Dan Michman to Present Public Lecture about the Ghettos

Dr. David Weinberg
Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies

As part of the continuing rela-
tionship between the Cohn-Haddow
Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne
State and the Holocaust Memorial
Center, the two organizations will
be co-sponsoring a public lecture
by Professor Dan Michman of Yad
Vashem and Bar-Ilan University in
Israel. The presentation will take place
on Wednesday, September 21 at 7:30
pm at the Holocaust Memorial Center.

The lecture, 'A New Perspective of
Jewish Ghetto During the Shoah" is
based on his recent publication, enti-
tled Fear of the Ostjude. The Emergence
of Jewish Ghettos During the Shoah
(Cambridge University Press 2010).
Professor Michman is Director
of the International Institute for
Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem
as well as a professor of Modern
Jewish History and the Chair of the
Arnold and Leona Finkler Institute
of Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan
University. He had published numer-

ous books and articles in a variety of
languages on the history of Dutch and
Belgian Jewry, Israeli society, and on
various aspects of the Shoah includ-
ing historiography, ghettos, religious
life, Jewish council and Jewish leader-
ship, Jewish refugees, and resistance.
Professor Michman has lectured exten-
sively throughout the United States,
Canada and Europe.
For more information, contact
Ruth Stern at 313.577.2679 or
cohnhaddowcenter@wayne.edu .

Dan Michman

From the Director

Well, it's that
time again — the
Annual Dinner
is fast approach-
ing. It seems like
just yesterday
that I arrived on
the threshold of
Stephen M. Goldman the 25th annual
dinner almost two years ago, and what
changes have taken place since that
milestone!
This year's dinner is shaping up
to be a very special event. Our hon-
orees, Lauren and Sam Bienenstock,
are longtime supporters of not just
the Holocaust Memorial Center, but
Jewish and secular charities throughout
the area.
The Bienenstocks are receiving well
deserved kovod, but there are four very

special women long-identified with the
HMC who will also be honored that
evening. The first Rabbi Charles H.
Rosenzveig Memorial Award will be
presented to Gail Susan Cohen, Helen
Rosenzveig, Selma Lahr Silverman,
and Feiga Weiss, for a combined
century of service to the Holocaust
Memorial Center.
It is most appropriate that we
present this award to these very special
women who have worked behind
the scenes to lubricate the wheels of
the inexorable growth of our HMC:
Gail, as tour and docent coordina-
tor for the hundreds of thousands
of schoolchildren who have come to
learn about the Holocaust; Helen, who
was the life-partner of our founder
and first Executive Vice President and
membership director; Selma, about

whom we cannot say enough, who as
Administrator has kept all of us on
track; and Feiga who has led the HMC
to create the finest Holocaust library in
any Holocaust Center. We would not
be where we are today if it were not for
these fine and dedicated women. We
are lucky to have them.
In addition to presenting these
honors, we will be introduced to
Tuvia Bielski, intrepid leader of the
famous band of partisans who fought
in the woods of Belarus. To us, the
Bielski Partisans are hard-fighting,
brave and bold soldiers, but to our
speaker, Sharon Rennert, he was the
grandfather who snuck her candy
and bounced her on his knee. The
Bielski Partisans will be the subject
of our 2012 exhibit, In Our Hands: A
Personal Story of the Bielski Partisans.

The Annual Dinner is our premiere
fund-raising event and we ask for your
support. Think about purchasing an
ad in the annual journal in honor of
the Bienenstocks, or to express your
best wishes to Gail, Helen, Selma or
Feiga. Let them know that you ap-
preciate all that they have done and
all that they continue to do. Purchase
tickets or a table: a dinner ticket is
$200, or for $360 (double Chai) you
can come to the dinner, be listed on
the Scroll of Honor, and join us at the
private President's Reception prior to
the dinner.

Newsletter Editor & Coordinator:

Rebecca Swindler

Assistant Editors:

Izzy Durham
Andrew Fullett

A Siddur Comes Back to Its People

The HMC recently acquired
a very special prayer book which
once belonged to the Jewish people
of Wassenaar, a wealthy suburb of
The Hague in the Netherlands. The
exquisitely-illustrated prayer book is
bound in green leather with a metal
clasp. Dated 1735, it measures only
2" x 3." It contains the evening
prayer service with a daily calendar
for Sefirat Ha-Omer. The title page
notes that this volume was the prop-
erty of "Gittle...wife of...Yekel Weil
of Mannheim." Yaakov Yekel Weil
was a very prominent Jewish scholar
who served as Landesrabbiner (Head
of the Rabbinate) in Germany and
Switzerland.
The prayer book came to our
Center by way of Michigan resident
Ofer Barpal because he felt that our
Library Archive was the appropriate
home for this treasure. The prayer
book was given to him by his father,
Uri Barpal, who documented its his-
tory as follows:

I, Uri Barpal, am a member of Kibbutz
Ramat David in Israel. During the
Second World War, I served in the
British Army with the Jewish Brigade.
While stationed in the Dutch town of
Wassernaar, I gave a daily ride to a local
girl, a nurse, who worked in the nearby
hospital, as there was no public transpor-
tation at the time. Several months after
we first met, she asked me to come to her
home, where she gave me this siddur and
told me its story:
Her father was the mayor of Wassernaar.
When the Nazis gathered the local Jews
for deportation, the head of the Jewish
community asked for special permission
to personally bid good-bye to the non-
Jews left behind. When he reached this
girl, who was one of his daughter's best
friends, he gave her this siddur secretly
and whispered in her ear: "When the
day arrives that Jews return to this place,
please hand this siddur to the first Jew
you can fully trust, to safeguard it for
eternity"
We did a little research and found

that local survivor Sandra "Sunny"
Segal, nee Van Leeuwan, had rela-
tives in Wassenaar. The Yad Vashem
Database lists just a few Wassenaar
victims, many of them Van Leeuwens!
Acccording to Mrs. Segal's cousin,
who was born in Wassenaar after the
war, there are very few Jews left in
this once-thriving community. We
would like to dedicate this volume to
the martyrs of Wassenaar. May their
memory be blessed.

Contributors:

Dr. Stuart Falk
Stephen M. Goldman
Katharine Gorsuch
Gary Karp
Dr. Guy Stern
Rebecca Swindler
Dr. David Weinberg
Feiga Weiss
Daniel J. Zanella

Design & Layout:

Joshua Nowicki
Rebecca Swindler

The Holocaust Memorial Center
newsletter is printed quarterly.
Comments or questions about
this publication may be directed
to Rebecca at 248.553.2400, ext.
13.

Questions about the programs
and events described in this pub-
lication may be directed to Gail
Cohen at 248.553.2400, ext. 10.

2011 no.1

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