Family Focus
440,10 .11,01601001 14100000. Ages II to 17
10407 North Fenton Road
Fenton, Michigan 48430
Professional dance, art and
www.campcopneconic.org
theatre instruction
combined with summertime
camp
Camp Copneconic is a YMCA camp located
near Flint. The dancers will enjoy spending time
in the midst of 450 acres overlooking beautiful
Lake Copneconic.
The camp will provide three well-balanced meals
and an evening snack.
Meant To Be
The campers will stay in spacious air-conditioned
rooms with convenient bath and shower facilities
located within their hallway.
Holocaust survivor, Jewish liberator
are reunited after 65 years.
The staff includes lifeguards
and a 24-hour nurse.
cal Aairfee
Swimming Canoeing Archery Arts & Crafts
Talent Show Nature Walks Horseback Riding
Games Climbing Tower And Much, Much More!
Located at
Camp Copneconic
Fenton, MI
With the Doerr's Performing Arts Camp
Master Class Workshops, Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Modern,
Musical Theatre, Lyrical, Hip Hop, Acting, Voice
"Inspiring Dancers Since 2004"
Faculty: Billy Larson, Scott McDonald, Joe Loera,
Tony Vitale, Sally Doerr, Nicole Doerr, Beth Perry,
Purple Rose Theatre, Sarah Savelli and more!
For more information call Sally, 734-612-3068
Survivor Eliezer Ayalon greets Samuel Klein, a U.S. Army veteran who
helped liberate him.
Sean Alpiner
jewish®edu staff
I
touched my ribs; I was waiting
to die, and you came in," Eliezer
Ayalon, 83, said to Samuel Klein,
86, during an emotional reunion April
30 at Fleischman Residence/Blumberg
Plaza in West Bloomfield.
After 65 years, the man who survived
five German concentration camps dur-
ing the Holocaust was finally able to
thank an American Jewish soldier who
helped liberate him in May 1945 from
the Ebensee camp in Austria.
"I traveled 6,000 miles and waited
65 years; why did it take so long [to
meet]?" asked Ayalon, who lives in
Jerusalem and was here to be honored
for his Holocaust education efforts by
the Program for Holocaust Survivors
and Families, a service of Jewish Senior
Life of Metropolitan Detroit, in coop-
eration with the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Farmington Hills.
When the two met, they embraced
with a long, emotional hug.
Ayalon recounted to those gathered
how he survived two camps in Poland
and three camps in Austria. He was the
youngest child in his family and the only
survivor. When the war ended, Ayalon
was 17 and weighed only 65 pounds.
Klein of Farmington Hills was
drafted in 1943 at age 21. He spoke of
liberating Ebensee.
"We didn't know what was going on
there,' he said. "We got a call to go to
the camp and when we arrived, I saw
all these skeletons walking around and
lying on the ground They were asking
for food, and at the time, all we had was
what was in our pockets, so we began
throwing them chewing gum and candy
until we were able to get supplies."
Ayalon recounted his mother's
words to him: "'Your life was meant to
be and if anyone has a chance to sur-
vive it's going to be you. You are going
to have a sweet life."
She then gave him a cup of honey
— a symbol of the sweet life she knew
he would have.
Through Ayalon's journey, this
became a very personal symbol of
hope. He carried this special cup with
him at all times. One day, a Nazi guard
saw he had the cherished possession
and attacked him, smacking his arm
so he would release it. Ayalon tried to
cling to the cup with all his might, but
the guard continued the attack until
the cup separated from his grasp.
Ayalon was left crying, not because
of the physical abuse he endured, but
because he lost the one and only tangible
keepsake his mother passed down to
him. Ayalon spent years after the war
searching for a cup that resembled the
cup his mother gave him. Though he lost
the cup, he never lost its message of hope.
After more than six decades, Ayalon
was able to look at Klein and say,"You are
my savior; you saved my life. I knew one
day I would meet one of these angels: ri
Sean Alpiner, 19, of Franklin is a freshman
at Oakland University.
Ian minirogi[wAl N
www.burnthefloordancerainriom
C) I
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Contact us at one of our two locations:
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May 6")
2010
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