A Jew
RUTH LITTMAN STAFF WRITER
Grayling young people
devote a Sunday to learning about a
different people.
artin Shlanger, in his own
words, was a despicable, 95-
pound, walking human skele-
ton after World War II.
Liberated from Auschwitz
death camp in 1945, the young
man wandered the streets of a
nearby city. Sick with dysen-
tery, hungry, tired and filthy,
Mr. Shlanger paused in front of
a movie theater. He stared
blankly at advertisements for
an upcoming film.
"Only two days earlier I slept
with death. I lived with death.
I woke up with death," he says.
Two Polish girls came walking
down the street toward him, and Mr.
Shlanger hoped they'd pass right by.
He felt ashamed. For more than a
year, the young Czech Jew had been
no more than a tattooed number to
the Nazis — no more than an animal
awaiting certain death.
But the girls eyed him. They felt
sorry for the walking skeleton and
asked if he'd accompany them to the
movies.
"I was afraid to accept their invi-
tation because of the way I looked,"
he says.
But the girls convinced Mr.
Shlanger to come along, and "I felt
like a human being again."
Silence.
Mr. Shlanger, 50 years later, told
his story Sunday to a roomful of mid-
dle- and high school-students from
Grayling, Mich. They sat, poker-faced
and hushed. Two students began cry-
ing.
The Grayling students, well-be-
haved and curious, had never before
spoken to a Holocaust survivor, al-
though several had seen the movie
Schindler's List. Many of the students
had never met a Jew, but they've
learned about Jewish history in their
public-school classes.
The Grayling school district is al-
most entirely Caucasian and Christ-
ian. On Sunday morning, Feb. 26,
they came to metro Detroit to learn
about a different type of culture and
religion.
A total of 50 students and teachers
from Crawford/AuSable schools trav-
eled nearly 270 miles in a
bus. Their trip began at
7:30 Sunday morning and
lasted all day. The leader
of the trip, art and drama
instructor Bambi Mans-
field, wore a button pinned
to her collar.
"A closed mind is a won-
derful thing to lose," it read.
The group's first stop
was at the office and
private library of Rabbi
Herbert Yoskowitz at Con-
gregation Beth Achim.
"Look at all those books,"
commented one boy to his
girlfriend.
Rabbi Yoskowitz tossed
blue-mesh bags of chocolate
coins to the students and
explained that Jews are
called the "People Of the
Book." He compared Rab-
bi Hillel — who sat on a
school rooftop to hear
lessons when he couldn't af-
ford tuition — to former
President Abraham Lin-
coln, who strained his eyes
to study at night.
"This country is a very
great country," Rabbi
Yoskowitz told the stu-
dents. "This country also is
indebted to what is called
a Judeo/Christian heritage.
The Pilgrims were very
much influenced by the
Jewish Bible."
Rabbi Yoskowitz told the
students that "rabbi"
means "teacher." He led
Rabbi Yoskowitz
The students, in the
Mary is the student director for
them to the synagogue's
shows the students
seventh through 12th Grayling High School's production
sanctuary where they
a Talmud.
grades, came prepared of I Never Saw Another Butterfly,
learned about the mean-
with three questions a one-act stage play based on the
ings of words like "Torah,"
apiece. After the morning story about Jewish prisoners in
"shalom," and "gemilut hasadim" at Beth Achim, they ventured to the
Theresienstadt, a Nazi death camp.
(acts of lovingkindness).
Jewish Community Center in West The production will be enhanced,
One student wanted to know: Bloomfield for a kosher lunch of
Mary said, by her visit to metro De-
What is the Hebrew word for wor- corned beef, matzah-ball soup and troit.
ship? Inquired another: How many kugel.
"I've learned a lot about the Jew-
Jewish people speak Hebrew often?
"Not bad," said sophomore Mary ish faith," said Mary, who is Christ-
Another: Yiddish, what is it? And still Wakeley. "Tastes sort of like, I don't
ian. "Before, I really didn't know a lot
another: Why must married women know, raisin bread maybe? Interest-
about Judaism. (In Grayling), we're
wear head coverings in the sanctu- ing, but it kind of looks like sauer- so far away from everything. We're
ary?
kraut."
GRAYLING page 16