200 Sept. 3-9, 2020/14-20 Elul 5780
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The
Hole Truth New bagel shops in Traverse City, Detroit and Ferndale raise the state’s schmear game. See page 41
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contents Sept. 3-9, 2020/ 14-20 Elul 5780| VOLUME CLVIII, ISSUE 5
Driving Through with Power, Peace and Purpose 28 Kids Kicking Cancer’s virtual classes lead to in-person belting ceremony for young martial artists.
Business Taking Care of the Kiddos 32 Metro Detroit native parlays babysitting experience into a million-dollar business.
Moments Moments 33
12 Views 5-11
Jews in the D Never Again Action: Inside the Movement
28
Shabbat Lights
On the cover:
Shabbat starts: Friday, Sept. 4, 7:42 p.m. Shabbat ends: Saturday, Sept. 5, 8:42 p.m.
Cover photo/credit: Sam Brickman/Photo by Gary Howe Cover design: Michelle Sheridan
* Times according to Yeshiva Beth Yehudah calendar.
Torah portion 34
Arts&Life The Beat Goes On 35 Israeli artist to participate in this year’s Arts, Beats & Eats festival.
12 Founded with Michigan ties, the activist group unites young Jews and undocumented workers … but its messaging horrifies many.
‘The Painted Bird’
Farber Delays Start of School
One-Stop-Shop for Jewish Entertainment
18 Most classes will now be converted to virtual learning.
36 Film adaptation is beautiful but impersonal.
37 ChaiFlicks streaming service has arrived.
EMU Lecture Series
How Can You Laugh at That?
20 Eastern Michigan University Center for Jewish Studies initiates 2020-2021 lecture series with investigations of cross-cultural exchange.
38 New book takes a look at Holocaust humor.
Pets and the Pandemic
43
Spirit
Celeb Jews 39
22 Metro Detroit veterinarian weighs in on pets and COVID-19, separation anxiety and more.
Online Events
Epidemiologist Looks at Impact of COVID-19 in LA
Nosh
23 Adva Gadoth, originally of Farmington Hills, talks coronavirus research and her love for public health.
41 Grandson turns lessons from his baking Bubbie into a thriving Traverse City bagel business.
40
No Schmear Coincidence
Detroit-Made Fresh Salsa Is Back! Mask Crusader
45
26 Doctor with Detroit roots fights for better COVID precautions in Tennessee.
Etc.
#MichiganStrong 27 Suit Depot gives away free masks to help support local businesses.
The Exchange Soul Danny Raskin Looking Back
46 48 53 54
thejewishnews.com OUR JN MISSION: We aspire to communicate news and opinion that’s trusted, valued, engaging and distinctive. We strive to reflect diverse community viewpoints while also advocating positions that strengthen Jewish unity and continuity. As an independent, responsible, responsive community member, we actively engage with individuals and organizations dedicated to enhancing the quality of life, and Jewish life, in Southeast Michigan. SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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5781
NEW YEAR. NEW CHALLENGES.
SAME INCREDIBLE COMMUNITY. We invite everyone to worship with us virtually. For service dates/times and more information - www.temple-israel.org/HHD
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Views for openers letters
Passing Time …
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his pandemic has had a strange, paradoxical effect on my concept of time. Being confined mostly to my home, life in general seems to be moving more at a snail’s pace, yet Alan the month of Muskozitz August went by Contributing Writer lightning fast. And the longer the COVID crisis continues, the more I seem to lose track of time. “It’s Monday? Huh, feels like Saturday.” Thank goodness, though, that despite society closing down, my brain hasn’t. (Depending on who you ask.) That’s a good thing because I’m definitely a reluctant member of the “an idle mind is the devils’ playground” club. I’m grateful my chapter of that club shuttered its doors to avoid large gatherings. The slower pace has allowed me to focus on details of life that might not normally get my attention. Starting with products that proclaim they kill 99.9% of bacteria. Noticing them more because of the manic washand-wipe-it-off world we now live in. In my household that includes Lysol Kitchen Pro, Windex Multi-Surface Disinfectant Cleaner and Purell Hand Sanitizer. How is it that these companies come so close to killing everything but can’t get that extra .1%?! Do their scientists hang up their lab coats at the end of the day and say, “eh, close enough?” And why
don’t they at least tell us what germs are in the .1% they can’t kill? I mean, they must know which germs they are to state they can’t kill them, right? Another small detail I’ve focused on … I’m wondering how many days since March I haven’t worn pants. Let me clarify — long pants. I think it’s safe to say less than five days. I don’t know how I’m going to reenter society wearing something other than gym shorts. And I’m talking about the one pair of old, very unflattering gym shorts I’ve been wearing that I have no business even going to get the mail in — but do. Mail. There’s another thing I’ve been hyper-focused on, or at least was. I’ve graduated from getting the mail with gloves on and opening it with the precision of a microsurgeon — to grabbing the mail barehanded, ripping it open and washing my hands immediately afterward. I do though, still let the mail marinate on my garage floor for a few days before bringing it in the house. Like a lot of folks who are hunkered down at home, my television viewing has increased tremendously. The increased screen time has led to my paying more attention to programming options I’d normally bypass. I’m hungry for live sports but never would I have imagined that in pre-COVID I would’ve stopped to watch, and this is for real, a World Cornhole Championship on ESPN. You know what this is;
you just may not have known what it was called. It’s a popular sport on college campuses, especially at tailgate parties. Two opponents attempt to throw small bags of corn kernels through a hole on a raised platform. It’s kind of like playing shuffleboard with a vegetable. I watched two men, excuse me, “athletes,” do this for several minutes. Don’t think this sport is taken seriously? These guys were wearing sweat suits covered in corporate sponsorship logos. I actually stuck around long enough to watch the winner’s press conference. Finally, because the weather has been so good — I mean, I think it’s one of the best summers I can recall — I’ve been spending an inordinate number of hours sitting in my yard. I eat, work and even sleep out there. I’ve even been known to sleep through lawnmowers circling me. I also now find myself hyper-focused on the squirrels on our property and their daily, repetitive behaviors. And I actually think my friendly, daily presence has reduced their normal squirrel skittishness. Until last week, when I made the mistake of discussing politics with them. Hmmm, maybe I am going squirrelly. Happy, healthy New Year! Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voiceover/acting talent, speaker, and emcee. Visit his website at laughwithbigal.com,“Like” Al on Facebook and reach him at amuskovitz@renmedia.us
