UP FRONT
Revisionist In Attendance
As Holocaust Prof. Speaks
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
A
Efim Moshinsky sells his book, Raoul Wallenberg Is Alive, at the International Jerusalem
Conference of Children of Holocaust Survivors. Moshinsky says he was the Soviet agent who
arrested Wallenberg in Budapest in 1945 after Wallenberg rescued thousands of Jews from
the Nazis.
Seventeen JCC Staffers
On Learning Trip To Israel
and about, sometimes in seminars, by
7:45 a.m." Their work, which includ-
MIKE ROSENBAUM
Staff Writer
S
eventeen staff members of the
Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit recently
spent two weeks in Israel on a learn-
ing trip co-sponsored by four agencies.
Along with the JCC, sponsors in-
cluded the Jewish Welfare Board,
Melitz and the Jewish Agency. The 17
travelers, along with one spouse, also
paid part of their expenses.
Center assistant director Bruce
Landgarten, who was involved in
planning the trip but was not one of
the travelers, said that other
American centers have made similar
trips, also with JWB sponsorship.
This was a first for the. Detroit JCC.
"It was far from a vacation and far
from a nine-to-five job," said Leanie
Gunsberg, director of singles and
developmentally disabled programs
at the Maple/Drake JCC. "We were up
ed heavy reading schedules, con-
tinued until 1 or 2 a.m.
But the travelers, all of whom are .
directly involved in programming at
the Center, had no complaints.
Cultural affairs director Adele Silver
said the JCC workers often extended
their sessions with interesting
speakers or groups. "The questions
started coming and the people started
answering and there was a spon-
taneous discussion."
Most of the lectures and seminars
had physical tie-ins. For example, the
group visited Yad Vashem to hear the
lecture, "Israeli Perspective on the
Holocaust." Other lecture or seminar
topics included, "Jerusalem: Mirror of
Our People and Ourselves," "The
Struggle for Jewish Survival," "A
Look at Jewish Ceremony and
Continued on Page 16
Holocaust teacher from Oak
Park says his recent work-
shop in Canada was a success
despite encountering a man who
believes the Holocaust never
happened.
The man, who was not identified,
"did not speak the whole day;' recall-
ed Dr. Sidney M. Bolkosky, Universi-
ty of Michigan-Dearborn history pro-
fessor who was invited by the Cana-
dian province of New Brunswick to
give in-service workshops for its 11th-
grade history teachers in the proper
use of a Holocaust curriculum that
Dr. Bolkosky co-authored.
The unsettling encounter occur-
red in Moncton, N.B., the site of Dr.
Bolkosky's second in-service and the
city where a special education teacher
named Malcolm Ross has written
several revisionist books denying the
existence of the Holocaust. .
One of Ross's supporters is the
man Dr. Bolkosky observed. "He smil-
ed a lot," said the professor, "and he
was the only person who didn't wear
a nametag. We were warned before
the program that he had been com-
plaining about having to come to the
in-service."
Of the 160 evaluations of the in-
service, Dr. Bolkosky said, all were
"very positive" except for the one
turned in by the revisionist, who com-
mented the "presentation was one-
sided."
Dr. Bolkosky said the man
reportedly told colleagues teaching of
the Holocaust — which the New
Brunswick Board of Education re-
quires of any 11th-grade instructor
who teaches about World War II — is
"another example of the international
Jewish conspiracy."
"And he sat apart from the rest of
the audience the whole time," Dr.
Bolkosky recalled.
Dr. Bolkosky is co-author of "Life
Unworthy of Life", the Holocaust cur-
riculum sponsored by the Center for
the Study of the Child in Farmington
Hills, which is now being used by
schools in over 25 states. The cur-
riculum was selected by the New
Brunswick school board over more
than 20 others available today.
Dr. Bolkosky conducted
workshops in Fredericton, Moncton
and St. John, New Brunswick, Nov.
29-Dec. 1.
The purpose of the in-services, he
said, was to give the teachers a ra-
tionale for teaching the Holocaust as
well as a methodology for doing it.
There aren't many Jews in New
Brunswick, he learned — mainly
about 90 families in Fredericton, the
province's capital. "And there were
none in the audience after the first
day."
While the teachers were "very
well prepared, in many cases I sens-
ed a fundamental ignorance of what
Jews were about. I don't think they
were looking for horns on my head;'
Dr. Bolkosky said, but he did en-
counter some resistance.
"We have our own Holocaust;' he
was told, a reference to the attempt
by the British in the 1800s to exter-
minate Acadians, the French-
speaking settlers of the province.
"That was like the American set-
tlers going against the Indians in U.S.
history," Dr. Bolkosky explained,
pointing out to the teachers that "the
world that produced the Holocaust is
like ours today — a technological
bureaucratic system that takes a very
objective approach to the world, and
categorizes human beings as 'pro-
blems' for which 'solutions' must be
found.
"While the Acadians encountered
Continued on Page 16
ROUND UP
Abe Stolar
To Emigrate
Washington — Abe Stolar,
an American citizen who has
been trying for more than 14
years to emigrate from the
Soviet Union, said in a phone
call last week "it seems
definite" he will be allowed to
leave.
Stolar, 77, spoke from his
Moscow apartment to
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin
and Rep. Sander Levin (D-
Southfield), both of whom
have been active on his
behalf. Stolar said he hopes
he and his family will be able
to leave for Israel within the
next two months.
Stolar came with his
parents in 1931 to the Soviet
Union. Since 1974, he has
been trying to emigrate with
his wife Gita, son Michael,
daughter-in-law Julia and
two grandchildren.
JFS Director
Still Sought
Jewish Family Service Ex-
ecutive Director Sam Lerner,
who was to have retired Dec.
31, 1988, will serve as interim
director of the agency until
his replacement is found, JFS
officials said this week.
Edward Gold, JFS presi-
dent, would not give details
about the search committee's
progress in finding a replace-
ment for Lerner. but he said
he is confident the committee
will select a new executive
director within the next 60
days.
The search committee was
created last spring. Gold said
it has been unable to find a
replacement for Lerner
because the process is time-
consuming and because the
committee is determined to
find "an outstanding leader"
for the position.
"We're going to find the
best possible candidate for the
job," Gold said. "And if that
means taking a little bit more
time, so be it."
Crash Victim
Is Remembered
Washington — The
Criminal Division of the
Justice Department will
dedicate its law library to
Michael Bernstein of the Of-
fice of Special Investigation
(OSI), who was killed in Pan
Am Flight 103.
Bernstein, 36, was returni-
ing hoMe after successfully
negotiating with Austrian of-
ficials for the deportation of
former Nazis in the United
States when he died.
The OSI has deported 24
former Nazis — seven of
which Bernstein was respon-
sible for — since its creation
10 years ago.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5