Washtenaw Jewish News Presort Standard In this issue… c/o Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor U.S. Postage PAID 2939 Birch Hollow Drive Ann Arbor, MI Do'ikayt: Looking National Ann Arbor, MI 48108 Permit No. 85 Washtenaw for Library Rose of Israel page 7 page 10 page 16 March 2021 Adar/Nissan 5781 Volume XX Number 7 FREE EMU Jewish Studies presents Mira Raoul Wallenberg and the War Awad: A Concert/Conversation Refugee Board Martin B. Shichtman, special to the WJN Kelsey Robinette Keeves, special to the WJN astern Michigan University’s Cen- and culture — performing music; appear- ebecca Erbelding, a historian, archi- lenberg, the United States, and the myth of ter for Jewish Studies presents Mira ing in television, theater, and film; creat- vist, and curator at the United States a plan,” will explore Wallenberg’s work on EAwad in a concert and conversation ing visual installations. In 2009, however, RHolocaust Memorial Museum, will behalf of the War Refugee Board in Buda- on Sunday, March 7 at 3 p.m. she exploded onto the international scene be delivering the 31st David W. Belin Lec- pest, Hungary as revealed by United States when, representing Israel at the Eurovision government records. Song Contest, she joined her longtime friend Raoul Wallenberg, one of and frequent collaborator, Achinoam Nini the most famous Holocaust- (known outside of Israel as Noa), to perform era rescuers, was only 32 years “There Must Be Another Way,” the first time old when he was arrested and any Israeli entry included Arabic lyrics. She disappeared in January 1945, is among the actors in the hit Israeli televi- 10 years after graduating from sion series Arab Labor and has even been a the University of Michigan. participant in Israel’s version of Dancing “My goal is to restore the con- With the Stars. text of Budapest, the context of Mira Awad is also a forceful activist for Washington, the relationships women’s rights, for equal citizenship for between all these events and Palestinians living in Israel, for a two-state people, and to explain how the solution, and for environmental awareness. chaos of the Holocaust and the Her eloquent advocacy for dialogue and war limited the possibility of Mira Award co-existence, for peace and solidarity, has carrying out any preconceived Singer, songwriter, actress, artist, and brought considerable praise (and some criti- Raoul Wallenberg Rebecca Erbelding plan for his rescue work,” ex- content creator, Mira Awad has long been cism) across the political spectrum. She calls ture in American Jewish Affairs virtually on plained Erbelding. a major figure in Israeli and Palestinian life her music Arabic Fusion, a combination of March 16, 2021. Her lecture, “Raoul Wal- Her book, Rescue Board: The Untold Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 New leader of Tucson’s Holocaust museum is a genocide survivor herself Phyllis Braun, originally for the JTA/Arizona Jewish Post he Holocaust museum in Arizona’s Arizona. second-largest city has tapped a Jew- The COVID pandemic has severely cur- Tish survivor of an African genocide as tailed access to the museum, and its typi- its new leader. cal stream of non-Jewish visitors, especially The board of directors at the Jewish His- schoolchildren on class trips, has stopped. tory Museum/Holocaust History Center in Some programming has moved online in Tucson unanimously selected Gugulethu a shift that Moyo described as a “great op- Moyo in November to become its executive portunity and innovation” laced with uncer- director, making her likely the first Jew of tainty. color to lead a major Jewish museum in the At the same time, Arizona has newly United States. mandated education about the Holocaust Moyo, the museum’s operations director and other genocides in schools, giving the since July 2019, brings a unique set of quali- museum a role in creating materials that fications encompassing both her career as an draw on its archive of testimonies from sur- international human rights lawyer and per- vivors who have lived in the southern part sonal Jewish journey. of the state. “Gugu has the most remarkable biogra- And the national reckoning over racism phy I have ever seen in an applicant for a po- that erupted last spring following the death sition,” said Barry Kirschner, president of the Gugulethu Moyo is the new executive director of the Tucson Jewish History of George Floyd in police custody means that museum board and himself an attorney. Moyo’s vision for the museum’s future has Museum/Holocaust History Center. PHOTO CAPTTION: : ILLUSTRATION BY GRACE YAGEL That biography includes a childhood in renewed resonance. Zimbabwe, a law career in support of media South African anti-apartheid lawyers. tion at a time of intense change for