Support Community Teachers I want to commend the Jewish News for publishing the beautiful article from Sam Arnold on the value of Jewish education and the support that the community needs to give to its teachers (“Jewish Education’s Virtual Future,” Aug. 13, page 10). The experience that Sam talked about, the NewCAJE Conference, was recently renamed from the CAJE Conference, which originally stood for the Coalition for Alternatives in Jewish Education. I was fortunate to be present at the second conference many years ago at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. I truly believe that this experience and subsequent attendance at nearly 20 additional conferences was the most valuable educational opportunity that I had. I was a teacher of students from toddlers to senior adults and learned so much to assist me in being the best that I could be for almost 60 years. I also noticed that you printed a letter from Rabbi Cherie KollerFox, the current president of NewCAJE, imploring the congregations and the community to underwrite the costs of this experience for its teachers and assistants. I want to publicly thank Congregation Shaarey Zedek and Adat Shalom Synagogue, who helped me attend CAJE. I hope that all synagogue and temples will show their support in this endeavor. While attending virtually is nice, the experience of singing with Debbie Friedman (z”l), Peter Yarrow, Kol B’Seder, Craig Taubman and some of the newest entertainers for young Jewish people or learning with some of the great teachers of our time, the ability to physcontinued on page 6 SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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LETTERS continued from page 5
Emerging Leaders
ically be together is something that I pray our teachers will be able to experience in the not too distant future.
Editor’s Note: After realizing the cancellation of summer programs and camps for Jewish teens throughout North America would leave them without a meaningful summer experience, the Shalom Hartman Institute and national and local partners recruited 260 emerging teen leaders to engage in a month-long fellowship. Two of those teens agreed to write about their experience for the JN. Jewish community and issues happening all over the world, I was intrigued. Over the course of a month, we had three weekly Beit Midrash sessions and after every single one, I reflected on what I learned and what the other teens had to say. The most memorable Beit Midrash session was “Israel as Home for All its Citizens,” with Mohammad Dawarshe and Masua Sagiv. Dawarshe, an Israeli Arab, and Sagiv, an Israeli Jew, discussed and debated the ongoing issues in Israel and whether they think a two-state solution is still possible. Over the course of the session, we explored the role of Israeli Arabs in society overall. Being able to listen to Dawarshe’s story
and his views on Israel really changed my perspective, too. I believe that the State of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, but I think Israel needs to continue finding more ways to be inclusive to all Israeli citizens so they can feel at home, too. I really want to thank the Hartman Institute for giving me the privilege of listening to amazing speakers and for giving us all a voice. I can’t wait to use what I learned from this program and to bring it with me all the way to Israel.
T
uously questioning my morals and beliefs. Most of all, I looked forward to my small group discussions, in which I was able to unpack the most challenging topics within a more personal setting. Being able to speak with teens just like me from across North America was incredibly impactful and, despite the many miles between us, I found myself forming unique connections. Above all, being able to create a capstone project that encompassed my knowledge from the summer was the most influential component of this experience. I chose to explore further how social justice is a fundamental part of our Judaism, and I did so through creating a website with a close friend and member of my small group cohort. Being able to provide
others with ways to help various social justice movements was significant and subsequently helped to strengthen my argument. Ultimately, being able to learn and grow as a Jew during such an unprecedented time was beyond enlightening. Exploring the contemporary challenges that North American Jews face evidently challenged and shaped the way I live my life. I am incredibly grateful to have been able to be a part of this program, and this experience is one that I will undoubtedly never forget.
hroughout my time as a fellow within Shalom Hartman’s Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders: Together At Home program, I was consistently pushed to grow as a student as well as a Jewish teen. I was able to explore my Judaism, strengthen connections and build new relationships. But Lenna most of all, my Peterson thinking was challenged, unfailingly, every single day. Whether it was through my elective about meritocracy and the ways in which it influences the Jewish community or Beit Midrash sessions where I was able to listen to some of the most accomplished individuals speak, I found myself contin-
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
Another Jewish Primary Winner The August 13 article about winners and losers in the August primary failed to mention another Jewish candidate. In the three-way primary race for an open seat on the Oakland County Circuit Court, Jewish candidate Lorie Savin topped the ballot against Clarence Dass and Maura Battersby Murphy. Mrs. Savin, an Oakland County Friend of the Court referee, will now face Mr. Dass in the November general election. — Sheldon Larky West Bloomfield
Tali Rubenstein lives in West Bloomfield. This school year, she will be attending Alexander Muss High School in Israel for a semester, and then returning to Groves High School for the remainder of her junior year.
Lenna Petersen is a rising junior at Bloomfield Hills High School, and is passionate about social justice, journalism and politics. She is NFTY Michigan’s communications vice president and loves to spend her summers at Goldman Union Camp Institute.
