I BACKGROUND
Center for Jewish Creativity
and Exploration
Ex-Official
Spring Programs
Continued on preceding page
Sponsored by
The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
The Computer Discovers
Secret Codes of the Torah
Jewish Life in Detroit 1914-1967
Six week course beginning
Thursday, February 1, 1:00 RM.
Maple/Drake Building
Instructor: Dr. Sidney Bolkosky
Non-Members: $35
Members: S30
Senior Members: S25
Three week course beginning
Wednesday, February 7, 8:30 P.M.
Maple/Drake Building
Instructor: Rabbi Bergstein
Non-Members: $20
Members: $15
Senior Members: $10
Israeli and International Folk Dancing
Russian Jewish Writers
In English Translation
Eight week series beginning
Thesday, February 6, 1:00-2:30 P.M.
Five week course beginning
Maple/Drake Building
Instructor: Sonny Lipenholtz
Dress casual (skirts, slacks, gym shoes)
Non-Members: $18
Members: SIO
Drop in rates available
Thursday, February 8, 7:30 P.M.
Maple/Drake Building
Instructor: Dr. Luba Berton
Non-Members: S35
Members: S30
Senior Members: S25
How Jews Have Been Portrayed
In The American Cinema
Current Events Discussion Group
From A Jewish Perspective
Five week course beginning
Tuesday, February 6, 7:30 P.M.
Maple/Drake Building
Instructor: Dr. N.P. Silverman
Non-Members: $35
Members: S30
Senior Members: $25
Eight weeks beginning
Thursday, March 8, 1:00-2:30 P.M.
Maple/Drake Building
Non-Members: S10.00
Members: 7.50
Israeli Folk Dance
Are We Ethical? Do We Go By The Book?
Five week course beginning
Wednesday, February 7, 7:30 RM.
Maple/Drake Building
Instructor: Rabbi Chaim Bergstein
Members; $30 Non-Members: $35
Tuesdays 7:00-10:00 P.M.
Jimmy Prentis Morris Building
Instructor: Sonny Siegel
Fee: $1.75 per session
* * * * * * * * * * * *
For information on all CJCE Programs
call 6661.1000 ext. 293
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36
FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1990
I
an additional month in
Ladispoli. Krater spent most
of that time under medical
supervision. He has been di-
agnosed with lung cancer.
The family, living in two
apartments, is now busy
with finding work and ar-
ranging for Krater's medical
care.
Krater says it's the first
time in almost 50 years that
he's been able to identify as
a Jew.
He was born in the city of
Petrekov in White Russia,
just after the 1917 Revolu-
tion brought the Commu-
nists to power. His parents
were devout Jews and
Krater studied until the
seventh grade in one of the
state-sponsored Jewish
schools that functioned until
the early 1930s. The lan-
guage of instruction was
Yiddish.
World War II broke out
just as Krater finished his
studies as a civil engineer.
He fought in the Red Army,
was wounded four times, and
rose to the rank of major.
In 1952, Krater was send
to Tadzhikistan, the republic
where the Soviet Union's
highest point, Communism
Peak, is located. In Tad-
zhikistan he served as direc-
tor of construction in the of-
fice of the local party secre-
tary. Later, he was ap-
pointed president of a major
construction company in the
republic.
It was during this time
Krater distinguished
himself and earned the tele-
gram from Khrushchev.
The government was
building a huge power
station in the area. The pro-
ject was plagued by prob-
lems. Six years into the pro-
ject, officials decided to build
a plant to manufacture con-
crete and speed the power
station's construction.
Krater accepted the offer to
build the plant. He com-
pleted it in 11 months. "I
was working 24 hours a
day," Krater recalls. "I had
a bed in my office."
Krater's hard work and
accomplishments led to his
appointment in 1965 as Tad-
zhikistan's deputy secretary
of development and con-
struction. But that's as high
as he rose, although he was
recommended to become a
minister in 1981.
"To become a deputy sec-
retary you have to work day
and night," he says of what
he considers a great-enough
honor. "To become a min-
ister, you have to have some
friends in the right places."
Krater's family says he
was barred from further
promotion because he was a
Jew. But Krater will not
entertain the notion.
"Maybe they had that kind
of feeling behind my back,
but they did not say," is his
comment when pressed by
his family.
It was his hard work that
helped him survive purges
and the disadvantage of be-
ing a Jew, he says. "A Jew
must not do bad work.
Whatever a Jew does, he
wants to be the best."
Despite his near-total
assimilation into the Soviet
apparat, Krater says his
primary identity always was
as a Jew. Yet, because of his
position, in all those years "I
never expressed it to
anybody else. I was kind of
hiding it."
Nevertheless, he managed
to give his son a brit mila
(circumcision) and surrep-
titiously arranged to have a
"To become a
minister, you have
to have some
friends in the right
places."
Jewish cemetery restored
near the Tadzhik capital of
Dushanbe. "If the higher
echelon would have found'
out, I might have been
punished for it," he says.
That is all behind him now
and Krater is reveling in
now-permitted memories
and observances. "My hap-
piest moment is to be with
family here in a free country
where [Jewish] celebration is
allowed by the government,"
he says.
"Now that I'm among
Jews, I have a warm feeling.
Now, nobody can do
anything to us." EI
Cop Suspended
At Peace Rally
Tel Aviv (JTA) — A
policeman on duty at a peace
rally at the Old City walls in
Jerusalem on Dec. 30 has
been suspended for using
unnecessary force.
Police Inspector General
David Kraus ordered the
man removed from duties
that brought him into con-
tact with the public.
The officer, who was not
identified, has been assigned
to desk jobs.
Kraus acted Jan. 17 after
viewing television footage of
the "Peace Now" demon-
stration filmed by Israeli
and foreign camera crews.
It showed police officers
firing rubber bullets at dem-
onstrators who were already
fleeing the scene.
C