THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS One of Remaining 'Polar Bears' Recalls Rescue of Russian Jews Best wishes for a happy, healthy • New Year TOBY BRODER By HEIDI PRESS Joseph Chafetz of Oak Park has one fond memory of his year and nine months' service in the Polar Bear unit of the Army. He re- scued a Russian Jewish family from persecution. Chafetz, 88, is one of the last surviving Jewish mem- bers of the Polar Bears, who, during the Russian Revolution were sent to Siberia by the U.S. Army in 1918 to join a multinational force directed by the British to fight_ the Bolsheviks. Nearly 5,500 men made up the force; about 225 of them were Jewish. Chafetz - said about 75 percent were from Michigan. Wounded in the hand in the fighting, Chafetz was Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year MRS. BERNARD CHASE Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year MRS. ALEX DORCHEN 1111D11 712.1\1 to all our friends and relatives Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year CANTOR & MRS. .HYMAN J. ADLER Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year to all ISRAEL JAMES & PENNY E. MILLER our friends and relatives MR. & MRS. SHLOMO DUBEN, SARA & DEBBIE Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year MONA, DENNIS, ROBYN & SETH STERN We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year HERB & PAT BIRCOLL, LARRY, STEVE & ADRIA We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year • JOSEF & SARAH FEUEREISEN & FAMILY Wishing all our family and friends a year of health and happiness • ABE & BELLA BIENENSTOCK TiaIt) Mee> Wishing all our family and friends a year of health and happiness HELEN & JOE GOODSTEIN GAIL, STUART & FRANC! GOODSTEIN Wishing all our family and friends a year of health and happiness JOSEPH CHAFETZ treated at the American Red Cross building at the port at which the Polar Bears were stationed. The Red Cross building also served as a social center, and had a piano badly in need of tuning. Since, in the general scheme of things Chafetz's wound was not serious, he was sent out to find a piano tuner. He recalls going to 10 Pet- rogradsky Prospect (Pet- rograd Boulevard), where he encountered "a horrible looking Russian. He looked like a hooli- gan," Chafetz said, and remembered the man called him "Jew" in Rus- sian. "BEA" FEALK 117011 112.113 sent soldiers to gather their belongings. The Red Cross even arranged to get visas for them to come to the United States. When the Polar Bear unit left Russia, the Rambams left on the same ship. They eventually came to Detroit, and Chafetz was in touch with them for many years. Chafetz recalled that the girls married and went to Pittsburgh. The parents are deceased. . Nearby Chafetz noticed a pretty young girl in a door- way. Catching his glance, the Russian called the girl "Jewish trash." Chafetz went to check on the situa- tion and met the Rambam family, who he learned were suffering from harassment from the Russians. As Chafetz explained, the mother was crying and said the "hooligans" forced her daughter, Sonia, into pros- titution. "The mother said that the Russians told her daughter that if she didn't go into prostitution, they'd kill her mother and father," Chafetz recalled. He hurried back to the Red Cross, who in turn, rescued the family, hid them from the Russians and Asked if he kept in touch with any other members of the Polar Bear unit, Chafetz said that many formed a Polar Bear Post of Veterans of Foreign Wars. He esti- mates about eight or nine of his fellow members are still alive. (Chafetz mentioned an- other Jewish Detroiter, Lawrence Bernstein of Oak Park, who also was in the Polar Bears. Attempts to contact him were fruitless.) After he returned to the U.S., Chafetz met and mar- ried the former Ida Diamond in Sharon, Pa. the couple had four children, Alan, Seymour and Natalie (Frumin), all of Huntington Woods, and the late Florine (Ordin). He has 22 grand- children and nine great- grandchildren. Mrs. Chafetz is deceased. When he came to'Detroit, Chafetz owned a bar, deli and confectionery store. He has been retired 20 years. After returning from the war, Chafetz continued his rescue missions, after a fashion. He helped bring other European relatives to the U.S. Nazi Revoked Conrad Schellong, a former SS officer alleged to have commanded a unit at the Dachau and Sachsen- burg concentration camp during World War II, had his American citizenship revoked last September for having made "material misrepresentation" of his Nazi past when he applied for U.S. citizenship. Equity is a roguish thing Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year MILDRED & RALPH FRIEDMAN Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year CARL R. & NITA R. LICHTENSTEIN Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year MARK & ARLENE MILLMAN Best wishes for a happy, health's/ New Year JOEL & ELLIE SCHAUMBERG, JENNIFER & MELISSA Friday, September 9, 1983 Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year SHEILAH GOLDBERG Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year LILA PLOTKIN varnri nalz run • to all our friends and relatives ALEX & SARA KUCZYNSKI yawn navz mu' to all our friends and relatives MAYER_& HELENA LEBOVIC & FAMILY We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year SHERYL & RON SILBERSTEIN We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year Chafetz is an original member of the former Beth Aaron Synagogue and has been affiliated with the Allied Jewish Campaign and Bnai Brith. MR. & MRS. IRVING WEINGARDEN As Joseph Chafetz celeb- rates Rosh Hashana, he can feel proud that he has made it possible for other Jewish families to celebrate the Jewish New Year too. May the coming year be one filled with health, happiness and prosperity for all our friends and family. Sounding of the Shofar Prompts Many Theories By RABBI SAMUEL FOX of Jericho (Joshua 6:4). The shofar on Rosh The requirement for Hashana could thus blowing the shofar on Rosh preface the fall of the Hashana comes from the barriers of our salvation. (Copyright 1983, JTA, Inc.) Bible itself, which referred to the day of Rosh Hashana as "a day of blowing" (Num- bers 29:1). Maimonides expressed the idea that it is a sum- mons to those who have fal- len prey to sin when he exclaimed "Awake ye sleep- ers" in explaining the pur- pose of the shofar. The shofar in the Bible was used to announce the Jubilee year (Leviticus 25:9). This was the year when slaves were freed. It might thus be a symbol of freeing sinners from guilt on the first of every year. When the Torah was re- vealed at Mount Sinai the sound of the shofar was heard. The shofar on Rosh Hashana might then be a sign of the revelation of God's. word which comes back again to the Jew when he prepares for judgement and forgiveness on Rosh Hashana. King David is said to have used the shofar when pro- claiming the return of the holy ark to its holy place. Rosh Hashana might indi- cate that the Jew and the ark of Torah are reunited on Joshua used shofars to this solemn day of repen- precede fall of the walls tence. 115 MR. & MRS. MARTIN H. ROSE & FAMILY To All Our Relatives and Friends, Our wish for a year filled with happiness, health and prosperity JEFFREY & JUDY DUNN JAMIE, JEREMEY & JORDAN