Metro

Make a

this summer.;.

FORGOTTEN

...with our
2005 Summer Memberships

(Memorial Day - Labor Day)

New for 2005:

Full privileges to the club!

Now accepting Bar/Bat Mitzvah reservations.

Contact the Sales Office at 248.352.8000 to take
advantage of all the Club has to offer this summer!

•• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Student Memberships at Franklin Athletic Club!

so Initiation Fee

•$71 Monthly Dues

OMNI Membership (full privileges including pool
use and a wide-variety of programming).

•$22 Monthly Dues

Tennis Membership only.

4

MORE FIT. MORE REFINED

5/19

2005

16

29350 Northwestern Hwy
Southfield, MI
248.352.8000
www.franklinclub.com

from page 14

On Chanukah, he goes to light the
menorah. On Purim, he comes to read
the Megillah. Around Pesach, he holds
a model seder.
Who attends? A handful of the men
are Jewish, Rabbi Nerenberg says, and
some aren't. "We don't turn anyone
away."
Rabbi Nerenberg says that despite a
popular belief to the contrary, most
prisoners really do not express anti-
Semitism. In fact, "There is a certain
aura of respect that inmates give each
other for those who follow their faith,"
he says, especially if the inmate
observes "in a non-obtrusive fashion."
You wouldn't want to make a lot of
requests, get a lot of extras, have any
of what is regarded as special treat-
ment because of your religion.
Rabbi Nerenberg does-
n't remember meeting
Michael Knell, so after
learning from Marty
Hochberg that Knell had
died, he approached
other Jewish inmates.
"They didn't know him,
either," but had heard he
was Jewish.
Rabbi Nerenberg
learned that Knell would
Rabbi Levin
be taken to a secular
funeral home, then buried
outside the prison or,
even worse, cremated or his body
donated to science, both of which are
not permissible under Halachah,
Jewish law.
That's when Rabbi Nerenberg
phoned Rabbi Levin.

`About A Jewish Boy

1.1

It was Friday morning when Rabbi
Levin received the call. Rabbi
Nerenberg was fairly certain a Jewish
prisoner had just died, he said. The
body was at a secular funeral home in
Jackson, and no family was coming to
claim the last remains of Michael
Knell.
The first question: Was Michael
Knell really Jewish? Usually it's simply
a matter of asking family members,
but none were there to ask.
That meant Rabbi Levin would have
to do a bit of detective work.
Other prisoners remember Knell
mentioning that he was Jewish, and
Marty Hochberg said the same.
Another clue came from Knell himself.
The former inmate had a tattoo,
which helped inspire Rabbi Levin to
stay on the case.
"It was right here," Rabbi Levin
says, pointing to the soft spot between

the forefinger and the thumb. The tat-
too was of a Star of David. "Which
convict in prison is going to have that
kind of tattoo if he isn'tJewish?" he
asks.
Rabbi Levin called the funeral home
where Knell's body lay.
"Wait." Rabbi Levin must have said
the word 500 times that day in calls to
the funeral home, prison officials,
whoever would listen. They were all
amazed: Why would anyone from
halfway across the state want to come
get this corpse just to bury it? No one
was going to pay for a big, fancy
funeral, if that's what he was hoping.
"Money!" Rabbi Levin is appalled.
"This is not about money. This is
about a Jewish boy, and we have to
give him a Jewish funeral." „,
He made more calls,
faxed a lot: "We were fight-
ing over this body like the
guy was the president of the
United States." (Unlike
Hebrew Memorial, which
performed its service for
free, a secular funeral home
would have been paid for
its services in handling the
body of Michael Knell.)
Then Rabbi Levin
turned to the law.
According to Michigan
statutes, medical schools at
Wayne State University,
Michigan State University and the
University of Michigan are to be noti-
fied of all unclaimed bodies within 72
hours of death. The schools are then
free to retrieve the bodies and use them
for educational and research purposes.
On June 30, 2003, this measure was
amended to include the right of any
interested benevolent society to be
notified before the medical schools
should the deceased be a member of a
religion that required burial.
The only benevolent society that
requested such notification was
Hebrew Memorial Chapel. It was, in
the end, this obscure legislation that
saved the day..
Ten minutes before Shabbat, Rabbi
Levin got a call from Jackson Prison.
"We won't do anything with the body
until Monday," officials vowed.
So Rabbi Levin observed Shabbat,
then he was back on the case. He had
no choice. Halachah states that a
Jewish body must be buried as soon as
possible after the time of death. He
planned the funeral for Monday.
Some observers will be mystified,
others furious. Why be concerned
about burying this kind of criminal, a
man who sexually abused children?