Newspapers / The Charlotte Jewish News … / Aug. 1, 2000, edition 1 / Page 29
Part of The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Charlotte Jewish News - August 2000 - Page 29 Stickers Warn of UV Holocaust Survivor Confronts Neo-Nazism in America Chapel Hill, NC — David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader and reputed neo-Nazi, was a political force in Louisiana in the 1980s and 1990s. He ran for president under the Populist Party in 1988, won a seat in the Louisiana state legislature in 1989, and made the 1991 governor’s race runoff. As recently as 1999, Duke, who refers to himself as President of the National Organization for European American Rights, was in the nation al political spotlight as he ran to fill the congressional seat vacated by Louisiana Representative Bob Livingston. David Duke’s politics also had a profound personal effect on one Louisiana woman, who, ironically, was a Holocaust survivor. A new book by the University of North Carolina Press tells Ae memo rable story of how the political menace of David Duke helped trigger Anne Skorecki Levy to break her long silence and honor other survivors by confronting Duke and his racial hatred. Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke’s Louisiana, by Lawrence N. Powell, is a powerful work that tells the story of Levy, the Holocaust survivor who trans formed the horrors of her child hood into a passionate mission to defeat David Duke in his 1991 bid for the governorship of Louisiana. Troubled Memory is the first book to connect the prewar and wartime experiences of Jewish survivors to the lives they subse quently made for themselves in the United States. It is also a dra- Lawrence N. Powell, author of “Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke’s Louisiana, ” and Anne Skorecki Levy, whose story was the inspiration behind the book. Photo by Elinor S. Cohen. matic testament to how the experi ences of survivors as new Americans spurred their willing ness to bear witness. The only biography of an American survivor. Troubled Memory is a century-long saga that takes place in Poland, Germany, and Louisiana, with a cast of characters ranging from the unknown to the famous. In his research for the book, Powell tracked down nearly 100 witness es, including one of the Polish women who hid the Skorecki fam ily after their escape from the Warsaw ghetto. Perhaps the only family to sur vive the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto as a group, the Skoreckis evaded deportation to Treblinka, by posing as Aryans, and ultimate ly made their way to New Orleans, where they became part of a vibrant Jewish community. Powell traces the family’s dra matic odyssey and explores the events that eventually triggered Anne Skorecki Levy’s brave deci sion to break decades of silence and honor the suffering of the past by confronting the recurring specter of racist hatred. Although Levy's commit ment to preserve the memory of her past was purely per sonal, it also had political significance, Powell writes. “For the burden of pre serving memory is a collec tive responsibility, a civic duty,” writes Powell. “In the final analysis only a morally concerned citizenry has the full power to transmit the lessons of the past to a pre sent increasingly anxious to get on with the future.” In response to Duke’s ulti mate loss to Edwin Edwards in the race for the Louisiana governorship, Powell writes, “For one brief, shining moment, in a state not generally known for political ethics, a moral movement of people from across the spec trum said the past could not be brushed aside so easily.” Lawrence N. Powell is profes sor of history at Tulane University and a founding member of the Louisiana Coalition against Racism and Nazism. He has previ ously written on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Louisiana politics. In 1991, while campaign ing against David Duke’s bid for governorship, Powell met Levy and learned her story. Powell was so fascinated by what she had to say, he put aside his previous research and set out to reconstruct the events that had brought her to this turning point. Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke’s Louisiana ($34.95 hardcover), by Lawrence N. Powell, is available from bookstores or from the University of North Carolina Press. Toll free credit card orders: 1-800-848-6224. Visit the UNC Press website at www.unc- press.unc.edu. Sydney Works to Say “Shalom, Mate” to Jews at Upcoming Olympics Games Radiation HAIFA, ISRAEL, and NEW YORK, N.Y. —Avoiding sunburn will be easier with The Sticker, a dime-sized patch worn on the skin or clothing, that changes color when the wearer has had too much sun. The Sticker was developed by a start-up venture in the business incubator company at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which causes tan ning and bums, has become more of a problem in recent years as the protective ozone layer high in the atmosphere has thinned due to air pollution. “The sun’s ultraviolet radiation is the cause of premature aging, wrinkling and at least 90% of all skin cancers,” said Dr. Perry Robins, founder and president of The Skin Cancer Foundation. “We welcome new developments such as The Sticker that could help alert people to the importance of pro tecting themselves from the dam aging rays of the sun.” The Sticker comes in two ver sions — for use with or without sun screen — for six skin types, and is adjusted to the UV dose that causes bums for that type. For example. Skin Type 2 will bum in only a quarter the time it takes Type 4. “The Sticker changes color for a UV dose below that which caus es only a