MENDING page 55
Mom's always on the go.
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Name
Address
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MAIL TO: 24111 CIVIC CENTER DRIVE, SOUTHFIELD, MI 48034
A PREMIER RENTAL. RETIREMENT COMMUNITY
JEWISH EDUCATION WITH A WHOLE NEW SPIRIT!
3 Congregations • Beth Achim
•B'nai David • Beth Abraham Hillel Moses
2 Locations • Beth Achim
•Beth Abraham Hillel Moses
1 Great Religious School
THE CONGREGATIONAL
RELIGIOUS SCHOOL
eeta
Sitz4.4
at the BETH ACHIM BRANCH
OPEN HOUSE
Sunday, August 15, 1993
11:00 a.m. to 12 noon
21100 W. Twelve Mile Rd., Southfield
For more information call Barry Levine,
Executive Director of the Congregational
Religious School, at 352 8670 or 851 6880.
-
56
W4.44 /4 . 64(44 Mme. z
-
N4e4/4,(2!
Each new child registered will receive a free gift.
Though Mr. Buford wants
his students to know the
historical information, he
describes the test as "the
simplest I give all year." As
important as the facts is his
desire that the young men
and women emerge from his
course with an understand-
ing of "the evil that is in all
of us" and a commitment to
be more compassionate. "My
number-one goal," he says
"is to fight discrimination."
Mrs. Demlow also is a
native Detroiter. She never
planned to be a teacher.
Then she accepted a job stu-
dent teaching at Ferndale
High."I fell in love with it
and I never left," she says.
She has taught at Ferndale
since 1969.
Mrs. Demlow began
teaching the Holocaust at
the urging of Sister Carol
Rittner. The former Mercy
College instructor, now
director of the Elie Wiesel
Foundation for Humanity,
was delivering a forum at
Mercy on Auschwitz when
they met.
"What do I know of it to
teach?" Mrs. Demlow asked
Sister Rittner.
Then she set out to work.
With no Holocaust cur-
riculum available at the
time, Mrs. Demlow devel-
oped her own. She present-
ed her final package to the
Ferndale School Board,
which encouraged her to go
ahead with a 20-week pro-
gram.
Today, the elective course
is so popular administrators
must limit it to seniors and
some juniors.
Mrs. Demlow hopes her
students emerge from the
course feeling empowered,
knowing they have the
strength to make a differ-
ence, and with a new under-
standing of what it means
to care for one's fellow
human beings.
"You have to pass kind-
ness before you learn any-
thing else," she says. "That
way, you'll never use any-
thing — from algebra to
chemistry (remember the
Nazi doctors) — in an
unkind manner."
Like Professor Bolkosky's
classes, Mrs. Demlow's stu-
dents come to her course
"knowing nothing. Maybe
they've heard the name
`Hitler' and know that he
was evil, but that's it."
her
She
describes
Holocaust classes as emo-
tional. "They end up touch-
ing everyone." A young man
who had survived the killing
fields of Cambodia spoke for
the first time of his own
experiences in a presenta-
tion before his fellow class-
mates. A student whose per-
formance at the school could
best be termed mediocre
wrote a brilliant essay on
the Holocaust at the end of
the course. A teen who had
been severely abused as a
child said she was humbled
in the presence of a sur-
vivor. "If he can go through
that," she told Mrs. Demlow
after hearing the man
speak, "I should be able to
move on with my life."
"Emotionally it
can be difficult."
"They rise both as stu-
dents and as human
beings," says Mrs. Demlow.
Mrs. Demlow believes
teachers shy away from the
subject of the Holocaust
because it can be over-
whelming — "I'm still sur-
prised I took it on" —
though she says Life
Unworthy of Life can be
used by virtually anyone.
"Teaching the Holocaust
is challenging," she admits.
"But it's also exciting.
"Emotionally it can be dif-
ficult. You teach something
like this, then you go home
and you look at your own
children...it just breaks your
heart. "The Holocaust
broke the heart of civiliza-
tion. We need to mend it as
best we can." ❑
CUSTODIANS page 55
local chapter identify a
school that does not now
have, but wants to
include, a unit of instruc-
tion on the Holocaust, as
well as donate to the HEC
the money necessary to
furnish that school with
the classroom set," Mr.
Ansell said.
The creation of the HEC
follows the recent passage
in the Michigan House of
a resolution urging public
schools in the state to
include Holocaust educa-
tion in their curriculum.
The resolution was intro-
duced by Rep. David
Gubow, D-Huntington
Woods.
States that now require
Holocaust education, or
are in the process of mak-
ing it a requirement, are
Illinois, California, Wash-
ington, Tennessee, Rhode
Island, Nevada, South
Carolina, New York,
Connecticut, Florida, New
Jersey and Virginia.
For information, contact
the HEC at 4000 Town
Center, Suite 420,
Southfield, MI 48075, or
call 355-3730. ❑