FINE ARTS
Portraits
Children interview grandparents on Jewish roots.
AMY J. MEHLER
Staff Writer
F
ive-year-old Sarah
Waldbott's big brown
eyes grew rounder and
wider as she listened to her
great-grandmother's early
memories of childhood in
Philadelphia.
She sat mesmerized as her
great-grandmother, Lena
Waldbott, described what it
meant to light Shabbat
candles each Friday night
with her mother.
Sarah giggled when her
great-grandmother told her
about the time her mother
accidentally spilled soup on
her head. Joel Waldbott,
Sarah's father and Mrs.
Waldbott's grandson, also
heard these stories for the
first time.
Due to a unique exhibit
this month at the Janice
Multi-generational
families preserved
family histories for
posterity.
Above:
Renee Gunsberg
visits the exhibit
with her
granddaughter.
JCC Museum Gallery Di-
rector Sharon Zimmerman
said German artist Herlinde
Koelbl traveled across
Europe, America and Israel
to photograph and interview
more than 80 interna-
tionally prominent Jewish
people in cultural arts.
The exhibit of 60 large,
formal black and white
photographs and portions of
interviews conducted by Ms.
Koelbl display the signifi-
cant loss to German culture
forced by the exile of many of
that country's leading Jew-
ish intellectuals and
luminaries.
The subjects Ms. Koelbl
chose were not all born in
Germany, but it was within
the German cultural sphere
that they spent their for-
mative years. German was
Below:
Joel, Sarah and
Lena Waldbott
hold their
"history."
Photos by G len n Triest
Charach Epstein Museum
Gallery at the Jewish Com-
munity Center in West
Bloomfield the Waldbotts
and other multi-
generational families will
preserve family memories
for posterity.
"Grand Influence," which
took place Feb. 2, gave chil-
dren of all ages the chance to
bring a grandparent or spe-
cial older person for a
photographic session. Do-
cent volunteers assisted
families in interviewing
their "Grand Influence" sub-
ject.
The photography, donated
by Monte Nagler, and Mar-
cia Boxman and Elaine
Yaker of the Pierce Street
Gallery, was hung Feb. 9 in
the JCC lobby. With its por-
traits and recorded inter-
views, the 80 subjects of
"Grand Influence" accom-
pany the museum gallery's
current exhibit, "Survival
and Success: Jewish
Cultural Portraits from Cen-
tral Europe," co-sponsored
by the Goethe Institute in
Germany.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
57