I OPINION

CONTENTS

FRONTLI N ES

The Primary Election

14

KIMBERLY LIFTON, ROBIN FREEDMAN
West Bloomfield and Oakland County
races spice up Tuesday's voting.

CLOSE-UP

26

Back To Business

HELEN DAVIS

Mendel Kaplan and Simcha Dinitz
have shaken the Jewish Agency. -

LIFESTYLES

44

Creative Cook

CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ
Mollie Ingber has made a name
in front of and inside the cookbooks.

FOCUS

Shoes that belonged to Jews killed at Auschwitz: To see is to understand.

Converting Fear Into Strength

DR. JOSEPH JACOBSON

S

ome time ago, The Jewish News
published a short essay titled
"Don't Visit Poland!' The author
summarized his observations with his ti-
tle. He had participated in a United Jewish
Appeal mission to Poland and concluded,
"The accomplishments and history of
Polish Jewry have been exported and sur-
vive in Israel, the United States, Western
Europe, South America and elsewhere.
Judaism lived before there was a Poland
and it will live long after. Poland has
slammed the door on us for the last time.
There is no reason to sneak back in. Don't
visit Poland!"
My wife and I were puzzled by the con-
tent of the article. We had participated in
that mission and come away with entirely
different feelings, shared by others with
whom we had traveled.
I had planned to write a response then,
but did not because several already were
published in the paper. An upcoming mis-
sion to Poland has rekindled my urge to
respond.
Next month, my two sons and I, along
with 150 others from around the United
States, will return to Poland and Auschwitz
as part of a UJA father-son mission. We as
parents can attempt to describe the enor-
mity of what happened there, but words are
inadequate. To see the despair of the tiny
vestige of what once was a vibrant Jewish
community of millions is to understand; to

Joseph Jacobson is a retired orthodontist
and a board member of the Jewish Welfare
Federation of Detroit.

51

Fighting Fire

ALYSSA GABBAY
An Israeli Smokey
seeks help
for his nation's
burning forests.

visit the cemetery in Warsaw and pray in
its only synagogue is to understand; to
walk in the ashes of our brethren and chant
the Kaddish at the crematoria is to unders-
tand. Nothing has so deeply affected me
and the strength of my Jewishness and
nothing — including the Six-Day War —
has so poignantly and painfully aroused
my Jewish commitment.
The Jewish experience in Poland is uni-
que in its magnitude, but vicious persecu-
tion has been, unfortunately, an integral
part of our history. If we can extol our
biblical experience in Egypt each Passover,
should we not remember and understand
Poland?
In the spring of 1944, I was 8 years old.
World War II had reached its high point in
ferocity. I remember vividly my father's
grief when he received a telegram telling
of the murder of his sister in the fires of the
Holocaust.
I had never before witnessed my father
crying. So we all cried with him in the dim-
ly lit dining room of our tiny flat on
Clements; my mother, my sister, my grand-
mother, my father and I were all sobbing.
When I look back at the pathos of that
scene, I understand that I was crying only
because my father was crying. I did not
know his sister — neither her name, nor
her face. And I certainly did not com-
prehend what was happening in Europe.
That event was buried in the deepest
part of my memory and resurfaced only
during my visit to Auschwitz. The tears I
shed in that horrible place were tears of
understanding. The chanting of the Kad-
dish evoked emotions I had never ex-

CANDLELIGHTING

Continued on Page 12

July 29, 1988

EDUCATION

54

CAJEing Ideas

HEIDI PRESS

A summer institute for teachers
pushes Jewish education on track.

AROUND TOWN

75

Aortic Auction

A Hadassah
fund-raiser nets
a balloon pump
for heart patients
in Jerusalem.

DEPARTMENTS

22 Notebook
30 Inside Washington
32 Synagogues
36 Life In Israel
38 Sports
44 Lifestyles
48 Cooking
59 Entertainment

74
77
78
81
84
88
91
122

Seniors
For Women
Ann Arbor
Engagements
Youth
Births
Single Life
Obituaries

8:36 p.m.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

7

