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Wise & Otherwise: Getting to Know Me
Permit me to introduce myself and this column.
I chose the name of the column as sometimes you’ll find me wise, and at times you may find me otherwise. Since there’s been and are a couple of more accomplished and taller Irwin Cohens in the area, I’ll tell you about this one. I’m Irwin J. and the only one that has a Detroit Tiger World Series ring. My driver’s license tells me that I’m 80, though, I still don’t believe it. But it’s an advantage as I lived through and experienced more historical chapters in my life than most of you.
I was born in the 12th Street area and lived in the Dexter and Northwest neighborhoods before moving to Oak Park over a half-century ago. I started nursery school in 1945 when the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah opened as a Day School at Dexter and Cortland. I quickly became an outstanding student — every time class started, I was out standing somewhere.
I was only 7 in May 1948 but vividly remember the Yeshiva busing us to the Central High School grounds on Linwood and being part of the more than 20,000 celebrating the State of Israel’s rebirth. The older boys were dancing and singing amidst the blowing of shofars while skywriters carefully crafted the white Star of David against the beautiful blue
background of the sky. The following year was a big event in the Orthodox community as the Young Israel building on Dexter and Fullerton opened under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Samuel Prero. But it was more than a shul. It was also a youth center for all stripes of Jews. There was a room for a junior congregation, a billiard room with a Irwin J. Cohen pingpong table and a television. I was there with friends on Sunday afternoons to watch Hopalong Cassidy while my parents and their friends would go Tuesday night to watch the Milton Berle Show. A couple of years later, the Y.I. started a Boy Scout troop led by Marvin Engel that kept us busy on many a Sunday marching from Dexter to Linwood. One summer Saturday night, we joined numerous other Scout troops in a place most of us had never been before. It was called Southfield. The grounds were vast and empty, no buildings anywhere, just our tents. There was a big sign nearby proclaiming that a big shopping center called Northland would be built on the site. Who would want to come here in the middle of nowhere to shop? we thought.
BECOMING A GROWNUP
After sharing high school between the Yeshiva and Central High School, and a bit of junior college, business school and IBM school, I landed a job with Wayne County on the second floor of the City-County Building on Jefferson and Woodward. My desk had a great panoramic view of the Detroit River and Windsor. Around the time of the Kennedy assassination, I decided to join the Army Reserves before being drafted for two years.
I did my basic training in Fort Knox, Ky., where I became, to my surprise, a marksman, and the best one in the unit. Then it was on to three months in Fort Dix, N.J., where I was pulled out of training to be a radio relay operator and then a chaplain’s assistant. I summer-camped in exotic places like Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana and Fort Sheridan, Illinois.
When I finished my sixyear military service in 1969, I missed being ordered around so I got married. She was from Rochester, N.Y., but living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side when we met. I soon learned you could take the person out of New York, but you can’t take the New York out of the person. It’s 52 years later, and she’s still my sergeant.
MY BASEBALL CAREER
In 1973, with heavenly assistance, I entered the baseball field through a chance phone call to a radio host who invited me to be on his next program. That led me to other radio and television appearances, and Joe Falls to turn over some of his sports columns to me at times. After writing a bit for a publication Denny McLain was fronting for, I founded a national monthly baseball publication and met many of yesterday’s heroes and stars of the time. The Tigers offered me a front office position at the end of 1983, which I accepted on the condition that I didn’t work on Shabbat or Jewish holidays.
I experienced the highest of highs when I was awarded a 1984 World Series ring with my name on it along with a check for a World Series share (a far lesser amount than the players received, but more than I expected).
I experienced the lowest of lows eight years ago when our daughter passed away from cancer at the age of 41. She was our only child and left seven children, the youngest was only 3 at the time. You never get over it and have to deal with the reality of the situation. Maybe I can deal with it easier as I believe she was reborn into eternal life.
Why do bad things happen to good people? For those who are not believers, there are no answers. For those who believe, there are no questions.
As some of you know, I wrote several history books on Detroit, its Jewish communities and the Tigers and their ballparks. While wintering in Florida, I speak to groups on other subjects, including the Roosevelts, U.S. presidents and the Jews, and “Jewish Stories You Never Heard Before.”
Many of the aforementioned stories will find their way into this column over the course of time.
May your eyes always read Wise & Otherwise.
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Never Again Is Now
For those of us who pay attention to the news of antisemitic statements and acts around the globe, the rise in these statements and acts in recent years has been alarming. And as Evelyn Markus, a Dutch Jew and the daughter of Holocaust survivors, discusses in the documentary Never Again Is Now, these antisemitic statements and acts can come from both the left and the right of the political spectrum.
