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NCJW Pop-Up
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Ride For The Living

Cycle tour in Poland adds missing pieces to a survivor’s story.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A

TOP TO BOTTOM: Arnie Berlin mounting his bicycle at
the start of the ride outside the fences at Auschwitz-
Birkenau; Arnie and Cheryl Berlin at Auschwitz-Birkenau
at the beginning of the ride; 8 Warszawska St., Nasielsk,
Poland – former home of Cheryl Berlin’s paternal
grandfather, Chiel Reingewertz, who was murdered in
Treblinka.

22

August 9 • 2018

jn

s she was growing up,
Cheryl Berlin’s father Saul
Raimi would tell her frag-
mented stories of his life growing
up in Mlawa, a small Polish town
a bit north of Warsaw. Her late
father would talk of the grandfa-
ther she never knew who died in
Treblinka and of his own survival
in Auschwitz.
The vague images of this past
came to life as Berlin and hus-
band, Arnie, avid cyclists from
Farmington Hills, rode with 200
others in the fifth annual Ride for
the Living (RFTL) June 26- July 1.
RFTL attracts participants from
all over the world, many second-
or third-generation survivors
traveling the 55-mile bike route
to symbolize the re-emergence of
Jewish life in Poland.
As they peddled the miles
between Auschwitz-Birkenau and
Krakow, the couple raised just
short of their $3,600 goal to bene-
fit the Krakow Jewish Community
Center. To supplement their
efforts, the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit is orga-
nizing a 34-mile satellite ride
Sunday, Aug. 26, that starts at the
Huntington Woods Recreational
Center, 26325 Scotia Road, and
finishes at Shed No. 5 in Detroit’s
Eastern Market, where the Jewish
Food Festival will be under way
(ride details below).
Opened in 2008, the Krakow
JCC supports a small but growing
Jewish population of 700 with a
preschool, Judaism classes, a syn-
agogue, a kosher café — and the
need is growing as more Poles are
only now beginning to discover
their Jewish heritage that had
been hidden for generations.
In addition to the ride, the
Berlins took some extra days to
tour Warsaw and visited Cheryl’s
father’s hometown of Mlawa and
the small town of Naselsk, where
her grandfather lived and ran a
scrap metal shop. Accompanied

by her sister and brother-in-law
from Nashville who also rode,
she located the address that once
housed this business as well as
the apartment complex where
her grandfather lived. Sadly, no
evidence of Jewish life remained
in Mlawa.
During the Holocaust, her
father, as a teen, had fake
Christian identification papers.
On precarious train trips back
and forth from Mlawa, he would
remove his yellow star to smuggle
food back to his family before
they were arrested and transport-
ed to Auschwitz.
Another memorable stop on
the trip was visiting the New
Jewish Cemetery in Krakow. Some
tombstones remained intact,
while others, long displaced
and removed from their original
gravesites by the Nazis, were
used to create the peripheral wall
around the cemetery. One par-
ticipant on the trip was a rabbi
whose great-grandfather was
a tombstone carver in Poland
before the war; he helped trans-
late the names.
“All those familiar Jewish
(surnames) were on these tomb-
stones, and it made this big world
seem smaller,” Cheryl said.
“All my life, I was told little piec-
es of my father’s life in Poland,”
said Cheryl, who is a member of
B’nai Israel Synagogue in West
Bloomfield and is the loan pro-
gram manager at Hebrew Free
Loan. “After this trip, I was able to
add more pieces to fit this puzzle
into place. It will be useful to me,
a second-generation survivor, as
I pick up the baton to retell my
father’s story of life and survival in
Poland to the next generations.” •

Cost for the 9 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 26, local
ride is $36; funds will be contributed to
the Krakow JCC. To register, call Dona
Stillman at (248) 833-2527 or go to
jewishdetroit.org/event/ng-satellite-ride-for-
the-living.

A Detroit elementary school will host a
pop-up store on Sunday, Aug. 12, funded
by the National Council of Jewish Women,
Michigan (NCJW|MI).
More than 600 low-income Detroit chil-
dren, who have been identified by 17 social
service agencies, will be able to shop at
Back 2 School for winter coats, clothing,
shoes, personal items, school supplies,
backpacks and books. Each child will be
teamed with one of 300-plus NCJW|MI vol-
unteers who will act as a personal shopper,
ensuring each gets the correct size clothing
items and age-appropriate school supplies.
In addition, parents and guardians will
be able to visit the Family Center where
United Way 211 and Legal Aid will offer
their services. A Health Fair sponsored by
the Jewish Community Relations Council/
AJC will also offer medical screenings and
health information.
“Our motivation for setting up this Back
2 School store is seeing the joy on these
children’s faces as they realize that they
will have all the necessary clothing and
supplies to start their school year suc-
cessfully,” said Sandi Matz, co-president of
NCJW|MI.
Approximately $180 provides clothing
and school supplies for each child. Some
of this money comes from NCJW|MI fun-
draising efforts and some from corporate
donors and charitable grants. More money
is always needed, however, and NCJW|MI
is inviting the community to sponsor a
child, with any donation amount welcome.
To donate or volunteer for the event go to
www.ncjwmi.org. •

New Israel
Program

Ameinu, in cooperation with Dror Israel,
the largest urban kibbutz movement in
Israel, is launching a new Israel program
called Urban Kibbutz Social Change. The
first cohort of the five-month program will
begin in February 2019 and is recognized
by Masa Israel Journey. Participants will
live communally in Haifa, volunteer in a
range of social action settings alongside
their Israeli counterparts, study Hebrew
and tour around Israel.
“The distancing of young American
Jews from Israel is well-documented, and
this program addresses that issue head
on,” said Ameinu President Kenneth Bob.
“By living and working side by side with
progressive Israelis who are making a
difference in their society, young liberal
American Jews will experience Israel with
all its challenges and complexities. This
will help the participants develop their
own connection to Israel and the people.”
Program and registration information is
available by going to www.
kibbutzprogramcenter.net •