COMMUNITY

A Picture Of Freedom:
Ekelchiks Come To U.S.

Rosenblatt about Soviet Jews
in Ladispoli.
The paper sits prominently
on the Ekelchiks' living room
couch — one of the few pieces
of furniture in their new Oak
Park apartment which they
rent with help from Jewish
Family Service.
But the Ekelchiks aren't
complaining. They didn't
come to the United States for
furniture. They came for one
thing only, Fira Ekelchik
says: Freedom.
Marina Lupyan recites
story after story about anti-
Semitism in the Soviet
Union. She recalls that her
former husband attended a
meeting where the speaker
tried to make a case for anti-
Zionism using Rudyard Kipl-
ing's The Jungle Book. Her
husband was arrested after
standing up in protest.
"This is only one (exam-
ple)," Lupyan says. "There are
so many more."
By 1977, the Ekelchiks
made up their mind to leave
the Soviet Union. They were
refused permission to
emigrate, with no reason
given.
"We have trouble after
that," Fira Ekelchik says. She
was demoted at work; her
husband lost his job as an
auto mechanic.
In October 1988, the fami-
ly was finally allowed to
emigrate. Fira Ekelchik
credits Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev with her good
fortune.
"He's giving permission to

ELIZABETH KAPLAN

Features Editor

B

rick by brick,
Fira Ekelchik's father
helped build a city in
the cold and dark of Vorkuta
in northern Soviet Union.
"It was snow and ice," Fira
Ekelchik recalls of the city
where Stalin sent her father.
"And it was dark until mid-
night and, after that, it was
night."
"I remember in our history
books it was written about
Vorkuta," adds Ekelchik's
daughter, Marina Lupyan.
"They said it was built by
Komsomol (Communist
Youth). But this town was
built by political prisoners."
Her father, Ekelchik says,
was sustained by a dream
while in Vorkuta and during
his many years of persecution
in the Soviet Union: One day,
he would get to the United
States.
• He almost made it. He got
out of the Soviet Union. But
he died several weeks ago in
Ladispoli, Italy, where he and
his family were waiting to be
classified refugees so they
could enter the United States.
On April 13, Fira Ekelchik
and her husband Abram,
their children Boris and
Marina, and Marina's baby
left Italy and came to Detroit.
It is a land of surprises for
the Ekelchiks, not the least of
which was seeing their faces
in the April 21 issue of The
Jewish News. The photo ac-
companied an article by
Jewish News Editor Gary

all people who want to go,"
she says.
"Almost all," her daughter
says.
Like other Soviet Jews
waiting to come to the United
States, the Ekelchiks were
first brought to Ladispoli,
where they lived in a two-
room apartment.
"It was very difficult:' Fira
Ekelchik says.
Marina Lupyan recalls
Jews taking illegal jobs and
families broken up when one
member is allowed to im-
migrate to the United States,
another is not.
Many former refuseniks
who want to emigrate are
skilled, Lupyan says. U.S. of-
ficials "say they try to choose
people useful for America, but
I know a lot of people with
very good specialties, people
good with their hands and
with good minds, and they got
refused."
After waiting three months,
the Ekelchiks were granted
refugee status and allowed to
enter the United States.
"We understand that it was
mazel," Fira Ekelchik says.
Now, Fira Ekelchik is on a
campaign to help those still
in Ladispoli. She takes out a
letter scribbled on a piece of
paper from a Soviet-made
notebook. A family named
Moik pleads for a sponsor in
the United States.
"Who will help them?" Fira
Ekelchik says. "Does anyone
have influence with the
Soviet consulate? Maybe
George Bush?"
The Ekelchiks left behind
many of their belongings in

Rabbi Victor Rashovsky led a seder in Russian for 200 Soviet Jews on Sunday at the Jimmy Prentis Morris
Jewish Community Center. Dr. Joe Lewis, right, sang several songs during the seder.

Bob McKeown

The Ekelchiks in Ladispoli as they appeared last week in The Jewish

News.

the Soviet Union, but they
brought with them thousands
of memories. Fira Ekelchik
speaks of her brother, Grigory
Kaplan, a 13-year-old blond
who collected pieces of scrap
metal he smuggled to
partisans.
Then somebody turned him
in to the Nazi authorities.
"My mother saw him in a
black car — many soldiers
and my brother," Fira
Ekelchik says. "Where they
go we don't know.".

She also recalls her brother,
a partisan who sabotaged
railroads used by the
Germans.
But mostly, she expresses
grief for her husband who, she
says, lost "many, many
relatives" in World War II.
"He grows up without a
father since he was 1 year
old."
Boris Ekelchik, his arms
held closely to his body,
listens quietly, pensively. He
doesn't say a word. ❑

JARC Dedicates Samuels
Home In Beverly Hills

The Jewish Association for
Retarded Citizens will
dedicate the Mary and
Donald Samuels Haverim
Home on Sunday at 3 p.m.
Made possible by a gift from
Barbara and Irving
Nusbaum, the home is named
in memory of Mrs. Nusbaum's
parents. Six women with
developmental disabilities
live in the Beverly Hills
home, the 11th operated by
JARC.
JARC president Michael S.
Feldman and executive direc-
tor Joyce Keller will join the
Nusbaum family for the
dedication ceremony. Rabbi
A. Irving Schnipper will affix
the mezuzah.
Mrs. Nusbaum is a member
of the JARC executive corn-
mittee and will serve as
chairman of the JARC An-
nual Meeting on June 13. She
is a board member of Or-
chestra Hall and both she and
her husband are board
members of the Jewish Home
for Aged.
Nusbaum also is a board
member of Congregation
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses,
Men's ORT and Bar-Ilan
University.
JARC's 10 other Haverim
Homes are located in Oak
Park, Huntington Woods,
Southfield, Pleasant Ridge,
West Bloomfield and

Franklin. JARC also operates
two independent living pro-
grams, the Maas Supported
Independence Program and
the DeRoy Independent
Apartment Program.
Support to over 250 in-
dividuals waiting for place-
ment in a JARC residential
program is provided by the
Family Assistance Program
and the Coordinated In-
tervention Services Program
for Persons with Dual
Diagnoses.

Investment
Program Set

SPACE, Room to Grow, will
sponsor a workshop on
understanding the financial
pages May 16 with Patrick
Bommarito, a certified finan-
cial planner, lecturer and
instructor.
The 7:15 p.m. - workshop
seeks to explain the relation-
ship between investment per-
formance and factors that in-
fluence the market.
SPACE is a non-sectarian
service of National Council
of Jewish Women Greater
Detroit Section offering sup-
port for divorced, widowed or
separated men and women
and their families.
For information, call
258-6606.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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