Insight

Remember
When • • •

Special Places

An Unlikely Place

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

The Holocaust is remembered every year by students
in a small -Uji_per Peninsula community.

1991

Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, sixth-grade
teacher at Akiva Hebrew Day
School, received the _1991 Schochet
Family Outstanding Teacher Award.
Toyota Motor Corp. became the
first major Japanese company to
come out publicly against the Arab-
led economic boycott of Israel.

it

HARRY KI-RS BAUM .
Staff Writer

ou wouldn't expect a
Holocaust memorial in the
small Upper Peninsula town
of Ishpeming, but there it
is, temporarily raking over the C. U
Phelps Middle School gym.
Ninery-rwo separate booths are
there, each represents the hard work of
every seventh-grader in the school,
including students with learning dis-
abilities. And the effort has been going
on for the last five years.
How this middle school, with 358
students, in a school district with just
over 1,000, came to this point is a les-
son in itself.
It started seven years ago when social
studies teacher Joe Pelkola took a sum-
mer trip to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C.
When school began,
beaan , he talked with
language arts teacher Carole Turner,
who also had visited the museum that
summer. They were inspired to do
something.
The main goal is teaching responsi-
ble citizenship, according to Pelkola,
and teaching the tragedy of the
Holocaust to students was a natural.
They began to teach about the
Holocaust in class, and read from
schoolbooks like The Devil's Arithmetic
by Jane Yolen.
The idea blossomed into setting up
booths made by seventh-graders, each
showing one facet of the Holocaust.
The student would build the booth,
then give a presentation to people as
they passed through the exhibit.
A Nazi flag that flew over Treblinka
is displayed in one booth. It was
donated to the school by the American
soldier who captured it.
"We wanted to construct something
for the students that was authentic,"
Pelkola said. "Something beyond the
classroom, so that they're teaching
their parents and other students."
This year's theme was "To Bear
Witness," and more than 1,000 people
passed through the two-day exhibit.

1981

An Israeli public opinion poll
showed that 68 percent of the
Israeli public favored annexation of
the Golan Heights.
Michelle Sherline, a special educa-
tion teacher at Norup Middle School
in Oak Park, was named teacher of
the year by the Oakland County
Association of Retarded Citizens.

1971

Seventh gradersBrandi Barens and Erica White.

Not bad, when you consider that the
population of Ishpeming is about
7,200.
On March 26, Phelps Middle
School invited college students and
prospective teachers from Northern
Michigan University in Marquette, to
show them that "learning is not just a
textbook," Pelkola said.
A day later, students and teachers
from other schools in the area viewed
the exhibit.
At an evening program and pot-luck
dinner, 650 people heard the seventh-
graders recite poetry written by chil-
dren during the Holocaust and sing
songs. One student played a Hebrew
medley on his flute. Another student
recited the "Ani Ma'amin" prayer.
Two Holocaust survivors, Martin
Lowenberg of Southfield and Erna
Gorman of Bloomfield Hills, spoke to
the crowd.
Lowenberg, a Holocaust survivor,
and Gorman, a hidden child, have
spent many years speaking to schools
about their pasts.
"It's indescribable," said Lowenberg,

who was invited to speak at Phelps
three years ago. "They've gone so far
beyond anybody who has ever under-
taken anything like that. These are sev-
enth-graders, and they are so proud of
what they have achieved."
Lowenberg has spoken there every
year since. Erna Gorman made her
first trip to the school this year. "I've
spoken to hundreds and hundreds of
schools, and this was the most incredi-
ble thing I've ever seen," she said.
Some of the students are taking their
displays on the road — to a Yom
HaShoah service at St. Peters Church
in Marquette.
Pelkola, who did his master's thesis
at Northern Michigan on teaching the
Holocaust, said the program has really
made an impact.
"I wanted to know if we were beat-
ing our heads against the wall, or is
this something useful," he said.
His investigation found that the kids
had better conflict resolution skills and
fewer fights. "Just through social
responsibility, they're kinder to each
other." O

Maxine Finkel of Southfield was
awarded the Auxiliary Alumnae
Award for dental hygiene from the
University of Detroit School of
Dentistry.
Detroiters Barry Garelick and
Ronald D. Brasch won awards in the
annual Hopwood creative writing
contest at the University of Michigan.

1961

Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U.S.
Supreme Court received an honorary
degree from Yeshiva University in
New York City.
Detroiter Rachel Horwitz was
awarded a Fulbright Fellowship by
the U.S. State Department.
Detroiters Sol and Irving Cohen
took over the Princeton Shop on
Seven Mile near Evergreen.

Cantor Mendele Stawis has been
hired by Congregation Beth Tikvah
on Petoskey near Boston in Detroit.
Rex Lodge of B'nai B'rith swept the
recent bowling tournament with the
team of Al Snow, Ron Faudem, Norm
Licht, Iry Adler and Norm Felsot.
Carson Buick on Hamilton in
Detroit was offering a 1951 four-door
Buick DeLuxe for $2,029.96, delivered.

Compiled by Sy _Mandl°,
editorial assistant

4/20
2001

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