Metro 'Never Again' Jewish community supports agency for political refugees. Alexa Stanard will speak and will be joined by Holocaust survivor Jack Gun of West Bloomfield. Among the dinner's honorary commit- tee members is Holocaust survivor and yprien Ngizehayo, a Rwandan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel. who lived through that country's Freedom House Executive Director Pegg 1994 genocide against Tutsis, Roberts has made a deliberate effort to could cry only in secret when he learned his involve the Jewish community with this family was murdered in the mass killings. year's dinner. "Genocide knows no geopo- "I will never forget when I knew that all litical, social or religious boundaries:' she of my family had been killed," he says. "I said. "While nothing is like the Holocaust, couldn't cry or tell the bad news to anyone victims of persecution share the unspeak- because if I did, the killers would know that able pain inflicted on them and the horrific I had lost people and that I was Tutsi and memories that will stay with them always. then I would be killed. So I cried secretly "Our residents come from places like and acted as if everything was okay. Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Central "I lost more than 200 relatives:' he added. America — places that have experienced "I did not have a chance to bury them and some of humanity's worst abuses;' she to give them respect as human beings." added. "We are grateful for the support Ngizehayo fled Rwanda and came to of our Jewish friends and look forward to Detroit, where he applied for legal asylum working together in the future for the ben- with the help of Freedom House, a nonprof- efit of those hoping for a new life." it organization that serves political refugees. "The Holocaust was very, very unique Freedom House is the only organization Gun says. "There was never anything like in the United States that provides com- it and let's hope another like it never hap- prehensive services to refugees, among pens again. But people in Darfur and other them housing, legal, medical, educational, countries have suffered. Unfortunately job training and transitional housing. there was no Freedom House when they Its mission is to "uphold a fundamental were killing Jews in Europe. Nobody want- American principle of providing safety for ed to take us. Nobody was willing." those 'yearning to breathe free."' By sharing his personal story, Gun hopes Ngizehayo is one of many Freedom to "make people aware of all the tragedies House successes; he received asylum this that can occur between human beings. I year. He currently resides in Naperville, feel we're very much alike, people from near Chicago, and works with an organiza- Rwanda and all these countries that have tion affiliated with his church in Rwanda. suffered;' he said. "We have a common goal." On Sept. 18, Freedom House will hold Gun grew up in Rozyszcze, a small its annual fundraising dinner at Bentley's town in eastern Poland. The Nazis forced Restaurant in West Bloomfield, where the him, his parents, brother and sister into a theme will be "Never Again." Ngizehayo ghetto. Gun, who was 11 at the time, and his brother managed to escape while his sister, parents and extended family were killed during mass executions. Gun and his brother survived by living in the forest, constantly on the run, with help from a Christian Czechoslovakian farmer. After liberation, the brothers lived in a dis- placed persons camp where Gun's brother met his wife. Her uncle lived in the Detroit area, and so at age 13 Gun arrived here. Current and former Freedom House residents will attend the dinner, which will include a pre-glow reception with an opportunity to meet honorary com- mittee members and residents. A stroll- ing dinner and entertainment provided Cyprien and Claudette Ngizehayo by Freedom House residents will follow. Special to the Jewish News C A24 September 11 • 2008 Di Jack Gun: "We have a common goal" "What makes this event so special is that those attending will be able to meet some of the residents, the very people that their generous donations are supporting," Roberts said. "Meeting the residents first- hand will truly be the highlight of the eve- ning — it makes giving that much more powerful. Their courage and stories of survival promise to be life-transforming!' In addition to Wiesel (who cannot attend due to a schedule conflict), the dinner's honorary committee includes Debbie Dingell, vice chair of the General Motors Foundation, and several promi- nent members of the local Jewish com- munity: Dr. Charles Silow, clinical psychologist with Jewish Home and Aging Services; Kari Alterman, regional leadership direc- tor for the American Jewish Committee; Betsy Kellman, Michigan regional director of the Anti-Defamation League; and Jodee Fishman Raines, former director of the Detroit-based Jewish Fund and currently vice president of programs for the Erb Family Foundation in Birmingham. Raines joined the committee because, "Freedom House is so underfunded. Its astounding how a program like this can do the work its doing and not get the recogni- tion it deserves and the funding it needs." Many members of Raines' family per- ished in the Holocaust, and she evoked the United States' history of turning away Jewish refugees in talking about the need to support Freedom House's work. "I think Jewish people can definitely identify with people trying to flee perse- cution and genocide," she says. "It's that vivid picture of boats coming here and being turned away and those people facing certain death. "I'm proud to know the Jewish community is play- ing a really strong role in speaking out against what's happening in Darfur," she added. El Joee Raines The Freedom House annual dinner will be held Thursday, Sept.18, with a 6 p.m. pre-glow reception and 7 p.m. dinner at Bentley's Restaurant, 5586 Drake Road, West Bloomfield. Tickets are $100 general admission, $125 with pre-glow. For information, contact (313)964-4320 or www.freedomhousedetroit.org .