Staff Notebook
Slave Labor
Compensation Arrives
T
he checks began rolling in last week.
Some 10,000 Jews from around the world
began receiving the first of two payments
from the German government for working as slave
or forced laborers in World War II.
Harry Praw of Oak Park was a slave laborer for six
years in six different concentration camps. He's yet
to receive a slave labor check, but is not shy about
his opinion of the settlement.
"There's not enough money in the world to pay
for what we lost," said Praw, 78, who receives a
monthly compensation check from the German gov-
ernment.
"I had five sisters, two
brothers, father, aunts,
uncles, nieces — and
they're gonna pay me
57,000 for them?"
The $4.3 billion slave
labor fund comes as part
of a settlement, three
years in the making,
between the United
States, Israel and
European countries.
About 1.5 million victims
are eligible; most are non-
Jews living in Russia and
Harry Praw
Eastern Europe. An esti-
mated 160,000 Jewish
Holocaust survivors are eligible.
Germany has been granted legal protection from
U.S. lawsuits as a result of the fund.
"A very small number of people have applied,
about a third of those eligible," said Rachel
Yoskowitz, director of Citizenship and Immigration
Services at Jewish Family Service in Southfield.
Everyone will get the same amount in two install-
ments. The first payment will be about $4,000.
When the applications are totaled after the Aug. 11
deadline, a second check will be distributed to make
everyone's total the same, she said. The installments
could total up to $6,600.
The German parliament is voting next month to
extend the deadline until Dec. 31.
— Harry Kirsbaum
Mentoring Relationships
E
ow do Jews, newly converted, learn about
building a Jewish home and all the Jewish
customs that many of us have had a lifetime
to learn?
The Interfaith Connection's Project NAOMI, with
the help of the Agency for Jewish Education and
Jewish Family Service, introduced a new program
called "Or Ami: A Day of Mentor Training."
Its first training session, which included men-
tors, rabbis and NAOMI council members, took
place Sunday, June 3, at the Max M. Fisher
Federation Building in Bloomfield Township.
Marilyn Hertzberg of Jewish Family Service and
Paula Korelitz, a Jewish Personal Trainer at
7/6
2001
32
Left:
Daniel Leithinger and
Martin Doblhammer
catalog videotapes
at the Holocaust
Memorial Center
Below: Rabbi
Charles Rosenzveig
chats with Martin
Hausman-Inger.
Temple Israel, conducted the workshops.
More than 40 people representing eight congrega-
tions completed the daylong training. In the fall, they
will be matched with a member of their congregation.
A second mentor training is scheduled for Sept.
9. For additional information, call Sue Stettner
(248) 645-7860. 71
— Sharon Luckerman
Coming To America
hen Austrian volunteers, Martin
Doblhammer and Daniel Leithinger,
arrived at Detroit's Holocaust Memorial
Center in February 2000, they were fulfilling a civil
service obligation opted for instead of the Austrian
military. Neither is Jewish.
Fourteen months later, the two, whose program is
sponsored by the Austrian Gedenkdienst
(Commemorative Service) and the Holocaust
Center, found themselves in a relationship with
Detroiters that ignored religious lines.
After completing his designated time of service,
Leithinger returned to Austria to go back to school.
But Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, HMC executive
director and founder, offered Doblhammer a new
arrangement to extend his stay.
"When he arrived, the Austrian government paid
for his stay," Rabbi Rosenzveig says. "Now we pay
his expenses.
He is very astute and very, very productive. He
can do anything."
Sorry to see Leithinger leave, Rabbi Rosenzveig
says, "He was very good on the computer and he fed
the Web site. Now our new addition will do this,"
he says of Martin Hausman-Inger, who began in
February. After serving in Germany for 10 months,
Hausman-Inger requested to fulfill the remainder of
his six-month tour-of-duty in the States.
When their time is up this August, Rabbi
Rosenzveig says he is open to discussion about the
future, looking toward adding two more Austrians to
the HMC staff. E
W
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman
WW=MMINta=ltfaMILVICSMIMUMMOVAMI
KW-M
M Joins Local
Ad Network
I he Jewish News has joined with the
Spinal Column and Sherman
Publications to create the Oakland Plus
Want Ad Network. The network begins this
week.
In addition to Jewish News readers, the net-
work covers the urestern Oakland County com-
rrumities of Waterford, White Lake, Highland,
Milford, Commerce, Wolverine Lake, Wixom,
Walled Lake, West Bloomfield and Orchard
Lake, and the north Oakland communities of
Clarkston, Independence, Oxford, Orion,
Springfield, Brandon, Ortonville and Lake
Angelus.
- The network reaches approximately 300,000
readers each week, making it the largest mid-
week concentration of newspaper distribution in
Oakland County.
"I am thrilled at the opportunity this network
presents for our advertisers and readers to reach
into the growing communities of Oakland
County with an effective, convenient and cost-
efficient newspaper medium," said Jewish News
Associate Publisher Al DeRusha.
For additional information, call the Jewish
News classified department, (248) 354-5959.
II