DAVID SACHS
GOODBYE, DEAR FRIEND
Thank you,
Danny...
you gave us the best! The life and legacy of Danny Raskin. JACKIE HEADAPOHL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL
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AUGUST 5 • 2021
JN Director of Editorial Jackie Headapohl and Danny Raskin after they both received honors from the Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2019.
A
n era ended at the Detroit Jewish News on July 26, 2021, with news of the death of community icon and our beloved colleague Danny Raskin at age 102, after having suffered a fall several weeks before. For the first time in the history of the paper, we have to move forward without him, and it won’t be the same. You’ll have to forgive us for wishing we had more time with someone who had already enjoyed so many years — all lived to the absolute fullest. Danny has been with the paper since its beginning in 1942. Although he turned down founding Publisher Philip Slomovitz’s invitation to become his associate editor, he offered to help by writing a column, the “Jewish Youth’s Listening Post,” and he’s had a column appear in every single issue — every single one — through July 29, more than 79 years’ worth. Over those 79 years, Danny has impacted countless lives and shared countless stories in our pages and with his co-workers, some of them hard to believe, like the time he shared pie with the junior varsity of the Purple Gang or being given a watch by the gangster Bugsy Siegel’s former girlfriend or the time he sent a personal note to Hitler himself, scrawled upon a bomb by an American airman just before it was dropped. All the stories were