Ann Arbor Protesters
HENRY HERSKOVITZ
T
his summer I had the opportunity to participate in the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders: Together At Home. I was supposed to be at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin for my final summer, but COVID-19 disrupted those Tali plans. I had to Rubenstein readjust everything and decide the best way to spend my summer. When I found out that I would have the chance to learn with several hundred teens from all over the country and to talk about issues happening in the
— Janet Pont Southfield
I fear that recent news reports on the court case involving picketers outside an Ann Arbor synagogue (Aug. 27, pg. 27) tend to accept at face value the picketers’ self-image as benign human rights advocates. In fact, as public records show, the leaders and many of the followers are hard-core antisemites and neo-Nazi sympathizers. The following information, readily available from public sources, I have compiled as part of my University of Michigan research on American hate groups. continued on page 10
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MADELINE HALPERT
Views guest column
Garrett’s Space
T
hree years ago, in September of 2017, I lost my brother, Garrett Halpert, to suicide. Throughout his short but impactful life, he was a dedicated brother, son, best friend, poet and listener. Though he struggled frequently with his own mental health, when you were with him, he always made you Madeline feel as if you Halpert were the most important person in the world. Unfortunately, my brother’s death is not an anomaly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth and young adults in Michigan between the ages of 10 to 24. In the Ann Arbor and Detroit area alone, we have witnessed several young adults die by suicide over the course of the past three years — many of
them young Jewish men, like my brother. The COVID19 pandemic and resulting isolating period of lockdown has reminded us once again of the importance of mental health support, and the dire consequences that occur when people cannot access this care. When someone struggles with alcohol addiction, there are welcoming spaces, such as rehabilitation centers, to seek recovery. But when someone struggles drastically with mental health, the options are often limited to outpatient therapy sessions, stints in the psychiatric emergency room or stays in prohibitively expensive longterm residential facilities. After my brother’s suicide, this gap in the mental health system became painfully clear to my parents, Julie and Scott Halpert. Together, they have founded Garrett’s Space, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting young people’s mental health. They have also joined forces with
Garrett Halpert, of blessed memory.
the University of Michigan Depression Center and dozens of seasoned mental health professionals in the area who have recognized this same critical need for more expansive mental health support options for our young people. My parents’ end goal for Garrett’s Space is ambitious but essential: an affordable residential center dedicated to long-term in-patient recovery and support for young adults dealing with emotional challenges. The center will be set in nature, with a focus on holistic coping strategies, such as peer support, yoga, meditation and music, outlets that my brother found great solace in during his times of difficulty. It also will provide support to parents whose children
are struggling and ways to cope with broken relationships. For the summer of 2020, a group of my brother’s friends were planning an all-day, in-person outdoor fundraiser to help raise money for the center. When the original event had to be canceled due to the pandemic, one of my brother’s closest and most beloved friends, Mario Sulaksana, stepped up. A musician himself, he came to my parents with an idea for a 24-hour online fundraiser with a variety of different performers, speakers and classes. In just under five weeks, I have been so impressed to see him realize this ambitious goal. On Sept. 4, at noon, we will begin a 24-hour live-stream event, continued on page 11
Arthur M. Horwitz Publisher ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. Kevin Browett Chief Operating Officer kbrowett@renmedia.us | Editorial Editor: Andrew Lapin alapin@thejewishnews.com Associate Editor: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@renmedia.us Social Media and Digital Producer: Nathan Vicar nvicar@renmedia.us Multimedia Reporter: Corrie Colf ccolf@renmedia.us
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
• Standing outside the synagogue, Henry Herskovitz, the picketers’ leader, stated his motivation in these exact words, which on his website he acknowledged uttering: “I hate Jews. Whatever happened to them in World War II they brought on themselves. They deserved everything they got.” • The late Ernst Zündel was Germany’s leading neo-Nazi, author of the book The Hitler We Loved and Why, who was imprisoned in Germany for inciting race hatred and Holocaust denial. Not only did Herskovitz campaign tirelessly for Zündel’s release, but Herskovitz flew to Germany to meet Zündel in Mannheim prison, shake Zündel’s hand and express warm admiration. • The Southern Poverty Law Center, a leading civil rights organization, listed Deir Yassin Remembered, the group that initiated the picket, on its National Register of Hate Groups. Why? Because, the SPLC explained, the group sympathizes with Nazi Germany. • Larry Brayboy is a local political activist whom Herskovitz identified in a letter to the Washtenaw Jewish News as a “close friend” of the picketers. The picketers chose Brayboy to represent their views in a public debate in which he promised to prove that the Holocaust never happened and that Jews caused 9/11. Brayboy has sent endless emails to public figures using antisemitic and racist slurs. • Paul Eisen, a director of Deir Yassin Remembered, appeared on the radio
program of David Duke, America’s leading neo-Nazi. Said Eisen to Duke on the air, “I never heard you, David, say anything that I didn’t think was true.” This is only the tip of the iceberg of the picketers’ pervasive and incorrigibly antisemitic activities. Their leaders have seized upon the Mideast issue, not because they know anything about Middle Eastern history, but because they think the issue will attract new supporters while camouflaging their true motives. As a major community organization, I hope that you will provide a full and accurate account of their ideology that has now resulted in a federal court case. Let me say, finally, that if Islamophobes had targeted the local mosque year in and year out, or Ku Klux Klansmen had besieged a Black church, I believe that public outrage would have forced city councilmen, clergy and community leaders to find the legal and political means to end the siege. That Ann Arbor has done absolutely nothing to help the synagogue during an ordeal now in its 17th year, that community leaders have remained silent in the face of endless hate-group provocation, is, in my opinion, a frightening reproduction of 1930s cowardice, a mark of shame, a scarlet letter that Ann Arbor will have great difficulty removing. — Victor Lieberman Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History University of Michigan
CORRECTION We regret that the incorrect photo was used to identify the writer of the Torah portion on Aug. 20. This photo of Rabbi Daniel Schwartz should have appeared.
