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theJEWISHNEWS.com

» Portraits of Honor Local Holocaust survivors' bios
accessible online; "passports" ready for visitors. See page 16.

» Local Honorees

JCPA Plenum in Detroit celebrates Mayor
Dave Bing and Mark Davidoff for their work. See page 18.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

metro

» Art Fairs Our list will help you make the most out of this
summer's area art fairs. See page 50.

Zita Weber of West Bloomfield, a Czech
child survivor, with her "passport"

>> cover story

Touching

s

Out-state Scouts learn about
the Holocaust firsthand
from survivors.

Allen Olender I Special to the Jewish News

T

Arrowman Kevin Neff from Gaylord escorts Holocaust
survivor Jack Weinberger of Oak Park into the capitol.

he bus, accompanied by two cars, pulled
into the Department of Military and
Veterans Affairs' National Guard Armory in
Lansing about 9:30 p.m. April 18, after a three-hour
ride from Traverse City. In these sparse surround-
ings, a life-changing 24 hours began for 25 Scouts
and 18 adult leaders, all members of the Indian
Drum Lodge of the Order of the Arrow.
These young men were chosen for a special
task — providing the honor guard and escort-
ing Metro Detroit Holocaust survivors into the
rotunda of the state capitol for the annual Holocaust
Commemoration Ceremony. None of the Scouts are
Jewish. Few had even met Jewish people. Not one had

ever met a Holocaust survivor.
For the last nine years, Metro Detroit Jewish
Scouts have done the honors, but the numbers had
been dwindling. A conversation with Susan Herman,
director of the Lansing-based Michigan Jewish
Conference, who plans the annual capitol event, and
a number of Detroit Scout leaders led to choosing
Scouts from a different venue, one that offered a
unique challenge and an incredible opportunity
They decided that for this year's ceremony, Scouts
would be invited from rural out-state communities.
The opportunity to introduce the survivors

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

.adam Secretary F

Former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright reflects on her family history
and lessons for today's world.

Jackie Headapohl I Managing Editor

ormer U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
recalls the first time she had an inkling of her
Jewish heritage, around the same time she was
being vetted for the office she would hold from 1997-
2001.
Since she became a public figure in 1993 as U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations, Albright, a native
of Prague, Czechoslovakia, began to receive letters from
Czechs claiming to know her family, but none of the
names, towns or
years matched up —
not until 1996, when
she received a letter
from a person who
had known her fam-
ily and remembered

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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