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The Sisterhoods of both Temple Israel and Hartford Memorial Baptist Church have
future plans for a visit to the Charles Wright African American Museum together
during July.
Coming Together
Interfaith group tours
Holocaust Memorial Center.
Gail Katz
Special to the Jewish News
A
bout 25 women from Temple
Israel in West Bloomfield and
Hartford Memorial Baptist
Church in Detroit came together on Sunday,
April 26, for an interfaith experience at the
Holocaust Memorial Center.
We were taken on a 90-minute tour of
the center by our outstanding guide, Alan
Eidelman. He explained that the building
we were in was not a museum but a memo-
rial for the almost 7 million Jews that were
murdered by the Nazis, and to honor the
Christians and Muslims who helped to save
some members of Jewish communities dur-
ing the 1930s and 1940s.
As we stood in front of the eternal flame
and the wall that lists the numbers of mur-
dered Jews, Eidelman explained that we
were there to honor the dead.
At the end of our tour, we had the plea-
sure of hearing George Erdstein tell us
40
May 21 • 2015
JN
about his personal family story. His grand-
parents were born in Poland, immigrated
to Vienna and perished in a concentration
camp in Belarus. His parents were able to
obtain visas to the United States and got
George, who was an infant, out of Vienna
and into New York in 1939.
It was a difficult and very painful journey
through the Holocaust Memorial Center,
seeing what hate can do if we don't stand
up and speak out. It felt so powerful for
Temple Israel and Hartford Memorial
Baptist Church sisters to take this tour
together and better understand history and
its challenges. We all need to grapple with
our past in order to increase respect and
understanding for one another as Jews and
African Americans.
The Rev. Elaine Thomas, a member of
Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, said
the tour was a very special bonding experi-
ence for our Jewish and African American
sisters, and that we must never forget our
painful pasts.
❑
U-M's Frankel Institute announces
its 2015-2016 Fellows.
W
Sheffield, "Thinking Outside
hat happens when a
mezuzah becomes
the City Walls: Philosophy,
a museum artifact?
Geography and the Radicalism
What did Menachem Mendel
of Judaic Thought?'
• Kirsten Fermaglich, Michigan
Schneerson have in common with
Abraham Joshua Heschel?
State University, "A
How has the biblical King
Rosenberg by Any Other
Name?'
David been reinterpreted
by Israeli politics?
• Shaul Kelner,
The answers to these
Vanderbilt University,
and many other fasci-
"Strategic Sacralization
in American
nating questions will be
Jewish Politics: The
explored in 2015-16 when
fellows of the Frankel
Contradictions of
Jeffrey A bt
Institute for Advanced
Cultural Mobilization
Judaic Studies at the
in the American Soviet
University of Michigan
Jewry Movement."
• Miriamne Krummel,
gather around the theme
of "Secularization/
University of Dayton,
I
Sacralization."
"The Medieval
Established through
Postcolonial Jew: In and
a financial contribution
Out of Time."
• Michael Lowy,
from the Jean and Samuel
Frankel Jewish Heritage
National Center for
Foundation, the Frankel
Scientific Research,
Ariel May se
Institute provides annual
"Secularization/
fellowships for scholars
Sacralization in Jewish-
and artists around the
German Culture: Kafka,
Benjamin, Bloch, Fromm."
world to conduct research on a
• Ariel Mayse, Harvard
given theme.
University, "Expanding the
With the goal of advancing
Jewish studies globally, it remains
Boundaries of Holiness:
the only program of its kind at
Conceptions of the Sacred in
a public university in the United
Modern Hasidic Spirituality."
• Eva Mroczek, Indiana
States.
Additionally, the institute offers
University, "The Other David:
lectures, symposia, art exhibi-
Between the Tanach and the
Palmach."
tions and musical performances
to the public.
• Scott Spector, University of
The 2015-2016 Frankel
Michigan, (Head Fellow),
Institute fellows and their fields
"The 'Secularization Question':
of research are:
Germans, Jews and the
• Jeffrey Abt, Wayne State
Historical Understanding of
Modernity."
University, "Religious
Ceremonials/Museum Artifacts:
• Guy Stroumsa, Hebrew
Rethinking Jewish Ritual
University and University of
Objects."
Oxford, "The Secularized Study
• Efrat Bloom, University of
of the Abrahamic Religions in
Michigan, "Walter Benjamin's
the 19th Century."
Secular Prayer!'
• Genevieve Zubrzycki, University
• Marc Caplan, New York
of Michigan, "Resurrecting
University, "The Weight of an
the Jew: Philosemitism,
Epoch: Yiddish Modernism
Pluralism and Secularism in
and German Modernity in the
Contemporary Poland."
Weimar Era."
• Jessica Dubow, University of
❑