AT THE AGENCY FOR JEWISH EDUCATION RESOURCE CENTER We Plant More Than Ideas • We help cultivate ideas and translate them into the classroom and beyond. • We help your ideas grow into programs, learning materials and curricula. • Join one of our networkks of professional Jewish Educators. Renee Wohl, Director Helene Kal!son Cohen Staff: Bayla Landsman Judy Silberg Loebl Hours of Operation Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday - Thursday Friday AGENCY FOR JEWISH EDUCATION THE RESOURCE CENTER 9:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 12:30 p.m. Agency for Jewish Education RESOURCE CENTER 21550 W. Twelve Mile Road Southfield, MI 48076 (313) 354-1050 Jewish &Wagon Network HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our Customers and Friends. THANK YOU for your patronage! AV MIR SININIIIIMM ■ AMININI ■ III 1 Call Today For a Free In-Home Estimate BLOOMFIELD HILLS 338.6666 HEATING • COOLING FARMINGTON HILLS 338.9255/422.7100 • BIRMINGHAM 642-7150 Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. Call 354-6060 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991 Strength Continued from preceding page To protect her home or escape to Russia, leaving her home- land behind. With her three youngest sons (the oldest was in the ar- my at the time), Teibe Open- geym fled. "She was a very decisive person," says Birmingham Temple Rabbi Sherwin Wine, recalling his impression of Mrs. Opengeym when they first met during his 1986 trip to the USSR. "I remember she said to me, 'There are times in life when you have to make a decision — and life is more important than proper- ty.' At the Riga station, the Opengeyms caught the last train to Pskov, a city in Russia. The escape only brought more danger. Five days into the journey German planes began bombing the tracks. Occupants, including the Opengeyms, abandoned the coach cars and ran for sur- rounding cornfields. "We tried to escape to safe- ty in the corn, but the planes came low and shot into the fields," Mr. Opengeym says. The attack occurred on Ju- ly 1, Mr. Opengeym's 16th birthday. Surviving the onslaught, he and his family traveled to Ivanova, a city northwest of Moscow. The brothers worked on a farm cutting trees. But as fall approached, the weather quickly turned cold. The family did not have enough money for winter clothing. Hirsch Opengeym found fleeting refuge as a Soviet military pilot. But his fighter plane was shot down over Germany. Teibe, Anton and Max Opengeym journeyed south to Andizhan in more temperate Uzbekistan. Soon thereafter, Anton traveled alone to Tash- kent, where he attended bricklaying school. After six months he was sent to Siberia to practice his new trade. World War II ended before he saw his mother and brothers again. They reunited in Riga to find their city destroyed and reoccupied by Soviet forces. Josif Opengeym, they learn- ed, had been shot by German soldiers on the steps of his old apartment building. Unwilling to let fate defeat them, the remaining Open- geyms reconstructed their lives. Anton became a barber and married Sara in 1951. They had a daughter, Bronya, 39, and a son, Josif. For the next 29 years, Mr. Opengeym worked in the barber shop. Unable to advance or even ac- cept tips from patrons, he found life under communism unbearably stifling. "If Latvia were what it was before, I would have stayed. In my born country, we received freedom. But there was no future after. I decided I will go while my family still has a future." In 1980, Mr. Opengeym, his wife, son, daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters, im- migrated to Oak Park. Freedom greeted them with more challenges. Though Mr. Opengeym speaks Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lettish and German, his English was poor at the time. The Jewish Vocational Service referred him to the Birmingham Tem- ple, but administrators were hesitant to hire him as custo- dian. They worried about his ability to communicate and wondered if his small, 5'5" frame could withstand the heavy lifting required by the job. "I told them I am strong. I can handle it," Mr. Opengeym says. To prove it, he offered to work for free on a trial basis. They hired him. "He wasn't here to find out what America owed him; he was here to contribute," says Helen Forman, executive di- rector of the Birmingham Temple. temple than More maintenance man, Anton dons white gloves on occasion and serves tea to the likes of Bertrand Russell, Ayn Rand and Karl Marx — as part of his role in "Evening With the Philosophers" skits created by post-confirmation students. Adults say they ap- preciate his wit as well. Last year, congregants created the "Anton Open- geym Victory Fund." They collected $4,000 which Anton used to defray his relatives' immigration expenses. The temple also honored Mr. Opengeym with a springtime soiree. The celebration might have been muted; three weeks before, the family had been sitting shiva for Josif. Yet Bir- mingham Temple members say that Anton follows the ex- ample set by his mother in Riga; He chooses life. His mother, now reunited with family in her Oak Park home, vows to start learning English before her 103rd bir- thday. Anton vows to achieve yet another reunion: He and his brother, Max, will sponsor more relatives this fall. "I find him so inspiring," says Rabbi Wine. "The man is 66 years old and he always seems to be a young man .. . He's a person who never sur- renders." ❑ K