Benefit Helps Jewish Senior Center

Naming your party after one of the Ten Commandments--now that takes chutzpah.

But the wrath of heaven didn’t descend on the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel Saturday night. In fact, “Honor Thy Mother and Thy Father,” a benefit for the Jewish Senior Center of Orange County, seemed only a blessing, in more ways than one.

It was certainly a blessing for the 600 guests at the dinner-dance, who were treated to a performance by folk singer/actor Theodore Bikel.

It was also a blessing, one of greater scope, for the Jewish senior citizens of six county communities, as Bernard King, rabbi of the Harbor Reform Temple of Newport Beach, tried to illustrate. He began the evening with what he called the “evocation.”

“I want to tell you about an experience I had in a motel,” King said. “I opened the drawer and took out the Gideon Bible, and inside were written the following comforting words: ‘If you’re discouraged, read Psalm 34. If you’ve sinned, read Psalm 51. If you are lonesome and restless, read Psalm 27.’ I read Psalm 27.

“When I finished, I glanced at the bottom of the page, and in handwriting it said, ‘If you’re still lonely, call 861-. . .’ ”

He continued in a more serious vein.

“Loneliness can be an awful burden. Aging can be a burden. The center is dedicated to transforming those burdens into blessings.”

According to event chairman Mel Jaffee--he’s president of National Lumber--the $80,000 raised at the affair will pay for most of the services and programs of the center in Garden Grove for a year. The center provides hot kosher meals three times weekly, door-to-door bus services, counseling, a variety of cultural, educational, social and recreational activities, including celebrations of major national and Jewish holidays, and, according to Jaffee, “makes them just . . . feel well.”

“We know there are 60,000 Jews in Orange County,” Jaffee said. “We think there are about 100,000. A misconception is that most of the Jews who live here are wealthy. It’s not true.

“But their pride keeps them from coming out and accepting our services. Most Jewish seniors were raised a certain way--they believe to be on welfare or that kind of thing is not their way. It’s ingrained in them. If we want to serve them, we have to find them.”

Recipient of the center’s annual Jesse Award was Charles Margolin, president of Val-Mar-Jo Enterprises and owner of seven Midas Muffler franchises. Margolin, who produced a film about the center, heads a group of anonymous center supporters (they go by first name only) known as Charlie’s Angels.

“This group always knows what’s a priority on our wish list,” said center founder and president Neddy Vigman, as she presented the award. “By the way, guys, right now we need a copier.”

Chatting before the show, Bikel, known for roles in works ranging from “African Queen” on the screen to “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway, said he lives in Fairfield County in Connecticut but declined to name the city. “I’m too cognizant of people gunning for me,” he explained. “I’m a known supporter of Israel.”

Bikel sang Russian Gypsy songs, of which he says he is inordinately fond, and French, German and American as well as Jewish folk songs; his message was one of brotherhood.

“When I went to Israel during the Yom Kippur war, I took my guitar,” Bikel recalled. “It’s the only weapon I have, or care to have. When I sang in the gun encasements, in bunkers, on the Golan Heights . . . I didn’t just sing of Jewish hopes and dreams. I sang about hopes and dreams.”

Among the guests were center director Betty Benowitz; Jaffee’s new wife Raya, until last year a colonel in the Israeli army; Nathan Rosenberg, who is seeking Robert E. Badham’s congressional seat, and Barbara Steinberg, guilds chairman-elect of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, who was happy when the hotel ran out of Cornish hen and began serving salmon.

When the invitations for “S’Wonderful,” the first dinner-auction benefit for the Orange County Master Chorale, arrived, they promised such activities as entertainment by the Californians and, more intriguing, a “voice auction.”

No, neither sopranos nor tenors would be auctioned at the event, insisted committee members, who had used the term merely to distinguish it from the silent variety.

Or so they said. Among the 50 live auction items on the block at the Newporter Saturday night was indeed a baritone, none other than the chorale’s music director, Maurice Allard. Actually it’s a private vocal recital for 15 by Allard in the intimacy of his own home, and it inspired a bid of $900 from Nancy Thornton.

Another hot item was a gourmet dinner prepared by committee members Donna Bunce and Fran Wiseman and chorale accompanist Sandy McCune, for which Cecil and Kathryn Wright and Ed and Floss Schumacher paid $1,025.

More than $50,000 was generated for the organization.

During the silent auction, Allard talked about new developments at the chorale. The chorale has secured a grant to perform a series of five concerts around the county, currently under way, for disadvantaged children, he said.

“We’ve done mostly serious music,” Allard said, “and they’ve responded terrificly. I talk about music being slow, music being fast, we sing to them, they sing to us. . . .”

A collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet will open the Master Chorale season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center; the groups will perform “Passage,” set to a 40-voice motet by Thomas Tallis.

Chorale board chairman Paul Bent had other exciting news: the Californians, a group from within the chorale specializing in lighter fare, have been invited to play at the White House. According to Bent, the Californians’ music director, Chuck Cassey, wrote a medley called “The Heroes” and sent a demo to the White House. “The date isn’t fixed,” Bent said, “but they said they want us.”

Also among the 400 guests were Richard Tollefson Jr., the new administrative director of the chorale, and the event chairman, Bent’s wife, Bobbie.

That wasn’t the only auction Saturday night.

Members of Dusty Wings, a group of former and present flight attendants, and 250 of their friends gathered in the Million Air Hangar at John Wayne Airport to auction such items as a simulated hour at the controls of a Flying Tigers 747.

They raised $10,000 for Airlifeline, a nationwide organization that provides airplanes, pilots and fuel to transport medical supplies, patients and medical personnel to and from remote areas.

Though 40 attendants attended, only 26 wore uniforms.

“Some couldn’t find them,” explained fund-raiser chairwoman Pat Collins. Dusty Wings was formed 22 years ago, she said, “for women who had quit flying and kind of felt at a loss. They missed it.”

The oldest uniform worn to the event was that of Inga Molina; she wore a Western Airlines issue circa 1956.