GARRETT continued from page 8
Go24forGarrett’sSpace: A Virtual Fundraiser for Suicide Prevention, to help raise money for our residential center. The event will feature free wellness and fitness classes; many speakers, such as Detroit’s own former sports broadcaster Eli Zaret and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell; and gifted performers including Broadway stars Robert Ariza (from the Chicago cast of Hamilton) and Daniel Reichard (who performed in the Broadway production of Jersey Boys). There will also be a brief appearance from Benj Pasek, co-writer of Dear Evan Hansen and songwriter for La La Land, and Grammy-nominated artist Mayer Hawthorne. Additionally, the livestream will include several young adults who will be sharing their own struggles with mental health and how they overcame them. As a part of the event, we will also be holding an auction with many gift cards and services donated from Detroit and Ann Arbor businesses and community members. Every anniversary of
Garrett’s death is exceedingly difficult for his beloved family members and friends. With this year comes a particular challenge for me. On Sept. 7, the anniversary of Garrett’s death, I will be 23 — the same age my brother was when he decided to end his life. But on this anniversary, I feel especially grateful to be surrounded by members of the community who are rallying around us during these isolating times to raise money for a crucial cause: the mental health of our young adults. While my family and Garrett’s friends will always wonder what else we might have been able to do for Garrett, we know now what we can do for others. It is our hope that in creating Garrett’s Space, many other special and talented young adults like my brother will no longer have to struggle alone. Madeline Halpert is a journalist and JN contributor based in Ann Arbor. The 24-hour “Go24forGarrett’sSpace” will begin on Sept. 4 at noon, and the link to the event will be available on Garrett’s Space’s website, garrettsspace.org, under the events page.
SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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PHOTO COURTESY OF SERENA ADLERSTEIN
Jews in the D
Never Again Action:
Inside the Movement Founded with Michigan ties, the activist group unites young Jews and undocumented workers … but its messaging has drawn ire. MATT HARMON CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
S
erena Adlerstein heard the phrase “Never Again” regularly throughout her Jewish upbringing. As a member of the Reform community, her lessons in Sunday school stressed the importance of preventing another genocide after the Holocaust. Often, warnings against forgetting the past came from those that lived through it, like Adlerstein’s grandfather Arno Goetz. His family fled Germany after Kristallnacht in November 1938, when Nazis set fire to Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses and killed scores of Jews. “I thought a lot about if I were alive during that time, what would I have done, and I also remember hearing from my mom saying that her father, my grandfather, would also frequently tell her, ‘Don’t think that it can’t happen again here,’” Adlerstein said. Conversations like Adlerstein’s with her mother are unfortunately a dime a dozen among the Jewish community. When she watches reports of undocumented migrants in the U.S. being detained and held in detention centers, Adlerstein sees these narratives of persecution and imprisonment as all too similar to sit back and do nothing. This is why, while working in Grand Rapids, she became one
of the founding members of Never Again Action, a Jewish activist organization calling for the release and protection of detained undocumented immigrants in the United States. According to the Migration Policy Institute, approximately 11.3 million undocumented residents live in the U.S. In 2018, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations Report claimed 396,448 people were booked into an ICE detention facility and, since 2004, 193 detainees have died in ICE’s custody. In one detention facility in Clint, Texas, the New York Times found migrants lived in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions and, according to
COMING TO THE CAUSE Born in Portland, Maine, Adlerstein was always in touch with her Reform Jewish community but found her activist community while in college at NYU. After leaving New York, she moved to Omaha, where she taught English at a refugee resettlement center. There, she learned about the resettlement process and immigration system. When she heard about a six-month fellowship with Movimiento Cosecha, she knew she had to apply.
We can spend our days arguing about what to call these detention centers, or we can say what’s happening now is enough to shut them down. — SERENA ADLERSTEIN
PHOTO COURTESY OF SERENA ADLERSTEIN
The first Never Again Action in Elizabeth, N.J., June 30, 2019. RIGHT: Christine Miranda, Gema Lowe and group founder Serena Adlerstein.
agents at the facility, “Outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chickenpox were spreading among the hundreds of children and adults who were being held in cramped cells.” With researchers now claiming detention centers have the potential to be hotbeds for COVID-19, Never Again Action and their partner organization Movimiento Cosecha, an activist group that focuses on undocumdnted immigrants, are demanding the release of detainees in order to prevent a public health emergency. By adopting the mantra of Holocaust survivors as a moniker, Never Again Action claims to link past atrocities against the Jewish people to the modern system of persecution and imprisonment toward undocumented immigrants. And sometimes that line is even more explicit. In 2019, Jewish undocumented immigrant Nylssa Portillo Moreno, who was born in El Salvador and grew up in Houston, was detained by ICE. This August, Never Again Action joined several other Jewish activist groups, including the ADL and the National Council of Jewish Woman, in lobbying for Moreno’s release. The push was successful: ICE released Moreno less than a week before her scheduled deportation.
“This politicization of the Holocaust must stop.” — RABBI ELI MAYERFIELD, CEO, HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER
continued on page 14 SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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Jews in the D While participating in this fellowship, Adlerstein learned about the long history of immigrant rights organizing and was welcomed into what she describes as a family of organizers, both undocumented and not. “The power the undocumented community has is the fact that our entire economy depends on immigrant workers, and we don’t have to ask politicians nicely because they’re not going to do anything,” Adlerstein said. After she completed the fellowship, Adlerstein moved to Grand Rapids in April 2018 to help organize the local Cosecha branch’s second May Day strike. Adlerstein and Cosecha organizer Gema Lowe met during the weeks leading up to the strike. “In Cosecha, we have 14 principles and one of them is that it’s not a job; it’s a passion,” said Lowe, who’s lived in Grand Rapids since 1991 after immigrating from Mexico to join her family. Adlerstein and Lowe worked together on a number of projects during her years in Grand Rapids, including their push to end ICE’s contracts with the Kent County Sheriff ’s Office. If an individual was arrested on a non-immigration charge, ICE could previously issue a detainer and ask the jail to hold the accused for up to three days past their release date until ICE officers could begin their case. After protests at the Kent County Board of Commissioners’ meetings and sites of detainment, the Sheriff ’s Office changed their policy and now requires a warrant for ICE to hold those arrested past their release date. A CONTROVERSIAL COMPARISON While Adlerstein was working with Lowe to make these changes in Grand Rapids, the words
GILI GETZ/JTA
continued from page 13
Members of the group Never Again Action have been arrested in protests against immigrant detention policies.
