6 | AUGUST 17 • 2023 

1942 - 2023

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

To make a donation to the 
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
FOUNDATION
go to the website
www.djnfoundation.org

The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) 

is published every Thursday at 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical 

postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and 

additional mailing offices. 

Postmaster: send changes to: 

Detroit Jewish News, 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334

MISSION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will be of service to the Jewish community. The Detroit Jewish 
News will inform and educate the Jewish and general community to preserve, protect and sustain the Jewish 
people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel.

VISION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will operate to appeal to the broadest segments of the greater 
Detroit Jewish community, reflecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the 
morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
32255 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 205,
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248-354-6060
thejewishnews.com

 
 
Publisher
The Detroit Jewish 
News Foundation

| Board of Directors:
 Chair: Gary Torgow
 Vice President: David Kramer 
 Secretary: Robin Axelrod
 Treasurer: Max Berlin
 Board members: Michael J. Eizelman 
 Larry Jackier, Jeffrey Schlussel, 
 Mark Zausmer
 
 
 Executive Director:
 Marni Raitt 
 Senior Advisor to the Board: 
 Mark Davidoff
 Alene and Graham Landau Archivist Chair: 
 Mike Smith
 Founding President & Publisher Emeritus: 
 Arthur Horwitz
 Founding Publisher 
 Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory

 

 Editorial 
 Director of Editorial: 
 Jackie Headapohl
jheadapohl@thejewishnews.com
Contributing Editors: 
David Sachs, Keri Guten Cohen
Staff Reporter: 
Danny Schwartz 
dschwartz@thejewishnews.com
Editorial Assistant: 
Sy Manello
smanello@thejewishnews.com 
Digital Manager:
Elizabeth King 
eking@thejewishnews.com 

Contributing Writers:
Nate Bloom, Rochel Burstyn, 
Suzanne Chessler, Shari S. Cohen, 
Louis Finkelman, Samantha Foon, 
Yevgeniya Gazman, Stacy Gittleman, 
Esther Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis, 
Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, 
Alan Muskovitz, Karen Schwartz, 
Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein, 
Nathaniel Warshay, Julie Smith Yolles, 
Ashley Zlatopolsky 

 Advertising Sales 
Director of Advertising: Keith Farber
kfarber@thejewishnews.com
Senior Account Executive: 
Kathy Harvey-Mitton
kmitton@thejewishnews.com 

| Business Office
 Director of Operations: Amy Gill
 agill@thejewishnews.com
 Operations Manager: Andrea Gusho 
 agusho@thejewishnews.com
 Operations Assistant: Ashlee Szabo 
 Circulation: Danielle Smith
 Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner

| Production By 
 Farago & Associates
 Manager: Scott Drzewiecki 
 Designers: Kaitlyn Iezzi, Kelly Kosek, 
 Deborah Schultz, Michelle Sheridan 

PURELY COMMENTARY

city rich in 1,000 years of history, 
including over 700 years of Jewish 
life. 
To say that there is a Jewish 
revival in Krakow may be an 
overstatement. The interest in 
the Jewish story of Kazimierz as 
well as investment in the Jewish 
quarter of the city is mostly due to 
Stephen Spielberg’s film Schindler’s 
List, which was filmed there. The 
Schindler factory, now a museum, 
stands on the eastern part of town. 
It seems that throughout Poland 
there is a phantom Jewish cultural 
existence with Jewish festivals in 
many Polish towns that no longer 
have any Jews living there. Why, 
you might ask, is there such a fas-
cination with Jewish culture from a 
Polish population that had actively 
and apparently enthusiastically 
helped eradicate most of its Jews 
during the Holocaust? 
Our Polish tour guide, one of our 
Hebrew students, agreed that even 
though the Jews were only about 10% of 
the whole Polish population before the 
war, they were an important part of the 

cultural landscape of Poland. After so 
many centuries of Jewish life in Poland, 
Jews left a mark in the overall Polish 
cultural experience. Eliminating the 
Jewish population left an ethnic void 
they are still trying to fill. Please do not 

assume that filling the void comes 
from a love of Jews. Antisemitism 
is still alive and well in Poland, and 
the current government continues 
to make a great effort to expunge 
from their history any culpability 
in the murdering of its Jews during 
WWII. 
Even in light of such antisemi-
tism in Poland and parts of Eastern 
Europe, the Jewish community, 
through the JCC Krakow, its donors, 
(many of whom are from the United 
States), and the non-Jews who 
wish to be associated with the JCC, 
opened their hearts and their hands 
to the war-torn Ukrainian refugees, 
offering support and safety, living by 
our sacred teachings of giving help 
and charity to those who are not in 
a position to help themselves. 

 

Avishay Hayut is a retired physical 

therapist who was born in Israel and lives 

in Ann Arbor. He is a co-author of The Ones Who 

Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the 

Holocaust and has been involved in speaking about 

the book to help combat bigotry and antisemitism. 

To visit or donate to the JCC Krakow, visit www.

friendsofjcckrakow.org. 

continued from page 4

Ukrainian refugees 
wait to gain entrance 
to the JCC to pick up 
food.

