As Week

Father Dies

Something Extra

Inspired Summer

Sidney Schechet, a high school sen-
ior at Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield
who spent his summer in Israel, says
he came away from the experience
with a deeper sense of what it means
to be a Jew.
Schechet and five friends —
Moshe
Brystowski, Josh
Faber, Daniel
Teger and Steven
Lefkowitz, all of
Akiva, and Elad
Hillman of
Bloomfield Hills
Andover — took
part in the
National
Conference of
Schechet
Synagogue Youth's
summer kollel in Beit Meir, a
moshav (farming community) near
Jerusalem. They were among 126
students and 40 counselors.
"All participants of the kollel
enriched their knowledge of Judaic
studies and general Jewish thoughts,
but there was one especially illumi-
nating idea that we carried home,"
said Schechet, 17. That idea focused
on the resolve of the Jewish people.
Harry Keller and his daughter Joyce
Schechet recounted how summer
speakers told of Titus' great arch in
Rome celebrating the empire's defeat
University, Ithaca, N.Y. He was also
of the Jews in Israel. But the arch
an accounting instructor at Wayne
lost
its significance through the
State University. (See obituary: page
ages.
179)
"On the other hand," he said,
"My father was a man who knew
"after all the persecution that Israel
what he wanted and never looked
has gone through — Egyptian slav-
back," Joyce Keller said. "He was
ery, the Spanish Inquisition, Nazi
the kindest, most nonjudgmental
liquidation, Palestinian terrorism —
man I've ever known, even with his
we
are still here to value and appre-
children."
ciate every aspect of our Jewish cul-
The party honoring Joyce Keller
ture.
on her 25th anniversary at JARC,
"Our persistent existence," he
originally scheduled for Sept. 23,
continued, "proves the power our
has been postponed until Tuesday,
nation and religion hold. The ability
Oct. 21. For more information
that we have had to enjoy and bene-
about the party, contact JARC at
fit
from the kollel's summer educa-
(248) 538-6610 ext. 314.
— Diana Lieberman tional experience adds to the perpet-
uation of our invincible heritage."

The Jewish News' cover story about
Joyce Keller's 25 years as executive
director of JARC (From The Heart,
Sept. 19, p.70) appeared just as
Keller's father, Harry Keller, was
about to celebrate his 90th birthday.
Although his ill health caused the
joint birthday party for Keller and
his wife, Gertrude Armstrong Keller,
to be postponed, Harry Keller got
to kvell about his daughter's honor.
He turned 90 Sept. 21 and passed
away the next day.
A CPA and controller of
Speedway and Aurora Petroleum,
Keller earned a master's in business
administration from Cornell

— Robert A. Sklar

9/26
2003

14

Rich Get Richer

Forbes magazine's annual ranking of
the 400
wealthiest peo-
ple in America
showed
Detroiter
William
Davidson at
the 104th posi-
tion on the
national list
and No. 1 in
Michigan.
Davidson
Davidson of
Bloomfield
Hills, owner of
Guardian
Industries, the
Detroit
Pistons and
Shock basket-
ball teams, and
Palace Enter-
tainment, has
a net worth of Taubman
$1.9 billion,
according to

Forbes.
Other Jewish
Detroiters on
the national
list included A.
Alfred
Taubman of
Bloomfield
Hills, ranked
Fisher
315th with
$810 million.
His shopping center and real estate
firm is fighting a hostile takeover
bid.
Ranked 368th nationally with
$680 million is Franklin's Max
Fisher, whose fortune is based on an
oil business and investments.

the bureau's Michigan regional
office.
Hulon was guest speaker at the
Anti-Defamation League Michigan
Region's Sept. 17 board meeting.
"Terrorism is the top priority;
we've shifted a lot of our resources
toward terrorism," he told an audi-
ence of about 100 at Temple Shir
Shalom in West Bloomfield.
In addition, other priorities
include counterintelligence work,
protecting America's computer infra-
structure, fighting corruption of
public officials and protecting civil
rights — in that order.
All other priorities — fighting
organized crime, violent crime, drug
trafficking, white-collar crime,
health care fraud — have taken a
back seat, Hulon said.
"Have we done everything we
could to safeguard this country?" he
said. "I think of it first thing in the
morning and before I go to bed at
night."
Protecting civil rights — a pri-
mary part of the ADL's mission —
seems to be low on the list of FBI
priorities, Hulon admitted.
"But before Dr. Mueller [Robert
S. Mueller III, FBI director since
just before the 9-11 attacks] got in,
civil rights was something we got to
when we had gone through every-
thing else," he said.
After the meeting, Howard
Wallach, president of the ADL's
Michigan Region, said he couldn't
fault the FBI priorities.
"Not that I'm any less concerned
with civil rights," Wallach said.
"But, when you have a finite

— Alan Hitsky

FBI's `To-Do' List

Since 9-11, the FBI has taken a hard
look at its mission and re-ordered its
priorities, according to Willie T.
Hulon, special agent in charge of

Howard Wallach, president of the ADL's
Michigan Region, and Bet*, Kalman,
ADL regional director, with Willie T
Hulon, special agent in charge of the
FBI's Detroit Field Office.