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April 05, 2012 - Image 15

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2012-04-05

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

A Time For Honors

Wishing Everyone a
Healthy and Happy Passover!

Layne Sakwa

Holocaust expert Sidney Bolkosky
to get UM-Dearborn's highest award.

Bill Carroll

Contributing Writer

F

amous for his longtime work
with Holocaust survivors,
Sidney Bolkosky has earned
an award with a title befitting of
his contributions to the Detroit
area: Distinguished Career With
Metropolitan Impact Award.
Bolkosky, 68, of Oak Park, will
receive the honor
from the University
of Michigan-
Dearborn during
the school's com-
mencement pro-
gram April 29.
He spent nearly
Sidney
40 years there as
Bolkosky
a professor in the
Social Sciences
Department. He discontinued teach-
ing four classes at the end of last year,
although his retirement is officially
effective in April. He also directed the
school's honors program for 25 years.
But Bolkosky continues as direc-
tor of the Voice/Vision Holocaust
Survivor Oral History Archive he
launched at the university, a compila-
tion of survivor testimonies from
around the world.
He describes his work at the
archive, which has won international
recognition and acclaim and now
includes more than 300 testimonies,
as an effort to preserve the memory
of the Holocaust so that the world
will never forget.

'Career-Long Contribution'
The award honors a UM-Dearborn
faculty member "who has made
a career-long contribution to the
improvement of Southeastern
Michigan ... with a substantial and
sustained impact on the region."
Ken Kettenbeil, executive director
of communications and market-
ing at the school, says, "This is the
first such award ever bestowed by
UM-Dearborn, and it's appropriate
that Professor Bolkosky is the recipi-
ent!'
"I like retirement and I've been
able to spend more time with my
family:' said Bolkosky, "but I miss
teaching and the people at the uni-
versity"
However, his life has been a bit
hectic in the first part of this year,

attending parties, receiving honors
and giving lectures.
Bolkosky's wife, Lori, said the
school gave him a "fabulous retire-
ment party in February, with about
200 people attending."
As a prelude to the upcoming
award ceremony, he will be further
honored for his accomplishments
by UM-Dearborn at a community
celebration from 7-8:30 p.m. April 10,
at the Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills.

Jewish Senior Life Honor
On April 26, at 8 p.m., he'll receive
another honor, this time from Jewish
Senior Life of Metropolitan Detroit at
the Program for Holocaust Survivors
and Families at Handleman Hall in
the Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield. This is in conjunction
with a showing of the film Reuniting
the Rubins as part of the Lenore
Marwil Jewish Film Festival.
Bolkosky also is giving a three-part
seminar on the Holocaust for area
high school teachers, and he recently
delivered a lecture at the Plymouth
Public Library on the 1983 contro-
versial historical book Waterland by
Graham Swift.
A native of Rochester, N.Y.,
Bolkosky came to Detroit in 1965 to
get a master's degree in European
history at Wayne State University.
He returned in 1972 to take the
UM-Dearborn job.
Bolkosky can't pinpoint exactly
what got him so interested in the
Holocaust. As far as he knows, he had
no relatives among the 6 million Jews
wiped out in Europe by the Germans
before and during World War II.
"I got interested when I read a
book about German Jews, then I
served on a Holocaust-related com-
mittee of the Jewish Community
Relations Council here he explains.
Through the years, Bolkosky has
visited survivors in Israel and Europe
to audiotape their testimonies before
they come to the archive for filmed
testimony.
Bolkosky's service to the university
will always be remembered through
creation of the Austin-Bolkosky
Scholarship Fund, which also honors
retired U-M historian Erik Austin.
It's a four-year scholarship at $1,000
per year to a freshman in the Social
Sciences Department. El

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April 5 ' 2012

15

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