Grapevine: An exercise in brain power

Jerusalem soccer player Amnon Gimpel has written a book offering exercises to cure ADHD.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
MANY YEARS ago, a talented young Jerusalem footballer by the name of Amnon Gimpel went to America, where in addition to playing football and developing a unique kicking style, he became a certified psychiatrist and neurologist, licensed to practice in both the US and Israel. In the 1980s, while still in America, he established an outpatient hospital in which he developed a revolutionary treatment to wean chemically dependent adolescents and adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) away from addiction. In later years, after returning to Israel, Gimpel went into business, having obtained the local franchise for the US-based Ace Hardware Inc. chain, and set up Ace Israel, together with Dovrat-Shrem investment house and construction materials supplier HGII Group. He got the idea from his wife Lynn, who on visits to Israel where their sons were studying in a yeshiva, would call him in America and ask him to go to Ace to get some gadget which she couldn't find here. After making a success of Ace Israel, Gimpel decided to introduce do-it-yourself hardware products to Russia, where he remained for a few years before returning to Jerusalem and once again devoting his efforts to helping people with ADHD. To help parents of children with ADHD, who often spend a fortune in trying to overcome the impulsivity, inattention and immaturity traits that characterize ADHD, Gimpel has written a book, Brain Exercises to cure ADHD. The book, published in English, Hebrew and Russian, will be available in stores this month. Gimpel's book is designed to coach parents on strategies and methods that will help their children develop a sophisticated, quicker and more flexible brain, while simultaneously elevating confidence and self-esteem. The program can be modified to cater to individual needs, and according to Gimpel there is no need to buy expensive equipment or to keep running to clinics. Parents can be trained to do everything a professional would do, he says, and may even do it better because they are in daily contact with the child. HE MAY be a partner in one of Israel's largest and most successful law firms, as well as a former government minister, but that doesn't stop Yaakov Neeman from doing the family shopping on Fridays, where he is often seen traversing the aisles in Jerusalem's most veteran supermarket. That's not really surprising, considering that in his younger days, former president Yitzhak Navon, now in his mid-eighties, was often seen in the Mahaneh Yehuda market.