COMMUNITY
Mark Schlussel Is Nominated
For Jewish Federation President
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
M
The Ethnic Connection
Annual Yiddish Concert
In Oak Park Aug. 13
The 11th annual Yiddish
Concert in the Park will
feature klezmer music and
songs by the Ethnic Connec-
tion. The concert will take
place 11:30 a.m. Aug. 13 at
Oak Park's Shepherd Park. In
case of rain, the concert will
be held at Oak Park High
School.
The program is sponsored
by Sarah K. Gold Philan-
thropic Fund, United Jewish
Charities, Jewish Communi-
ty Council, Sholem Aleichem
Institute and the Workmen's
Circle.
The Ethnic Connection,
based in Ann Arbor, is
directed by David Owens, who
plays accordian and for 12
years was director of NAMA
Orchestra, a klezmer band in
California.
Ralph Katz plays clarinet.
He has played in UMGASS
and is concertmaster of the
Ann Arbor Summer Civic
Band. Nan Nelson plays man-
dolin and guitar and sings.
She is a member of the
Detroit Balalaika Orchestra.
Marvin Brode plays contra-
bass balalaika and is also a
member of the Detroit
Balalaika Orchestra.
Neil Alexander plays
trumpet and is a trained chaz-
zan. He played with the New
Shtetl Band in the
Southwest.
Zionist Organization
Re-Elects Rabbi Syme
Rabbi M. Robert Syme of
Thmple Israel, West Bloom-
field, has been re-elected
president of the Metropolitan
Detroit District, Zionist
Organization of America.
Vice presidents are James
Hack, Dr. Jerome Kaufman,
George Mann, Mrs. I. Walter
Silver and Dr. Leon H. War-
shay. Ezekiel Leikin was re-
elected executive vice presi-
dent, Mrs. Norma T. Hudosh
is treasurer, and Mrs. James
(Eleanor) Hack is secretary.
Newly elected board
members are Morris Baker,
Karen A. Katz, Dr. Burton
H. Leib and Max Sheldon.
Named honorary vice presi-
dent was Sidney Brand and
honorary board member
Judge Benjamin Friedman.
Rabbi Syme is a past presi-
dent of the Ohio Valley —
Great Lakes Region of the
Rabbi Syme
Central Conference of
American Rabbis, a cabinet
member of the Anti- Defama-
tion League and a member of
the national rabbinic cabinet
of State of Israel Bonds and
the United Jewish Appeal.
ark Schlussel has an
agenda for the Jew-
ish community's
future and his number one
priority is to reaffirm ties
with Israel.
The Southfield attorney, a
Jewish Welfare Federation
vice president for two years,
was nominated last week to
succeed Dr. Conrad Giles as
Federation president. The
Federation will hold elections
at its annual meeting Sept.
26.
Schlussel says that he has
a global perception of com-
munity goals that "is in the
process of refinement" after
his nomination. Israel, he
says, "is an issue of real
primacy for our community. I
see a fraying of the cord, of
the fabric of our relationship.
The American Jewish com-
munity must recommit to the
'The American
Jewish community
must recommit to
the health and
strength of the
State of Israel.
health and strength of the
State of Israel."
He sees Detroit in a transi-
tional period with the loss of
Federation Executive Vice
President Martin Kraar to
head the Council of Jewish
Federations. Kraar is schedul-
ed to leave Detroit this fall.
"Marty and Conrad had an
extremely productive period"
of three years. "They will
both be very hard acts to
follow. Connie set a ben-
chmark for others with his ac-
tivist, creative agenda."
That agenda included the
Detroit Jewish community's
population study, which is
scheduled to begin after the
High Holidays. "It will
hopefully tell us a great
number of things about the
size, makeup and desires of
our community," Schlussel
says. "It will help us refor-
mulate our priorities and pro-
vide services our community
wants."
Schlussel also wants to con-
tinue Federation's outreach
efforts with Jewish organiza-
tions in the community. "We
must redouble our efforts
with the synagogues,
women's organizations and
men's groups."
He believes that Federa-
tion's Education Task Force
will provide an answer for
outreach to the unaffiliated —
those with no ties to Federa-
tion, the community's
synagogues or other Jewish
organizations. Says Schlussel,
"It is a massive problem."
Schlussel has served as
Federation treasurer and
head of the Conference of
Division Chairman that coor-
dinates budgeting and
planning.
He has chaired the advisory
board for the Neighborhood
Project to stimulate Jewish
neighborhoods in Oak Park
and Southfield and serves on
Federation's Human
Resources Development Com-
mittee and the board of
United Jewish Charities.
Schlussel is a former
Southfield city councilman
and is a member of Young
Israel of Southfield. He has
been active with Jewish
Federation Apartments,
Yeshivat Akiva and Sinai
Hospital.
He is a past president of the
Jewish Education Service of
North America and served on
the long-range planning com-
mittee of the Council of
Jewish Federations.
Nominated with Schlussel
were James August, David
Hermelin, Edythe Jackier,
David Page and Jane Sher-
Mark Schlussel:
Setting an agenda.
man, vice presidents; Hugh
Greenberg, treasurer; and
Robert Naftaly, secretary.
Nominated to the Federa-
tion board were Penny
Blumenstein, Stanley
Frankel, Joel Gershenson,
Edward C. Levy Jr. and Ben-
jamin Rosenthal, three-year
terms; and for re-election,
Rabbi Irwin Groner, Helen
Shevin, Robert Slatkin and
Robert Sosnick.
Nominated to the executive
committee were Stanley
Frankel, Marlene Borman,
Marvin Goldman, Irwin
Green, David Handleman,
Stuart Hetzberg and Jack
Robinson. ❑
Survivor Applauds
Nazi's Conviction
ALAN HITSKY
I
Associate Editor
t took too long and it
took too much
money," David Bur-
dowski says. "But it was a big
satisfaction to see it finally
after so many years."
Burdowski was reacting to
the life sentence given Horst
Czerwinski for killing two
prisoners at a slave labor sub-
camp of Auschwitz during
World War II. Burdowski, a
Southfield barber, was a sur-
vivor of the camp and
testified against Czerwinski
in 1986.
The West German trial took
13 years and cost $3 million.
Burdowski learned about the
conviction when his wife read
a report in The Jewish News
last month.
Burdowski was 16 in 1941
when the Nazis promised to
leave the rest of his Polish
Jewish family alone if he
66
went to a slave labor camp.
Two days later, they took
away two of his brothers and
a sister. He was the only
member of his immediate
family to survive, losing his
parents, three brothers and
two sisters to the Nazis.
He testified that he had
seen Czerwinski torture and
kill many prisoners while
Burdowski was a prisoner at
Lagischa in 1943-44. A pro-
secutor in 1986 asked him
how he could remember Czer-
winski after 43 years. "You
would remember too," he
responded, "if someone held a
gun to your head. If he didn't
like someone, he would take
out his gun and shoot him."
He said jail is too good for
Czerwinski. "They should
have killed him, just like he
killed so many."
Asked if reading about
Czerwinski brought back bad
memories, Burdowski smiled.
"Oh, yeah," he said softly.
❑
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
39