A New Beginning for Couple--and for Poland’s Jews

--Happy memories of the day mingled with painful recollections of the past as Warsaw saw its first wedding in a synagogue since the Holocaust. Families and a few members of the city’s once-thriving Jewish community watched as American Jew Robert Blum and his Polish-born bride, Joanna Kan, exchanged vows. The good wishes came multilingually: “Congratulations,” “ Mazel tov “ and “ Wszystkiego najlepszego na nowej drodze zycia “--the last Polish for “All the best on the new road of life.” Blum, who met his wife at work in New York, said he hopes the wedding will help rejuvenate Poland’s Jewish community. Fewer than 300,000 of the nation’s Jews survived World War II, and emigration cut their number to fewer than 10,000, most of them elderly. Warsaw, which itself once held 380,000 Jews and 400 synagogues, now has only one synagogue, rebuilt in 1983. The rabbi, Menachen Joskowitz, a Polish concentration camp survivor, arrived from Israel about six weeks ago for a two-year stay.

--Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. and several thousand others gathered to make a mountain out of a milestone, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the addition of President Theodore Roosevelt’s face to Mt. Rushmore. A 45-by-90-foot flag was unveiled over Roosevelt’s likeness as Mary Ellis Vhay, daughter of Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum, greeted the crowd. Mt. Rushmore, in South Dakota’s Black Hills, also includes the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. The anniversary was also used to launch a $40-million fund-raising effort to expand and improve the monument, and the state of South Dakota contributed $150,000. But one of the original workers on the sculpture, Howard Peterson, said Borglum “didn’t want any of this stuff, the concession stands and all.”

--In an emotional farewell speech to the National Education Assn. she leads, Mary Hatwood Futrell called on teachers to “embrace change” and to remember her as having “chalk dust on the sleeves of her soul.” The six-year president of the 2-million-member union was interrupted more than 60 times by cheers, applause and standing ovations. About 8,400 delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly in Washington are to vote on Futrell’s successor today.