Holocaust

survivor

Top to bottom:
Rabbi Avraham Cohen,
a Torah scribe, completes
his work on this scroll.

donates two

Torah scrolls

Rabbi Boruch Levin speaks
for Moris Fridman at
Hebrew Memorial Chapel.

to Hebrew

Moris Fridman, 94, carries
one of the two scrolls he donated
to Hebrew Memorial Chapel.

Memorial

Top of opposite page:

Mayer Greenbaum, 13,
of Southfield marches in the
procession with an Israeli flag.

Chapel for use

in shivah homes.

Southfield and Oak Park police,
the parade began, traveling
nearly two miles from Fridman's
home to the chapel. A section
of Greenfield Road was blocked
off for the procession.
Segulah Orchestra leader
Rabbi Yerachmiel (Rocky)
Stewart of Southfield sang, lead-
ing the way in a flatbed truck
carrying an 11-piece band.
Beginning with "The Star-
Spangled Banner" and
"Hatikvah," the band continued
with spirited Hebrew celebra-
tion songs to honor the Torah,
en route to its new home.

Fridman and Rabbi Levin
followed in an open convert-
ible with the two Sifrei Torah.
Bedecked with blue and white
balloons and American and
Israeli flags, more than 30
vehicles joined the motorcade,
carrying distinguished rabbis
and community leaders, polit-
ical dignitaries and local fami-
lies. Others walked alongside
the vehicles.
Hundreds of neighborhood
families and school children
from Yeshiva Beth Yehudah,
Yeshivas Darchei Torah and
Yeshivat Akiva met the proces-

sion at the Lincoln Center
parking lot in Oak Park. With
joyous singing and dancing, the
Torah scrolls were carried under
a chuppah (bridal canopy) for
the final half-mile walk to
Hebrew Memorial Chapel.
At the chapel, speeches by
Rabbi Levin and Donald F.
Fracassi, the mayor of
Southfield, lauded Fridman
and paid tribute to the
Southfield and Oak Park
Jewish communities. The
Torahs then were escorted
into the Aron Kodesh (Holy
Ark), followed by a lavish buf-

fet, prepared by Jewel Kosher
Catering, in the chapel lobby.

Community Impact

Leah Ungar of Oak Park
thought the Chachnasat Sefer
Torah was "a beautiful event
for the community" Herself
the child of Holocaust sur-
vivors, Ungar saw the occa-
sion as "a tribute to the perse-
verance of the Jewish people."
This was the first time Esther
Ross of Southfield had ever
participated in a Chachnasat
Sefer Torah. "It's so exciting!"

she said. "Everybody's smiling.
It's a great privilege." Her son,
Yaakov Dov, 7, proudly
announced, "I got to hold the
chuppah!"
Daniel Ben Hayoun of Oak
Park called Moris Fridman a
"vestige of a lost world. How
many people like him are
left?" he wondered aloud.
The event moved Ben
Hayoun's wife, Rachel, to
tears. Fridman is "an amazing
man," she said. "Imagine the
clarity he has — to replace
what was gone with some-
thing so enduring."

❑

Left to right, from opposite page: Banners borne by yeshivah
students were part of the procession; Chaim Eisemann, 6,
of Oak Park rides on his father Michael's shoulders and
waves an American flag during the procession; Rabbi
Chaskel Grubner of the Council of Orthodox Rabbis
carries a Torah; The Torah procession heads down Greenfield
Road; The two Torah scrolls, under the wedding canopy,
are carried toward Hebrew Memorial Chapel; Live music
made the procession even more joyous.

9/29
2000

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