“Never Again” and her conversations with her mother came to the front of her mind when Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York first used the words “concentration camps” on June 18, 2019, to describe ICE detention centers on Twitter. In so doing, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez sparked a fiery nationwide debate — and galvanized leftist Jewish activists like Adlerstein, who saw the comparison as powerful and apt. “The fact that people can be put in detention centers indefinitely with no due process at all is incredibly terrifying, and the slowly creeping level of dehumanization and cruelty is becoming so normal … When is 100 deaths going to turn into 1,000 going to turn into 10,000?” Adlerstein asked. However, many scholars and Jewish organizations found and continue to see Ocasio-Cortez’s words as not only inaccurate but insensitive and diminishing to the experiences of the victims
and survivors of the Holocaust. In a press release from June 2019, also signed by the heads of five other Holocaust Memorial organizations, the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills wrote that the term should not be used in a partisan discussion. “The Nazi regime targeted Europe’s Jews for murder. It created a vast forced labor and camp system to exploit Jewish labor before murdering them. OcasioCortez’s inaccurate reference diminishes the inexpressible horror suffered at the hands of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi regime and collaborators, and wrongly equates current U.S. immigration policy with the systematic murder of 6 million Jews and the persecution of millions of others,” the center’s release read. The center declined the JN’s requests for an interview for this story, but Rabbi Eli Mayerfield, its CEO, sent an updated statement on the movement. “The Holocaust Memorial Center
firmly believes all people should be treated humanely with inherent dignity and provided the protection of fundamental human rights. At the same time, it is completely inappropriate and offensive for Never Again Action to use the term ‘concentration camp’ as they are,” Mayerfield said in the statement. “The disgraceful phenomenon of Holocaust analogies is dangerous and should never be used for political gain or leverage. This politicization of the Holocaust must stop.” Even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Jewish Democratic Socialist and former presidential candidate who has been a huge rallying force for the Jewish left, told CNN in 2019 he doesn’t use “that terminology.” Judaic Studies scholars such as Hannah Pollin-Galay and David Caron from the University of Michigan see the debate as a matter of cultural memory and how words change over time. While Pollin-Galay said she continued on page 16
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is against ICE detention centers and commends Ocasio-Cortez for bringing light to the issue on a national scale, she expressed caution when using terms like “concentration camps,” which are tied to a specific injustice. In her Holocaust Memory class, she starts the semester by asking the students for Holocaust comparisons. “The two that always come up are abortions and eating meat, and I ask other people in the class, ‘Are those legitimate and can you tell me why not?’ For those that disagree, it’s really hard to describe why it’s wrong,” Pollin-Galay said. According to Pollin-Galay, Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison falters when it refuses to acknowledge the memory of Holocaust survivors. “With people’s memories, not just of the Holocaust, but of Holocaust denialism and Holocaust trivialization, I think that the survivor community and their families feel fatigued by constant comparisons,” Pollin-Galay said. Caron felt similarly to PollinGalay about how memory and political rhetoric can distort a word’s original broader meeting. As an AIDS scholar, Caron researches Holocaust comparisons in AIDS activism in the 1980s and ’90s. As in instances where French writer and AIDS victim Hervé Guibert compared his body to an Auschwitz prisoner, Caron said activists, including organizations like Never Again Action, use these metaphors to provoke discussion. “When activists themselves take on [a war or Holocaust] metaphor, then the meaning changes, and these metaphors were often used by AIDS activists in order to convince people
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
During COVID-19, some members of Never Again Action continued their ICE protests from cars.
of the magnitude and the injustice of the AIDS epidemic and … also to unite the community,” Caron said. “The meaning changes according to who uses the metaphor.” THE MAIN FOCUS? Seeing this debate overwhelm the mainstream media cycle, Adlerstein said she thought the main focus of the debate — the detention centers themselves — was being obscured. “What’s happening now is incredibly cruel and wrong. We can spend our days arguing what to call these detention centers or we can say what’s happening now is enough to shut them down,” Adlerstein said. In response, Adlerstein did what most modern activists do to connect with other activists — she took to Facebook. Recalling her experiences as a young Jew whose grandfather fled Nazi persecution, she made a post on June 24, 2019 calling on Jews to join the immigrant rights movement as allies and shut down detention centers. Adlerstein said she saw four or five organizers say they were in. That night, Adlerstein and the other organizers were on a group call, and the following night, 30 more activists joined. With those conversations, Never Again Action was formed. Becca Lubow, an organiz-
er with leftist Jewish group IfNotNow, was part of the first Never Again Action protests during the summer of 2019. On June 30, hundreds of Jewish protesters blocked the entrances to the ICE detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Lubow, one of the 36 Jewish protesters who were arrested at the demonstration, said it was an event she will never forget. She described activists from all over the country traveling to New Jersey to take part in the action. At the gates of the detention center, Lubow remembers singing a song that her friend put to music based on a poem his grandfather wrote during the Holocaust. The poem reads “Oh my friends, freedom as I see it, is the most beautiful delicate rose.” “I watched one of the immigrant leaders cry and she said, ‘I’ve always felt really alone doing this work and I don’t feel alone right now,’” Lubow said. A moment that stood out to Lubow was when the protesters said the Mourner’s Kaddish for those who had died while in ICE custody. “I had grown up saying it in synagogue and it never felt so raw and powerful to me,” Lubow said. Thirty to 40 additional actions were staged that summer across the country by Never Again Action and Cosecha. Originally,
Adlerstein expected the movement to dissolve after the summer was over. But after conversations with undocumented organizers, she said their work as allies for the immigrant rights movement is far from over, especially given the predictions from organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union that detained migrants are “sitting ducks” for the coronavirus. Over the past few months, Never Again Action and Cosecha have been organizing car rallies, where demonstrators surround detention centers in their cars to maintain social distancing guidelines and protest the centers. Lubow said these rallies are necessary to keep up past campaigns while making sure they aren’t putting protestors at risk. “Releasing people has always been urgent, but now with coronavirus, there’s potential for these camps to become death camps. There’s no way for people inside to protect themselves from coronavirus. There’s no way for them to social distance,” Lubow said. As Never Again Action and Cosecha continue to work together to support undocumented communities that are disproportionally affected by coronavirus, organizers like Adlerstein and Lubow stress Never Again Action would not have been possible without undocumented activists fighting for decades to protect immigrants’ rights. As Adlerstein works from her home in Maine for Never Again Action as one of its 10 full-time staffers, she said Jews need to be constantly standing up for undocumented rights. “We really need to be in this fight for the long haul,” Adlerstein said. “We need millions of people to understand the problem.”
