e Lan

Detroit teens on the March of
the Living learn a lesson in unity.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR

0

utside the gates of Majdanek, a kicked in. Money was committed by pri-
forsythia bush blooms.
vate individuals as well as from co-spon-
With each branch dotted by sors the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
vibrant yellow flowers, the for- Detroit, the Agency for Jewish Education,
sythia stands in sharp contrast to the grey The Jewish News and the Michigan Board
and dour existence that is Poland.
of Rabbis.
After touring the death camp, a group
Staff for the trip was assigned, in-
of teenagers from Detroit on the Interna- cluding trip chairperson Trudy Weiss,
tional March of the Living barely noticed madrichim Kari Grossinger and Danny
the bush as they boarded the buses to take Samson, and chaperons Didi Wainess
them to the next site.
and Janice Tracht. Howard Gelberd, ex-
The teens had just recited Kaddish over ecutive director of the Agency for Jewish
a giant pile of human ash and bone, had Education, contracted with Professor Zvi
just stood in two barracks containing noth- Gitelman of the University of Michigan
' ing but shoes, had just walked through a -to provide the educational component
dark gas chamber and stood beside a chim- before and during the trek. Finally, Rab-
ney that once belched the smoke from bi Leonardo Bitran of Congregation
burning bodies, had just gazed at a hill-
side that was actually a mass grave for Opposite page:
The Detroit contingent of the March of the Living
18,000 Jews shot on the same day.
poses in front of the Menorah Kosher Restaurant
Tired and emotionally exhausted, the
on its last night in Poland.
teens ignored the forsythia whose brilliant
yellow flowers were just beginning to bud.
Below:

T

he March of the Living is not
exactly new to Detroit area
teens, a few dozen of whom have
gone on the trek through Poland
and Israel with various youth groups. But
never before has the group been so large
nor so broad in affiliation.
Rabbi Steven Well of Young Israel of
Oak Park proposed the trip 18 months
ago. He envisioned an expedition of a cross
section of Jewish teens who could learn
more about the past and build a future un-
derstanding of each other and their be-
liefs.
There, in Poland and Israel, the stu-
dents could learn more about their simi-
larities and differences as Jews.
At almost the same time, Rabbi Paul
Yedwab of Temple Israel was having the
same thought. The pair got together and
took their idea to community leaders who
agreed that the trip would go far in fos-
tering unity and understanding. They
pointed him in the right direction to find
funding and support.
Suddenly, the community machine

In Auschwitz, Andy Halberg lights a candle in
memory of the Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Shaarey Zedek, representing the Con-
servative movement, signed on.
Fifty-nine students — representing
many of the Detroit area Reform, Con-
servative and Orthodox congregations and
schools — finally committed to the pro-
gram.

T

he teens first met each other at
the six classes held prior to leav-
ing for Poland. Led by the Pro-
fessor Gitelman, the group was
inundated with information about Polish
Jewry from the 1400s to the Holocaust.
At times, Professor Gitelman assigned
60 pages of scholarly reading to peruse be-
fore the next class, much of which the stu-
dents acknowledged neglecting.
But' the trip had another component
that was equally important as the educa-
tional-portion. And if the educational as-
pect was ignored by the teens, the unity
portion wasn't exactly happening either,
a worrisome condition for the adults on
the trip.

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