Connections
Survivors united as one family in Washington.
L
found a surviving relative
ast Shabbat, religious
through the museum's database.
services were held at
Marvin and Edith Kozlowski of
the Washington
West Bloomfield were featured
Renaissance Hotel.
in a New York Times story, and
Several hundred Holocaust sur-
were
contacted by some cousins
vivors and families in town for
who
had
read the article. None
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
had
known
the others had sur-
Museum's Tribute to Survivors
vived.
Now
they are planning a
were davening together.
DR CHARLES
reunion in Florida.
As I was praying silently during
SILOW
the Amidah, I came to the part
Special Writer As people met and talked to
each other, new connections were
that read, "We shall thank You for
formed.
New friendships were made
Your miracles that are with us every
amongst
survivors and children of sur-
day..."
vivors.
At that very moment, as though out
Walking through the museum, recog-
of a Hollywood movie, the man stand-
nizing the enormity of the hatred and
ing in front of me turned to the man
the crime of genocide against our peo-
standing next to me and asked in
ple,
reinforced to me how truly special,
Yiddish, "Where are you from?"
heroic
and precious our survivors are. As
And then, I hear him ask, "Where
a
community,
we owe them our respect,
were you during the war?"
admiration
and
care especially now as
"Auschwitz," I hear, and then, "Me,
they are aging and are becoming frail.
too." Miracles.
The Jewish Home and Aging Services'
The Tribute to Survivors was attended
by thousands who miraculously survived Holocaust Survivor Program arranged to
take a group of survivors and families to
the Nazi genocide against the Jews of
Washington.
About 20 went with us,
Europe. Thousands of survivors from
about
20
more
from Detroit traveled on
Lodz, Warsaw, Bialystock, Ukraine,
their
own.
Budapest, Vienna, Paris, Antwerp and
We met others from New York to
elsewhere met and talked with each
California, and we recognized how we
other in a large family reunion.
are all one Jewish people. The gathering
Survivors and children of survivors
was
both emotionally difficult and
tried to find links with the possible rem-
uplifting.
We felt proud to be Jews; we
nants of their lost families. Ruth
felt
proud
to be Americans. We came
Lehman of Oak Park met a schoolmate
together
as
individuals; we left as a fami-
from her childhood in Lodz, Poland.
ly.
Larry (Wajntrob) Wayne may have
Our work remains to never forget
what happened to our people and to
Dr. Charles Silow is director of the
work for tolerance and peace. ❑
Jewish Home and Aging Services'
Program for Holocaust Survivors and
Families.
Remembrance
Oak Park JCC dedicates JWV memorial room.
HARRY KIRSBAUM
Stgfff Writer
1p
ortraits of 224 Jewish men
from Michigan who gave
their lives fighting for their
country grace a conference
room wall in the Jewish Community
Center in Oak Park.
A large book is under glass in the
corner. Each page bears a hero's
name, rank and description.
Facing the portrait wall is "Isaiah's
Dream," a mural by Marvin
Beerbohm, completed in 1951 and
commissioned by the Jewish War
Veterans of the United States of
America Department of Michigan at
a cost of about $5,000.
"Since 1945, the JWV has been the
custodian of these pictures, but they
really belong to the Jewish communi-
ty," said Robert Feldman, local JWV
commander.
The grand opening of the JWV
Memorial Room is planned for
Veterans Day, Nov. 11, at 4 p.m.,
featuring a lecture by Stella
Suberman, author of When It Was
Our War: A Soldier's Wife on the
Home Front.
The JWV Memorial Home in
Southfield, which housed the memo-
rabilia, has been sold. The JCC's ges-
ture of providing a room "allows the
organization to continue," said JWV
supporter Stephen Rosman of
Commerce Township.
"It stops the bleeding because the
organization was losing money main-
taining that old building," Rosman
said. "Now, they have money in the
bank, an office to conduct their busi-
ness and a room to hold their meet-
ings."
This is not the same as the exhibit
in the West BloomfieldICC,
Feldman said.
The West Bloomfield JCC exhibit,
"We Were There," features back-
lighted panels, explains the history of
the JWV in Michigan, from the Civil
War to the Vietnam War. A United
Jewish Foundation grant covered the
$100,000 cost for this permament
installation.
The Southfield building's owner-
ship is still in dispute with JWV's
national organization in Washington;
the sale's proceeds are in escrow. If
the national JWV wins, it won't
affect what the local JWV is doing
here, according to Rosman.
If the money stays here, it will go
toward scholarships and programs
that the JWV organization has sup-
ported for decades.
A wonderful benefit of the new
room, Rosman said, is that it allows
the organization "to hold their meet-
ings surrounded by their own memo-
rabilia." ❑
Robert Feldman sits in the JCC Memorial Room in the Oak Park JCC
Marilyn and Larry (Wajntrob) Wayne and their daughter, Brenda, of West
Bloomfield at the Holocaust museum in Washington.
11/ 7
2003
19