played for Soviet viewers, Heifetz’s portion, though the winning one,

was completely cut.

“Anti-Semitism of the government could not beat my winning nor the audience’s fine reception, but used its power where it could,” he said. Heifetz donated all his winning money “to the Alexander Ginsberg family”, the dissident

imprisoned by the USSR.

Later in the evening other warm moments flared when Sen. Jacob Javits, with tears in his eyes, accepted the highest award, the Distinguished Service Award, the highest ac-

colade bestowed by Y.U.

Javits recalled the very early years in 1946 when he returned from service and met and became a good friend of the late Dr. Samual Belkin, the esteemed past Chancellor of Yeshiva U, and what personal pride and joy he (Javits) took as Yeshiva U became “an educational empire.” Dr. Lamm saluted him with “You are the soul of the Senate,” which ignited a standing ovation!! Dr. Lamm in calling for support mentioned Yeshiva College students Harold Rosen, pre-medical with test scores of 99 percent for medical school and Louis Turkman, who chanted the Birkat Hamazon, a pre-law student with 800 in his tests—the highest score to be achieved for Law School entry. Tuckman also has in his credentials “volunteer,” who actively aids the elderly in day to day chores. “They are the caliber of students we produce,” he said. Hon. Herbert Tenier, to everyone’s relief, revealed that YU had met with 18 bankers and renegotiated its loans. “We have 16 months to pay $35 million,” he said. Tenzer recounted how the beloved Rabbi Soioveitchick personally chaired a meeting at his office (Tenzer) where eight Jews gave “1 million each” as a start. Meanwhile it was disclosed that another donor who requested anonymity pledged $10 million with the stipulation that YU contributors match it with “new” contributions. Robert Litt, executive v.p. of the Chemical Bank, made the announcement. Stanley Stern served as chairman. The Century Benefactors are: Mr. and Mrs. Arthur B. Belfer, Irwin S. Chanin. of New York City, Naftali Deutsch, Los Angeles; Mr. And Mrs. Ludwig Jesselson, Riverdale, N.Y.; Mr. And Mrs. Marco Katz, Mexico City; Mr. And Mrs. Phil Krischner, Tulsa OK; The Mazer Family, Mr. and Mrs. Max Stern, Mr. and Mrs. Hermann Merkin, and Stanley Stern all of New York City. The Century Guardians included Mr. and Mrs. Kurt Rotschild, Toronto; Mr. and Mrs. Gershon Stern, Montreal; The Etra Family, New York City; Mr. and Mrs. Albert Frisch, Englewood, N.J.; The Schottenstein Family, Columbus, OH, and Hon. and Mrs. Herbert Tenzer, Lawrence, NY. Peres Trip Off; Meetings In Chaos

NEW YORK - A number of important meetings throughout the United States were Haul Of Burglars Is Seven Torahs BROOKLYN - Not antiSemitism but plain ordinary greed is believed to have been the motivation of burglars who broke intr the Yavnah Yeshiva in Biro Park and made away with seven Torahs valued at $15,000 each. The theft wan discovered Sunday morning and nothing else was touched.

thrown almost into a state of chaos as Shimon Peres cancelled his visit to the United States which would have seen him addressing audiences of national Jewish organizations plus fundraising for the United Jewish Appeal and others. The possibility of a vote to oust Prime Minister Begin was the cause for the cancellation. Peres heads the Labor Alignment which is expected to win a victory over the Likud Party if elections were to be held in the near future.

Compulsive Buying Has Many Victims

A reader asks me to write a column on a problem that is annoying to her but undoubtedm ly even more 1 ;x flm annoying to her husband She ' writes: “Every time I go into a |B ft depart merit AHstore or a Blass supermarket I go wild. I get an uncontrollable urge to buy everything in sight and I end up buying things that I really do not need. When I get home I hate myself. What turns me into such a compulsive buyer?”

Compulsive over-buying can be the result of any number of causes. Depression sometimes triggers off a spree of over-buying just as it does over-eating. People who are depressed sometimes attempt to counter their feelings of depression by purchasing something new. It is not uncommon for friends to advise one who is feeling blue to “go out and buy yourself a new dress or get a new hairdo and you will feel better." Shopping for new things even if they are not needed, can sometimes be a tensionrelieving mechanism as well as an important source of pleasure-fulfillment. The “lift” is, fortunately, of short duration and the depressed feelings return with the additon of some feelings of guilt at having thrown out money on purchases which were not needed. IN SOME CASES compulsive buying is related to personality factors. Dr. Leonard Cammer in his interesting book, “Freedom From Compulsion,” describes the ob-sessive-compulsive accumulator who buys continuously just for the pleasure of collecting. There is the compulsive camera-bug who must buy every model camera and accessoiy even though be will never get to use them all. There is the obsessive do-it-yourselfer who spends hours browsing in the hardware sections of department stores adding to his collection of tools and gadgets which he never uses. In California this summer we gazed in awe at a monument to the greatest obsessive buying of all time, San Simeon or the Hearst Castle in Monterey. William Randolph Hearst, the former publisher, spent a lifetime purchasing a conglomeration of things, from disassembled castles, to thousands of items which he never saw and remain to this day in hundreds of unopened crates stored away in a wedding cake palace which he erected to house this heterogeneous mass resulting from compulsive buying. Cammer also describes the compulsive buyer who is always woiried that he or she will not have enough, like the

