UP FRONT
Holocaust Center Lawsuit
Revived By Federation
DAVID HOLZEL
Staff Writer
T
he Jewish Welfare Federation
decided Aug. 14 to resume its
lawsuit against the architect
and builder of the Holocaust
Memorial Center.
"As a result of the independent
appraisal (by the Smith Hinchman
and Grylls architectural firm) we felt
obliged on behalf of the community
Rabbi Moshe Englander talks to campers and staff.
. . . to serve the lawsuit;' Federation
president Dr. Conrad Giles said in a
statement to The Jewish News.
United Jewish Charities, an arm
of Federation, filed suit in Oakland
County Circuit Court April 23 to force
HMC's architect, Siegal/
gram in its success in drawing the Or- Tuomaala Associates, and
JENNIFER TAUB
thodox and non-Orthodox com- its builder, Cronk and Tocco, Inc., to
Jewish News Intern
munities together. Never before in the repair water leaks at the HMC,
history of the Center have members located on the Jewish Community
dministrators from the of the Orthodox community approach- Campus in West Bloomfield.
Last week's decision was reached,
Jewish Community Center ed the camp leaders to plan such a
Dr. Giles said, by Federation leader-
and the Akiva Day School program, according to Trumpeter.
The plan originated last winter ship, including David Handleman,
have taken a step forward in the ef-
fort to unite the Jewish Community. when Akiva president Steven Z. president of United Jewish Charities
The creation of an Akiva day camp Cohen informed Rabbi Englander of and Graham Orley, head of Federa-
within the JCC camp will help the school's desire to run a summer tion's real estate committee.
"We will continue to vigorously'
"knock down the wall we have program for its students and offered
planted among ourselves," and prove Rabbi Englander the job as coor- pursue all avenues (to an out-of-court)
"you can enjoy life, enjoy camp, and dinator. Not knowing where to begin, settlement before trial;' 'Dr. Giles
everything there is and keep the the rabbi contacted Phil Applebaum, said. "Because of legal technicalities
Torah as well;' said Akiva camp coor- executive director of Akiva, who sug- involved, we felt it necessary (to pur-
gestd they ask an expert for advice.
sue the suit)."
dinator Rabbi Moshe Englander.
That
expert
consultant
turned
out
to
Court papers were served to the
Center Day Camp director Stan
defendants
Tuesday. "If they don't
Trumpeter sees the beauty of the pro-
Continued on Page 12
Akiva And JCC Strengthen
Ties Through Day Camp
A
serve within 180 days (of filing), the
suit will be dismissed;' explained
Frank Galgan, attorney for Cronk
and Tocco on Monday. The firm's con-
tract for building the HMC provides
for arbitration, Galgan maintained.
"We will respond accordingly (to the
suit), including demand for arbitra-
tion," he said.
Architect Leonard Siegal had no
comment on the news that Federation
had decided to revive the suit, which
"As a result of the
independent appraisal,
we felt obliged on behalf
of the community to
serve the lawsuit."
— Conrad Giles
had been held in abeyance since May
19 by agreement of all the litigants.
At that time the parties to the suit
agreed to consult privately in an ef-
fort to "reach an amicable solution;'
a joint statement said.
The defendants argue that
leakage problems have been dealt
with all along by the contractor.
When the suit was filed Siegal main-
tained that current leakage at the
Holocaust Memorial Center was caus-
ed by the erection of the Benard L.
Maas Garden of the Righteous on the
HMC roof.
ROUND UP
Soviet, Israeli
Meet In Bonn
Jerusalem (JTA) — "The
gaps are still wide — but we
are talking!' This was the
essence Tuesday of top
Foreign Ministry aide
Nimrod Novik's public confir-
mation of a 10-hour meeting
last weekend between him
and a senior Soviet official at
the Soviet Embassy in Bonn.
Novik indicated- that
Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres would meet with Soviet
Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze at the United
Nations General 'Assembly
next month and that there
may be further meetings bet-
ween officials before that.
He indicated, too, that the
two sides had agreed tocreate
a direct channel of com-
munications between them.
"Thus the presence of the
Soviet Consular delegation in
Tel Aviv is not the sum total
of the evolving dialogue,"
Novik told Galei Zahal, the
IDF radio station.
Novik's interlocutor was
Vladimir Terassou, deputy to
Vladimir Polykov, head of the
Middle East policy at the
Soviet Foreign Ministry.
Peres gave first word of the
meeting Monday to the
Knesset Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee, saying it
was a cause for "cautious op-
timism!'
Debate Ensues
Over Terrorists
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Police
Minister Haim Barley is
defending the transfer of two
convicted members of the ter-
rorist Jewish underground
from prison to the prison
system's "rehabilitation
yeshivah" in Afula.
member
Knesset
Mordechai Virshubski of the
Citizens Rights Movement
had complained to Barley
that the transfer of Yitzhak
Ganiram, serving six-year
and nine-months prison term,
and Yehuda Etzion, serving a
seven-year sentence, in-
dicated that they were get-
ting preferential treatment.
Virshubski demanded that
the two be returned to prison.
They had both completed
more than a quarter of their
sentences and thus, after
meeting criteria set by the
rehabilitations committee,
were eligible for the
rehabilitation program,
Barley said.
Hate Book
Published
Tel Aviv (JTA) — The anti-
Semitic, anti-Zionist, anti-
Israel book called The Pro-
mised Land has recently been
published in Czechoslovakia
in 14,000 copies, Maariv
reported recently.
The book claims, among
other things, that "the
Eichmann trial was con-
ducted in order to get rid of a
dangerous witness who knew
too much," that in the Six-
Day War the IDF gave orders
not to take prisoners of war,
and that One of the heads of
the Haganah was in charge of
Nazi espionage.
Rabbi To Serve
In E. Germany
New York (JTA) — For the
first time in almost a quarter
century, the small Jewish
community in East Berlin
will have a rabbi of its own,
the result of a four-year effort
spearheaded by the American
Jewish Committee.
Rabbi Isaac Neuman, a
65-year-old Auschwitz sur-
vivor, from Champaign, Ill.,
will leave for East Germany
on Sept. 10 to assume his post
and prepare for the High Ho-
ly Days. As his first rab-
binical action, he will attend
the International Ecumenical
Conference in East Berlin on
Sept. 13 as the official
representative of the less
than 600 remaining East
German Jews.
Trudeau Urged
To Respond
Montreal (JTA)—A promi-
nent Canadian Jewish leader
last week called on former
Premier Pierre Elliott to ex-
plain "why he opposes pro-
secution of Nazi war crim-
inals living in Canada?'
Trudeau has been accused
by Alt Rodal, author of a
semisecret report on Canada's
immigration policy, that he
privately vetoed taking legal
action against suspected Nazi
war criminals in Canada.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5