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Jews in the D
Farber Delays Start of School Two teachers have tested positive for COVID-19. SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
he scheduled Aug. 24 start of school at Farber Hebrew Day School – Yeshivat Akiva came and went after parents were notified that the first day of classes would be both postponed and Dr. Joshua include major Levisohn modifications. In a duo of emails, sent Aug. 20 and 21, a new plan was outlined to replace the previously slated hybrid in-school and virtual curriculum. Instead, school began Monday, Aug. 31, with ECC, kindergarten and first grade students attending in-person classes — as originally set — and grades two through 12 moving into a virtual schedule. Reassessment of the situation will be ongoing but is expected to continue until after Sukkot, which ends the evening of Friday, Oct. 9. The determination was made by the school’s executive committee, headed by Farber parent and president Dr. Ora Singer, who signed the letters to parents along with head of school Dr. Joshua Levisohn. A Farber teacher tested positive for COVID-19 last week, after faculty and staff testing was done on Monday,
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
Aug. 17, three days before the announcement of school opening changes was made. The spouse of the teacher who tested positive for COVID also tested positive — and is also a Farber teacher. The family has been in quarantine since the original positive test and has not been in the Farber building. Following the positive COVID-19 case, Farber said it followed state and medical guidance. “The health department was promptly notified, the building was properly cleaned, and contact tracing was conducted in accordance with current best practices,” they said in an email. Farber executives said the positive tests did not prompt the delay of the school’s opening or the addition of virtual learning. Rather, the delay announcement followed a three-day teacher-orientation, attended by 80 faculty and staff members. According to Levisohn, “Unlike office buildings or other places of work, schools are large, interactive, buzzing organisms. Seeing faculty and staff interact inside of the building made it clear it will take time to adjust to our new reality and to the new protocols.
“To ensure everyone’s safety, we felt it was necessary to conduct a staged opening rather than a single introduction of most of the children to school, and with that in mind, we made the extremely difficult, even heart-wrenching decision to change plans even at the very late date,” he added. According to an email sent to parents, the school plans to offer some virtual, small group learning for the lower grades as well as “regular opportunities for these students to coalesce in safe environments, primarily outdoors to build relationships and provide social stimulus.” Levisohn added, “The pandemic has caused all of us to remain as flexible as possible, as the reality, the medical guidance, the state guidelines and the data all seem to change on a daily basis. We are committed to providing the very best education possible to our children while remaining steadfast in our attempts to keep students, faculty and their families safe.” An Aug. 24 town hall Zoom meeting to address concerns and questions was attended by more than 100 Farber parents, staff members and students.
Yeshivas Darchai Torah Provides In-Person Instruction SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Yeshivas Darchei Torah, an Orthodox day school in Southfield, is holding in-person classes for its 496 students. Classes for boys in first through eighth grade began on Aug. 27. Girls classes and all preschool started Sept. 2. According to Rabbi Yehudah Amsel, the school’s director of community relations, Yeshivas Darchai Torah is prepared to offer virtual instruction but no families have requested that option. He said that the school used sophisticated teleconferencing to provide remote learning when all schools closed in March. Amsel added that Darchei Torah is working with the governor’s guidelines for schools to avoid transmission of COVID-19. Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in Oak Park, the largest private Orthodox Jewish day school in the state, has also finalized its instruction plans for the fall semester, but school officials told the JN they “have decided not to release the document for public consumption.”