As the founder of the free nonfiction Holocaust theater project www. ThinEdgeOfTheWedge.com, I have been talking to a range of people in the U.S. and Europe. Jeremy Wootliff of Jewzy.tv suggested I watch Evelyn’s documentary.
I did watch the powerful documentary Never Again Is Now — and then I reached out to Evelyn, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2006 because of the rise of antisemitism in Europe. I proposed that she and I cohost a podcast interviewing both Jews and non-Jews about the antisemitism they or others currently face, their antise-
Phyllis Zimbler Miller mitic experiences in the past, and the first time they learned about the Holocaust. That show has now become a reality on YouTube with the first episodes published at b.link/ NeverAgainIsNowpodcast.
ANTISEMITISM DEFINED
The International Remembrance Holocaust Association (IRHA) has issued a non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism that many organizations are adopting:
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The reason our podcast is important is the same as the reason this definition is important: To make people aware of what antisemitism is.
For example, when someone says in front of you that Jews only care about money, do you freeze and say nothing? Or do you get angry and yell something back?
Neither freezing nor yelling
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1942 - 2021
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Dear American Jewish Moms …
Do you remember where you were when you heard about the deadly synagogue attacks on Jews in Pittsburgh? In Poway, Calif.? Remember the emotions you went through? Did you feel outrage? Were you sick watching the news coverage? If you’re like me, you wanted to do something to support those communities.
Do you have the Red Alert app on your phone? If your response is, “I don’t even know what that is,” then I implore you to download it. It’s an Israeli app that sends notifications every time a terrorist rocket, mortar or missile is launched into Israel.
Between May 10-18 more than 3,440 rockets were fired toward Israel from Hamascontrolled Gaza in a terrorist effort to murder Jews. Not all of them landed in empty fields; that miraculous Iron Dome that saves so many lives isn’t infallible.
I’m a Jewish mom of two teenagers living in a Philadelphia suburb. I grew up in a Connecticut town with very few Jews, and I was raised in a secular Jewish home with no connection to Judaism; however, Israel and Zionism were an integral part of my upbringing.
L’dor v’dor: I am raising my children to be unapologetic Zionists and Jews. I’m proud that my daughter, who just graduated high school, is taking a gap year living in Tel Aviv and volunteering through the Maslool program. My son, a rising high school sophomore, will attend the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI) program in February 2022.
My best friend’s son, who used to babysit my children, is a Lone Soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). At 18, he left his comfortable, upper-middle class home and family and enlisted in the
Israeli army. This past August, his parents also made aliyah. Now my best friend is an official Israeli mom; she attended the funeral of 1st Sgt. Omer Tabib z”l, not just because it’s the Israeli thing to do, but also because 1st Sgt. Tabib was in her son’s unit and a friend. Have you downloaded the Red Alert app yet? Each notification of an Lisa Koenig incoming rocket translates to Israelis having mere seconds to run to take cover in bomb shelters or stairways. Knowing this, would you be willing to send your child(ren) to Israel to study or to take a gap year? Would you support your child(ren), who insists on becoming a Lone Soldier, enlisting in the IDF knowing it’s inevitable that he/she will be in the direct
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back helps educate the person making the comment, who may not even realize it is an antisemitic comment.
What we all must do is practice how to answer such comments calmly and in a way that educates the other person. In the case of the statement about Jews only caring about money, perhaps an appropriate answer could be: “You may not realize that what you said is an antisemitic statement said for hundreds of years to harm Jews. I know you wouldn’t say such a statement about Blacks or Asian Americans. I hope in the future you won’t say such statements about Jews.”
Is this a tall order to learn to say such calm replies? Yes! And we all must learn to do it — to educate one person at a time.
I attended Michigan State University in the late 1960s. In my hometown of Elgin, Ill., I had been the only Jewish student in my classes, and I had so looked forward to being among Jews at college.
Fall 1966 — I am assigned to be roommates in Rather Hall with a young woman from Grosse Pointe and a young woman from Hamtramck. They were the opposite of welcoming.
The next quarter, I changed roommates to share with a young woman from a farm in Michigan. She had never before met a Jew.
Third quarter — I shared with a young woman from Oak Park, who I heard tell someone on the dorm hall phone that she now had a Jewish friend.
Then I joined the Jewish sorority AEPhi and moved to the house the following year.
In September 1970, I would find myself stationed in Munich, Germany, with my Jewish U.S. Army officer husband (ROTC at MSU) who I met on the State News editorial staff. Being stationed in Germany only 25 years after the end of WWII changed my life and my husband’s life forever.
And this brings me to launching the Never Again Is Now podcast about antisemitism in 2021. You can subscribe (for free) and listen to the podcasts at b.link/ NeverAgainIsNowpodcast.
And whenever you can (without exposing yourself to physical danger) — speak up against antisemitism and all hate.
