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years after the war — so many of
them I knew from Northern and
Central high schools, I was devastat-
ed," Rotenberg said.
"What if today, Jews went off to war
from two high schools, say West
Bloomfield and Andover. Can you
imagine during a short period if you lost
200-300 people? Can you imagine how
devastating that would be?"
The Jewish War Veterans is America's
oldest veterans organization, founded in
1896 by Civil War vets seeking to
counter anti-Semites who claimed that
Jews didn't fight for their country
"In another five or 10 years,"
Rotenberg said, "you won't have any of
us to talk to. You're going to live with

the impression that the Jewish commu-
nity really wasn't a military community
You'll be back to the thinking we used
to hear in the '30s, in the Hitler days,
that the Jews will never fight to defend
this country.
"These photographs are the answer to
those anti-Semites."
But as the members of the Jewish
War Veterans grow older, their ranks are
diminishing and the long-term fate of
the exhibit and the group's Memorial
Home at 16990 W. 12 Mile Road is in
question. Plans are being formulated to
relocate the Memorial Room exhibit
and the JWV offices to the Jewish
Community Center's Kahn Building in
West Bloomfield. This is reminiscent of

Can You Prom
Photograph

GARY WETTENSTEIN

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PERSONALIZED SERVICE
IN YOUR HOME, OFFICE
OR IN OUR SHOWROOM

BY APPOINTMENT

271 MERRILL
BIRMINGHAM • 48009

(248) 646-0535

Need a
New
Coat?

12/17
1999

46

Check out the
Painters and
Wallpaper
Hangers
in our
Marketplace
Home and
Service Guide.

heJewish War Veterans do not have photographs or family contacts
for any of the following 100 Michigan men billed in action in the
United States armed forces. Anyone who can provide a picture, or
information on how to contact the family, is asked to call the JWV at
(248) 559-5680. If you know of a serviceman who should be listed, call as well

Abraham, Gotfrieci
Abrams, Maurice L.
Aronberg, Morris
Artutz, Ludwig
Baker, Eugene
Barry, Lewis J.
Berger, Carl G.
Biederman, Gerald
Bilkovsky, William
Blue, Benjamin F
Brauer, William J.
Bushman, William
Cherry, Allan
Cohn, Max
Cone, Ben
Cron, Arthur
Eskin, Martin
Fagenbaum, Joseph S.
Fellnagle, Robert
Fish, Gerald E.
Fishberg, Jack
Fisher, Henry J.
Fleischer, Robert
Forman, Lew
Fox, Melvin R.
Freeberg, Harry
Freeman, Edmund
Friendman, Solomon
Garber, Charles
Gerheim, Harry M.
Givot, Martin
Glasky, William
Gliss, Sidney
Gontz, Harry W.

Greenup, Leo C.
Greenwald, Dennis
Grenfeld, Samuel
Gresser, Joseph A.
Hefferman,s William C.
Kaschafsky, Fred H.
Katz, Simon
Kreft, Victor
Krueger, Albert C.
Lehman, William J.
Leichq; Carl H.
Lieberman, Harry L.
Maiesky, Emil
Mandell, Herman A.
Mann, Leo W.
Mehiloff, George
Meister., Emanuel
Melcher, Edward L.
?Meyer, George F
Molar, Louie
Morris, Charles D.
Morris, Melton P.
Moscovitz, Samuel B.
Nagel, Harry A.
Perlick, Otto
Rankin, Joseph D.
Reiss, George N.
Richerman, Russell
Richter, Franz
Riegler, Stanford
Robinson, Harry E.
Rosenthal, Saul E.
Rosenthal, Paul
Rubel, Harry

Schonfield, Jeffrey
Schreiberman, Harry
Schwaller, Albert
Schweitzer, Fred
Shafer, RaYmond Z.
Shaffer, William H.
Shamberger, Andy J.
Shell, Lawrence
Silverman, Sam
Sloss, William
Small, Eddie E.
Sokol, Philip
Solomon, Max
Solomon, Donald
Solomon, Solomon J.
Staub, Al
Steckowitz, Anthony
Steinberg, Henry l
Steinway, Morris
Stoll, Robert
Waldeyer, Norbert C.
Weil, Larry S.
Weills, Louis A.
Weiss, Harold
Weiss, Irwin H.
Werner, Bernard
Wiesgerber, Michael
Wolff, Arnold F
Wollenberg, Sam
Muster, Mandel
Zeller, Michael
Zimmerman, Carl H.

-

the setup some 50 years ago when the
J'WV was headquartered in the Jewish
Center on Davison in Detroit.
Mel Weingarden did the first
exploratory work on a move and
Memorial Home Association President
Irving Keller, 79, of Southfield, a
sergeant in the Army Air Corps in
Europe during World War II, is in what
he refers to as "preliminary negotia-
tions." Keller said, "I am hopeful a
mutually satisfactory meeting of the
minds can be reached."
JWV State Commander Bob
Feldman, 67, of Southfield, an army
corporal during the Korean War, said,
"Our goal is to honor the Jewish war
dead and Jewish war veterans. We want
to be sure that our legacy is left so that it
can be seen by our children for genera-
tions to come."
Keller sees an educational aspect
in having the photos on exhibit at
the JCC. "The younger generation
go there. I think that it is very
important that our younger people
remember what happened — the sac-
rifices of these other young people in
their early 20s who were taken out of
school before their lives ever started,"
he said.
"I've always believed that a veteran is
the best advocate there is for peace,"
Feldman added. "We know the horrors
of war, of combat, the risks and the sac-
rifices. A lot of people here don't really
realize how fortunate we are in America
and that we didn't get it just because we
were nice. We got it because we fought
for it. Perhaps that will be a great help in
keeping peace."
If the Memorial Room exhibit is
moved to the JCC, it would be in a
building next door to the Holocaust
Memorial Center, which memorializes
the European Jews the American troops
were fighting to liberate. Rotenberg feels
that the local Jewish men who died sav-
ing the Jewish people and preserving the
American way of life — the fighting
heroes who confronted evil, face-to-face,
and conquered it — should likewise be
remembered.
But Rotenberg ponders what will
happen to the memories of those killed
in action. Most of them had not yet had
offspring to give their short lives a sense
of immortality Who will remember
their faces when their hallowed genera-
tion is no more?
"I look at the pictures of guys that I
played baseball with, guys that I enlisted
with, guys that I flew missions with," he
said. "I can remember, but those memo-
ries will be lost.
"I want these photographs never to
be lost." 1-1