jews d
in
the
Survivors Gathering
This year’s
conference
in Israel
inspired many
Detroit-based
attendees.
Esther Allweiss
Ingber
Contributing Writer
TOP LEFT: At the Knesset are
Dr. James and Suzanne Sondheimer of
West Bloomfield, Esther Ingber of Oak
Park, Eva Kraus of West Bloomfield
and Sandra Silver of Southfield.
TOP RIGHT: Miryam and Jack Gun with
their family. BOTTOM RIGHT:
At the Dan Jerusalem Hotel: Esther
Allweiss Ingber of Oak Park, Fred
Ferber of Orchard Lake and Dr. James
Sondheimer of West Bloomfield.
28
December 7 • 2017
A
cherished memory for
me from 1983 was being
with my late father, Zyga
Allweiss, at the first American
Gathering of Holocaust
Survivors in Washington, D.C.
The camaraderie and connec-
tion people experienced were
incredible.
I didn’t know until recently
that survivors and their
descendants continue to meet.
Learning last winter that the
29th international confer-
ence would be held Nov. 5-8 in
Israel — which I first visited in
1975 — I made arrangements
to attend at the Dan Jerusalem
Hotel on Mt. Scopus.
The World Federation of
Jewish Child Survivors of the
Holocaust & Descendants
sponsored Am Yisrael Chai
17, in cooperation with
Kindertransport Association,
Dorot HaHemshech, YESH
and Generations of the Shoah
International.
This year’s conference
attracted 352 people from
across the world, including
135 survivors and spouses. The
Israel location was especially
nice for those with Israeli rela-
tives. Survivor Jack and Miryam
Gun of West Bloomfield
enjoyed another visit with
his cousin, Avi Dichter, chair
of the government’s Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee.
The Guns, 16-time attendees,
brought their son, Sam, and
grandchildren, Maxwell and
Laurel.
Survivor David Kahan, who
went to the gathering in Berlin,
was joined this year by two
sons, Douglas and Jeff.
“The conference location in
Israel was important, and we
agreed with our dad that it was
a good idea for my brother and
me to become more involved
with this organization,” said Jeff
Kahan. The family owns a Troy-
based company.
“This conference was extra
special, being that it was held
in Israel,” said Sandra Silver of
Southfield. She’s attended five
conferences. “I was able to visit
family members, some of whom
I haven’t seen in 20 years.”
The daughter of survivors,
Silver belongs to the second
generation — referred to as
2Gs. They were 154 strong at
the conference, while 3Gs num-
bered 36. Silver is active with
CHAIM, a Metro Detroit-based
second-generation organiza-
tion. Founding President Dr.
Charles Silow of Huntington
Woods, a psychologist, also
directs Jewish Senior Life’s
Program for Holocaust
Survivors and Families in West
Bloomfield. At the conference,
Silow led a panel of 2Gs from
Israel, Mexico, Sweden and
Croatia, and another session
on the effects of aging on sur-
vivors.
CHAIM board members from
West Bloomfield, Eva Kraus
and Suzanne Sondheimer, with
husbands Jerry Kraus and Dr.
James Sondheimer, are veter-
ans of multiple conferences.
The friendly CHAIM contingent
dined with close friends from
outside Michigan.
“This conference has become
sort of a family reunion, a bond
of friendship and community
for people of like and com-
mon bonds,” said survivor Fred
Ferber of Orchard Lake. He and
his wife, Miriam, have attended
25 conferences. Their daughter,
Annette, and her boyfriend,
Gerry, joined them in Israel.
After eating our fill of the
hotel’s delicious Israeli and
Western-style cuisine, we
heard stimulating speakers
at the conference plenaries.
Our workshops in English or
Hebrew sometimes targeted a
specific generation. Survivors
discussed, for example: “How
are my experiences during the
Holocaust still affecting my life
today?”
During Bella Rubin’s memoir-
writing session, my eyes misted
recalling the search with Dad
for his mother Esther’s remains
in Poland.
We visited the Knesset,
Israel’s law-making body, where
Marc Chagall’s colorful tapes-
tries enhance a spacious recep-
tion area. The assembly cham-
ber’s back wall resembles the
Western Wall and has a portrait
of Theodor Herzl, the Zionist
visionary.
Touring Israel’s Holocaust
museum Yad Vashem was very
special. Pages of Testimony
submitted for people killed in
the Shoah are stored in the Hall
of Names. Above us was a rising
crescendo of victims’ photos.
The Children’s Memorial is a
dark space where mirrors end-
lessly reflect memorial candles.
I thought about Dad’s little
sister, Frimcha, who poignantly
asked him, “Why do I have to
die today?”
Meanwhile, Silver and Eva
Kraus were among attendees
who had a bat/bar mitzvah
ceremony at the Kotel. A festive
lunch followed.
“It was above anything I
could imagine,” Kraus said.
I enjoyed seeing Israel again
and meeting “people with simi-
lar backgrounds from all over
the country and from all over
the world,” as Silow put it.
For Suzanne Sondheimer,
“the highlight of each confer-
ence is singing and dancing the
hora with the survivors.”
That we did!
Next year in Florida. •
jn
SEE