Metro

VETERANS DAY

A Shabbat To Remember

Shaarey Zedek holds its first special service to honor military veterans.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

N

early 25 million military veterans live
across the United States, and today is
their day — Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
It marks the 92nd anniversary of the holiday,
which began as Armistice Day in 1918 to signify
the end of World War I. In 1953, the holiday
evolved into a day to honor veterans of all the
wars that have followed as well as military vets
who served in peacetime.
Many veterans organizations around the
country and local communities are hold-
ing commemoration ceremonies today, but
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield got
a head start by having a Veterans Shabbat last
month.
"A longtime member told me it was the
most memorable synagogue service she ever
attended:' said Linda Cohen of Franklin, who
co-chaired the event with Larry Berry of
Farmington Hills, a third-generation Shaarey
Zedek past president.
Cohen initiated the plan after attending a
similar, but smaller-scale service at a Reform
temple on Longboat Key in Florida last winter.
Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff at Shaarey Zedek gave
them the go-ahead, and Cohen collaborated
with Berry, a former Army captain. "They had
only 20 veterans at the Florida service, but we
brought together 60 vets at our service," she said.
Hebrew school students lined the middle
aisle, saluting the vets as they walked by wearing
their uniforms and many medals. The congrega-
tion also sang the songs of the various military
branches.
'All of this brought tears to the eyes of a
lot of vets and the people attending;' said Dr.
Robert Tam, 76, who was in the Navy in the
Korean conflict and who lives and practices in
Farmington Hills. "Many of us polished up our
medals in advance, and I was even able to put on
my full dress uniform. It was a beautiful service'
A program booklet listed the names of all
known Shaarey Zedek veterans, living and
deceased, ranging from Navy storekeeper
William Davidson, later an industrialist-phi-
lanthropist who died last year, to army private
first class Avern Cohn, now a federal judge, to
the highest-ranking officer Donald Schenk, 61,
of Troy. He fought in Desert Storm and Desert
Shield in the Gulf War and retired as an Army
brigadier general.
Delivering remarks on behalf of the vets, he
pointed out the "significance of being in the
military and serving our country; it was a very
emotional service for us and the congregation:

14 November 11 • 2010

One Medal Of Honor Winner
The booklet contained a full-page replica of a
memorial plaque at Clover Hill Park Cemetery
in Birmingham listing Shaarey Zedek veterans
known to have been killed in action in World
War II: Robert Blumberg, Mordechai Grossman,
Lawrence Hertzberg, Morton Silverman and
Raymond Zussman.
Zussman was Shaarey Zedek's only known
recipient of the nation's highest military decora-
tion, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Born
in Hamtramck, he later attended Central High
School and reached the Army rank of second
lieutenant. When U.S. tanks bogged down dur-
ing an assault on the Germans in France on
Sept. 12, 1944, Zussman, 27, jumped out and
ran around the area — under heavy enemy fire
— scouting the location of German troop and
machine gun positions, passing the information
to the American tanks for a successful advance.
He single-handedly killed 20 Germans and cap-
tured 92 more. Sadly, he died in another battle
nine days later.
Another high military honor, the Silver Star,
plus a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, were
awarded to Charles Perlman, now 91, a 46-year
resident of West Bloomfield, who has operated
a Southfield insurance agency for 60 years. To
forestall a German attempt to blow up a bridge
over the Alzette River in Luxembourg to keep
the Allies from advancing, Perlman, 23, an engi-
neer, ran out alone under heavy enemy machine
gun and artillery fire and severed the cords to
the explosives under the bridge.
"I later was shot in the hip, spent five weeks
in an English hospital, then returned to combat;
many of the wounded didn't go home, but went
back to fight:' he said. "We were pretty tough.
But the concentration camp inmates were a
terrible sight to see. We opened the gates to let
them out as we rushed through Germany to
meet the Russians:

Vietnam War Survivor
Dr. Paul Gold, 70, of Bloomfield Hills, with a
family practice in Waterford, earned a Silver
Star and Purple Heart in Vietnam. One of sev-
eral Detroit-area Jewish physicians stationed
there, he worked in the jungle, trying to stabilize
wounds.
"We provided emergency care, clamping
bleeding arteries, starting TVs, giving morphine
and calling helicopters to get the wounded to a
major military hospital:' Gold explained. "The
back of my armored personal carrier became
a M.A.S.H. unit on wheels. Our leader, Col.
George Patton II, son of the famous general, felt
his troops would have more confidence if they

knew the medics were close behind the line of
fire."
Gold got the Silver Star for running through
a minefield to treat three of his fellow medics
whose vehicles were blown up. Later wounded
in the stomach by rocket shrapnel, he said he
was saved by a fellow Michigan medic, Dr.
Arnold Leshman, later a West Bloomfield resi-
dent, who died last month. Gold returned to
action in a few days. He had learned to treat war
injuries at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio,
Texas, where "they shot goats and pigs with
weapons used in Vietnam and we practiced on
the destroyed tissue.
"I never rationalized my service in Vietrnan,"
he said. "I was not an anti-war activist; I just did
my job. When you see kids with arms and legs
blown off, you just want to help them. I felt good
that I contributed. The experiences made me
appreciate life more:'

Korea Was 'The Right Thing To Do'
Another controversial war was the Korean
conflict in the mid 1950s, where Tam served
in the Navy, at age 19, driving an ambulance
and helping to treat injuries. "Actually, I think
more of our men were injured in sports games
than in the war," he mused. "I feel the U.S.
involvement in Korea was the right thing to
do. Within the context of the period, it was a
correct decision because it was the first test
of the new United Nations resolution. And
remember, that war hasn't officially ended; it's
still a truce'
Tam later finished medical school and joined
the Army, spending 17 years at military bases
around the world, becoming a colonel. "Then
I thought, what's a nice Jewish boy running
around the globe doing this," he said. "My wife
and I returned home to raise four children."
Schenk, a Baltimore native, was a career
Army man, enlisting in 1971 and retiring
as a brigadier general at age 56 in 2004.
In 1991, after Iraq invaded Kuwait, he led
6,000 troops as a lieutenant colonel to help
drive Iraq forces back.
Schenk is now planning director for
General Dynamics in Sterling Heights
and a member of both Shaarey Zedek and
Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy.
For the program booklet, chairpersons
Cohen and Berry developed a perfect tribute
to the veterans honored at the Shabbat:
"This Shabbat is dedicated to the men and
women of our congregation who have nobly
served in the armed forces. These veterans
exemplified the ideals for which our nation
stands. We are indebted to them all:'

❑

Charles Perlman

Dr. Paul Gold

Dr. Robert Tam

Donald Schenk