OTHER VIEWS
Documents Of Life
ur friend from Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, Jack Ginsberg,
was in the process of opening a
non-profit, all-encompassing
resale shop on Eight Mile Road called
Knightsbridge Charities. People brought
in all kinds of stuff
Someone evidently left, in error, a
thick brown folder with old documents.
Jack decided to seek help in finding the
rightful owner and called me.
I was intrigued, both as a Zionist and
as a minor Jewish people historian. I
opened the brown folder and saw many
old family pictures of bar mitzvahs, wed-
dings, birth certificates and German
passports dating to 1938 — a true treas-
ure of mementos.
How to find the rightful owner? On
one of the envelopes was the name of
Max Rothschild of West Bloomfield.
Telephone information was called.
"Sorry, this number has been discon-
nected."
What else? Also enclosed was the draft
of a master's thesis written at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
about the early history of the Jewish
community in Detroit — Alfred Street,
Watson Street — names my mother
used to eulogize.
The date of the paper was Oct. 28,
0
Jerome S. Kaufman is a Bloomfield
Hills resident. His Israel oriented Web
site is www.israel-commentary.org
-
1974, and the author was Stephen B.
Rothschild. Several with that name were
found on the Internet and I wrote a let-
ter to the most likely candidate, a lawyer
in Spring Valley, N.Y. No response.
It was then determined that the uni-
versity could help. The department that
finds former students looked up the
name, Stephen B. Rothschild, circa
1974, and found one, but no direct con-
tact was permitted. They said, however,
that a message could be written and sent
by them.
"We should not sit
still for intolerance
against any group
of people.
"
Two weeks later, a call came in from
Stephen B. "How nice of you to search
us out. Yes, that is my dad, Max
Rothschild, who just moved to Coconut
Creek, Fla. I'll have my dad call you."
Max called a short time later; a great
conversation ensued and the documents
were sent. He was delighted to receive
them, and mailed back two videos por-
traying his life and his experiences in
Germany.
Who is Max Rothschild? Max is a sur-
had a marvelous, typically
American Jewish life, with 21
grandchildren to prove it. He,
in later life, became a speaker at
the Holocaust Memorial
Center in West Bloomfield. It
was there, in an effort to pre-
serve as much evidence as pos-
JEROME S.
sible of the period, that the
IKAUF MAN
HMC created the tapes that
Commuity
Max sent to me and which can
Views
still be viewed at the HMC.
Finally, to the point of the
story: Max is asked at the end
of his personal Holocaust Memorial
Nazi Pall
Center video interview, "What have you
learned after all this and what would you
Then the denouement: Adolf Hider was
tell other Jews?" Max said we should not
appointed chancellor of Germany on
sit still for intolerance against any group
Jan. 30, 1933. That very night, the
of people.
Rothschilds heard Nazi Brown Shirts
Well, we all know that and have been,
beating up any Jew they could find on
perhaps, overresponsive in our zealous
the streets.
Events moved fairly slowly until Hider defense of others, many times to the
neglect of our own issues.
passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
What else did he say? "Beware of
Those laws deliberatelyrargeted the
complacency!"
Jews, removing all their civil rights and
What happened to Max Rothschild's
creating a class of untermenchen.
Fortunately, Max's father had the good family in an idyllic German town, and
in a. country in which his ancestors had
sense and means to get his family out in
time. They left in September 1938, with lived for centuries, proved it can happen
anywhere. "Beware of complacency." Be
their lives intact, leaving only their busi-
quick to protect Jewish interests and do
ness, their property and all their money
so as part of your life's work.
— confiscated, without recourse, by the
As the centuries have proven time
Germans.
and again, the "Jewish Problem" is a
Max came here at age 11, penniless,
Jewish problem. F7
but quickly became assimilated and has
vivor from Adolf Hider. He was
11 years old in 1938. His dad
was a very successful business-
man in the idyllic German town
of Bruchsal. There were 162
established, relatively wealthy
Jewish families in a population
of 16,000 Germans. The Jews
were well integrated, participat-
ed in all the sports leagues and
all the various government and
private schools, and had many
German friends.
Standing On Guard
Jerusalem
few mornings ago, I went
to a supermarket near my
home to do some grocery
shopping for the weekend.
What could be more banal?
Not in Israel — in Jerusalem, such
an outing can be a death-defying
act, or worse.
Arriving at the entrance to the
grocery store in the Kiryat Yovel
neighborhood, an armed security
guard greets me dryly. "Yesh rcha
neshek? (Do you have a gun?)," he
asks me robotically.
A
Robert Sarner is a senior reporter-
editor on Israel's only daily, English-
language TV news show. Before
moving to Israel in 1990, he was a
writer and magazine editor in Paris
and Toronto. His email address is
rsarner@netvision.net.il
7/ 4
2003
22
All the while he guides his hand-
held metal detector across my torso
and legs, before doing a thorough
hand-search of my knapsack.
He is risking his life. In a way, so
am I.
In this very spot, just over a year
ago, another security guard blocked
a Palestinian suicide bomber from
entering the store. In so doing,
Haim Smadar, 55, was blown to
pieces along with a teenage shopper
when the female terrorist detonated
her explosives.
"The alert response of the security
guard prevented a much greater
tragedy," said Jerusalem Police
Commander Mickey Levy, shortly
after the attack. "He saved many
lives."
Sadly, this was but one of many
such incidents in recent years in
which a security guard thwarted a
far worse atrocity and in the process
mas, bus stations, hotels,
was killed or severely wound-
supermarkets, shopping
ed.
malls, office buildings and
"Yesh l'cha neshek?"
even hospitals.
These days, this is one of
We have Palestinian mass
the more-frequently asked
murderers to thank for that.
questions in Israel, where
Security guards have become
Palestinian violence has led
one of the defining images
many people to carry guns.
of a society under siege from
Several times a day, I answer
ROBERT
terrorists.
They are a testa-
no to security guards and
SARNER
ment
to
the
more than 100
then prepare for the
Special
attacks
that
Palestinian
inevitable frisking. As star-
Commentary
homicide bombers have car-
tling and invasive as this
ried out in Israel since
search would be to most peo-
September 2000, mostly on civilian
ple in Western countries, it's perfect-
locations, not counting countless
ly normal in Israel's abnormal reali-
other planned attacks that the army
ty.
and police have aborted.
Throughout the country, especial-
Israelis have long been accustomed
ly in the main cities, security guards
to security guards posted at high-
are everywhere. In Jerusalem and Tel
risk, sensitive sites. But now they
Aviv, their inspections have become
guard places where once no one
a necessary nuisance and standard
would have believed they would ever
procedure at the entrance to bars,
be needed. Alas, with Palestinian
cafes, restaurants, nightclubs, cine-