Notice of ANNUAL MEETING OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT The Federation Annual Meeting will take place on Monday, October 2, 1995, 7:15 p.m. at Adat Shalom Synagogue. The following business will be conducted at the meeting: A resolution to amend the bylaws of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit will be brought before the members. A new investigation looks into the disappearance of 300 to 500 children of Yemen immigrants in the 1950s. RESOLVED, that Section 2(a) of Article III of the Bylaws of Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit be amended by increasing the number of at-large members of the Board of Governors from 42 to 57 and increasing the number of at-large members elected at each annual meeting of the members to serve for a three-year term from 14 to 19. LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT In accordance with the bylaws of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, the Nomi- nating Committee has met and designated the following list of nominees for election to the Board of Governors as members-at-large: FOR RE-ELECTION Penny Blumenstein Eugene Driker Douglas M. Etkin Marvin H. Goldman Barbara Grant Carolyn Greenberg James Grosfeld Sharon Hart Mark R. Hauser Peter M. Alter Eugene Applebaum James M. August Michael S. Feldman Nancy Grand Hugh W. Greenberg Stuart E. Hertzberg Selwyn Isakow Lawrence Lax Terran Leemis Hannan Lis Hon. Susan Moiseev Allan Nachman The Lost Children Of Yemen Joel E. Jacob Brian E. Kepes Sheila Potiker Rabbi Efry Spectre FOR ELECTION Marta Rosenthal Alan S. Schwartz Joel H. Shapiro Jane Sherman Barbara Tukel Kathleen Wilson-Fink EDZ T he controversy of the "Lost Children of Yemen" has grabbed the spotlight again in Israel. This time, though, after 46 years of heartache and bitterness on the part of the children's survivors, this horrible chapter in Israel's history finally may be approach- ing its close. The lost children are believed to number between 300 and 500. They came with their families from Yemen to Israel from 1949 through the early 1950s, part of the 51,000 destitute, deeply pi- ous Yemenite Jews who immi- grated to the new state. The Yemenites, like hundreds of thousands of other Middle Eastern and North African im- ish parents in the United States, without their biological parents' consent. The memory of the lost chil- dren, the belief that they are out there in the world somewhere, and the recollection of the callous treatment accorded those first immigrants by Israeli officials in the ma'abarot and hospitals, have haunted three generations of Yemenite Jews in Israel. "I want to be very careful about making comparisons, but I think a psychiatrist would find similar personality characteris- tics in the second generation of Yemenites in Israel to those of the children of Holocaust sur- vivors," said Amnon Hever, 42. Hever's 7-month-old sister EN ' 'SP0111,10 AlhOd Jew CarnOlor NJ O 1995 NOMINATING COMMITTEE Conrad L. Giles, M.D. Chairman Hon. Paul D. Borman Mitchell A. Mondry Lauren K. Liss Joel D. Tauber /13161111111•MMINNIii allM111111•1110•1, "Creating and maintaining a beautiful landscape is our business." By Appointment •Complete Landscape Design • Complete Landscape Maintenance — Weekly Lawn Mowing • N ew Landscaping — We- d-Maintenance- • Re-Landscaping • • Wood Chips, Shredded Bark, Etc -- Shrub Trimming .— Spring and Fall Cleanups • Brick Paving -- Walks, Patios — Fertilization .• Flowers — Annuals, Perennials -- Core Aeration "Providing Professional Service With A Personal Touch." Bitters® p.m ••1* •, t, t 1.12/, T^r1,, Ir, trIn•Trn WA R./ Your Home or Office A Yeminite grandfather and grandson. custom shirts by marih/n Custom Shirts & Accessories At Discotinted Prices 1001 LANDSCAPING, INC. (810) 626-7942 El Men's Fashion Coordinator & Shirt Designer For 20 Years 9C-0-1 23) / 861 CLOSET COMPANY INC.) Foremost in Design, Installation and Service 112 626-5520 OatAi A o/h Oalteth pass Barry's Let's Rent It PARTIES EXCLUSIVELY • Tents • Tables • Chairs • China • Paper Goods 4393 ORCHARD LAIC RD., N. OF LONE PINE IN CROSSWINDS 855-0480 migrants, were housed for years in impossibly overcrowded, chaot- ic, unsanitary Israeli tent camps called "ma'abarot." The Yemenites were extremely sick- ly. About half their children died in infancy. The lost children are those who were taken by nurses in the ma'abarot to nurseries and hos- pitals, ostensibly for medical treatment, and were never re- turned. Their parents were told the infants had died. Most of the surviving parents say their children were healthy, or at worst suffering from mild illnesses — certainly not life- threatening diseases — when they went to the nurseries. With few exceptions, the par- ents could not bury their children because they never were shown the corpses or graves. It is be- lieved that many of the infants did not die at all, but were giv- en over for adoption, often to Jew- Masha was lost in one of the ma'abarot. Like many other Yemenites of his generation, Mr. Hever has spent years searching government files trying to track down his lost sibling, without suc- cess. He assumes Masha is liv- ing in the United States. Two Israeli commissions have examined the issue of the Lost Children of Yemen, in 1967-68 and 1988-94. Both concluded that most of the children had died, dozens could not be accounted for, and a few evidently had been adopted. Neither panel found any criminal behavior by authorities, and ascribed the loss of the chil- dren to the extreme disorder and confusion in the ma'abarot. But these findings, and the limited powers of the two panels, have never satisfied the Yemenite community and their many sym- pathizers. Last year Uzi Meshulam, a charismatic religious teacher of