COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Miracle In Mikolajow
A
mong the exhibits at
Yad Vashem,
Israel's Holocaust
memorial, is a row of trees
honoring gentiles who
risked their lives to save
Jews during the
Holocaust.
One local resident saved
by one such Righteous
Gentile is Marcus
Sauerhaft of Oak Park,
whose story is included in
the new autobiography
Journey Into Life by for-
mer Detroiter Aaron
Grossbard.
M r
Sauerhaft
(pictured, at
Sukkot) was
30 at the
start of
World War
II. The head
of a fabric
store in
Mikolajow,
Galicia (a
town near
Lvov and
populated
largely by
Ukrain-
ians), Mr.
Sauerhaft
had many
gentile customers, includ-
ing a church caretaker
named Mr. Mlodnicki.
As Ukrainian support-
ers of the Nazis began a
rampage of the city, Mr.
Sauerhaft decided to give
much of the store's goods
to Mr. Mlodnicki. Then he
hid in the attic of a shack,
where he stayed for three
days, with no food or
water, while the
Ukrainians murdered
Jews and stole their prop-
erty.
After the pogrom, Mr.
Sauerhaft and the city's
few remaining Jews were
ordered into a ghetto and
forced into a work
rir
brigade.
One afternoon, Mr.
Sauerhaft chanced to see
Mr. Mlodnicki and asked
if he would consider hid-
ing him in his home. Mr.
Mlodnicki not only wel-
comed Mr. Sauerhaft, he
told his old acquaintance
that four Jews already
were hiding there.
The kind of risk this
entailed is remarkable
because Mr. Mlodnicki
and his wife were the par-
ents of three small chil-
1 dren (all of
whom the
Nazis would
have mur-
dered had
they found
out about
the Mlod-
nickis'
deed).
Later, the
Mlodnickis
'brought
more Jews
into their
home, mak-
ing for a
total of
seven. The
couple
always
treated the men, women
and children as guests,
addressing them as "Sir"
and "Madam." At Pesach,
they made sure their
guests had plenty of veg-
etables and fruits and no
chometz. Meanwhile, the
rest of the city's Jewish
population, including the
work brigade, was mur-
dered.
The Mlodnickis hid the
seven Jews for more than
a year, until the Red
Army entered Mikolajow
and liberated the town.
Today, Mr. Mlodnicki still
lives in Mikolajow and
corresponds with Mr.
Sauerhaft.
Here Come The GrandExplorers
he B'nai B'rith
Center for Jewish
Family Life has just
initiated GrandExplorers,
a travel program allow-
ing grandparents and
grandchildren the chance
to visit a variety of places
of Jewish interest and
explore their heritage.
The inaugural trip, a
winter vacation tour of
Israel, is scheduled for
Dec. 22. It will include
home hospitality on a
kibbutz and a jeep tour of
the Golan
For more information
on GrandExplorers, call
the B'nai B'rith Center
for Jewish Family Life,
(202) 857-6584.
.
Milkens Make
Beautiful Music
hanks to funding
from the Milken
T Family Archive of
20th Century American
Jewish Music, a private
philanthropic organiza-
tion, the first recording
ever was completed
recently of Leonard
Bernstein's Psalm 148,
written when the compos-
er was 14.
The piece will be includ-
ed in a new collection,
"Leonard Bernstein: A
Jewish Legacy," which
will feature a number of
the late Mr. Bernstein's
other little-known Jewish
choral and instrumental
works.
The Show
Will Go On
T
he American Jewish
Committee and
Radio City Music
Hall have reached an
understanding on the con-
troversial stage produc-
tion Jesus Was His Name.
After seeing the multi-
media play, prominent
Jewish, Catholic and
Protestant religious lead-
ers said they felt it con-
tained highly offensive
and historically inaccu-
rate anti-Semitic ele-
ments.
Following a series of
meetings in recent weeks,
the play's producers and
Radio City executives
agreed to make changes to
eliminate such material
as grotesque and morbid
caricatures of ancient
Jewish leaders.
Russia Hosts
Jews For Jesus
S
t. Petersburg (formerly
Leningrad) last month
hosted its first
"Messianic Jewish" music
festival, attracting more
than 13,000 persons for
three nights of concerts.
"Messianic Jewish" lead-
ers from the United States,
Finland, Canada and
England attended, and the
concert was filmed by
Russian TV and will be
shown throughout the for-
mer Soviet Union.
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Of Yogurt And Torah Kups
T
he Dannon Yogurt
Company recently
published its second
volume of Dinim by
Dannon For Kids, a 16-
page booklet featuring
Torah-centered activities
and games.
"Six Days of Creation"
challenges children to
draw the creation of the
heavens and the earth,
the sun and moon being
placed in the sky, and the
creation of fish, birds and
insects. "The Quest for the
Torah Kup" asks such
questions as "Who built
-
an ark to protect himself
and his family from the
great flood?" and "Which
reptile advised Chava to
eat from the tree of
knowledge?"
Dinim by Dannon For
Kids will be distributed to
students at Jewish day
schools nationwide.
More than 70,000 copies
of Dinim by Dannon For
Kids Volume I were issued
last year, continuing a
series that began in 1991
when Dannon published
Dinim by Dannon for
adults.
-
-
UAW Program To Codify Synagogues
Making Provisions For The Impaired
T
he Union of American
Hebrew Congre-
gations, the central
body of Reform Judaism,
has announced a new pro-
gram to certify all temples
that help the disabled to
participate fully in congre-
gational life.
The program and a
manual for its implemen-
tation were designed by
Rabbi Howard Bogot,
staff director of the
UAHC Lehiyot Advisory
Committee, which togeth-
er with the Commission
on Social Action' will
award certification.
Synagogues requesting
certification must develop
a mission statement and
undergo a comprehensive
study to determine if they
are physically accessible
to the disabled.
The Reform move-
ment's effort to encourage
congregations to help
those with special needs
and their families become
involved in synagogue life
began in 1989, when
UAHC President Rabbi
Alexander Schindler
urged the. Jewish commu-
nity to remember its "for
gotten children,"
`Their laughter is not
heard in our religious
classrooms, for we have
done little to enable them
to enter," he said "But if
we render them invisible,
we render ourselves
blind."
Moldova Sponsors Dance Festival
M
oldova recently
hosted its first
ever Israel Folk
Dance Festival, attracting
more than 55 youth from
throughout the former
Soviet province.
The festival was orga-
nized by Sonya Nutova,
20, of Kishinev, who first
learned Israeli dancing at
a 1992 seminar organized
by the Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee in
Odessa.