Remember
When • •
Rebuilding Shattered Lives
From the pages of the Jewish News for-
this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60
years ago.
Three Hillel teachers introduce local organizations
to Israel's 'One Family' organization.
1992
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Copy Editor/Education Writer
0 n March 27, 2002, a 26-
year-old Israeli named
Tomer Oshrat drove to the
billiard club at Rishon
L'Tzion to pick up a friend and drive
him home. That was the moment a
Palestinian suicide bomber chose to
carry out his deadly mission in the
popular suburban Tel Aviv nightspot.
Oshrat will be paralyzed for the rest
of his life.
Multiply Oshrat's story by one thou-
sand — by five thousand — and you
have a population crying out for help.
"When we hear about these terrible
attacks — how many killed, how
many wounded — those of us in the
United States don't always realize that
those people who were wounded, they
don't just need Band-Aids. Their
whole lives were shattered," said
Daphna Feldman of West Bloomfield.
Feldman teaches Judaic studies'to
junior high school students at Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
in Farmington Hills. She resolved to
personally assist Israelis who have been
wounded, orphaned, widowed and
dispossessed by the intifada (uprising).
Along with two friends, Malka
Littman of West Bloomfield and Fay
Kruet of Farmington Hills, also Hillel
teachers, she spent three weeks this
summer in Israel, volunteering with an
organization called Mishpacha Achat
("One Family"). The organization,
with offices in New York and Israel,
includes financial, medical and "adopt-
a-family" programs, and is planning a
camp for bereaved children.
"When a member of a family is
hurt, the rest of the family steps in,"
Littman explained. "We're not just
bringing money — we're bringing a
connection, like a real family."
The Human Touch
The organization began after the Aug.
9, 2001, attack on the Sbarro Pizzeria
in Jerusalem.
, ,
.
Thirty members of the Weiss family
of Southfield travel by bus through
the Czech countryside to trace the
escape routes of their relatives from
German occupation in World War II.
Thirty American students are in
the first class of the National
Federation of Temple Youth's high
school in Jerusalem.
198
Israeli schools reopen with 1.25
million students — a record high.
Marilyn Wolfe is appointed direc-
tor of Jewish Parents Institute,
based at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
Fay Kruet and Daphna Feldman visit Tomer Osrat, paralyzed in the March
terrorist attack in Rishon L'Tzion, and his wife, Sasson.
It started small — with one 12-year-
old Israeli girl, Michal Belzberg, con-
tributing money that would have been
spent on her bat mitzvah party and
gifts. Instead, the tzedakah went to
her fellow Jews whose lives and bodies
had been torn apart by terrorist acts.
Michal's parents, businessman Marc
Belzberg and his wife, Chantal, took
her from one hospital to another,
speaking not only to the wounded but
also to their families, in an effort to
learn about their special needs.
One of the things they discovered
was that Israel's National Insurance
Institute (NII) takes a number of
months to process each case, and then
takes care of only the basics. What is
desperately needed is private funding
to help victims and their families
while they're waiting to be processed
by the NII, plus additional funding
afterward.
•.
"The government works marvelous-
ly," Feldman said. "But they can't do it
alone."
So far, One Family has raised more
than $2 million. It has helped victims
and their families find jobs and hous-
ing, arranged transportation, thrown
parties, provided computers and com-
puter training and much more.
"The needs of all victims of terrorism
have to be taken into consideration," --
Marc Belzberg said in an interview with
the Jerusalem Post. "We have to do things
to make life easier for them right now."
Most of all, what's needed is the
personal touch.
"It's a long day when you're in the
hospital," Feldman said. "Their fami-
lies can't be there all the time."
While in Israel, the three friends
spent time each day with the same
handful of Israelis, mostly young peo-
ple, who had been terribly injured in
the attacks.
"It's not an intrusion — its an
embrace," Kruet said.
Adopt-A-Family
Among the victims adopted by the
INSIGHT on page 24
X972,
"Torches of Independence," sym-
bolizing the start of Israel's 25th
anniversary year, are flown to
Detroit and Flint.
Temple Beth Jacob of Pontiac
dedicates a new stained-glass win-
dow depicting the House of Jacob, a
gift of the Harold Goldberg family.
1962
Congregation B nai Jacob breaks
ground for a new sanctuary on
Hubbell Street in Detroit.
19
The D.W. Simons building opens
as the newest branch of the Jewish
Community Center at Tuxedo and
Holmur streets in Detroit.
Jewish Home for Aged residents
Mary and Isaac Nager, 103 .and
105, respecOely, are celebrating
their 81st wedding anniversary.
Hyman Altman's Jewish Radio Hour
program carries a Jewish New Year's
message from U.S. Rep. John D.
Dingell, D-Mich.
Detroit's rabbis unanimously
concur with the Synagogue Council
of America that Jews engaged in
war work should observe the High
Holy Days.
— Compiled by Holly Teasdle,
archivist, the Leo M. Franklin
Archives, Temple Beth. El
9/20
2002
23