NEWS EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

An Exhibit At The JCC
Hits Close To Home

Beyond their artistic merit — and
n a stretch of hot sand that
they
are extraordinary for their elegant
could've been Daytona Beach,
simplicity, as if the photographers had a
six teenagers with carefree
premonition that these images would
grins pose in a pyramid for
serve as one of the only records of the
the photographer. A cigarette dangles
time — these photographs pull the
lazily from one mouth and a lock of
viewer
into a world that is very much
hair is carelessly plastered to a forehead.
like
our
own. And it again puts one in
A sophisticated woman, identified as
mind of the mind-numbing
a lawyer's wife, sits for her por-
reality of the Holocaust.
trait in a black satin dress,
Unlike the portraits
flanked by her two beloved
Roman Vishniac made of
Pekingnese. Two gentlemen,
Jewish life in Russian and
bearded and clad in ankle-
Polish shtetls — a more for-
length black coats, are caught
malized record — the pho-
in deep conversation by the
tographs in the current
camera as they stroll down a
exhibit
have a haphazard
lane. A family lolls on a back-
quality
of
life being lived.
yard lawn for a portrait.
They
bring
us closer to our
Paula Marks Bolton said
JULIE EDGAR past because they remind us
the brilliant images currently
News Editor
that Jews in pre-World War
on display in Shiffman Hall of
II
Poland shared our aspira-
the Kahn Jewish Community
tions,
tastes,
and our diversity. Some of
Center at Maple and Drake in West
the
photographs
are so jarring because,
Bloomfield remind her of her own fam-
with
the
exception
of the fashions of the
ily.
day,
they
look
so
much
like the ones in
"This is how it was," she said.
our
photo
albums
and
on
our book-
The exhibit, the largest of its kind on
shelves.
a Jewish subject that has come to
Then there are pictures of the Lodz
Detroit, is a remarkable record of Jewish
ghetto
in 1943, which show that,
life in Poland from the turn of the cen-
remarkably,
people carried on with their
tury through the early '40s. The Shalom
daily
lives
despite
their imprisonment.
Foundation, founded by Golda Tencer,
In
what
is
thought
to be the only color
put out a call for photographs of Polish
photograph
of
the
Warsaw
ghetto, bil-
Jews four years ago and received more
lows
of
black
smoke
mingle
with explo-
than 8,000 from all over the world.
sions of splinters from buildings against
More than 450 enlargements on display
the backdrop of a perfect pink sunset.
at the JCC comprise "And I Still See
Along with the exhibition, the Holo-
Their Faces: Images of Polish Jews."
caust
Memorial Center is also sponsor-
The show runs through June 14. •
ing a speakers series on Monday and

O

Wednesday afternoons, with
survivors from Poland and a
film series on Tuesday after-
noons. At 7:30 p.m. June 11,
Michael Steinlauf of the
YTVO Institute for Jewish
Research will speak on 1,000
years of Polish Jewish life.
Bolton, a survivor of the
Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz,
Ravensbruck,
Muehlhausen and
Bergen-Belsen,
spoke to a small
group that gath-
ered in Shiffman
Hall on Monday.
She speaks twice
a week at the
Holocaust
Memorial Center,
and her story has
the clean contours of a tale told and
retold.
Bolton was 13 when, after her family
was taken away, she was herded into the
Lodz ghetto. For five years (1939-
1944), she lived in a tiny hovel with a
family that kindly took her in. She
toiled in straw, clothing, shoe and plas-
tic factories, subsisting on potato peels
and coffee grounds. During the time,
her bones grew so brittle from malnour-
ishment that she had to use a cane to
walk.
All the while, the young girl carried a
tiny photograph of her mother, which
she managed to hold onto throughout
her ordeal.
When Bolton was transferred to

Above: Marci Feldman
and her mother, Vivian
Berry, at the JCC
exhibit.
Left: Hilda Glanz, the
wife of a lawyer in
Cieszyn, Poland

Auschwitz in the waning years of the
war, she was spared again, miraculously.
In a bathhouse where she was stripped
and shaved, a guard beat her until she
dropped the photograph.
It landed face up on the dirt floor.
And then her mother spoke to her in
words that went directly to her heart:
"Walk away, Paula. You will be OK."
Bolton's mother could have been any
one of the young mothers pictured in
the photographs surrounding Bolton as
she softly spoke. Bolton might have
been a child tugging at the hem of her
dress in so many others. My great-
grandparents could have been the
young sweethearts posing for a portrait.
I might have been on that beach. ❑

LETTERS

Israel was already at war and there was
no time nor mood for singing and
dancing.
His corrections of my failed memory
prompted me to take another look at
the volume titled V'eil.e Shnot (Those
Were The Years, edited by Nisim Mish'al
and published in Hebrew by Yediot
Ahronot). It documents Israel's 50 years.
I realized another mistake in timing. It
occurred to me that my father's factory
wasn't burned after the declaration but
after the resolution for the simple fact
that the Irgun took over Jaffa on April
28, 1948.
I am grateful to Daniel Gilan for set-
ting me straight regarding these impor-
tant events in our lives and feel that it's
only fair to share it with Jewish News
readers.
Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield

5/22
1998

30

A Jewish Spin
To What End?

Gossip Makes
Poor News

I was shocked at the appearance of the
question "Is Seinfeld anti-Semitic?" in
your recent feature about the end of
that popular television show ("SEIN-
ing Off" May 8).
As usual, you were reaching for any
angle you could think of in order to put
a Jewish spin on a story that has noth-
ing to do with religion. Also, as usual,
you attempted to provoke controversy
where none exists.
Anti-Semitism — and for that mat-
ter any form of racism — is a serious
issue and such accusations should not
be tossed about casually in the name of
attempting to be cute. Shame on you!
Howard Gofstein
Oak Park

As a reader of The Jewish News, I was
terribly offended by the article about
Congregation Beth Abraham Hillel
Moses ("Contract At Issue" May 8).
It pandered to the lowest common
denominator of a reader's intellect. It is
not only yellow journalism at its worst,
but fell into the category of scurrilous
gossip.
I am a member of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek; therefore, I have no per-
sonal axe to grind.
Ruth H. Beck
West Bloomfield

yet another person has made yet another
reference to Jewish control of the movie
industry ("A Stern Reprimand"). This
time it is Spike Lee.
The article tells us that Mr. Lee has c--/\
been taken to task by Howard Stern.
Howard Stern? Is this who we have to
stand up for Jewish interests? Where is
the ADL? Which member of the ADL
(unless Howard Stern is a member) has
said anything?
Joseph Zaffem
Southfield

Editorial
Ignored Facts

Spokesman
Is Questionable

The editorial "Avoiding A Mideast War"
(May 15) was characteristic of Jewish
News politics.

In the May 15 Jewish News, I find that

FACTS on page 37