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Unraveling The Mystery

Let's Play Name
That Team

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

T

)he new competitive
swimming team for
youths at the Jewish
Community Center in
West Bloomfield needs a
name and Jewish News
readers can help.
Readers can submit their
suggestions in writing to
Jewish News staff writer
Steve Stein, who will select
the name along with JCC
staff members.
The first 50 entrants in
the "Name the Swim Team
Contest" will receive a Jew-
ish News T-shirt. The per- Dawn Hewitt works with her swimmers.
son whose name is selected
will get a swim kit from the
Also offered at the JCC is a masters
JCC which includes fins, goggles, a cap,
program for swimmers ages 19 and up.
hand paddles and a T-shirt.
. The contest deadline is Friday, Dec. 2. Hewitt coaches that group, offering 21/2
Entrants must include their address and hours of practice per week and five work-
phone number with their entry and it outs which can be done individually.
There are 17 swimmers on the roster,
should be sent to Steve Stein, The Jew-
' ish News, 27676 Franklin Road, South- making it one of the largest organized
field, MI 48034.
masters programs in Michigan.
Registration is ongoing for both the
Dawn Hewitt is the coach of the swim
team, which has 19 members. Youths youth team and masters program. For
ages 6-18 are eligible to join the squad. information, call the JCC, 810-661-7682.

PHOTO BY BILL G EMMELL

STEVE STEIN STAFF WRITER

Heartland To Hire
Borman Employees

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

T

he Heartland Group,
which recently pur-
chased Borman Hall
nursing home in De-
troit, expects to retain bet-
ter than 90 percent of the
facility's current staff.
"The interviews went
well, very well. We will be
hiring mostly everybody,"
says Dr. Nick Mooney,
Heartland's executive vice
president.
Last month, Heartland
decided to buy the 27-year-
old skilled nursing facility.
The United Jewish Foun-
dation and the board of the
Jewish Federation, which
oversees Borman Hall,
agreed to the transaction
two weeks ago. Now, par-
ties involved are awaiting
state government consent,
which is expected soon.
Nearly 140 employees
work at Borman Hall. Fed-

Borman Hall

eration officials say Heart-
land's takeover will keep
jobs in Detroit.
Many Borman Hall staff
members have welcomed
the opportunity to contin-
ue working at the facility,
says Margot Parr, interim
executive director of the
Jewish Home for Aged.
Michael Perlman, vice
president ofJHA, says vol-
unteers and staff have
served on the Human Re-
sources Transition Com-

mittee, which
sponsored ca-
reer seminars
for Borman em-
ployees who, be-
fore the recent
purchase, antic-
ipated jobless-
ness when the
facility closed.
Many staff
members took
advantage of re-
sume-writing and inter-
viewing workshops, as well
as activities on self-esteem,
Mr. Perlman says.
Most of Borman Hall's
95 residents will be mov-
ing to Menorah House in
Southfield before the end
of the year. The Heartland
Group has agreed to con-
tinue Jewish program-
ming at Borman Hall until
all residents who want to
relocate do so.

University of Michi- he went to Germany, where
gan graduate will he contracted TB and died.
soon begin a Euro- Much of the rest of his life
pean journey to trace remains a mystery.
the life of a man she never
Last year, Ms. Zetter
knew — a man whose completed her master's the-
name, in fact, she can only sis on Derso Aczel's paint-
ing and graduated from
guess.
In 1992, a U-M student U-M. Since then, she has
named Bara Zetter made a been working to save mon-
chance discovery dur-
ing a visit to Israel.
She went with friends
to the home of a man
named Reuven
Prager, a Jerusalem
businessman who
showed Ms. Zetter a
massive painting pic-
turing Hitler as the
angel of death.
Mr. Prager had pur-
chased the piece from
a Miami, Fla., couple, The Aczel painting.
who had hung the
painting for 31 years at ey so she can travel to Eu-
rope and further research
their home.
Ms. Zetter began re- the artist's life.
"I need to provide a tes-
searching the work and
slowly was able to put to- tament," she says of her
gether a portrait of the man passion for the painting. "I
she believes was named just can't let this go by. This
Derso Aczel. He was born piece is extremely signifi-
in 1893 in Hungary. He cant both in the history of
was a prisoner at art and as a statement
Auschwitz. After the war about humanitarianism."

Ms. Zetter plans to leave
next month for Europe,
though her funds are se-
verely limited. She plans to
begin in Hungary, where
the artist was born, then
meet with art and history
scholars as well as search
for the few remaining souls
who may have known
Aczel. She also hopes
to visit Auschwitz and
Dachau, stopping in
Germany to see the
small shack where
Derso Aczel spent his
last years.
"So many questions
are left unanswered,"
Ms. Zetter says. "Who
was this man? Where
did he receive his
training? Why did he
wind up in the south
of Germany? Whose
numbers are those that are
tattooed to a forearm at the
bottom of the page? Why is
this the only identifiable
feature of the painting?"
For information, contact
Ms. Zetter at (313) 913-
9563. Correspondence may
be sent to her parents' res-
idence at 3 Timber Rd., Edi-
son, N.J. 08820.

Council Collects
Holocaust Artifacts

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

Micki Grossman,
he camp linens were
project coordinator for
folded neatly next to
the JCCouncil, collect-
a stack of letters
ed the donations which
that Steve Lewkow-
ranged from birth cer-
icz planned to donate to
tificates of children
the. United States Holo-
killed in the Holocaust
caust Museum in Wash-
to photos of a camp lib-
ington, D.C.
eration.
The Livonia resident
`These people carry
scanned each letter one
these things around
last time before giving
with them and save
them to a worker gather-
them to remind them
ing the items at the Jew-
that it wasn't just a
ish Community Council's Louis Kay registers his donations with
nightmare, that it was
delegate assembly Oct. 25. Micki Grossman.
real," she said. "The
. "I am arriving Feb. 27
in Detroit. Please expect my arrival then," museum reminds everyone of this."
Ms. Grossman plans to take the items
Mr. Lewkowicz read from a telegram he
sent to relatives who waited for him in 1949. to the museum in the next few weeks. But
With the telegram and the linens, he gave for now, she welcomes other donations of
the museum a large grey metal suitcase Holocaust artifacts. 0
that carried his belongings to America.
The council appealed for the donations
in. conjunction with their featured speak-
Nzst :
es es ;
N
er at the semi-annual meeting. Mark Tal-
isman, one of the founders of the museum.

