Metro
Terror States Targeted
Dingell's Gift
State House passes bills divesting from Iran and Sudan.
Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News
House. The bill was Knollenberg's first
sponsored bill to pass the House.
Knollenberg's Iran bill originally tar-
geted
investments in North Korea and
ichigan moved closer to divest-
Syria
as
well, but those two countries were
ing state pension funds from
removed
to throw support to Wheeler
companies doing business with
Smith's
Sudan
bill and because of the small
Iran and Sudan under two bills passed by
amount
of
investment
in Syria and North
the Michigan House of Representatives
Korea.
The
remaining
language
on July 24. House Bill 4903, deal-
on Iran was changed to focus on
ing with Iran and sponsored by
the energy sector — in line with
Rep. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy,
Florida's legislation that became
passed 104-2; House Bill 4854,
law in early June.
dealing with Sudan and spon-
"The state must be held
sored by Rep. Alma Wheel Smith,
accountable to taxpayer dol-
D-Ypsilanti, passed 103-2.
lars," said Knollenberg. "It is
Both bills had been introduced
unacceptable for the money you
in mid-June and observers were
Rep.
send to Lansing to promote ter-
surprised by the speed with which Knollen berg
rorism around the world, and it
the bills moved considering the
is
irresponsible
for the state to continue
unresolved state budget and the acrimoni-
investments
the
Securities and Exchange
ous partisan divide. This was especially
Commission
considers
to be high-risk!'
true of Knollenberg's bill because he is a
House
passage
moved
both bills to the
Republican in the Democratic-controlled
M
Finding Family
Genealogy library moves to HMC.
Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News
T
he latest move by the Jewish
Genealogical Society of Michigan
to engage the community is a
physical one: The group's entire library
now is housed in the library at the
Zekelman Family Holocaust Memorial
Center in Farmington Hills.
The collection includes books, video-
tapes, audiotapes, microfiche and CD-
ROMs plus a vast collection of periodicals
issued by Jewish genealogical societies
and special interest groups from around
the world. These groups provide expertise
on narrower genealogical issues or topics,
whether it is shtetls in Poland, cemeteries
in Morocco or Jews of the Confederacy.
The collection, which started with just six
books in 1993 and now numbers more than
450, had been housed at Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township but outgrew the avail-
able space and its non-circulating materials
could only be accessed by appointment.
"We had a valuable resource that
wasn't being used': says Marc Manson of
Farmington Hills, a society past president.
With HMC Executive Director Rabbi
Charles Rosenzweig's support, the
18
August 2 2007
Society's collection is housed at the HMC
at no cost. "It is a valuable service he says.
"It was the only place that made sense
says Manson, "because we are doing the
same thing: looking for our family. There
is a misperception among Jews that
you can't do genealogy because of the
Holocaust. In fact, there are many sources,
and more and more records are available!'
Fred Apel agrees. He oversees the
group's Web site (jgsmi.org ) that includes
a searchable database of the collection.
"It's a perfect match to do research on
your family': he says. "There is much more
than just names, dates and places. You
learn the history and character of the peo-
ple as well as the history of your family."
Manson, Apel and Leah Jordan Bisel of
West Bloomfield have many stories about
research they have conducted on their
own families and help they have given
to others. Manson has traced his family
back to 1790 and Bisel to 1720. Apel has
used information he gathered to trace a
health issue that has affected generations
of women in his family. All three feel a
responsibility to communal Jewish history.
"It's like a virtual family tree of Jewish
Detroit," Bisel says, noting every contribu-
tion helps fill in the view of the community.
Senate Appropriations Committee. Unlike
Congress, the bill does not need to be
reintroduced in the Senate for action to be
taken. But with the budget still unresolved
and the legislature meeting only once a
week for the rest of the summer, action
isn't expected until September or October.
Susan Herman, director of the Michigan
Jewish Conference, which represents the
government relations concerns of the state-
wide Jewish community, testified before
the House Government Affairs committee
telling the legislators that the president of
Iran had targeted the United States and
we should take him at his word. Both bills
passed unanimously out of committee.
"Shame on all of us if we don't do some-
thing about it:' Herman said, adding that
all economic, political and diplomatic
measures should be exhausted in the
hopes that military action will be unnec-
essary. Herman also was present in sup-
port of the Sudan divestment bill. I I
Society members hope that greater
access will result in greater use and help
grow their organization beyond its current
150 members. They provide free consulting
to community members and soon hope to
establish regular walk-in hours.
The library contains a series of hand-
outs to help guide the novice researcher
through collections at the HMC, in Detroit
and Lansing, and Apel is expanding the
society's guide to help facilitate research.
Still, society members urge the inter-
ested to contact them directly. Many mem-
bers have become adept at research.
Use The Library
View the genealogy collection at
the HMC, 28213 Orchard Lake
Road, Farmington Hills, 10 a.m.-4
p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Friday. (248) 553-2834. Also, see
the Web sites www.jgsmi.org and
www.holocaustcenter.org .
Surf Ellis Island
The Jewish Genealogical Society
hosts Stephen Morse – who devel-
oped a "one-step" approach to
navigate online Ellis Island ship
manifests and passenger records
– at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug.19, at
the HMC. Society members are free;
guests are $10. (248) 553-2834.
U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn,
was among the contributors to the
Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization,
whose Dearborn office was raided
by FBI agents on July 24. Dingell
made a $100 contribution at a 2004
Ramadan dinner
where the organiza-
tion was portrayed
as helping orphans,
disabled and poor
children in Lebanon.
The group is run
by Sheik Mohammed
Hussein Fadlallah,
Rep. Dingell
whom the U.S.
Department of Justice calls "chief
spiritual leader" of Hezbollah. The
U.S. has designated Hezbollah as
a terrorist organization. The U.S.
Department of the Treasury also has
designated Fadlallah as a "Specially
Designated Terrorist," and the gov-
ernment has alleged that he issued
the religious ruling authorizing the
1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine
barracks that killed 241 Americans.
Nonetheless, Al-Mabarrat operates
legally in the U.S.
Another group raided on July 24,
Goodwill Charitable Organization Inc.
in Dearborn, was closed and added
to U.S. Treasury's list as a Hezbollah
front group.
Dingell has supported the desig-
nation of Hezbollah as a terrorist
group, voting in March 2005 for
House Resolution 101 urging the
European Union (EU) to classify
Hezbollah as a terrorist organiza-
tion, and sending a letter to the EU
on this issue in July 2006.
In a statement to the Jewish
News, Dingell's press secretary
Adam R. Benson wrote, in part:
"The congressman believes that
it is a tragedy that evil groups have
used charity organizations as a front
for funneling money to terrorists.
Now more than ever, our officers and
investigators need to be vigilant and
look under every stone to ensure
that money marked for honorable
causes is not misdirected to those
who want to harm us ...
"If any wrongdoing [by Al-
Mabarrat] is found, the congressman
would clearly regret the contribution
and believes prosecution must be
swift and punishment severe so as
not to tarnish the good works done
by other loyal and patriotic chari-
table organizations in this country."
- Don Cohen, special writer