Obituaries

Obituaries from page 53

SAMUEL S. TANENHAUS, 88, of

Southfield, died Dec. 23, 2009.
He was the former owner of the
Harvard Shops on Coolidge and 10
Mile Road and at Tel Twelve Mall in
Southfield.
Mr. Tanenhaus is survived
by his wife of 67 years, Anne
Tanenhaus; daughters and sons-
in-law, Lesley and Ted Schneider of
West Bloomfield, Paula and Dr. Bill
Anderson of Beverly Hills, Gayle
and Truman Timmis of Franklin;
grandchildren, Brett and Danielle
Todd, Niki and Ian Freed, Ryan,
Shelby, Jake and Stephanie Timmis;
great-grandchildren, Fiona and
Quinn Todd, Hayden and Sloane
Freed; sister, Eva Berk; brother,
Irving Tannenhaus; sisters-in-law,
Evelyn Tannenhaus and Lylian
Phillips.
He was the loving brother of the
late Joe Tannenhaus, the late Jean
Ehrlich and the late Clara Bielfield.
Interment at Machpelah
Cemetery. Contributions may be

made to Alzheimer's Association,
Detroit Area Chapter, 20300 Civic
Center Drive, Suite 100, Southfield,
MI 48076, www.alzgmc.org .
Arrangements by Ira Kaufman
Chapel.

SYLVIA TURKIN, 86, of

Farmington Hills, died Dec. 24, 2009.
She is survived by her son,
Thomas Turkin of Farmington
Hills; daughters and son-in-law,
Anita Turkin of Alexander, Va., Sara
and Jay Olshansky of Buffalo Grove,
Ill.; grandchildren, Jessica (Eric)
Mandell and Ricky Olshansky;
many loving nieces, nephews, other
family members and friends.
Mrs. Turkin was the beloved wife
of the late Ben Turkin
Interment at Machpelah
Cemetery in Ferndale.
Contributions may be made to
the American Cancer Society, to
Hadassah or to a charity of one's
choice. Arrangements by Dorfman
Chapel.

Champion Of Soviet Jewry

Washington/JTA — Micah Naftalin, a leader
in human rights activism on behalf of Soviet
Jews, died Dec. 23, 2009, in Washington, D.C.
Naftalin, 76, was national director of the
Union of Councils for Jews in the Former
Soviet Union (UCSJ), an independent grass-
roots human rights organization. Under his
leadership, UCSJ monitoring became the
principal source of primary data on religious
discrimination and, especially, anti-Semitic
and xenophobic hate crimes and propaganda
across the former Soviet Union, with special
emphasis on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
In 2007, he initiated, with cooperation from
the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Coalition
Against Hate, an unprecedented consortium of
30 religious freedom and human rights orga-
nizations from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,
pledged to provide cooperative activism and
monitoring of hate crimes.
He served as chief counsel and deputy direc-
tor of the U.S. House of Representatives' Select
Committee on Government Research and
as a senior policy analyst with the National

Academy of Sciences. In 1982, he was appoint-
ed deputy director and, later, acting director
of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, where
he served for five years. He regularly briefed
U.S. officials on anti-Semitism and the human
rights situation in the former Soviet Union.
In 1989, Naftalin helped organize the USSR's
first human rights conference. A year later, he
presided over the founding of the Russian-
American Bureau on Human Rights, the first
Western human rights organization ever regis-
tered in the Soviet Union.
"He was an inspiration to all activists who
are concerned about the persecution of Jews
throughout the world and specifically those in
the former Soviet Union'," said Gideon Aronoff,
president & CEO of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant
Aid Society).
"His abiding concern for the security of Jews
there — and his deep humanitarian impulse
to bring transformation and reform to this area
so that it becomes a democratic, tolerant and
pluralistic society — was unmatched. He will
be sorely missed:" I 1

worth

A life well lived

A tradition well served

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