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the co-author of the Jewish holiday book Seasons for Celebration, the founder of the free nonfiction Holocaust theater project www.ThinEdgeOfTheWedge. com and the co-host of Never Again Is Now, a podcast about antisemitism on YouTube.
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Roger Siegel became part of Hebrew Free Loan because he was a nice guy.
“I was practicing law in my own office, when I was invited out to lunch by Stan Bershad, who was an HFL Board member,” Roger said. “Stan casually began asking me questions about how I handled debtors in my practice, but the questions sounded less like a consultation and more like a job interview. Then our third lunch guest arrived, staggering in with a large, open cardboard box full of files, and I knew this box was coming back with me.”
Roger said he had no prior experience with HFL, but he began working on the agency’s collections immediately, at first from his own office, and then part-time from HFL.
“What I really wanted to do was to manage the receivables before they even became collection items,” Roger said. “I spent time working with our borrowers to keep their accounts current, and we kept a lot of people from getting a black mark on their creditwhen times were tough. HFL’s 98.5 % repayment rate is due mostly to the feeling that the community supports the borrowers, and that effort is part of it.”
Roger learned about HFL as he worked, watching loan funds and needs change through the years.
“It really moves me that HFL is always ready to help people through their life journeys,” Roger said. “That’s possible because HFL changes to meet local needs.”
Roger officially retired from HFL in June 2019, but he gladly passed the torch to his daughter, Margery, whom he says is just the right fit –an attorney with a great outlook on the people behind the accounts. “It’s a proud Dad moment to know she’ll carry on,” he said.
“I truly love Hebrew Free Loan, this has been the best experience of my life,” Roger said. “It’s remarkable how things can change with one simple phone call just because Stan invited me to lunch.”
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path of danger? Does the reality of imminent attacks on Israel frighten you so much you would never visit Israel, never mind sending your children?
Last month, when the locations popped up on the Red Alert app, it was evident that Hamas was no longer targeting only the usual populations adjacent to Gaza. This time they had the capability and were intentionally aiming for the heartland of Israel — Jerusalem, the metropolitan city of Tel Aviv, and smaller densely populated cities such as Ra’anana and Hod HaSharon, the location of the AMHSI campus.
There were countless videos from Israel: Israeli Arabs rioting and burning the Israeli flag, burning down synagogues, burning buses, Arabs trying to lynch Jews, fires on top of the Temple Mount, gaping holes in apartment buildings because the Iron Dome missed. And you know what? As the notifications were constantly dinging, as I watched these videos with tears in my eyes, I wasn’t scared; I was angry. Anger is a great motivator. I became more determined, not only to go to Israel myself, but to send both my children as planned. I don’t fear the enemy. They want fear. Fear is weakness allowing for an easier attack. It’s only with unity, strength and never backing down that we will defeat evil.
PAY ATTENTION
So, my dear American Jewish moms, who love your children more than life itself, pay attention to what’s happening in Israel because Israelis are not just another people living in the Middle East. They are Jews; our brothers and sisters — our sons and daughters. Our people living in our ancestral homeland. Any attack on Israel is no different than an attack on a Jew in Poway, Pittsburgh or anywhere in the world. The same outrage and deep pain in your soul that you felt then, you should feel every single time your phone dings.
You should want to help and to unite with Am Yisrael because the terrorist’s motivation is simple: Jew hatred. These attacks are not over land disputes, rent disputes or any other propaganda that they try to use to manipulate the world for their corruption and power. It’s pure Jew hatred, and they want to divide us to make us weak, to eliminate us.
Dear American Jewish mom, it’s your obligation to learn about, teach and show your children the truth of our people. Teach your children about our history, and I don’t mean just the Holocaust. I mean our ancestral history in the Land of Israel. Start by teaching them that Israel is our ancestral home. Don’t blindly parrot what you read/hear in the media. It’s propaganda.
When you teach your children the truth, you give them an invaluable gift; you ensure your children are links in our long chain of rich history. Don’t be the generation that breaks our chain. The way to strengthen our chain is to actively connect with Israel. Don’t fear the land; embrace it, honor it, love it.
Assuming you’ve downloaded the Red Alert app, your phone will ding with notifications at the same time as Jews from all over the world who have also downloaded it. You’ve just taken an important step in connecting yourself with Am Yisrael.
Now that you’re connected, we must stand in unity against evil, so book a flight to Israel with your children. Who knows, you may fall in love with the Land and make aliyah.
Or at the very least, you’ll understand why I am even more determined than ever to send both my children to Israel as planned.
— LISA KOENIG
Lisa Koenig is northeast director of Herut North America’s U.S. division. Herut is an international movement for Zionist pride and education.
letters
The Power of Friendship
The heartwarming article by Shoshana Lavan, “Israeli Arabs, Jews Refuse to Be Enemies” [July 1, page 6] inevitably reminded me of two events in my life having to do with relations between Israeli Arabs and Jews.