muse- “The core work,” Moyo said, “is to con- freedom and a Jewish journey inspired by Moyo takes over a 15-year-old institu- ums, memory and Holocaust education in Continued on page 9 IFrom the Editor arch 2021, can we all say a she- taking a fresh look at who we are is a wel- hechiyanu, a prayer of gratitude, come endeavor that is on the horizon for that we have made it to this day, Washtenaw County. In the meantime, if you M 2935 Birch Hollow Drive this season, this new moment? Our com- know of someone who might have an inter- Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108 munity is bursting with energy: so many est in the Jewish community in Washtenaw, (734) 395-4438 opportunities for learning and celebrating it why not ask them if they’d like to receive a www.washtenawjewishnews.org was hard to fit them all into this newspaper. free subscription to the Washtenaw Jewish [email protected] Hopefully, this is our last year of Zoom sed- News. I’m dreaming that everyone reading ers for a while, but I’m grateful that so many this finds one other household to start re- Editor and Publisher of us have learned how to use innovation to ceiving the paper. Clare Kinberg celebrate! In this issue is the 15th installment of my Would you be willing to hazard a guess as story about my aunt Rose. I’m about half- Advertising Manager to how many Jews live in Washtenaw Coun- way through the telling, and it has been a joy Gordon White ty? How would you go about counting us? to hear from people about it. If you want to Who would you count? These are questions start at the beginning, all prior issues are on Design and Layout on my mind right now, and on the mind of the WJN website. Dennis Platte Clare Kinberg others in the community. This newspaper is As always, send me your reactions to any- Staff Writers mailed to about 3000 households, yet I think ish adjacent, was Jewish, or is considering thing you read here, ideas for articles, and Hannah Davis, Shifra Epstein, this number could easily double if only I had becoming Jewish. Our Jewish community your personal simchas. n Lonnie Sussman the addresses of existing households that in the U.S. is in a porous and changing era. have someone who identifies as Jewish, Jew- “Diversity” is a bit of a tired buzzword, but Contributing Writers Rabbi Daniel Alter, Rabbi Jared Anstandig, Rebecca Belkin, Rabbi Nadav Caine, Stacy Carroll, Eileen Freed, Terri Ginsburg, Raoul Wallenberg and the War Refugee Board Continued on from page 1 Stephanie Glass, Rabbi Aharon Goldstein, Laurie Greenberg, Gillian Jackson, Kayla Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of inspiration for humanitarian activists today,” people they ‘saved,’” said Erbelding. “But even Kapen, Kesley Robinette Keeves, Devon Europe, won the 2018 National Jewish Book Erbelding stated. without easily understood outcomes, I argue Meier, Martin Shichtman, Clara Silver, Award in the category of Writing Based on Ar- She believes that the War Refugee Board it is important to honor the efforts of the War Robert Savit, Dvora Schulman, Jacob Sing- er, Rachel Wall, Teddy Weinberger, Rabbi chival Material. A key challenge in writing her wasn’t more widely known before now for a Refugee Board staff and use their work as an Josh Whinston, Jack Zaientz,. book was in organizing the War Refugee Board’s few reasons. When teaching about the Holo- example for confronting humanitarian chal- records, 120 boxes still in roughly the order they caust, most schools don’t have time to focus on lenges today.” The Washtenaw Jewish News is published were in the 1940s, organized by topic and name. the American and international response, and The Belin lecture series was established monthly, by JCMWC, LLC. Opinions ex- She spent two years digitizing and organizing the general summary is that the United States in 1991 through a generous gift from the late pressed in this publication do not necessar- hundreds of thousands of pages before she began didn’t do enough. She believes this is broadly David W. Belin of Des Moines and New York ily reflect those of its editors or staff to read through the records. true, but adds that it ignores those who were to provide an academic forum for the discus- She stresses that the most important mes- pushing for the U.S. to take action since 1933. sion of contemporary Jewish life in the United ©2021 by the Washtenaw Jewish News. All rights reserved. No portion of the Washtenaw sage from the book is the impact public and “The history is utterly fascinating, but there’s States. Previous scholars to hold this honor Jewish News may be reproduced without private pressure can have on the United States no quick way to tell it without simply listing off include Deborah Lipstadt, Samuel Freedman, permission of the publisher.