Oak Park JCC hosts Yom HaShoah program.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

Staff Writer

hen Dr. Charles
Silow invited
Holocaust sur-
vivors to an April
23 Yom HaShoah program to
light a candle in memory of
loved ones, he was astounded by
the number who came forward.
"Eighteen people came up,"
says Dr. Silow, director of Detroit
Medical Center Sinai-Grace
Hospital's Program for Holocaust
Survivors and Families. "It was the
number chai, which means life,'"
he says. "The theme today is to
remember the 6 million Jews who
died and to honor the survivors."
Morris Rubenstein of Livonia,
who, with his wife Miriam, attend-
ed the program for the second year

in a row, says somberly, "I lit a can-
dle in memory of my father, my
mother, my friends and neighbors."
Six memorial candles remained
burning throughout the pro-
gram, which was highlighted by
a musical concert by Ted and
Laura Revelle Schwartz.
"Every one of you is a miracle,"
Dr. Silow told those who came to
the ninth annual event at the Oak
Park Jewish Community Center.
"These are incredible people,"
he says of the 80 survivors in the
audience. "We should honor that
they survived and what they
went through. They are incredi-
bly resilient to make a life and
raise a family in this country and
to contribute to American socie-
ty and Jewish life."
Participants were encouraged
to view a photo/biography dis-

play of local survivors and their
families in the JCC lobby.
One photograph is of Anna
Oliwek of Bloomfield Hills and
her son David of Franklin. Anna
Oliwek's hope after the war had
been to be with her family,
which numbered 200, says her
son. But at age 13, she found she
was the only one still alive.
"She is incredible," he says of
his mother, who lived in hiding
in Russia and later worked as a
German Army language inter-
preter with a false German pass-
port and identity. "We are all
responsible to make sure the
memory of what happened
doesn't fade and go away."
"This program was a good
thing," Morris Rubenstein says.
"We came together so we should
never forget." ❑

Top: Ted Schwartz is
accompanied on piano
by his wife Laura Revele
Schwartz as they perform
solemn Jewish music.

Above:
Miriam Rubenstein
of Livonia looks on as
her husband Morris
takes a candle from
Dr. Charles Silow.

4/27

2001