The first occurred in one of my summer visits to my native Israel.
I visited the Arab-Jewish village Neve Shalom, an example of how it should be and can be with good will on both sides.
The other one was some years later when I visited an Arab-Catholic village at the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border.
That unforgettable visit was the result of a meeting my late husband and I had in Rome with an Arab family who was part of a delegation who came to see the pope.
Members of the family, which included the mayor of the village, came to my parents’ home in Bat Yam to take me to an unforgettable weekend which included an Arab wedding.
These two experiences show that friendship between Arabs and Jews is possible and actually exists and should be encouraged — as it would greatly benefit the two peoples who inhabit and love the State of Israel.
— Rachel Kapen West Bloomfield
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Heading a Nation Like No Other
An open letter from Israel’s former president, Reuven Rivlin, to the incoming president, Isaac Herzog.
To the honorable President of Israel,
Truth be told, I’m a little envious of you. In a short while, you will find out exactly how magnificent the privilege of the presidency is. Over the next seven years, you will meet Israelis from all walks of life, and let me tell you right now — you’ll want to embrace all of them. You’ll want to share their laughter and their tears; and all the excitement they experience.
I’m sure you feel that you already know this, having such extensive experience as a public servant, but believe me, you have yet to find out what a wonderful country we have and what wonderful people live among us. They will all find their way to your heart, where they will remain forever.
Amid the social rifts and polarity, you will find brave people who don’t speak of coexistence, they simply live it. Every day, every hour, in their homes and places of employment, in their visions, dreams and family. Secular with ultra-Orthodox, right-wingers and leftists, Jews and Arabs, veteran Israelis and immigrants, the young and the old, members of all religions, sectors and ethnicities — they are all Israelis. Beautiful, enlightening and kind. Kind beyond anything you can imagine.
These men and women have given me so much hope over the past seven years. Israeli hope, that’s what I called it, and I’m sure you will call it that as well, because they gave me hope that was quintessentially Israeli.
They were my beacon on the horizon and you, our dear president, will find that they are the horizon. You will find them in cities and rural areas, in hospitals, in the military, in the universities, in the police, in kindergartens and in schools, in the nearest and farthest localities, and on the street. You won’t even have to search. They will always be there, in happy moments, in the most difficult moments, and as storms loom near, as they so often do.
On some nights, you will lose sleep. Your mind will wander back to the soldiers you met at a checkpoint on the border; to the Lone Soldier who hasn’t seen his mother in six months — and you couldn’t be happier that he will attend the Passover seder at the President’s Residence.
You’ll think about the olim who came here at the height of the coronavirus pandemic; about the 12-year-old boy suffering from depression — actual clinical depression — you met while visiting the Geha Mental Health Center. Has his condition improved with time? And what about Yonatan Levy, still hospitalized with horrific injuries he suffered during the 2006 Second Lebanon War? And what about his mother, who never leaves his side? How is she doing?
And what about Yossi, the amazing IDF officer whose criminal record I had expunged so he can start a new life? He’ll be alright, right? And what about the daughter of Druze police officer Zidan Seif, who was murdered in a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem? She was just four months old when her father was killed, and now she would be getting ready to start first grade.
You will look upon the photos of Hadar Goldin and Shaul Oron — and yes, you will lose sleep over them. Over our missing and captives. Over Ron Arad. Over the bereaved families. Your heart will break yet, somehow pound strongly and proudly to the beat of this nation’s story, just like mine did.
You will be proud. The president of this country has so much to be proud of. Here, it is the excitement that will keep you awake. Excitement over the overflowing crops in the fields, over the latest scientific invention and the advances in medicine, in research and in sports.
The excitement after meeting a 90-year-old woman who still volunteers, or another young woman who broke through the glass ceiling. When you watch the families of the three teens [Gilad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrach, who were abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists in 2014] present the Israel Unity Reuven Award year after year.Rivlin You will find everything suddenly exciting anew. Torah scholars and those who farm the land; Holocaust survivors, heroes of the revival, and the leaders in the fight against domestic violence. The list goes on — oh, how it goes on. You will be surprised. Fall in love. Be proud. Take to heart. You will try to do everything to make things better and easier for them. You will work for them tirelessly with love. Many times, while in meetings or traveling, I thought to myself that the title “Citizen No. 1” was born simply because this is the No. 1 people. Today, I’m sure of it. Here’s to you, Mr. President, and to this people. Long live the 11th president of the State of Israel. Long live the State of Israel. Yours always, Ruvi.
Isaac Herzog was sworn in as president on July 7. This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