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EMU Lecture Series Eastern Michigan University’s Center for Jewish Studies initiates 2020-2021 lecture series with investigations of cross-cultural exchange. MARTY SHICHTMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
D
edicated to providing a gathering place for all of Southeast Michigan’s numerous ethnic communities to learn more about Jews and Judaism, a space to build bridges, to foster cooperation and inclusiveness, Eastern Michigan University’s Center for Jewish Studies opens its 2020-2021 Lecture Series — available on Zoom — with two discussions about cultural difference and cooperation. Professor André Villeneuve will discuss “From Rivalry to Reconciliation: The Catholic Church and the Jewish People,” 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9. Dr. Villeneuve, a Catholic biblical scholar at Azusa Pacific University, holds an M.A. in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Ph.D. in religious studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome. His scholarly focus is on biblical theology, JewishChristian relations, and the reconciliation of Israel and the Church. He is the founder and
director of Catholics for Israel. This lecture is free and open to all, but participants must register in advance at tinyurl.com/ emulecture2. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, the Center for Jewish Studies will present Naftali Aklum, who will talk about “Being Black, Jewish and Israeli.” The story of Ethiopian Jewry in Israel is a unique tale of suffering, perseverance and fulfillment. Aklum, a member of the Ethiopian Israeli community, is founder and CEO of the Yerus Project, an educational experience that focuses on the history, culture and traditions of Ethiopian Jewry while also aiming to stimulate economic development among the Ethiopian Israelis. This is the CJS’s Second Annual Art and Mary Schuman Lecture, and it is free and open to all, but participants must register in advance at tinyurl.com/emulecture. For further information about these presentations or about the Eastern Michigan University Center for Jewish Studies, contact Professor Martin B. Shichtman, director, at jewish.studies@emich.edu.
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JN FILE PHOTO
Jews in the D
Pets and the Pandemic
W
hile the world continues to understand COVID-19, how it spreads and the impact it can have on those who contract it, one of the biggest concerns for pet owners is whether or not pets can be impacted by the coronavirus. “We are still learning new things about this virus,” says Dr. Orit Szwarcman of the Huntington Woods-based Home Vet service, which provides veterinary care for pets via home visits. Dr. Szwarcman, 63, who started Home Vet in 1990 and grew up in Brussels, Belgium, has been practicing for 40 years. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused her to pivot and reshape how her services are offered. A member of Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park, Dr. Szwarcman now only sees dogs outside. She wears a mask and asks that owners do the same. For cats, she sees some outside, some in a garage and the rest inside their homes. These extra safety precautions can help keep herself, pet owners and their pets safe while the virus becomes more wellknown and understood by experts. With many questions circulating about pets and COVID-19, how to navigate pet separation anxiety as owners return to
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
Q: What precautions can people take to keep their animals safe in public spaces? A: Same as before. The risk, although pretty small for your pet to get the virus, is from positive people. Keep your pets away from people not wearing masks. Q: How should pet owners who have been exposed to or contracted COVID-19 navigate quarantine and take care of their pets? A: Another person should take care of the pets, who should be isolated from the COVID-positive person. Ideally, a pet emergency kit should be prepared with food and medication (if they take any) for about two weeks.
Metro Detroit veterinarian weighs in on pets and COVID-19, separation anxiety and more. ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
distance is still the safer way.
Dr. Orit Szwarcman and Sawyer
work and which risks exist (or don’t exist) for animals, Dr. Szwarcman answers some of the most common concerns. Q: Can pets contract or transmit COVID-19? A: As of now it appears that pets (and some other species like lions and tigers) can contract the COVID-19 virus from positive humans. Thousands of animals have been tested in the U.S. and only 20 or so have tested positive. All were exposed to positive people. Cats and ferrets seem more susceptible than dogs. It does not appear that pets play a role in people’s exposure, only that they can become positive through exposure to infected humans. Q: Can the COVID-19 virus live in animal fur? A: Because pet hair is porous and fibrous, it does seem highly unlikely that a person could contract the virus by petting an animal. Q: Is it safe to walk dogs in high-traffic areas during COVID-19 outbreaks? A: The main problem would be encountering COVID-positive people not wearing a mask. So I would avoid that type of crowded situation. Maintaining a safe
Q: Is it risky to take dogs or cats to groomers or daycare/boarding? A: A well-run boarding facility or day care should not be a concern. Many groomers have curbside pickup or drop-off service. I have taken my own dogs to daycare and the groomer. Q: Should people limit their pets’ interaction with other pets or animals? A: That does not seem to be justified. Unless one is COVID-positive. Q: What steps can people take to keep their pets healthy during this time? A: Regular common sense to keep yourself safe should apply. Make sure their routine vaccinations and anti-parasite medications are kept up. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Stay away from crowds. Q: How can pet owners manage separation anxiety with their animals as they return to work? A: After having been with their owner 24/7 for months, some pets might show signs of separation anxiety. The first thing to do is to try leaving the pet for increasingly longer periods. Minimizing departure routine, not doing all the same things in the same order when you’re leaving, avoiding making a big deal (especially baby talk) when you leave or come back — all those would be helpful to prevent separation anxiety. If all fails, talk to your veterinarian about medication. Or see a veterinary behaviorist.
COURTESY OF ADVA GADOTH
Jews in the D
Epidemiologist
Looks at Impact of COVID-19 in L.A.
