Front Lines
NOTEBOOK
JNenline
A Gift Beyond Imagination
SheIli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
E
Local Woman Back On Heritage Trail
President Bush has reappointed Harriet B. Rotter, a family law practi-
tioner in Franklin, to the Commission for the Preservation of America's
Heritage abroad. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. admin-
istered the oath of office to commissioners on June 6 in Washington.
The commission strives to preserve and protect cemeteries, monu-
ments and historic buildings in Eastern and Central Europe through
onsite visits and evaluations.
During her first three-year term, Rotter focused on restoring the
Uzupis Jewish cemetery in Lithuania. During the Communist era,
most of the headstones were taken from the cemetery and used as
steps in government buildings and as paving stones on some of the
city's streets. Many of the headstones were returned. Also, the cem-
etery was enclosed and a monument was installed. The Lithuanian
government provided half of the money; the other half was raised
from private American donors.
"My father was born in Poland and my mother in Lithuania, so
I am a first-generation American:' said Rotter. "I am not that far
removed from my roots."
She added: "I have witnessed a genuine desire on the part of the
governments in Eastern and Central Europe to restore sites ruined
in World War II and during subsequent regimes that have significant
meaning to American citizens whose roots are in Europe."
- Robert A. Sklar, editor
Juiy 19 p 2007
www.JNOnline.us
Celebrations!
ven as she looks forward to traveling to Israel next week,
Barbara Cantor can't help but think back to the trip she
almost didn't make this past May.
The plan had been for Cantor, of West Bloomfield, to take her
daughter and three grandchildren to Israel to celebrate the bar mitz-
vah of her grandson, Ariel.
"Ariel never really had a father since my daughter's divorce when he
was a baby, and my dream was to take his family to Israel for his bar
mitzvah:' Cantor said. So she arranged to travel with her daughter, for-
mer Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit teacher Nancy Cohen-
Vardy, now of Seattle, and Nancy's sons, Coby Vardy, 17, Ariel Vardy,13,
and Raviv Cohen, 7, on Memorial Day of this year. There they would
meet up with Nancy's 20-year-old son Micha Vardy, who last summer
made aliyah and serves in the Israeli asrmy.
Cantor had traveled to Israel more than 20 times — sometimes
with her children or grandchildren, as a member of the Jewish Early
Education Enhancement Program (JEEEP) preschool teachers' mis-
sion and 11 times living and working on an army base through the
Sar-El Volunteers for Israel program.
For this trip, she said, "I had been saving up by cashing my paychecks
and my CDs — and keeping the money in a drawer in my home."
Two weeks before the trip, Cantor went on a quick errand to the
supermarket and came home to find her front door had been kicked
in and the $4,000 in cash was gone. Also missing were $2,000 in
Israeli shekels, pieces of sentimental jewelry and $4,000 in matured
U.S. Savings Bonds.
Reimbursed only a fraction of the loss from her homeowners' insur-
ance company, she was uncertain how she would be able to go to Israel.
Cantor spent the next week immersed in volunteering at the Jewish
Community Center's Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival and work-
ing as a parent-toddler nursery school teacher at the JCC in West
Bloomfield.
One evening at the film festival, Cantor said, "Mark Lit [JCC execu-
8
This Week
Micha, Ariel, Coby, Raviv, Nancy and Barbara celebrate at Ariel's
bar mitzvah service in Jerusalem.
tive director] came up to me and said he had received a check for me
from an anonymous donor. The next day at work, my boss handed me
a cashier's check for $4,000 — with no name on it. I asked if it was
from the Center and I was told it was not."
Ecstatic, she continued with the plans for the trip, traveling for
10 days throughout Israel and celebrating Ariel's bar mitzvah at the
Masorti plaza at the Kotel in Jerusalem.
"The trip was a magical time," Cantor said. While she suspects the
check may have been a gift from grandparents of some of the children
she has taught during her 37 years at the Center, she really doesn't
know. "Whoever it is, though, if I could meet you, I would say, Tear
anonymous, you made my dream come true:" Cantor said.
With continued plans to spend more time in Israel, she jingles an
arm-full of narrow, silver, bangle bracelets she vows she never takes
off. "I wear one for each time I've been to Israel:' she said. "My goal is
my elbow!"
And as far as lessons learned by this longtime teacher, "I found
a bank," she said. "There will be no more cash in my home. I also
learned a great thing about people. This overwhelming generosity was
just unbelievable." Fl
Find weekly listings of births,
b'nai mitzvah, engagements,
weddings and anniversaries
online as well as past sim-
chahs all online. They are all
bundled under each week's
publication date.
Just visit JNonline.us and
click on Lifecycles on the
left.
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Arnie Goldman shares his
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little mitzvahs and more.
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Results from last
week's poll:
Do you agree with Israel's
recent offer to release 250
Palestinian prisoners?
Yes 30%
No 70%
This week's poll ques-
tion:
Will Hamas recognize Israel
as President Bush called on
them to do in his July 16
speech?
Visit the JNonline.us home-
page to cast your vote.
Justice Alito with Harriet Rotter and her husband, Norman,
at the U.S. Supreme Court Building.