Tighter Bonds
Minor bus accident doesn't hamper camp trip.
Keri Guten Cohen
Story Development Editor
Hadas Corey
Teen2Teen Intern
T
Dr. Nelson Hersh of Orchard Lake and his
daughter Rebecca as she returns home from
the Western 3 Trip.
he 25 campers on Tamarack
Camps' Western 3 Trip were
given a two-day extension on
their journey after a minor accident
on July 29 required the group to revise
their itinerary. They spent Shabbat at
Camp Henry Horner, a Jewish overnight
camp outside of Chicago, and arrived
home Sunday, Aug. 5, instead of Aug. 3.
The experience helped draw the group
closer, one of the fathers related.
The accident occurred at 7:30 p.m.,
30 miles east of Yellowstone National
Park in Wyoming. According to local
police, a truck was driving on the incor-
rect side of the highway. It first hit a
recreation vehicle and subsequently
scraped the side of the group's char-
tered Blue Lakes coach bus.
As a precautionary measure, six
campers reporting minor neck or back
pain were checked at a hospital in
nearby Cody, Wyo. The six campers were
released from the hospital that night and
seen by a doctor in Cody on Monday,
July 30, said Jonah Geller, Tamarack
Camps executive director. They were
cleared to rejoin the group without any
additional medical treatment.
Emily Harris, Tamarack Camps'
Western Trip manager, caught up
with the group and assisted Barbara
Applebaum, the trip's supervisor, and
the five counselors.
Parents of all campers and staff of
Western 3 were contacted by Jonah
Geller, Tamarack Camps executive
director, or Susie Zaks, director of the
teen travel trips program, regarding the
incident. E-mail provided updates.
Geller also said the campers who
had been checked out for minor neck
or back injuries following a Camp
Kennedy bus accident July 12 in the
Upper Peninsula are well. The Kennedy
group returned home safely on Aug. 1
as scheduled.
Geller praised his staff's handling of
both incidents.
Dr. Nelson Hersh's daughter Rebecca
was a camper on Western 3. "She had a
great time, and the camp handled the
accident very weir he said.
Bruce Shapiro is the father of Sam,
one of the campers on the Wyoming
bus. Bruce said he thought the expe-
rience brought the kids even closer
together. "They are already having a
reunion," he said. "I think that is was
very important that they extended the
trip because the things that they saw
and did together were just awesome. It
would have been a shame if they were
penalized by not being able to see more
things. After this accident, for them to
just rush home would be horrible."
Bruce praised the job that Zaks did in
notifying the parents involved. "When
they let the kids call, I was so relieved:'
he said. "I got to hear everything from
Sam's side of the story. They also sent
out an e-mail message 20 minutes after,
explaining the situation in more detail.
Susie did a great job and I was very
grateful. They turned what could have
been a scary experience into something
a lot easier to digest on the whole." I I
Long Overdue Thanks!
A California woman wants help in tracing the surviving family members of a Detroit
physician who helped her father's family flee Nazi Germany. Kay Greenwald of Mountain
View, Calif., is seeking assistance from the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan
(JHSM).
"I recently learned from my aunt that Bernard Friedlander, who was a physician in
Detroit, sponsored my father's family — thereby allowing them to leave Germany in
1939 and escape the Nazis:' Greenwald said.
Friedlander was born in 1870 and died in 1965. "I feel that my family owes a great
debt to this man, and I would like his surviving family to know what a wonderful thing
he did in saving the lives of my father, my aunt and my grandfather and grandmother,"
Greenwald said.
Her grandfather also was a physician who went on to practice medicine in Cincinnati
and teach in a medical school there.
In an article published in 1965 in Michigan Jewish History, the JHSM journal, author
Allen Warsen noted that Dr. Bernard Friedlander was born in Latvia, received a medical
degree from the University of Maryland and came to Michigan before World War I. He
practiced medicine first in Sebawaing, in Michigan's thumb, and then in Detroit. He was
a member of the Highland Park, Wayne County and American medical associations.
"If there are descendants of Bernard Friedlander's descendants in the Detroit area, I
want to convey to them my heartfelt gratitude Greenwald said.
If you have information about Bernard Friedlander or his family, contact the Jewish
Historical Society of Michigan: jhsofmichigan@msn.com or (248) 432-5517.
- Robert A. Sklar, editor
Grads To Gather
At a recent wedding for the son of a pair of Oak Park High School class of
1958 grads, other former grads posed together as a preview of the planned
40th reunion next year. Standing in the back row are: Dennis Liefer and
Nancy (Levine) Liefer of Farmington Hills; Jan Kepes and Scott Silver,
both of Encino, Calif; Joani (Messinger) Bloom of West Bloomfield. In the
front row are: Shelly (Rockind) Gordon; Karen (Saretsky) Adelman, both
of West Bloomfield; Linda (Helfman) Warner of Farmington Hills; Margie
(Steinberg) Wiener of Waterford; Pam (Siegel) Moloshok of Calabasas, Calif
August 9 • 2007
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