THE JEWISH NEWS
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This Week's Top Stories
A Passion For History
A Jew is tapped to create the core exhibit at
the new Museum of African American History.
MEGAN SWOYER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Remembering
W
Detroit area Jews light candles and recall the torment
and suffering of those who fell during the Holocaust.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
A
lthough many vow to "nev-
er forget" the atrocities of
the Holocaust, most don't
think about it on a daily
basis.
That is, in part, why the Is-
raeli Knesset created Holocaust
Remembrance Day, or Yom
Hashoah. The 1951 Knesset de-
cision has reached around the
globe to become a day for light-
ing candles and paying homage
to those who were murdered un-
der the Nazi regime.
This year, some Detroit area
synagogues will mark Yom
Hashoah, on or near the 27th day
of Nisan (Sunday, May 4), with
rabbinic sermons or special ser-
vices.
The Knesset chose the 27th of
Nisan for Yom Hashoah because
it falls between the date of the be- tary For Those We Remember.
ginning of the Warsaw Ghetto up- For information, call (810) 661-
rising — the first day of Passover, 0840.
1942 — and Israel Remembrance
Some Detroit area rabbis will
Day (Iyar 3, which this year falls talk about the Shoah in sermons
on May 10). The date also
to be delivered this Shab-
falls during the traditional
bat. Rabbi Yerachmiel
Th e
mourning period of the
Rabin, spiritual leader of
Counting of the Omer, the creme torium the Huntington Woods
49 days between Passover at Aus chwitz. Minyan, which meets at
and Shavuot.
Huntington Woods City
The Holocaust Memorial Cen- Hall, will lead a Shabbat dis-
ter in West Bloomfield has cussion on Yom Hashoah at 9:30
planned a memorial tribute "to a.m. May 3.
the Six Million martyrs and to Is-
"We're going to be stressing
rael's victims of terrorism" 1 p.m. that we have the chance to live
Sunday, May 4, at the Maple- in a country where there's free-
Drake Jewish Community Cen- dom of expression of religion,"
ter.
Rabbi Rabin said. He will en-
At 7:30 p.m. May 4, the MAC courage congregants "to add an
will host a nationwide premiere extra mitzvah, to add more Jew-
of the award-winning documen-
REMEMBERING page 22
End Of
The Hunt
An immigration judge decides to deport
former Nazi death camp guard
Ferdinand Hammer to Croatia.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
S
everal decades after U.S. im-
migration officials waved Fer-
dinand Hammer into the
country, they are now booting
him out.
A federal immigration judge ruled
last Friday that Mr. Hammer, a for-
mer Nazi SS death camp guard,
should be deported to Croatia.
Mr. Hammer, 77, a retired foundry
supervisor and a Sterling Heights res-
ident, can appeal the ruling to the Ex-
ecutive Office for Immigration Review
hen Kimberly Camp thousands of people to the no-
came to Detroit in torious Treblinka concentration
January 1994 to over- camp, a sorrowful picture of
see the development piles of decaying corpses and an
of the new, 120,000-square- foot uplifting exhibit of survivors'
Museum of African American tales, the Holocaust Memorial
History, her job could have been Museum successfully opens the
really tough. But it wasn't, eyes of its visitors. Mr. Appel-
thanks in part to museum ex- baum received the Federal De-
hibit designer Ralph Appel
sign Achievement Award for
baum and his top-notch team. his work at the Holocaust Mu-
Mr. Appelbaum, of Ralph seum.
Appelbaum Associates in New
He also boasts such clients
York City, was chosen
as the Henry Ford Mu-
from four finalists in Ralph Ap pelbaum seum in Dearborn, the
1993 to design the new designed the main Motown Historical. Mu-
exhi bits.
museum's core exhibit,
seum in Detroit and
"Of the People; The
the Holocaust Museum
African American Experience." in Houston, Texas.
It features a 400-year survey of
Ms. Camp, the 40-year-old
African American history and president of the Museum of
is the largest of its kind in the African .American History, said
United States.
without a bit of hesitation that
The 54-year-old Jewish de- she never once thought about
signer impressed museum com- any potential communication
mittee members with his problems working with a Jew-
experience: It was Mr. Appl- ish white man on a project de-
baum and his team that &- voted to the African American
signed a permanent exhibit at experience.
the United States Holocaust
"I don't care about that stuff,"
Memorial Museum in Wash- said Ms. Camp. "What people
ington, which opened in 1993. don't realize anyvvay is that the
Complete with a rail car that museum field is extremely
resembles those that shuttled PASSION FOR HISTORY page 25
(EOIR) in the Department of Justice
within 30 days. Should the decision
be reaffirmed, Mr. Hammer can ap-
peal to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of
Appeals.
Additionally, he has 90 days to re-
open the case; to do so, he must pre-
sent to the immigration judge either
new evidence or show a change of cir-
cumstances which would prevent
him from leaving.
However, "unless they file a stay
of deportation, he can be deported
any time from now," said Chuck Ad-
kins-Blanch, associate general coun-
sel of the EOIR.
The deportation order brought joy
to Eli Rosenbaum, director of the
Justice Department's Office of
Investigation (OSI). His office
launched the initial complaint to
strip Mr. Hammer of his U.S. citi-
zenship two years ago.
"This is a significant victory. The
ruling reaffirms that those who
THE HUNT page 21