Staff Notebook

From 10 p.m. to midnight, Thursday, July 5,
Starbuck's Coffee at 135 S. Old Woodward
Ave. in Birmingham will donate beverage sale
proceeds to the Mark Herman Irrevocable
Trust. For information call Starbucks at (248)
723-8430.
To make a contribution, mail a check,
payable to Mark Herman Irrevocable Trust, to
Morgan Stanley, c/o Friends for Mark Herman
Trust, 220 Park St., Suite 220, Birmingham,
MI 48009.
—Shelli Liebman Dorfman

JET Busting Out All Over

Dr. Geoffley Cocks, Albion College European history professor, and students Zachary Kleinsasser,
Roman Reznikov and Larry Lloyd help Dr. Joachim Russek, director of the Judaica Foundation in
Kracow, unpack the plaque.

Schindler Factory
Commemorated

ulminating two years of hard work, 20
students from Albion College in
Michigan dedicated a plaque to the late
Oskar Schindler at his factory in Krakow,
Poland, last month.
When Zack Kleinsasser, of Cottage Grove,
Minn. — this year's valedictorian — took part
in a walking tour of Krakow as part of an
Albion College Holocaust study tour in 1999, a
guide pointed out the Schindler factory, where
more than 1,000 Jews were saved.
.
Kleinsasser noticed that no plaque commemo-
rated the building, and decided to do something
about it.
The dedicatio- n ceremony was scheduled for
May 18, but the plaque was delayed by
Customs, and the ceremony was put off until
the next day, a Shabbat.
To honor Schindler, - Tadeugz Jakubowicz,
president of the Jewish Community in Krakow,
and other Jews sacrificed Shabbat services to
attend the ceremony.
Kleinsasser spoke at the dedication.
"Today we place a plaque on the factory that
was a haven to Schindler's Jews and, in doing
so, honor Oskar Schindler and his altruistic
actions," he said. "The plaque honors those
who survived then, and is also a memorial to
those who did not. This commemorative
plaque inspires us, reminding us that it is pos-
sible to fight prejudice, discrimination and
hatred. This plaque reminds us that one indi-
vidual can make a difference."
— Harry Kirsbaum

C

Jig

6/29

2001

12

Cappuccino For .A Cause

F

ollowing a devastating, life-altering acci-
dent in Chicago, Mark Herman has
come home to the embrace of home-
town friends and family.
The athletic, active young comic, actor,
writer and producer, living in Chicago since
March, 2000, faced a formidable injury when a
chest press bar fell on the back of.his neck, in a
fitness center, causing him to be paralyzed
from his shoulders down.
Among an outpouring of support, came an
offer from Carla Jo Reed, manager at
Starbuck's Coffee in Birmingham, to hold an
after-hours coffee-night Thursday, July 5, with
proceeds donated to the Mark Herman
Irrevocable Trust established by his family.
Friends of the Herman family have donated
construction material and labor to modify his
mother Alice's West Bloomfield home to make
it wheelchair- and handicap-accessible. Mark
will move there in the next few weeks.
Funding, however, still is needed for home
health aid equipment and outpatient therapy,
of which Mark's insurance will cover only 60
days.
"But Mark will likely need years of contin-
ued aggressive occupational andphysical thera-
py to regain strength and any mobility,"
Suzanne Leibovitz of Birmingham says of her
brother, who will mark his 26th birthday at
the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan in
Detroit on Friday, June 29.
"We always say we are not in the coffee busi-
ness — we are in the people business," says
Starbuck's employee, Dana Monforton. "We're
hoping a lot of people come out to help."

he Jewish Ensemble Theatre has
enjoyed its 12-year run at the West
T Bloomfield Jewish Community Center
and may be there for many more years.
But JET Artistic Director Evelyn Orbach
would prefer to have a
space of her own.
The independent
JET pays rent to the
JCC and shares the
200-seat Aaron DeRoy
Theatre with other
programs. "We have
no storage, no shop,
and must vie for
rehearsal space," said
Orbach this week,
while denying rumors
that JET was moving.
But, she admits, JET
has always sought a
larger space and more
sponsors.
"The JCC has been
Evelyn Orbach
congenial, as good as
they can be," she said.
"But when we are
rehearsing shows to take into schools as well
as our festival of new plays and our main
show, we need four or five spaces."
She said JET has grown tremendously in
budget_ and program. She would like to add a
children's theater and children s conservatory,
but is hampered by the logistics.
"The JCC is interested in what we are
doing and think we are doing a great job. But
their priority is education," Orbach said, "and
they don't think we are educational. I don't
agree, but that's the priority. I think there's a
real value that they're missing." ❑
— Alan Hitsky

'

Correction

Regarding "Washington Watch" (June 22,
page 19), under the subtitle "The
Lieberman Watch," the senator from
Indiana is Evan Bayh.

kftMft,,,,Vatatk4Mite.

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