This Week
Insight
Remember
When •
Connecting With Victims
From the pages of the Jewish News
from this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
and 60 years ago.
B'nai Moshe members aid an Israeli family devastated by terrorism.
DON COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
I
In late November, B'nai Moshe
members Len and Ann Wanetik and
Jeff and Cindy Diskin. met Korin dur-
ing a visit to Israel and gave her
Chanukah gifts and a check for $7,000
to help meet family needs in the wake
of the tragedy.
The funds were raised in the 10
days between approval by the syna-
gogue's board of directors — which
guaranteed a congregational contribu-
tion of at least $5,000 — and the
Wanetiks' departure for Israel. After
just two Shabbat appeals and a con-
gregational e-mail, the funds presented
to the family were raised. Fund-raising
am so happy that people who
do not know us care about us."
That's how Korin Ben-Aroya
reacted upon learning that
Congregation B'nai Moshe of West
Bloomfield had "adopted" her and her
children through the Mishpacha Achat
(One Family) program.
The program raises funds and pro-
vides moral support for Israeli victims,
in the wake of the horrendous
"Passover Massacre" March 27, 2002,
that killed 29 people and wounded
133 others.
On that evening, five mem-
bers of the Ben-Aroya family
had sat down with relatives
for a Passover seder at the
Park Hotel in the Israeli
coastal town of Netanya
when a Hamas terrorist
entered the dining room
crowded with 250 people and
detonated a bomb packed
with nails and shrapnel.
Korin's husband, Shimon
Ben-Aroya, 42, was killed
immediately and the rest of the je Diskin, Len Wanetik, Korin Ben-Aroya,
family was seriously wounded.
Korin's sister-in-law Sigalit, Ann Wanetik and
Korin, also 42, was knocked
Cindy Diskin.
unconscious, with shrapnel
penetrating her lungs. Daughter
Sherry, 20, lost her right eye and is para- continues and letters, e-mails and vis-
lyzed on the right side of her body and
its from congregation members are
13-year-old Hila and 9-year-old Elad
being encouraged.
still suffer from the physical and psycho-
"The sense of isolation of the aver-
logical wounds they received.
age person walking down the street is
All eight of their relatives, including
tremendous. I can't begin to imagine
several children, also were seriously
the sense of isolation of families of .
injured.
those who have been murdered or
The West Bloomfield congregation
wounded," said Len Wanetik, a for-
was connected with the Ben-Aroya fam- mer president of the congregation.
ily through Mishpacha Achat, a non-
"The psychological aspect is very
profit organization created in response
important. There is tremendous grief
to the ongoing tragedies affecting fami-
and tremendous healing that needs to
lies and children in Israel caused by ter-
occur. Both Ann and I felt we touched
rorism. The One Family Fund pro-
the family in a way they needed to be
motes the long-term physical and emo-
touched; that we helped make a real
tional health, educational, housing,
difference in the lives of real people."
income maintenance and other needs of
Locally, support for Mishpacha
survivors and their families.
Achat is coordinated by Daphna
Feldman of West Bloomfield, who
teaches Judaic studies at Hillel Day
School of Metropolitan Detroit in
Farmington Hills. This past summer,
Feldman, together with fellow teachers
Malka Littman of West Bloomfield
and Fay Kruet of Farmington Hills,
spent three weeks in Israel volunteer-
ing with Mishpacha Achat.
When she returned, B'nai Moshe's
Rabbi Elliot Pachter was so impressed
by.Feldman's story he asked her to
address the congregation on Yom
Kippur and, in a most unusual move,
she spoke in his place during Kol
Nidrei services. This led to B'nai
Moshe becoming the first local con .-
gregation to adopt a family.
To date, besides B'nai Moshe,
Shomrey Emunah of Southfield, Hillel
Day School and many local individuals
have adopted families or otherwise pro-
vided support for the work of Mishpacha
Achat. The religious schools at Temple
Israel and Shaatey Zedek and a class at
Adat Shalom are also taking part.
The need is great. According to the
Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as
of Jan. 11, 723 people have been
killed and more than 4,500 injured by
Palestinian violence and terrorism
since September 2000.
"Given the tight budget situation in
Israel, and the methods by which
funds are currently distributed, only
an outpouring of individual support
for individuals can bridge the gap,"
says local coordinator Feldman.
"There are few places for these peo-
ple to go and little money to support
them."
❑
An educational, fund-raising event
will be held at a home in West
Bloomfield at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb.
9. Dr. Jack Weinberg, a rehabilita-
tion psychologist from Israel, will
speak about the needs of terror vic-
tims. His wife, Batia, will talk about
the work of Mishpacha Achat. For
an invitation, contact Daphna
Feldman at (248) 626-1451.
A Jewish mail carrier wins a two-
year battle with the U.S. Postal
Service to make rounds while wear-
ing a yarmulke, without covering it
with a regulation postal service cap.
Greg Khaykin, formerly of Russia
and an 11th-grader in a government
class at Akiva Hebrew Day School,
provided impromptu interpreting
services in a case at the Southfield dis-
trict courthouse on a class field trip.
',;*gteikkr,'
Sir Immanuel Jakobovita, chief r
rabbi of the United Hebrew
Congregations of the British
Commonwealth, will speak on
Jewish medical ethics at the fourth
annual Myer Teitelbaum Lecture at
Wayne State University in Detroit.
47,0134A
77,3
'
Dr. Irving S. Bernstein of Flint
presents a key to the city of Flint
and a letter from Mayor Frances E.
Limmer to Jerusalem Mayor Teddy
Kollek during the Alpha Omega
Conference in Israel.
7. •
"Operation Tennis in Israel," a pro-
gram designed to build 50 tennis
courts in Israel this year, was
launched by 75 tennis celebrities.
The Israel Medical Association calls
on Jewish physicians and scientists
throughout the world to protest the
campaign launched by the Soviet
Union against Soviet Jewish physi-
cians.
Local rabbis affiliated with the
Rabbinical Council of America will
meet at the Detroit home of Rabbi I.
Halpern.
.11111.111111111111111111111.1
National commander of the Jewish
War Veterans, Benjamin Kaufman,
who won the Congressional Medal
of Honor, will be honored by the
Detroit community at the Book-
Cadillac Hotel.
— Compiled by Holly Teasdle,
archivist, the Rabbi Leo M Franklin
Archives of Temple Beth El
1/17
2003
31