Staff Notebook

Helping Hands

eff Jenks, along with his wife
Nati, recently returned from
South Korea, where they partici-
pated in a five-day project for Habit t
for Humanity.
Jeff, a Huntington Woods city corn-
missioner and a Michigan elector,
went to Asan, South Korea, because of
the support he received from the local
Korean community during his bids for
the state senate in the late 1990s. Asan
also was the site where former presi-
dent Jimmy Carter decided to make
his annual Habitat contribution.
The couple was among 8,000 inter-
national Habitat volunteers in South
Korea the week of Aug. 5-10. At their
site in Asan, located nvo hours south
of the capital, Seoul. 2,000 volunteers
completed 80 housing units.
Jeff, a former Peace Corps volunteer
on his third trip with Habitat, worked
three houses down from the former
president. He learned simple construc-
tion, helping put up siding and ceilings
and doing outside work. Nati, on her
first build, performed similar tasks.
"It's exciting because it allows me to
continue the kinds of things I learned
in religious school," says Jeff, 62, who
attended Temple Beth El religious
school and is still a member. "The
most emotional part of the process is
when they turn the keys over to the
home owner and they realize that they
now own a home. It is a part of tikkun
ol.am [repairing the world]. You see it
in a very concrete fashion."

IT

— Jamie Rosen

The Last Hurrah

I

feel exhilarateC., and sad," said Ros
Berman of Southfield, co-chair of
the local Brandeis University
Used Book sale, part of a national
fund-raising effort for the unix ersity's
library in Waltham, Mass.
After 40 years, the local Brandeis
University National Women's
Committee held its last book sale Aug.
15-20 at the Tel-12 Mall in Southfield.
"It was a great book sale," Berman
said, adding that several hundred peo-
ple were lined up outside the door on
the first night alone.
But this is the first time in 20 years
that Berman cannot look forward to
the next sale.
"Many people asked if it was really
true that this was our last sale," said
co-chair Gladys Bernstein of
Southfield. "They felt badly, said that
we performed a public service and that
it was a shame we couldn't continue."

The women said they were still recov-
ering after having set up three truckloads
of books. They praised their volunteers,
especially the "darling boys" (twenty 14-
to 18- year-olds who were paid to
unpack and help organize the books).
"It was a great run," said Berman
proudly. And to the many people who
came to the sales, she added, "Thank
you, we'll miss you just as much as
you'll miss us!"

Jeff Jenks at the
Jimmy Carter
Work Project
of Habitat for
Humanity building
a home in Asan,
South Korea.

— Sharon Luckerman

Lost Synagogue

C

uriosity got the best of
Marshall Saltzman of West
Bloomfield. Having lived his
entire life in Detroit, he was surprised
to come across an abandoned shul,
Shaarey Torah (Gates of Learning),
located at 17750 Brush Street on
Detroit's east side.
Adele Staller of Southfield, co-presi-
dent of the Jewish Historical Society
of Michigan, provided information
about the shul from a book compiled
by the late Joe Kramer of Oak Park.
The shul was formed in 1926, and
members built the building the same
year. The 35-family congregation was
led by visiting rabbis. In 1926, Harry
Cohn served as president and Clara
Schusterman served as secretary.

Hazel Schloner
of Southfield
checks out the
books at the
Brandeis University
Used Book
Sale, the last one
scheduled for
the Detroit
metropolitan
area..

Shaarey Torah,
located on Brush
near Nevada on
Detroit's east side.

— Jamie Rosen

IV arch Revisited

111 ichal Freier of Southfield
received a scholarship from
the Holocaust Education
Coalition that allowed her to participate
in the last spring's March of the Living.
Freier, a senior at Yeshivat Akiva in
Southfield, read an essay about her expe-
rience at the Coalition's summer meeting.
"It is crucial to understand that those
who perished in the Holocaust are so
close to us, they were children once
just like us," she wrote. "The souls of
the six million Jews were dancing and
celebrating with us on the streets of
Hoshahaaya in Israel. Their spirits will
live forever; we are the guarantee that
they will never be forgotten."
The Holocaust Education Coalition
includes 13 Jewish and Christian
organizations interested in Holocaust
education. Its main goal is distributing
the Holocaust curriculum Life
Unworthy of Life to educational insti-
tutions that would like to use the cur-
riculum but cannot afford it.
For more information about the
Coalition, call Betty Rotberg Ellias at
(248) 355-3730.

• 4..

• •

olv,mix
s

'

4,

uveassammiNtt ,

Rene Lichtman,
Holocaust Education
Coalition vice
president, scholarship
winner Michal
Freier and Betty
Rotberg Ellias,
Coalition president.

— Diana Lieberman

8/24
2001

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