ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART
Copy Editor

W

Generations learn about
Jewish bravery at Workmen's
Circle annual commemoration.

•

Clockwise from top left:

Alva Dworkin of Southfield listens to the program.

Laurie Brown gives a dramatic reading.

Joining the Workmen's Circle Chorus are Teen Group members,
back row, from left: Megan Mogill, 17, of Lake Orion; Kate
Bush, 18, of Detroit; Sara Gold, 17, of Huntington Woods;
and Samantha Ashley, 18, of Huntington Woods. Elektra
Petrucci, 14, of Royal Oak, also participated with the teens.

University of Michigan-Dearborn Professor Sidney Bolkosky

speaks at Workmen's Circle.

Staff pho tos by Krista Husa

Uprising

orkmen's Circle teenagers mixed naturally with
their elders at a program recalling the heroic
Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
The intergenerational evening of vocal and
instrumental music, readings and speeches was held April 12 at
Workmen's Circle Educational Center in Oak Park. Founded in
1900, Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring fosters Jewish identity
and participation in Jewish life among its members through
Jewish, especially Yiddish, culture and education, friendship,
mutual aid and the pursuit of social and economic justice.
Selma Goode of Detroit, coordinator of the annual
event, concurred with University of Michigan-Dearborn
professor and author Sidney Bolkosky, who said in his
speech that Workmen's Circle has had "the longest [contin-
uous] commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of
anywhere in the country."
The 60,000 Jews in the ghetto of Warsaw, in a spurt of
courage and desperation, organized an uprising against ghet-
to officials: The Jewish fighters — men, women and children
— attacked on April 19, 1943. Remarkably, despite having
little ammunition and
sparse training, they held
off the Germans for three
weeks. The Warsaw
Ghetto uprising is now
legendary as proof that
there was resistance to
Nazi forces by Jews.
Michigan District
Chair Arlene Frank of
Detroit greeted the 52
in attendance, followed
by a ceremonial lighting
of six long black tapers
by Aaron Eagan, 13, of
Detroit for the six mil-
lion Jews who perished
in the Holocaust. Anna
Levitt, 17, of Dearborn
Heights played violin,
the Workmen's Circle
Chorus sang selections
in Yiddish and Laurie
Brown of Ferndale gave two dramatic readings. A highlight
was the presentation by Teen Group members, led by
Maureen Petrucci of Royal Oak, telling the story of Halina
Gorcewicz, a young eyewitness to the uprising.
"For survivors of the Holocaust, this world is neither the
idealistic place of Anne Frank nor is it Auschwitz," said
Bolkosky in his talk. Taking testimonies of survivors over the
years through his Voice/Vision Project at the university ulti-
mately "leaves the listener with sadness," he said, noting how
the survivors' layered memories "pollute the life of what
comes after." One conclusion he's reached?, "There are no
lessons to be learned from the Holocaust," except, perhaps,
for the one passed on to him by a vigilant survivor who
always kept his suitcase packed — "Learn to run ... sooner."
The "European involvement was total" in the Holocaust,
Bolkosky continued, saying that every profession — doctors,
mechanics, engineers, railroad workers, police, dieticians,
warehouse employees, lawyers and more — share responsibili-
ty for what happened to the Jews.
"And what about the Christian clergy who kept silent?" he
asked. "What is the lesson in that?" ❑

JN

4/21
2000

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