A fresh look at some of the stories we reported on in the past weeks.
Campaign
Surpasses
1991, '92
RUTH LITTMANN
STAFF WRITER
T
he 1993 Allied
Jewish Campaign of
metropolitan Detroit
brought in a total of
Trailing
Mystery
Artist
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Tamarack
For Sale
This Fall
RUTH LITTMANN
STAFF WRITER
Lunch/
Learn
Business
Booming
KIM LIFTON STAFF WRITER
$26,950,000 — almost a
million dollars more than
Campaigns during the
past two years.
In accordance with pre-
vious years, Federation's
board of governors last
week decided to send
nearly 60 percent of that
total to Israel and inter-
national organizations
including the Jewish
Agency and HIAS. About
40 percent will go toward
local and national Jewish
agencies. The specific dol-
lar amounts for recipient
agencies have not yet been
here are a few more
clues, but still plenty
of questions. Univer-
sity of Michigan
graduate student Bara
Zetter has just turned in
her master's thesis on
mystery artist Derso
Aczel.
She began research on
the artist after seeing his
massive painting, depict-
ing Hitler as the angel of
death over a field of
corpses, at a friend's
house in Israel. She knew
that the artist was born in
1893, that he was in
Auschwitz during the
determined.
The Challenge Fund,
which matched new and
increased pledges to
Campaign with additional
monies from many major
givers, brought in
$575,000. Sixty percent of
dollars raised through the
Challenge Fund will be
used this year. The other
40 percent will be saved
for 1994 Campaign coffers.
The second annual Days
of Decision, held June 13
to 17, added about $1.2
million to the Campaign
— approximately the same
as last year's total for the
five-day final pledge drive.
"I was very excited
about it," said Irwin
Alterman, a Days of
Decision chairman. "I
think we had very good
Campaign results, excel-
lent participation with a
lot of new workers."
After the 10-day Miracle
Mission to Israel this
spring, a total of $120,000
came in from Mission-
aires who increased their
gifts to the Campaign.
This more than offsets the
$120,000 subsidy from the
Holocaust, that he died in
1946 — but little more.
Ms. Zetter has since
managed to discover that
Aczel lived in the town of
Weiden, between Ausch-
witz and Dachau. She has
located the address of the
small shack where he
made the painting and has
done extensive research
on religious and psycho-
logical themes in the
work.
Now Ms. Zetter is plan-
ning to continue her
research by traveling to
Europe. She hopes to pro-
duce a film, then a book,
following in Derso Aczel's
footsteps. But first she
has to find the funding.
"I'm applying for grants
everywhere I can think of:
the National Endowment
for the Arts, Jewish orga-
nizations, a Fulbright
scholarship — it's a real
eclectic mix," she said.
"But since I'll be an inde-
pendent researcher, it's a
long shot."
She hopes to have fund-
ing and travel arrange-
ments set by the end of
the year.
United Jewish Founda-
tion, according to Federa-
tion staff. Originally
$250,000 from the UJF
had been appropriated for
the mission, but less than
half of that was needed
due to cost-cutting mea-
sures implemented by
Mission planners, said
Robert Aronson, Federa-
tion's executive vice presi-
dent.
"We've already recouped
our investment," he said.
Ban Zetter
bout 193 acres of
land in Hartland
Township will go on
the market this fall
when the Fresh Air
Society hires a realtor to
sell Camp Tamarack.
The recent decision to
merge the facility with
Camp Maas in Ortonville
came after tight funding
years and increased com-
mercial development in
Hartland Township.
Residential subdivisions
began encroaching on
areas close to camp, said
Fresh Air Society Execu-
tive Director Harvey
Finkelberg. He said con-
solidation will enable
summer programs to run
more effectively.
"We will be able to
operate one camp that will
be much more programati-
cally efficient and cost-
effective," he said.
The Fresh Air Society,
which runs the camps,
will hire a broker in
September, after camp
sessions have concluded.
The Fresh Air Society's
real estate committee esti-
mates the land will sell
for between two and three
million dollars. Proceeds
from the sale will go
toward building two new
villages at Camp Maas, as
well as toward overall
improvements at the
Ortonville facility.
Mr. Finkelberg was
abbi Eric Krohner's
program to inspire
Jewish learning
through Ohr Soma-
yach is stronger than
ever.
Ohr Somayach, which
hosts monthly lunch-and-
learn sessions at the Max
M. Fisher Building, last
week hosted the interna-
tional dean and founder of
the organization, Rabbi
Nota Schiller.
About 150 people at-
tended the luncheon ses-
sion, at which the rabbi
spoke about patterns in
Jewish history and dis-
cussed the Torah's projec-
tions for Jewish suffering
and renewal.
A talmudic scholar,
Rabbi Schiller lectures
throughout the world. His
goal is to ensure that sec-
ular Jews have access to
learning. In 1972, he
founded Ohr Somayach,
an educational center in
Jerusalem with a mandate
to teach Jews a variety of
information, from basic
tenets of holidays to deep
meanings of the letters of
the Torah.
Rabbi Krohner brought
Ohr Somayach to Detroit
last February. Since its
founding, the number of
participants has increased
from a handful to 750
enrolled in its various pro-
grams. In the last several
years, Ohr Somayach per-
sonnel have worked with
Rabbi Krohner to launch
educational outreach pro-
grams. ❑
unsure about how much
money the Livingston
County site, which in-
cludes 43 acres of lake-
front property, would
bring. The Jewish Fed-
eration's real estate com-
mittee, he said, values the
land at $2-3 million.
The property was donat-
ed to the Fresh Air
Society in 1925 by Mr. and
Mrs. Edwin M. Rosenthal.
Rabbi Schiller