Stuck At Work
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
hen a college stu-
dent needs a place
to go to celebrate the
holidays, Hinds doors
are open.
But this also means some Hil-
lel employees, like Farmington
Hills native Mathew May, the
program director at Indiana
It's the first time in
32 years Mrs. May
will not be having
a seder in her
Farmington Hills
home.
This year, both sedarim fall
on the weekend, making it eas-
ier for some college students to
make the trip home. But for
those who cannot leave campus,
Indiana's Hillel will offer two
Passover meals a day and both
seders.
"We're here to serve our stu-
dents," said Mr. May, who be-
gan his job seven months ago.
`There are so many of them who
can't go home for one reason or
another. We can't just close our
door because it's the holiday."
While the students will plan
the sedarim, Mr. May said he
will be in the kitchen to help
with the cooking.
Although Mrs. May will not
be making dinner for her usual
crowd, she will spend a lot of
time cooking and cleaning.
"I still have to change my
dishes and I'm going to bring
down a lot of food for his apart-
ment, so I really did not get out
of cooking," she said.
University's Hillel, have to
spend holidays, including
Passover, away from family.
This year, Mr. May's mother,
Sharon, and sister, Car-
ol, a graduate student at
Brandeis University, will
be going to Bloomington,
hid., to join Mr. May, 25,
for the sedarim conducted
at Hillel.
It's the first time in 32
years Mrs. May will not be
having a seder in her
Farmington Hills home.
Between 20 and 30 people
usually spend the holiday
at the Mays'.
"I'm really excited about
it," Mrs. May said. "I
thought it would be nice to
visit Matt and see what
Hillel is like. I'm curious
to see what they are doing Mathew May:
down there."
A Hillel seder.
Xer
Si4114,
74/114TM.
Itr.t .
hionZi
ma af, zrz
'
Se 1110.
A Holocaust Nightmare
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
W
ith his bunk bed di-
r rectly under the only
light in the death camp
barrack, Martin Lowen-
berg passed the time in many
ways. He slept, or tried to, he
thought, he prayed and he
baked matzah during Passover.
Trading bread for flour, Mr.
Lowenberg held a mixture of
flour and water under the light,
determined not only to survive
but continue practicing his reli-
gion in Kaiserwald, a Latvian
death camp.
Mr. Lowenberg, who now
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
"Passover means freedom and
peace and being among my peo-
ple," she said."I like it here. I'm
a Jew like the other Jews here
and I am free to do what I want.
I'm also happy to be here and be
able to work in the community
and help people."
One of the things that sur-
prises Ms. Latinskaya the most
about her new country is the
amount of kosher-for-Passover
food stocked on the shelves of the
grocery stores.
"You would never see that in
Russia," Ms. Latinskaya said.
Ms. Latinskaya first learned
about Passover from her father.
She remembers sitting around
a table with her brother and
1‘)
Martin Lowenberg:
Remembering the ghetto.
A Russian Seder
omorrow night as Rivka
Latinskaya of Southfield
sits down with her fami-
ly for the first of two
sedarim, something will be dif-
ferent. Actually, a lot will be dif-
ferent.
Nine months ago, Ms. Latin-
skaya and her family left Moldo-
va, in the southwestern part of
the former Soviet Union, for a
freer life in the United States.
While Ms. Latinskaya always
observed the Jewish holidays in
Russia and has many memories
of past family celebrations, Pe-
sach takes on a new meaning.
She and her husband will spend
their first Passover with their
children and grandchildren.
^ Aede
l s.sk'
one, woo
cousins and listening to her fa-
ther talk about its significance.
She also recalls her mother
cooking for two days straight,
looking for the afikomen and
burying the dishes, in what they
believed was a way to make
them kosher.
While Ms. Latinskaya's fam-
ily seders were not conducted in
secrecy, the celebration could not
be talked about outside the fam-
ily. They were unable to observe
all eight days without enough
Passover food.
This year, food will be plenti-
ful. Ms. Latinskaya's seder will
include chicken, chicken soup
with matzah balls and a
Passover cake.
lives in Southfield, tried not to
miss observing Passover. Be-
tween 1933, when Hitler came
to power, until 1945, when Mr.
Lowenberg was liberated, keep-
ing Passover and conducting a
seder was difficult, if not im-
possible. Yet Judaism was so im-
portant to Mr. Lowenberg that
he did what he could no matter
what the circumstances.
After 1938, while Mr. Lowen-
berg and his family were still liv-
ing in Germany, there were food
shortages. Getting kosher meat
was next to inVossible, and the
Jewish bakeries eventually were
forced to close. A seder service
was still possible although food
was sparse.
As conditions worsened,
matzah and wine were no longer
attainable. People in the neigh-
borhood baked their own un-
leavened bread. Mr. Lowenberg
remembered his mother mak-
ing wine by cooking raisins.
"We tried to make the best of
it," Mr. Lowenberg said. "We
still kept it the way we always
did except matzah and other
items were not available."
When Mr. Lowenberg and his
family were deported to a ghet-
to in Latvia, they still gathered
in their one-room living quar-
ters and conducted seders.
In 1944, Mr. Lowenberg, then
15, was transported to Kaiser-
wald.
"My friend, who was an el-
derly gentleman, and I prayed
together by heart and tried to
observe the holidays," he said.
"It may not have been exactly on
the actual day, but we knew
some of the approximate dates
from before we went into the
camps. Civilians or soldiers, who
"My friend, who
was an elderly
gentleman, and I
prayed together by
heart and tried to
observe the
holidays."
Martin Lowenberg
were more tolerable toward us,
occasionally told us the time or
month."
The following year, Mr.
Lowenberg spent Passover in
a German prison where he and
others were transported because
of approaching Russiantroops.
"We knew it was Pesach, but
we couldn't observe it. We hard-
ly got any food," he said.
Now, as this Southfield resi-
dent observes Pesach with his
family — he has three married
daughters and nine grandchil-
dren — the celebration of free-
dom that is associated with the
holiday is truly a celebration of
freedom.
"I look back and relive all the
suffering during those horrible
times that we had to endure."
❑
2
61