married man with almost 100 shirts who exclaimed, “Thrity-five of them I have never worn, but this way I know 1 don’t ever run out of shirts.” There are many compulsive shoppers whose buying habits are shaped by this fear of “running out" and who pile up hordes of items to make sure they need fear the calamity of not having what to wear. FINALLY, we ought not to lose sight of the subtle techniques that are employed by the stores themselves to motivate shoppers to overbuy. Vance Packard in his famous best-seller, “The Hidden Pursuaders,” quotes studies which show that “seven out of ten purchases are decided in the store where the shoppers buy on impulse.” Studies have shown that in stores where there are clerks to wait on customers thre is half as much impulse buying as in self-service stores, that women shoppers can be stimulated to buy more when the shelves are loaded with an item and that where there are only three to four cans of an item on the shelf, they are generally avoided. Lest my male readers begin to pat themselves on the back

Just Between Us

Sometimes I like to do something creative with my hands besides making leftovers from scratch. Sol |B?rsS^» stopped into a local knit’n needle shop and made a few in^^Bnocent inquir■BhM*fl^lies. One hour Mintz and $45 later, I walked out a hooked woman. They had sat me down with all the other addicts and taught me that a simple knit and purl could do wonders to ease tension, work out arthritis, and be a blessing disguise due to high cost of heating oil. Thanks to the Arabs, I am now destined to make eight-foot afghans until thermostats can go up again. I’LL ADMIT I’m chicken when it comes to trying a new set of directions. Once memorized, I make the same set of booties, cap and sweater until there’s a glut on the market. I wouldn’t say I overdid, except if all three children had twins tomorrow there’d be enough to go around twice. I must learn how to stop. Trouble is, there aren’t any withdrawal classes available for this kind of addict. You’d think I was on an assembly line. It’s nearly destroying me. I’m sick from all this relaxation. I can’t seem to stop myself. There are deep, dark circles under my eyes. My upper lip is twitching uncontrollably and there are per-

for not being as vulnerable as the women, they will derive scant comfort from another study which shows that the only people who are more prone to splurging when they get into a supermarket than housewives are husbands. Supermarket operators know that when a husband is sent to the store for a loaf of bread, he can be counted on to depart with his arms loaded with his favorite snack items. THERE ARE any number of reasons why people cannot control themselves when they enter a department store or supermarket, but outside of a few personality disturbances or emotional problems where compulsive buying, like compulsive over-eating, is a form of neurosis, for the most part it is another manifestation of the tendency for “the eyes to be bigger than the stomach.” Dr. Jerome H. Blass, the spiritual leader of the Bergenfield-Dumont Jewish Center, is also a licensed practicing psychologist and psychotherapist. Readers are invited to submit topics which they would like him to deal with in future columns. Readers may address their letters to: Dr. Jerome H. Blass, 97 Blauvelt Avenue, Bergenfield, N.J. 07621.

Addicted manent calluses on my thumbs and forefingers. I’m exhausted but I’m driven by some mad inner desire to knit, knit, knit. It must be bad if I can’t wait for the children to leave the house every morning before 1 can haul out my knitting bag and start clacking away. YOU DON’T HAVE to be Sigmund Freud to realize I need professional help. No longer can it be said I’m just a social knitter. That’s it! I’m tapering off. No more yarn. Can I do it? Just the thought of it is making me come unravelled. But I must. I’m putting myself first and my family second. I doubt if they’ll eat hamburger another night just so I can support my habit. A skein of mohair means more to me than a sirloin steak. Going shopping doesn’t mean a supermarket to me anymore. It’s shopping for yarn, yam, yam. My family may be losing their weight, but their skinny bodies are warm. I am knitting more and they are enjoying it less. They’ve reached the point where they are ready to eat and enjoy even leftovers made from scratch if I’ll only stop with my obsession. I’LL DO IT for them. Stop cold turkey. I’ll go back to counting calories instead of counting stitches, for their sake. If they’d rather have their mother image sewing up a turkey, that’s what they’ll get. I don’t give a knit or a purl anymore!