UP FRONT
Dannel Schwartz Will Leave
Temple Beth El In June 1988
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
Jon, Suzanne and Rosie Blum host Jerome Aidenbaum and his Livonia cousin, Steven.
Phone Book Is Matchmaker
For Livonia And Paris Families
.
STAFF REPORT
A routine foreign student ex-
change recently turned into a sur-
prise family reunion for a Livonia
family and a teenager from Paris.
Jerome Aidenbaum, spending the
month of July with a West Bloomfield
family, discovered by looking through
the telephone book that the Aiden-
baums of Livonia are his relatives.
Rosie Blum, whose family hosted
the 15-year-old, explained that the
Aidenbaum family dispersed during
World War II. Since then, wherever
Jerome's family goes traveling, they
search for other Aidenbaums, or
others with similar names, to try to
determine if they are related.
"They're pretty sure they can
trace their families back to a common
relative," Blum said of the Livonia
and Paris Aidenbaum branches.
Another Aidenbaum family in South
America appears to be related to the
two families.
Jerome — who informed his host
family that french fries, french dress-
ing and french toast are not French
innovations — said that he was very
happy to discover that he had family
in Detroit. "They were very happy,
too?'
The board of trustees of Temple
Beth El voted 26-21 last Thursday not
to extend the contract of the temple's
senior rabbi, Dannel Schwartz,
beyond June 30, 1988.
The temple issued a brief state-
ment through a public relations firm
this week under the signatures of
Rabbi Schwartz and Temple Beth El
president Jerome Ash. The statement
said:
"On July 23, 1987, the Board of
Trustees of Temple Beth El agreed to
extend the tenure of Rabbi Dannel
Schwartz through June 30, 1988.
Thereafter, Rabbi Schwartz has decid-
ed to pursue other interests.
"Rabbi Schwartz has spent four-
teen years as rabbi at 'Temple Beth El,
the last six as senior rabbi. He has
been a significant contributor to both
the temple and the community, and
his services will be missed."
Ash declined to comment further
on the board's action. Rabbi Schwartz
was asked by The Jewish News if the
board might reconsider its decision or
if he had made plans for the future.
"I really don't know the answer to
that (reconsideration);' he said. "I
know nothing of what is going on. I
hope for the best for the congrega-
tion?'
The election of two petition can-
didates to the board at the temple's
annual meeting June 30 was an effort
to extend Schwartz's tenure. At that
meeting, Schwartz gave an annual
report which said "it is unrealistic to
believe that any one rabbi can be in
two places at one time . . . no matter
how hard he tries?' He said it was too
much to expect the senior rabbi to
visit seven area hospitals, conduct
four to six shivah calls weekly, con-
duct one or two funerals, rehearse and
get to know bar mitzvahs, perform
Rabbi Schwartz: Leaving Beth El
weddings, write sermons and do the
other daily tasks of a rabbi.
He also said, "For any rabbi to
succeed . . . his role and responsibili-
ty must be spelled out and supported
by the board, and the board must
understand its duties and functions
and take responsibility for them."
ROUND UP
Collisions Tied
To Swim Suits
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Agudat
Yisrael MK Avraham
Shapira claimed that por-
nographic pictures were the
cause of Israel's alarming
highway accideht rate and
suggested that a day of
.fasting and prayer • be
declared to "appeal to God's
Imercy to stop the awful
slaughter on the roads."
The pornographic pictures
blamed by the Orthodox MK
are posters and billboards
advertising swim suits or
other items of female apparel
considered "lewd" by some
religious Jews.
"Can someone who sees
such pictures drive after-
wards?" Shapira asked. Last
year ultra-Orthodox zealots
in Jerusalem and elsewhere
set fire to bus shelters that
carried advertising posters
they found objectionable.
Shapira spoke during a
Knesset debate on the traffic
problem which also occupied
much of last Sunday's
Cabinet session. In 1986, 415
people died in road accidents
and more than 21,000 were
injured. The rate of traffic
fatalities and injuries has
been even higher this year.
Warning Against
Halting Dig
Jerusalem (JTA) — The
President of the Israeli Na-
tional Academy of Sciences
warned Education Minister
Yitzhak Navon in a letter
Tuesday that interference by
"exterior elements" in ar-
research
chaeological
amounted to "severe damage
to the future of science in
Israel?'
Academy president Prof.
Yehoshua Jortner was adding
his opinion to the escalating
conflict over the early closing
July 22 of archaeological ex-
cavations near the ancient
Roman town of Caesaria by a
team from Drew University,
Madison, N.J. University
president Paul Hardin
ordered the halt after
pressure mounted from
religious groups — in par-
ticular the Atra Kadisha —
contending the dig desecrated
dozens or perhaps hundreds
of Jewish graves, even though
archaeologists agree there
are no graves on site.
Local archaeologists pro-
tested the cancellation in a
meeting with Navon. The
education minister was ex-
pected to visit the site to
decide whether to continue
the excavation — even
without the Drew University
team.
In a meeting Monday,
Minister-Without-Portfolio
Yitzhak Peretz (Shas) and
MK Menachem Porush
(Agudat Israel) asked Navon
not to renew the dig, but
Navon told them it was up to
archaeologists to determine
"archaeological facts?'
War Crimes
Wanted List
New York (JTA) — A list
containing the names of 244
wanted Austrians accused of
brutal Nazi war crimes has
been located by Holocaust
researchers among U.S. Army
records stored at the U.S. Na-
tional Archives.
The wanted list was compil-
ed by the U.S. Army in 1948
from information supplied by
the Allied War Powers and by
the United Nations Waf
Crimes Commission.
-Menachem Rosensaft, foun-
ding chairman of the Interna-
tional Network of Children of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors
released the list.
Last year it was discovered
that a similar U.S. Army
wanted list contained the
name of Kurt Waldheim and
called for his apprehension on
charges of "murder?' The
discovery led to the finding
that in 1948 the UN War
Crimes Commission sought
to place Waldheim on trial for
"putting hostages to death."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5