r

Righteous in
Poland; a heart
of Brass; Senate
race set

For one University of Michigan profes-
sor, a speaking engagement in Poland
has evolved into a major project.
After delivering a paper in Krakow
two years ago analyzing Nazi propa-
ganda, Dr. John Hartman took what
he thought would be a short "Roots"
trip to Przemsyl, the town from which
his grandparents hailed. Before the
Holocaust, Przemsyl was home to
some 17,000 Jews.
While poking around the archives,
Hartman met two Polish researchers
who convinced him to help them
write a book on Jews from the town
who had survived the Holocaust,
some with the assistance of Christians
who hid them. Hartman interviewed

over 60 survivors and a O
E
number of rescuers,
and is now completing
a book, planned to
appear simultaneously
in English and Polish.
0
Among the more
0.)
unique stories
Hartman discovered:
three nuns who hid 13
Jewish children in
their convent and have
remained in touch ever
since, along with a
Jewish family who
managed to escape the
Nazis, although their
Polish rescuers were
arrested and publicly hung.
To help fund the book (it will be
published under the auspices of
Przemsyl's historical society), Hartman
has formed an Ann Arbor-based non-
profit called Remembrance and
Reconciliation that also hopes to
restore Przemsyl's Jewish cemetery and
two synagogues.
Only two Jews currently live in
Przemsyl.

Mindy Brass, a convicted drug traf-
ficker awaiting retrial, received a long-
awaited heart transplant at the
University of Michigan Medical
Center on Sunday, Feb. 21.
The hospital said Wednesday that
Brass is in good condition, although
early on after transplants, patients are

Marking
100 Years
Of Detroit
Jewry

These members of the former
Jewish Welfare Federation
Junior Division (now Jewish
Federation Young Adult
Division) were responsible
for conducting the Allied
Jewish Campaign among
young adults in Detroit.
Seated in this 1948 photo
is Junior Division President
Norman Naimark. The
others are unidentified

Photo courtesy of Leonard N. Simons
Jewish Community Archives/Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
If you have information about this
photograph. please call Sharon Alterman,
Jewish community archivist:
(248) 203-1491.

2/26
1999

28 Detroit Jewish News

Moshe Weinstein,
8, dressed in
costume as an
Israeli soldier,
listens as Israeli
Prime Minister
Binyamin
Netanyahuspeaks
to the crowd at
a theater in
Jerusalem
Thursday where
a Purim party was
held for children
with cancer.

at high risk for rejection of the organ.
Brass had been suffering from con-
gestive heart failure after suffering a
heart attack in 1994 at the Scott
Correctional Facility in Plymouth. She
was convicted in 1992 of setting up a
cocaine buy in Troy from her home in
San Diego.
She was granted a retrial last sum-
mer after the conviction was over-
turned when the prosecutors withheld
information". Earlier this month a
judge ruled she could stay out of
prison on bond until the trial resumes
on April 12 at the Oakland County
Circuit Court.

Now that Democratic candidate
Jeffrey Jenks has won a second chance
for a State Senate seat in the 13th
District, don't call him an underdog.
Special elections tend to even out
the playing field according to Jenks,
who lost his first try against incum-
bent Republican Michael Bouchard.
Since Bouchard resigned his post
last month to become Oakland
County sheriff, Jenks finds himself
running against Republican Shirley
Johnson, after a primary Tuesday.
The primary drew about 18,000
voters, less than 10 percent of the
total registration in the district's 10
cities, which include Bloomfield Hills,
Royal Oak, Huntington Woods and
Birmingham.
Jenks argues optimistically that the
election, scheduled for March 16,
"will be a contest between the
Democrats getting out their voters
and the Republicans getting out their
voters." Republicans seem to have a
lock on the seat, but Jenks figures that
the district is 44 percent Democrat
and 44 percent Republican.
Independents could carry the day, said
the Democrat, a Temple Beth El
member, who would like to woo
Jewish voters to his cause.

Remember
When • • II

From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1989

U.S. Senators Claiborne Pell, Jesse
Helms and Robert Dole, along with
U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer, are draft-
ing legislation to curb the worldwide
spread of chemical weapons. Expert
Shoshana Bryen warns, however, that
legislation will not control technolo-
gy, stop production or limit the flow
of raw materials.

1979

U.S. Rep. Robert Drinan (D-
Mass.) initiated a cable by 86 mem-
bers of Congress to Soviet President
Leonid Brezhnev urging him "to
take immediate steps to alleviate
the harsh conditions of imprison-
ment" of Anatoly Shcharansky. His
wife, Avital, living in Israel, wants
President Carter to raise the issue at
prospective summit talks on the
SALT treaty.

The week-long Purim celebration
at the Jewish Community Center
in Detroit includes a debate of
"The Latke vs. Hamentash in the
Space Race" with Wayne State fac-
ulty and WTAK radio host Paul
Winter. A parade from Six Mile
and Meyers into the center's park-
ing lot will include floats, cos-
tumes and a band.

1959
Max M. Fisher, board chairman of
Aurora Gasoline Corp., was elected
president of the Jewish Welfare
Federation of Detroit, succeeding
U.S. District Judge Theodore Levin.
Abba Eban, Israel's ambassador
to the U.S., resigned to run for
Knesset.

1949
University of Michigan Prof. Dr.
William Haber, returned from a
year as Army Jewish affairs advisor,
said when Jews in displaced persons
camps in Germany and Austria
realized that Israel would survive
and immigration was possible, they
dropped complaints about being
" trapped" in the DP camps and set
their sights on getting to Israel.