PURELY COMMENTARY for starters
Not-So-Smooth Sailing
“L
et my container ship go!” What are the chances that during Passover another act of freedom would be celebrated? In a brilliant public relations move last week, God paid homage to Passover by letting that giant ship go forth from Egypt. The grounded vessel sat idle for six days in the Suez Canal like a beached whale, holding up hundreds Alan of ships and billions of dolMuskovitz lars’ worth of commerce. Contributing Writer Efforts by tugboats and dredgers removing tons of sand finally succeeded in releasing the boat from its resting place. Although a leaked memo from Egyptian authorities claimed a secret infusion of MiraLAX is what ultimately did the trick. I know all too well how the ship’s captain felt because I was also involved in a dramatic boating incident in the early 1990s
on Lake Charlevoix. While vacationing, I decided it would be a good idea to rent a motorboat and take my young family on a cruise around the waterways. Up until that point, my only sea faring experience had been passing the canoe nomenclature test at Camp Tanuga in 1963, enough, I thought, to man the helm of a boat. I maneuvered through the blue waters without incident when I decided that time would allow for one port of call for a quick lunch. Our destination, a waterfront restaurant called Hard Dock Landing, a name that would be a harbinger of things to come. I’m not a very good parallel parker on dry land, so I guess it must have been foolish pride that convinced me I could properly dock a boat. As the dock for the restaurant edged closer, I began an internal nautical conversation. “Avast. All engines stop!” I muttered
Alan shows off his souvenir from his hard landing.
under my breath, preparing to let my vessel float its way gently to the dock. And float it did, until the bow of the boat hit the dock and got wedged and stuck under the restaurant’s “Dock Here” sign. Yes, I had, in my own inimitable way, come in for a “Hard Dock Landing.” The spectacle of an arrival startled my continued on page 10
guest column
A Vision for a New Jewish Detroit
P
icture this: it’s a Friday night, and you’re getting dressed up to go to a friend’s house for Shabbat dinner. While you could drive, you’re in the Shabbat spirit, and you choose to walk the short distance over to your friend’s house. You make Kiddush, eat a home-cooked meal, bench, play some board games and leave long after darkness has fallen to walk home. Jeremy Rosenberg Sounds like a typical weekend in West Bloomfield, Oak Park or Huntington Woods, right? Well, in this story, that’s not where you are; you just had a fantastic Shabbos dinner experience in Detroit. In the months leading up to the pandemic, there was hardly a Friday night
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where I didn’t have a place to be for Shabbat dinner. When Hillel of Metro Detroit at Wayne State (HMD) or Chabad weren’t doing anything, my girlfriend (now fiancée) and I would use HMD’s Shabbatote program to host a dozen of our friends and classmates at our house in Woodbridge. Of those dozen, which changed weekto-week, the majority would walk over, participate in the Shabbos aspects of dinner — not just the eating — and would stay after to veg without technology being an essential component. There were people who would end up spending Shabbat at the house — something my roommates and I were always happy to accommodate. At the same time, I was working with a group of friends to get a regular Shabbatmorning service going. Per the custom of most of the group, we were looking for 10
guys to commit to at least one Saturday morning every month, simply to get a regular service going. In early March of 2020, we had eight guys and a few women who wanted to participate as well. We had anticipated starting right after spring break; spring break ended and the shelter-in began. Of that group, there was a solid mix of young professionals living in the greater Downtown area, and a mix of graduate and undergraduate students at Wayne State. Why bother telling you all of this? To say that there is demand for a real, religious Jewish community within Detroit’s city limits. For myself, many of my friends and many more people who I don’t know, but am trying to locate through this essay, the options are a) figure out how to create continued on page 12
APRIL 8 • 2021
