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Colorful History

A new coloring and activity book charts the early
history of Jewish life in Michigan.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

AppleTree Editor

S

ome adults think children find it
fascinating to sit on a bus for
hours and hear a prerecorded tape
with one stark fact piled upon another.
Adults call this "learning our history."
Children call it "s0000000 boring."
Then there are people like C.C.
Weisfeld and other members of the the
Reconstructionist Congregation of
Detroit, who worked with the Jewish
Historical Society of Michigan to devel-
op tours that focus on how this history
was made and by whom, rather than just
the what and when. But don't worry if
your children can't make the tour; now
they can color their way through
Michigan Jewish history.
C.C. Weisfeld is the author of Early

Jewish Days in Michigan:
A Coloring and Activity
Book just published by

the Reconstructionist
Congregation of
Detroit.
With illustrations by
A.G. Smith, the book
features 30 pages of
detailed coloring
pages (the author rec-
ommends markers or
colored pencils, not
crayons) and activi-
ties (crossword puz-
zles, quizzes, a word
search) that teach
about some of the
most intriguing fig-
ures from the state's early history.
You'll learn about Mark Sloman, a
volunteer policeman who helped free
slaves; Golda Krolik and Regine
Cohane, leaders in helping women gain
the right to vote; and Frederick
Hirschman, who came to the aid of
poor miners and their families through-
out the Upper Peninisula.
Children, Weisfeld says, love to learn
about people and how the first Jewish
settlers opened their homes to other
Jews, about how they worked, often at
great difficulty, to maintain culture and
religious traditions. It also inspires them,
which was a key issue when Weisfeld
was considering whom to include in the
coloring/activity book.

Weisfeld and artist A.G. Smith of
Windsor, whose wife is a member of the
Reconstructionist Congregation, came
up with the idea foi Early Jewish Days,
inspired by the Jewish Historical Society
tours.
Smith has illustrated more than 200
children's books, often focusing on his-
tory. "He's a remarkable artist," Weisfeld
says. She also admires the fact that he is
"a real stickler for historical accuracy."
Before Smith would even consider
drawing physician Frederick Hirschman,
for example, he was determined to find
a photograph of what a mining hospital
would have looked like at the time
Hirschman was working.
Having a good idea is one thing.
Seeing it come to fruition is .another.
Weisfeld was in for quite a surprise. A
psychology professor at University of
Detroit-Mercy, she approached her syna-
gogue board with the idea for
Early Jewish Days. It
liked the idea. One
family liked it so much
they volunteered
money for the project
saying only, "Pay us
back when you can.
"The next challenge
was to pull together pos-
sible stories," Weisfeld
says. "We knew we want-
ed stories not just from .
Detroit, but from
throughout Michigan
because the history of the
state of Michigan is a story
of interdependence, of
small communities
dependent on the large ones and vice
”
versa.
It's a history, she says, of movement:
men and women "moving to get an edu-
cation and training" and find work. "It
didn't make sense to just talk about the
Detroit area because every little Jewish
community in Michigan is tied to the
,,
other.
Of course, one activity/coloring book
cannot cover the entire history of the
Jewish community of the state, so
Weisfeld opted for pre-1950 Michigan
and chose what she did feature with
great difficulty
"You can't include all the good stories

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Color this example of the stained glass window in the Reconstructionist
Congregation of Detroit.

COLORFUL on page 28

7/16
2004

27

