SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

Marsha Su ndq

A

s a child growing up
in Israel, Suzie
Russek-Osherov lived
in two different worlds.
Divided between her
father's vision of Israel's
future and her mother's re-
membrance of a Europe
before the Holocaust,
Osherov, who was born in
Poland and moved to Israel
in 1950 when she was 2
years old, was never sure
where she belonged.
"I grew up like a stereo
child with two roots," said
Osherov. "One world was in
Europe. It wasn't only
Poland, it was the Europe
before the Holocaust. The
other world was the one I
saw outside my house every
day."
The conflict between her
parents' views "cut off parts
of my childhood. I was a kind
of strange bird with strange
feathers."
She escaped the pressure
by throwing herself into
poetry, history and art.
Osherov, who has traveled
the world writing poetry,
painting and teaching Jew-
ish history, now lives in a
Farmington Hills apartment
while her husband is in
Detroit on business.
Although one room of the
three-bedroom Farmington
Hills apartment has become
Osherov's art studio and the
living room walls are filled
with her paintings, she has
not abandoned her other
vocations.
In March, Osherov will
teach a four-week course at
the Midrasha - College of
Jewish Studies, titled "The
Roots of Anti-Semitism in
the Modern Era." Osherov,
who has taught in Israeli
and European universities,
will discuss Jewish negative
stereotypes, medieval
superstitions about Jews
and the development of anti-
Semitism in the 19th cen-
tury.
"As a teacher I like
spreading knowledge and
sharing it with people. Be-
cause the subject is very im-
portant not only for scholars
but for many others, people
are interested in it."
Although she has met peo-
ple who still have anti-
Semitic views during her
0`' trips to Europe, Osherov will
not talk about her experi-
ences to the class.

Osherov puts the final touches on one of her paintings.

Passpo
Knowledge

"It is scholarly discus-
sion," she said. "But, of
course, I will give it my own
flavor. An actor's work is
never done."
Osherov wants to continue
teaching once the course
ends. She is trying to obtain
a work visa so she can teach
at the high school level.
With the help of a few
friends, Osherov is also busy
translating her Hebrew
poetry into English. She will
read a selection of poetry
called "The Journey in a
Time Machine Called
Heart" 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at
the United Hebrew Schools
building.
Osherov opened the blue
folder sitting on her kitchen
table, and looking at the
loose leaf paper, slowly read
a poem.
This keen stone/which to
my heart is pressed/I can not
remove,/ from my aching
distress/I can not find/a
word/to lay her down as
calming band/on the
wound/on the scald
tattoo/which I bear deep
under my skin/at the moment
of birth/as she came from the
dead/my mother put the
marks in me/the soul scars,
the smell of the burned,/from
her to me are pulled/those in-

Teacher, artist,
poet Suzie
Russek-
Osherov brings
her talents to
Detroit.
III II II

Suzie Osherov

visible air roots/the yearning
webs,/the tatter yesterday
crazed/wandering among the
ashen scene/now covered
green.
"When a person is touched
by my poetry, I know I've
done my job," she said.
Osherov does not re-
member reciting her first
poem. But she does recall a
story her mother told her.
When Osherov was three
years old, she could not read
or write. Yet she recited
some original poetic verse to
her mother. Later, she began
writing poetry in notebooks.
When she was 16,
Osherov's first volume of
poetry was published in
Israel. Other volumes
followed, including one
about war which was
published after the Six-Day
War in 1967.
As she began publishing
her poetry in Israel and stu-
dying history at Tel Aviv
University, her longing for
Europe, brought on by her
mother's memories of the
past, increased.
In 1972, Osherov, who had
begun teaching Jewish his-
tory, traveled to Poland and
Germany to lecture on anti-
Semitism. While in Poland
she discovered the ruins of

the world her mother lived
in.
Throughout her life,
Osherov felt she had known
Europe through her
mother's eyes. Seeing the
continent for herself,
Osherov felt at home.
"I found out it was my
place," she said.
The trip also brought the
Holocaust closer to her heart
as she toured the places her
mother had spoken about.
Although many of the
buildings were rebuilt after
the Holocaust, the anti-
Semitism that existed before
the war remained, Osherov
said.
As a child torn between
her mother's stories of the
war and her father's silence,
Osherov saw the Holocaust
as an interruption of life.
"I heard all these stories
about this event which I
couldn't explain to myself.
It's no wonder. Grown up
people couldn't explain it
either," she said.
When she was younger,
Osherov studied at an arts
school in Jerusalem and
began painting. Through her
paintings she wanted to
keep the memory of those
who had died during the
Holocaust alive.
Many of her paintings
have a common theme - the
ruins of Germany after the
war. But instead of showing
an empty building to signify
the destruction of Germany,
Osherov painted in the pale,
dead faces of the Jews who
were murdered in the war.
Four of her paintings are
now on display as part of an
exhibit at the Jewish
Community Center Campus
at Maple and Drake roads.
"I had to do it. I had no
choice. Painting was allow-
ing me to see the soul of our
people."
Although Osherov con-
tinues to paint, write and
teach while she is in
America, she is eager to
return to Israel. The girl
who grew up never sure if
she belonged in Israel or
Europe has discovered her
place in the world.
"I consider myself the
worldwide Jew with the
Israeli passport," Osherov
said. "The wandering Jew
with a positive stereotype."
"What it means to have an
Israeli passport is I really
have my place in the world. I
have a history. Israel is the
essence of my Jewish be-
ing." ❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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