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Detroit Natives Headline
This Year's Book Fair

LESLEY PEARL

W

STAFF WRITER

hen Vicky Shiefman
was a child in Detroit
she used to listen to
her grandmother
telling the story of saying good-
bye to the trees.
At 13, the grandmother left
Russia to travel to America
alone. Before leaving, her
mother took her out to the
woods near their shtetl and
said, "Say goodbye to the trees,
for you may never see them
again."
She never did see the trees,
her shtetl, or most of her fami-
ly — including her mother —
ever again.
"She said goodbye to
her childhood," Ms.
Shiefman said. "That
story always inspired
me. I lived such a shel-
tered childhood. I think
the worst thing I could
imagine at 13 was the
bus driver yelling at
me."
That inspiration was
the impetus for Ms.
Shiefman's latest chil-
dren's book, Good-bye to

"She left the old world, but
the old world never left her,"
Ms. Shiefman said.
xecutive vice-president of
the Detroit District, Zion-
ist Organization of Amer-
ica, Ezekiel Leikin has
also gone back to Russia in his
writing.

E

The Beilis Transcripts: The
Anti-Semitic Case That Shook
the World is the translation

of the actual court transcripts
of the blood libel trial of
Menachem Mendel Beilis in
1913.
Mr. Leikin had been fasci-
nated by the three volumes of

the Trees.

Ms. Shiefman will
return to her hometown
Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. to talk
about her writings at
the 42nd annual Jew-
ish Book Fair at the
Jewish Community
Center in West Bloom- Ezekiel Leikin: Translating history.
field. She will be joined
by former Detroiter
transcripts on the trial that his
Robert Rockaway on Nov. 7 at
11 a.m., and local residents
father kept.
Detailed inside was the grue-
David Techner and Ezekiel
some story of a 13-year-old
Leikin Nov. 14 at 10:15 and
Christian boy murdered in
11:15 a.m.
Kiev.
About 12 years ago, Ms.
"Anti-Semites tried to blame
Shiefman asked her grand-
mother to fill in the blanks of
the Jews, saying they were re-
sponsible for the murder be-
her story. The two women sat
cause they needed blood to bake
under a tree outside the grand-
matzah," Mr. Leikin said. "They
mother's cottage in West
Bloomfield. Grandma talked,
chose Beals."
Vicky recorded and took
notes about the herring and
black bread "as hard as rocks"
she ate on her journey and
her dislike for "Take Me Out
To The Ballgame" — it sound-
ed too cold, not warm and Yid-
dish.
While the lead character,
Fagel, is the creation of Ms.
Shiefman and the book is defi-
Mr. Beilis remained in jail for
nitely fiction, much researched
two years while the trial
and documented fact fills the
dragged on. He was later ac-
pages.
quitted.
Ms. Shiefman's grandmoth-
"This was so significant be-
er never saw the book, but was
cause it was the first case where
very excited at the prospect of
a court of law was called upon
being immortalized.
to see if the Jewish religion was

"This is the
recollection of
experiences of a
funeral director."

culpable of killing Christians.
Even though Beilis was ac-
quitted, the accusation of Jews
using Christian blood re-
mained," Mr. Leikin said.
ollowing the circuit of
radio and television
talk show appearances,
David Techner of the Ira
Kaufman Chapel will speak at
Book Fair about A Candle for

Grandpa: A Guide to the Jew-
ish Funeral for Children and
Parents.

Co-authored by Judith Hirt-
Manheimer, A Candle for
Grandpa views the activity of
yahrtzeit through the eyes of an
11-year-old boy.
"This is the recollec-
tion of experiences of a
funeral director," Mr.
Techner said. "Often
parents think children
are too young to under-
stand death. And I ask
them what they can un-
derstand about the life
process that a kid can-
not."
Mr. Techner's book
discusses the process
and traditions of death
and Jewish burial. The
funeral director in the
book followed Mr. Tech-
ner's own style of talk-
ing to children about
death and funeral.
"I try to go over line
by line what will be
happening. I try to take
the mystery out of it,"
Mr. Techner said.
In addition to a story, the
book includes the five most fre-
quently asked questions by dill-
dren, and the five most
frequently asked questions by
adults.
`The children are usually fine
once they understand what is
happening — better than their
parents," Mr. Techner said.
"What we do as Jews from the
point of death until the funeral
is brilliant. From not leaving
the body alone to celebrating
the life of the deceased, the tra-
dition points to the love and re-
spect we have for our loved
ones."
etroit native Robert
Rockaway has taken a
lighthearted, yet educat-
ed look at Jewish
gangsters in the early part of
the century with his book But

D

He Was Good to His Mother.

His self-titled talk, "Bugsy,
Meyer and Me," will provide
Book Fair goers with an
overview. ❑