RESTAURANT MID-EASTERN, CHALDEAN & AMERICAN • Lambchops • Lamb Shish Kabob • White Fish Curry • Tabouleh • Hommus • Vegetarian Entrees • Fresh Catch • Chicken Shawarma • Etc. • Fresh Juice Bar • Cocktails and Wine 6123 HAGGERTY RD. ()UST N. OF MAPLE) BLOOMFIELD AVENUE SHOPS WEST BLOOMFIELD (248) 668-1800 27060 EVERGREEN (AT 11 MILE & EVERGREEN) LATHRUP LANDING LATHRUP VILLAGE (248) 559-9099 COUPON GOOD AT BOTH LOCATIONS . 50%o OFF! 50% I • 16 Lunch or Dinner With purchase of a second lunch or dinner entree of equal or greater value • 1Coupon Per Couple I Dine In Only • Not Valid With other Offers • Expires 12/31/2000 a Catering For All Occasions et & our Expanded Classified Section of DETROIT JEvrisn NEWS eTlq American Fgh.9 fiet , Como Ism i )1 -Cite-01:C1 1- 10/6 2000 88 The Rescuers Control high blood pressure An exhibit at Janice Charach Epstein Gallery recalls two Asian diplomats who issued visas to freedom for victims of the Holocaust. SUZANNE CHESSLER Special to the Jewish News T wo Asian diplomats have shown how the pen can be mightier than the sword, even through the horrors of the Holocaust, and their work and lives come to light in a photo and docu- ment exhibit coming to the Janice Charach Epstein Gallery in West Bloomfield. "Visas for Life: The Stories of Chiune Sugihara and Dr. Feng Shan Ho" recalls the two men who helped Jews escape the Nazis by providing the paperwork to get them out of dangerous countries. When the exhibit opens Oct. 12, firsthand accounts of the men will be given by two of their children as they introduce the materials and give the intimate stories behind them. Hiroki Sugihara will talk about his late father, the Japanese consul in Lithuania who wrote thousands of exit visas for Jews against the orders of his government. Manli Ho will speak about her late father, the Chinese consul general in Vienna who wrote thousands of visas for Jews seeking a haven in Shanghai and is credited with being one of the most successful rescuers of Jews in terms of the number of lives saved. "Hiroki Sugihara was there when his father made his decisions about the visas," says Anne Akabori, executive director of the Visas for Life Foundation, which is loaning the photographs to be on display. "Mrs. Sugihara's sister took the pictures." Akabori, who translated Mrs. Sugihara's memoirs into English, believes that an important part of the drama of this story has to do with the diplomat's departure from Japanese tradition. Instead of strictly responding to authority, he took it upon himself to issue as many visas as possible. Sugihara's courageous acts reach directly into Michigan. Tamy Chelst's father, the late Rabbi Isaac Simon, received a Sugihara visa, as did Rabbi Leib Bakst, who married his wife, Esther, in Shanghai. The rabbis' visas were two of 400 that saved the entire faculty and student body of Mir Yeshiva of Warsaw, Poland. When Hitler's army invaded Poland in 1939, many Polish Jews escaped occupied territory by fleeing into Lithuania. "My father always felt gratitude toward the Japanese and found them quite welcoming in Japan," says Chelst, of Southfield, who got to know the Baksts through her father. "As the child of someone who had [moved on to] Shanghai, I understood that they had a positive experience there." Chelst, who traveled to the area to see the places her father had lived, does not have the visa that saved her dad, but she does have the memories of what he told her Above: Refitgee.s line up for visas. 1>onif E jpm A Left: A visa handwritten in Japanese. With the help of his wife, Chiune Sugihara spent 10 hours a day writing visas to help Jews flee the Nazis in Lithuania.