LIFESTYLES WOODEN PLAY STRUCTURES YAR FUN Delivery and Installation Available Come See Our Display MERRITTSCAPE, INC. 5940 Cooley Lake Rd. Union Lake Ordered by Tuesday Installed by Sunday Merritt Wolson PROFILE 6814955 Phillip Applebaum: Family Portraits Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ Local Columnist PHILOSOPHY: "Life is too serious to get through it without a sense of humor. I think we have to look beneath the surface to understand reality." Call 354-6060 ()coo cp MA ILi onm 0000 c) WORKS ° 0 0 0 0 0 PLUS Everything At One Stop! 0<, OPENING MAY 10th ‘) (' Facl'agtrig 4e,te Boxes private U PS Gift Wrapping Air Express Money O d r ers PLUS: Full Services Tailored To Your Needs: • Packaging Supplies • Answering Services • Rubber Stamps • Photo Copies • Passport Photos • Notary Public • Gift Wrapping • Fax • Keys MON-SAT 9-6 PM 73 7 - 9 1_ 0 SIMSIIT-3RY PLAZA 33290 W. 14 Mile • at Farmington Rd. • West Bloomfield Mother May I I. . . Go to The Shirt Box? Bring a note from your mom* to The Shirt Box and we'll take an extra 10% OFF our already discounted prices. 19011 W. Ten Mile Rd., Southfield (Between Southfield and Evergreen) SHIRT 352-1080 Hours: Monday-Saturday 9:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Thursday 9:30 a.m.-7:00 p.m. PARKING AND ENTRANCE IN REAR Don't forget to say 'Please.' *Forgeries accepted. Expires 5-7-88 NAME: Phillip Applebaum AGE: 36 OCCUPATION: Former executive director of Akiva Hebrew Day School. As of June 1, 1988, a public relations position for Guardian Industries. RESIDENCE: Oak Park FAMILY: Single. One sister residing in Detroit. EDUCATION: Bachelor of Arts degree from Wayne State University with geography major. SYNAGOGUE: Young Israel Oak-Woods. ORGANIZATIONS: Jewish Historical Society, past president. American Jewish Historical Society, former board member of Midrasha College of Jewish Studies and past president of Young Israel Oak-Woods. FAVORITE BOOK: "I don't know. The Encyclopedia Brittanica, because you just pick it up anywhere and start reading. I'm a browser, and it's hard to pin me down on a favorite." HOBBIES: Reading, gardening, music, touring, exploring and making tapes for the blind. LATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS: "On a profession level, I helped establish the Akiva Endowment Fund. I'm very pleased with the improvements both in the physical plant and the educational program. I would like to think that I left Akiva a better place. On a personal basis, I have an ongoing accomplishment. A few years before my father's death, I had him relate in detail his reminiscences. I've been translating and transcribing his personal history." BACKGROUND: Phillip Appelbaum was born in Detroit but raised with old world traditions. His parents Isadore and Freda were Polish and spent the war years in a Russian prison camp. Both parents were the sole survivors of their families. After the war, his parents met in a camp for displaced persons in Italy and married. His parents settled in Detroit because his mother had some distant relatives here. His father worked for Ford and his mother was a homemaker. Phillip Applebaum's first language was Yiddish. "I grew up without an extended family. It was just the four of us;' he recalls. His bar mitzvah was at Cong. Beth Joseph on Wyoming. When Applebaum was 14 his mother died. He spent his teenage years in Oak Park and was graduated from Oak Park High School in 1970. At Wayne State University, he studied geography and for a directed study, he researched Jewish neighborhoods and synagogues. "I researched every Jewish congregation from Temple Beth El originating in 1850 to the present." After graduating from college, he made aliyah to Israel with his father. When his father died in 1975, he returned to Detroit. His fascination with Jewish geographical history continued, and he published a tour of Jewish Detroit in 1975. He also became active in the Jewish Historical Society and eventually was editor of its journal, writing numerous articles and county histories. After working as an editorial assistant at The Jewish News and then in public relations for the Jewish Community Council, he worked four years with Max Fisher, writing his family history and documenting his archives. In 1982 The Fishers: A Family Portrait by Phillip Applebaum was published. Fisher inscribed a personal note on his own portrait to Appalebaum describing the book as a "gem." On one side he traced Fisher's family back seven generations. When his work for Fisher was completed, he then worked in public relations. For the last three years, he was executive director of Akiva Hebrew Day School. Other families have commissioned him to research their family histories. "A family history and genealogy tells the family about itself. We go through life trying to find out about ourselves. You study the past to understand the present. We look at where we've come from to understand where we are now."