very light sunbum,” explains Dr. Ori Faran, product developer and managing director of Skyrad, the start-up company. “So if a person mistakes his or her skin type, or forgets to look at the sticker, a severe bum is still high ly unlikely. And, if the wearer moves into a shaded area and then goes back to the sun, the Patch quickly returns to the shade it was before the wearer left the sun.” Dr. Faran, a physicist who used to work on devices that measure radiation at Elscint, a leading Israeli medical imaging company, developed The Sticker as he con templated the millions exposed to UV radiation. He points out that the Sticker will be important in winter sports as well, since UV intensity increases at high altitude and is further intensified by reflection from snow. The Sticker will be available in Australia. New Zealand, Brazil and Argentina in November, and in the United States next spring. ^ The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is the country’s pre mier scientific and technological JFS Donations (Continued from page 16) BIRTHS Marcelle and Dan Peck, Birth of Daughter Adina Nina and Gary Lewis Paula and Richard Klein Patty and Bill Goreiick, Birth of Granddaughter Adina Marilyn and Mike Tuckman Ruth and Alan Goldberg Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Block, Birth of Grandchild Ida Berman SPECIAL OCCASIONS Melissa and Dana Gottheim Graduations Elaine and Harry Chemotsky Audrey Madans, For Being A Specifd Friend Jack and Ann Stem Engagement of Julie Lemer & Howard Levine Linda and Trevor Goldberg Bea Gibbs For Receiving Outstanding Student Award Kvelyn and l-C'^naui Berger Having fun and keeping safe in the sun. center for applied research and education. It commands a world wide reputation for its pioneering work in communications, elec tronics, computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management, materials engineer ing, aerospace and medicine, among others. The majority of Israel’s engineers are Technion graduates, as are most of the founders and managers of its high-tech industries. The Technion’s 13,000 students and 700 faculty members study and work in its 19 faculties and 30 research centers and institutes in Haifa. The American Technion Society (ATS) supports the Technion. Based in New York City, it is the leading American organization supporting higher education in Israel. The ATS has raised a total of $750 million since its inception in 1940, more than half of that during the last eight years. A nationwide membership organiza tion with more than 20,000 sup porters and 17 offices around the country, the ATS is driven by the belief that the economic future of Israel is in high technology and the future of high technology in Israel is at the Technion. Technion societies are located in 24 coun tries around the world. “Wfiat is happiness other than the grace of being permitted to unfold their fullest bloom all the spiritual powers planted within us.® — Werfel, “Between Heaven and Earth” Avi Chai (Continued from page 18) scholarships, without any income requirements, to families willing to place their children in Jewish schools. The families, who had to meet several stringent criteria, received a voucher good for $12,000 ($3,000 a year for four years) toward their Jewish Day School education. The results? Still as yet unknown. 'The program primarily attracted what we thing of as low- hanging fruit,” says Yossi Pragcr. executive director of AVI CHAI. “The people who applied were By Jeremy Jones SYDNEY, Australia, (JTA) — An organization working to wel come Jewish athletes and fans to this summer’s Olympic Games was launched here this week. The Sydney Olympics Jewish Organizing Committee estab lished two drop-in centers where kosher food will be available. It also arranged for Jewish families in Sydney to provide hospitality, including Shabbat meals, for Jewish visitors. In addition, it engaged the local Jewish historical society to offer a number of walking tours of Old Jewish Sydney during the Games. “We are already receiving heartfelt thanks from athletes, rel atives of competitors, people post ed by their employers to the more likely to be synagogue atten dees....” “There are very few efforts that bring in truly marginalized peo ple,” says Richard Wagner, head master of Greenfield Hebrew Academy in Atlanta. But that doesn’t mean that the program didn't cast a wider net than the schools would have been able to do on their own. So what happens now? With the high cost of ^y school tuition, and the only scholarship money available to the needy, “the great middle clas^ will be left at the gate.” Wagner says. “We are at the fir-it stages of recognizing we need G Jc wjNh cduvaijoii Nuperfund.’* ^ Games and others who have been helped by SOJOC in making con nections with members of our community who are more than happy to provide a warm Aussie welcome,” said the publicity offi cer for the group, Naomi Jones. A multicultural advisory com mittee was appointed two years ago to assist the official organiza tion, and the Jewish committee’s chair, Amanda Gordon, was appointed to serve on it. Gordon says the Olympics will include a rabbi living in the ath letes village, assisted spiritual advisors, and a sukkah will be built in the athletes’ village for the Paralympics. Information on the Sydney Olympics Jewish Organizing Committee is available at www.join.org.au/sojoc. ^ / DRIVE X \^SAFELYy BE NEIGHBOR When entering and leaving Shalom Park, plea^ie drive slowly and safely in the adjacent neighborhoods.
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 1, 2000, edition 1
29
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75