views
for openers
Coming Full Circle
O
rected their lives in
n Saturday, Aug. 18,
Canada, which came to
I traveled by train
include children Sylvia
out of Windsor to
and Henry, six grandchil-
Toronto for the funeral of my
dren, their spouses and
99-year-old cousin Harry Chil
12 great-grandchildren.
Zborowski.
Grandson Marc Kestenberg at his May 17 wedding in
Each new addition to
I settled into my seat for
Toronto with his grandfather Harry Chil Zborowski
the family helped lift the
the 5:45 evening departure,
Alan Muskovitz
veil of darkness that had
relieved that I was going to
ily’s story of survival, also of escaping
accompanied them to their new
arrive Sunday on time to pay
the heavy hand of the Russians.
homeland. Sadly, in 1994, at age
my final respects to the most
In the early 1980s, many of Maya’s
72, Bela succumbed to health
amazing man I had ever met.
family members, aided by smugglers,
issues associated with her debili- traveled a perilous route by horseback
Then it hit me.
tating rheumatoid arthritis.
The instant I heard the methodical
and foot from Kabul, Afghanistan, to
I saw Harry at simchahs, and phone
clickety-clack of wheels on rails, I had
Mashaad, Iran, to escape the violence
calls during the High Holidays and
a haunting vision. In that moment, it
and persecution of the Russian inva-
birthdays warmed my heart when I
came rushing back to me that it was
sion. Despite providing a safe haven,
heard that sweet and gentle Eastern
a fateful decision made on a train by
Iran treated her family as second-class
European accent. I’ve never met
Harry over seven decades prior that
citizens. Like Harry and Bela, Canada
another human being who gave me so
changed the course of his life.
would eventually provide them with a
much joy just by the sound of his or her
Having just been liberated from the
new beginning.
voice. Harry had that profound impact
camps, Harry and his fiancée, Bela,
Maya is studying to become a social
on everyone; whether you knew him for worker in London, Ontario; her life’s
were making their way to safety in
a lifetime or over a brief introduction.
Czechoslovakia when, despite possess-
journey influencing her desire to “help
Harry survived and thrived. He was an
ing proper identification, they were
people in despair who face barriers
inspiration.
arrested by Russian soldiers and forced
because of social and political injustice.”
And he spoiled us. He made us
to board a train for deportation to
But it wasn’t until a course she took
believe he would live forever. He actu-
Siberia.
at the University of Western Ontario
ally drove his car to his 99th birthday
Having lost so much to the atrocities
that her career path became solidified.
party a few weeks ago. After the celebra- It had a life-altering effect on her, one
of the Holocaust, Harry and Bela were
tion, he suffered congestive heart fail-
willing to risk their lives to avoid what
she said that “remains engrained in her
ure. Weakened, he knew he was at the
would certainly be another nightmare
head; it doesn’t leave.” In an extraordi-
end of his improbable life and he closed nary revelation, Maya informed me that
in Russia.
his eyes on Aug. 17, passing peacefully
In her eulogy, my cousin Sylvia
the course she had taken was about the
on his terms that he so richly deserved.
described how her parents jumped
Holocaust and the camps at Auschwitz.
While I planned to write about Harry It seems my train ride and this story
from that train. “First my mom into the
on the train ride home, what I could
darkness; then an hour later when the
had both come full circle.
never have predicted was that the
guards changed again, my dad jumped.
Happy, healthy new year. •
passenger next to me, Maya, a young
Then they walked alone, along the iso-
Muslim woman of Afghan decent,
lated railway tracks calling each other’s
Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voice-over/acting tal-
would offer a surreal arc to my narra-
names. It took them a full day to find
ent, speaker, emcee and an occasional guest
host on the Mitch Albom Show on WJR AM
tive. After explaining what had brought
each other.”
me to Toronto, she shared her own fam- 760. Visit his website at laughwithbigal.com.
Eventually, Harry and Bela resur-
As the parent of a rising senior in
high school, I appreciate hearing the
perspective of other students who
are about to start applying to college
(“Under Pressure,” Aug. 23, page 12).
It is, in fact, a time of intense pressure
— for students and parents alike.
Because the article focuses on teen
mental health, I was surprised that it
included the GPAs of the featured stu-
dents. That number is in many ways
a primary source of stress (along with
and SAT and ACT score) — a basis
of comparison between one student
and the next. To include the GPAs of
the students seems to go against the
message of the article. Perhaps the
Scott Marcus is a commercial
real estate developer, a franchise
owner of Orangetheory Fitness, and
a Hebrew Free Loan Board member.
“What intrigues me about HFL is
the scope,” Scott said. “For
instance, a loan for a used car
allows the borrower to work, which
supports a family, helps keep a
business running and improves a
community. It’s meaningful.”
When Scott’s father passed
away after a brief battle with
cancer, Scott and his family
established the Henry F. Marcus,
D.O. Medical School Education
Fund, under the umbrella of the
William Davidson Jewish College
Loan Program. The fund benefits
medical students who wish to
follow the path of osteopathy and
pediatrics in general practice.
“My father actually began as a
pharmacist, switched to medicine
and genuinely loved it,” Scott said.
“He was proud that he served families
through 40 years and three gener-
ations. Young patients grew up and
brought their own children to him.”
Scott says HFL has touched the
lives of borrowers for generations,
in much the same way as his father
worked directly with patients in his
practice.
“When I work with HFL, I think of
how many facets of people’s lives
we affect, and that speaks to me,”
Scott said. “It’s not much different
than my father’s philosophy. He
had medical students rotate through
his office, teaching them how to
listen and be there for patients.
“He was passionate about medicine
that touched people’s lives directly,
and I think he would be pleased to
support education for the next
wave of medical professionals.”
Click. Call. Give Now.
www.hfldetroit.org
248.723.8184
letters
Students Are More
Than Their Grades
Our Story
choice that the DJN made in includ-
ing the GPAs shows just how persis-
tent measurements like this are even
when we are trying to emphasize that
as parents and as a community we
believe our children are more than
their grades.
Robin Rosenbaum Rubenstein
West Bloomfield
The Case For Making
Iran’s Bad Year Worse
Regarding the Aug. 23 letter in the JN,
“Should Iran’s Bad Year Be Made Even
Worse?” (page 5).
Absolutely.
Should Iran obtain and use the
bomb, absolute and “terrible suffer-
ing” would certainly be inflicted on
the people of Iran.
Iran’s government is not only “anti-
Semitic and militantly anti-Israel,” it is
blatantly anti-American.
Iran’s government is the world’s
foremost incubator and implementor
of worldwide terror.
The Allies “deliberately inflicted
terrible suffering” on the Axis people
during World War II to destroy those
regimes.
The Iranian people installed and
supported their “current regime.”
Hopefully, the terrible suffering of
economic hardship will be the worst
price the people of Iran will have to
pay to rid the world of thee current
Iranian regime.
Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield
Health. A fresh start.
A good education.
The next great business idea.
Hebrew Free Loan gives interest-
free loans to members of our
community for a variety of
personal and small business
needs. HFL loans are funded
entirely through community
donations which continually
recycle to others, generating
many times the original value
to help maintain the lives of
local Jews.
6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301
Hebrew Free Loan Detroit
jn
@HFLDetroit
September 6 • 2018
5