Rebuilding The Past

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Two local
attorneys
help Poland
save remnants
of a once-great
Jewish
community.

Michael Traison
at a 17th-century
synagogue
In Zamosc,
Poland.

ichael Traison sees ghosts when-
ever he walks the streets of War-
saw.
There are Jewish students in
yeshivot, Jewish children playing
along the street, Jewish busi-
nesses, synagogues and institu-
tions. They are visions of what
used to be and of what could have
been.
These days, Mr. Traison is en-
visioning what will be, too.
Mr. Traison and his colleague
Richard Walawender are helping
coordinate an effort that will al-
low Jews to reclaim property

Is That All
There Is?
No.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

T

he meal itself is humble: in-
stant soup imported from
Israel and a tuna-fish sand-
wich.
But the crowd at Friday-night
dinners in Warsaw couldn't be
bigger.
For the past several years,
Rabbi Michael Schudrich, of the
Ronald S. Lauder Foundation,
has been working with the Jews
who remain in Poland — many

merous municipalities in the
same, unusual position. They
were overseeing Jewish-owned
property confiscated by the Nazis
during the war, then adminis-
tered by the communists. Polish
government officials are eager to
get the land back into the hands
of the original owners or to Jew-
ish developers, Mr. Traison said.
"Of course, it's not a strictly al-
truistic act, though that's an im-
portant component," he said.
"What they're looking to do is get
business back on its feet."
It works like this. Any Jew who
has proof that he or his relatives
owned land in Poland that was
stolen by the Nazis can approach
Mr. Traison and Mr. Walawen-
der, whose first step will be to ver-
ify that claim. Those persons will
stolen by the Nazis and, at the native, is the son of Polish immi- then have the opportunity to join
same time, build up deteriorat- grants. He is fluent in Polish and a small conglomerate, compris-
ing Jewish neighborhoods has been active on behalf of Lech ing both corporations and other
individuals, which will secure
throughout Poland.
Walesa's Solidarity movement.
land in one of several Polish cities.
The two men, both partners
"We had a real kinship — the Jews who can prove they once
with Miller, Canfield, Paddock common Eastern European back-
and Stone in Detroit, began work- ground and growing up in homes owned property in Poland will
ing on the project several years that emphasized religion," Mr. pay nothing for the land, though
they will be expected to contribute
ago. From the start, they found Traison said.
funds
toward its development.
they had much in common.
"By the time we got to Poland
Mr.
Traison is confident it will
Mr. Traison is the son of Jew- together, Rick was as excited
be a wise investment.
ish immigrants from Latvia and about finding the Jewish sites as
"Poland is blooming," he says.
Ukraine, raised in Detroit in the I was."
"It's
much more like Germany
12th Street and Dexter neigh-
In their travels to Lodz, Cra- than Estonia or Lithuania, which
borhoods.
cow and Lublin, Mr. Traison and
Mr. Walawender, also a Detroit Mr. Walawender discovered nu- REBUILDING pagel7

of them young, virtually all in-
terested in their heritage.
"They are curious, and only
now are they discovering what it
means to be Jewish," Rabbi Schu-
drich said.
Rabbi Schudrich made his first
trip to Poland, as part of a stu-
dent tour through Europe, in
1973. He saw a few Jews, a few
decrepit synagogues. He refused
to believe this was all that re-
mained of a once-vibrant Jewish
community.
"You just can't wipe out thou-
sands of years of history," he said.
He held a number of jobs, in-
cluding serving in Tokyo, before
returning to Poland to work with
the Lauder Foundation. Among
his first discoveries: "At the end
of the war, far more Jews were
living in Poland than anyone re-
alized."
Many opted to leave, he said,
"because it was obvious that if

you wanted to be Jewish, Poland
was not the place to be, and if you
stayed it was obvious you didn't
want to be Jewish."
But that left a number of chil-
dren who had been hidden dur-
ing the war and raised by
Christians, or whose parents had
concealed their Jewish identity
to survive. These children were
interested in their history, but
only with the collapse of com-
munism did they have the op-
portunity to learn.
"In 1989, there were thou-
sands of young Poles discovering
they have Jewish roots," Rabbi
Schudrich said. 'The question be-
came, 'What are you going to do
about it?"'
Rabbi Schudrich's answer has
been creating Jewish programs
in Warsaw, Lodz, Breslau and
Cracow. He hosts Shabbat din-
ners and seminars. There is a
kindergarten and youth clubs —

all of which are well-attended.
"What gets people excited?" he
said. "Simply the knowledge that
it's OK to be Jewish. Often, they
have no idea how wonderful it is
to be Jewish. Their parents hid
it and their grandparents were
probably gassed."
Many of the young Jews Rab-
bi Schudrich meets are the last
in their families to survive. It is
a responsibility they do not take
lightly.
Among those with whom he
works is a 15-year-old girl who
told the rabbi her greatest dream
would be to meet, if only for a mo-
ment, with her dead ancestors,
to let them know "she's still Jew-
ish." ❑

For information, contact
Outreach Poland at the Ronald
S. Lauder Foundation, 767
Fifth Ave., Suite 4200, New
York, NY 10153, or call (212)
572-5421.

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