4 Friday, May 2, • 986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
THE JEWISH NEWS
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, with distinction for four decades.
The'Righteous Gentiles:
Our Unappreciated Heroes
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:14 P.M.
VOL. LXXXIX, NO. 10
Let Logic Prevail
The news about terrorism and its effect on tourism is serious and
sobering. As our Close-Up story this week notes, travel is down and there is
concern in Detroit and around the country about traveling abroad this
summer, while Israel is doing all it can to counter our fears. •
The fact is that Israel is an incredibly safe country for tourists to visit
and anyone. who has been there can attest to the feeling of security one has
there. Walking the streets of Jerusalem is far safer than walking the streets
of any major American city. It is also a fact that of the millions of Americans
who traveled to Europe and the Mideast last year, only 13 were victims of
terrorism.
But logic is not always the determining factor when people make their
travel plans. Or cancel them.
Fear of terrorism cannot be dismissed and, indeed, it is the very
randomness of such attacks that is so frightful. But we cannot live in fear.
Parents are afraid to send their children on a class trip to Washington, D.C.
This is exactly the kind of feeling the terrorists of the world, from Qaddafi in
Libya to Assad in Syria, want to instill in us — not just a fear of flying but a
fear of living our normal lives.
Fear breeds fear, and to give in to our darker anxieties is to give a
victory to our terrorist enemies. The people of Israel have taught us by
example that we must be ever vigilant,while pursuing our dreams, that we
can at once be both pragmatic and idealistic.
No one is advocating making rash travel plans to prove our bravado.
But certainly a direct flight from the U.S. to Israel, via El Al, is an example'
of combining pragmatisin and idealism. And tourism, for the Israel
experience offers a uniquely enriching and meaningful vacation.,
We urge all of those in the community who have made plans to visit
Israel this summer to keep those plans and for others to consider doing the
same — as a sign of solidarity and a refusal to give in to the enemies of peace
and freedom.
,
,
After four decades, the subject of
Righteous Gentiles is fading away.
Those courageous people are aging
and being ignored.
The memory of those heroic
people still lingers on in Yad Vashem.
There, along winding pathways,
many trees have been planted in
honor of gentiles who risked their
lives to save Jews during World War
II.
A couple stopped recently at one
of the trees and whispered. A tourist
learned that they had come from Hol-
land to see the tree planted in honor of
their parents. The Dutch couple dis-
played a picture of a large menorah
installed on the roof of their home in a
village north of the Hague.
"This Jewish symbol," they said,
"shines every day of our lives and is a
token of our dedication to a people
designated to be destroyed by Nazi
Germany. During the war this house
was a shelter for Jewish people, and
after the war it is open to tourists to
come in, to join us for some Dutch
country food and drink and before
they part, we give them a fresh
bouquet of tulips from our garden."
Righteous Gentiles from Euro-
pean countries came to the World
Gathering of Jewish Soldiers, Parti-
sans and Survivors in Jerusalem. In a
bus on the way to the symposium, a
survivor offered his seat to a Right-
eous Gentile in his seventies. "No,
thank you very much, but I'm still a
young man," he politely declined.
During the symposium, 12.
speakers were invited to take a seat at
the speakers' table, but not one
Righteous Gentile was among them.
Speaker after speaker blamed the
Christian people for mistreatment of
Jews inside and outside of the ghettos
and concentration camps, but not one
word was mentioned about the Right-
eous Gentiles who were invited to
that gathering. Little respect was
The. Memory Game
Yom Hashoah — Holocaust Day — is'it;aniall line of type on the Jewish
calendar next Tuesday, and a non-existent line on our personal calendars.
Perhaps we have become complacent. After all, some of our synagogues
are sponsoring Holocaust programs. ShaEtrit Haplaytah's annual Memorial
Academy will be held at the main Jewish Community Center on Sunday.
The Jewish Community Council is sponioring a memorial 'Program at the
State Capitol on Tuesday and . the CitY of Southfield and,Ahe Holocaust
Memorial Center have a special program Tuesday evening..In addition, we
now have Yad Vashein in Israel, The U.S. Holocaust Mentorial Centel. here,
all working diligently to keep the memory of the Sit !Aiken. alive.
Aie we diluting ourselves or deluding ourselves? Are there too many
programs in too many.places, or are we leaving the memoiies to the
"professionals" and the shrinking population of Holocaust Survivors?
Alvin Kushner of the Community Council worries that only 150 persons
from a state with more than 70,000 Jews; will attend the'commemoration
sponsored by the Governor on Tuesda3i.;:iiiShenkman (see QP-ED on this
page) worries that the Righteous GentilaSibie. being forgotten. i ■
According to Kushner, the quest A
. i-0:0C "Can I affordtoitake the time
to participate in such a demonstratio07/te ijuestion , is"Caeally
n; really afford
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,.1411 •
given to them, let alone Koved
(honor).
Afterwards, a Righteous Gentile
voiced his dissapointment: "Of
course," he remarked, "there are bad
people among all of us, but in all fair-
ness why not mention the goodness
displayed by some people during
World War II?"
Several Righteous Gentiles
awarded medals by the State of Israel
reside in the Detroit metropolitan
Speaker after speaker
blamed the Christian
people for the
mistreatment of Jews .. .
but not one word was
mentioned about the
Righteous Gentiles.
area. Among them is a Polish couple,
Ignacy and Helena Chorazyczewski
from Hamtramck; a Dutch woman,
Bloem in Royal Oak; and Peter
Hruzka, a former Slovakian colonel
who served under the Nazi occupa-
tion. Hruzka saved a Jewish family
and married their daughter. The
couple is now residing in Lincoln
Park.
Peter Hruzka wrote a hardcover
book about his war experience. He
once said, "I want nothing for saving
Jews, but after putting out so much
heart and effort and money, I hoped
that my book would receive a better
response in the Jewish community."
Ignacy Chorazyczewski, a former
Polish farmer with little knowledge of
English', never wanted to write a
book. He hardly mentioned his brav-
ery to his neighbors. When the
Chorazyczewski family, with their six