Dr. Adva Gadoth, originally of Farmington Hills, talks coronavirus research and her love for public health. MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A
s an epidemiologist, Dr. Adva Gadoth has been thinking about COVID-19 since long before most Americans. She and her colleagues were hopeful back in February that the United States would keep the virus at bay. But the U.S. couldn’t control the virus in those crucial mid-February weeks, and that’s when Gadoth and her colleagues knew this would spread like wildfire. “I think we all had this light bulb go off in mid-February that things are not going well,” she said. Gadoth, who grew up in Farmington Hills and earned her Ph.D. from UCLA in 2019, has been working as a staff epidemiologist at UCLA. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, her work was focused on vaccination projects and studying emerging infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries, primarily the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once the pandemic hit, though,
Gadoth’s team realized there was a need for better public health data right there in Los Angeles. They quickly transitioned into a research study that investigates the impact of the novel coronavirus on highrisk populations in the L.A. area, beginning with healthcare workers at the UCLA hospital and first responders from the L.A. County Fire Department. The team is now
in behavior and practices that can explain upticks or down ticks in infection rate?” Her role is to coordinate the study, meaning that she designs it to be unbiased and scientifically sound. That includes choosing which people to enroll in the study, making sure it adheres to ethical guidelines and overseeing the actual fieldwork — the testing of subjects. Once the data is collected, she’ll also analyze the findings and act as public relations person, making sure other scientists know about it and non-scientists can understand it. Keeping science and public health understandable to everyone is extremely important to Gadoth — she held virtual Q&A sessions with the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’s young adult branch this spring. Gadoth has found her passion in the field of public health. “When I stumbled upon it in my undergrad career, I kind of instantly knew it was what I wanted to do for a living,” Gadoth told the Jewish News. “All
“I think we all had this light bulb go off in mid-February that things are not going well.” — ADVA GADOTH working to extend their study to teachers in the county. Gadoth describes the study as “population-based research where we can kind of take a holistic look at what’s happening in these groups. What differences do we see
continued on page 24 SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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Jews in the D continued from page 23
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ple enrolled in our study, and only had 25 positives right up until a couple of weeks ago.” Now, in the weeks after summer holidays and Black Lives Matter protests and a rolling back of state-imposed restrictions, that spike has arrived in L.A. “A funny, weird part of working with human populations ... is that you just never really know when things are going to happen,” Gadoth said. “You just have to be there, be ready and be collecting data the whole time, so that when something does happen, you catch it.” Despite the roadblocks, Gadoth has found the research to be rewarding. She loves the ability to test people for the study and then provide them with their own test results in real time, she said. It also gives her a sense of purpose. “It would be really hard to be watching from the sidelines and be stuck at home if I didn’t feel I was also able to add to our response in some way and sort out the questions that remain,” she said. Gadoth’s public health advice to all Americans right now is to wear a mask and keep a distance from everyone outside your household. When social interaction does happen, do it outside. And get your flu shot. “Please get your flu shot to protect yourself from another respiratory disease, which could have compounding effects if you have both simultaneously,” Gadoth said. “We don’t know anything about that yet, but they’re both respiratory illnesses that could be really devastating to have a co-infection of those two things.” COURTESY OF ADVA GADOTH
those cheesy things everyone tells you about how you’ll take a class in college and it’ll all just click and make sense actually happened for me.” The class was a freshman seminar at University of Michigan called Emerging Infectious Diseases. “I loved everything about it,” she said. Public health Adva Gadoth “combines my love of biology and also foreign relations and government and politics and human behavior. I loved all of it.” That inspired Gadoth to get her master’s in public health from the University of Michigan, and then do a yearlong fellowship through American Jewish World Service, working on maternal and child health initiatives in India. She returned to Ann Arbor to work as a toxicologist but soon realized she missed the human interaction side of public health, so she decided to go back to school for her Ph.D. Now, she’s researching the impact of COVID-19 and trying to figure out how to create and run a public health study during a global pandemic. Study development usually happens over the course of several months, Gadoth said, but this project was off the ground in about three weeks. That hasn’t been the team’s only timing challenge: they thought there would be a huge COVID-19 spike in L.A. in April, and they’d be able to begin analyzing their data and drawing conclusions right away. But “we had a really low positivity rate among our health care workers and first responders, which makes the analysis really difficult to do,” Gadoth said. “We have over 2,000 peo-
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SEPTEMBER 3 â&#x20AC;˘ 2020
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Jews in the D
Dr. Aaron Milstone
Mask Crusader Doctor with Detroit roots fights for better COVID precautions in Tennessee. MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
W
hen Dr. Aaron Milstone, originally of Lathrup Village, started to see COVID-19 cases rise in his current home of Tennessee back in March, he knew the state’s government would have to act fast to contain an outbreak. Milstone, a pulmonary critical care physician based in Franklin, and another Nashville-area doctor felt a stay-at-home order would help the state keep the virus at bay. But Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee wasn’t keen on mandating one. Milstone and his friend realized they had an uphill battle ahead of them. “We knew on the front end that we were probably going to get into a quagmire with all of this,” Milstone told the Jewish News. The pair set up an online petition urging Gov. Lee to issue a stay-at-home order in Tennessee, figuring they’d need to get 100200 doctors to sign it before sending it to the governor. By the next morning, though, they already had signatures of 500 medical professionals from across the state. “It was internists. It was family practitioners. There were gynecologists on there. There were pathologists on there. And the one unifying theme was that we needed a stay-at-home mandate for the state of Tennessee,” Milstone said. In less than a week, the petition had garnered over 2,000 signatures, and Milstone got the Tennessee Medical Association and other medical organizations to support their cause, too. Local media outlets began to take notice of Milstone’s efforts, and when the petition was opened up to non-doctors, over 35,000 Tennesseans signed on in support of a stay-at-home order in less than a week. But Gov. Lee would not commit to the order.
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
Soon Milstone’s local media attention turned into international media attention. He began doing interviews with CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg and MSNBC. His team was mentioned in newspapers in San Francisco, Missouri and London. When still no change had been made, Milstone reached out to Bill Frist, a former Tennessee senator and a doctor himself. Frist, a Republican, signed the petition and on April 9, Milstone’s team held a press conference to announce the development. Later that same day, Gov. Lee announced that Tennessee would be under a stay-at-home order. “We end up with this ragtag bunch of doctors and pharmaceutical reps and mayors and a couple teenagers,” he said of the team he worked with on the campaign. “It’s just an incredible story of how a team of people that had never been associated with one another in anything like this came together to be able to … create change. “Unfortunately,” Milstone said, “the story doesn’t end there.” NOT ENOUGH Tennessee’s stay-at-home order lasted about three weeks, and Milstone said it decreased the amount of COVID-19 cases in the state dramatically. His team issued a series of press releases warning against opening too quickly, but by the end of April, much of the state began to reopen without social distancing or proper safety precautions. “Basically, we realize that, despite being able to turn down the volume for a month and a half, we have more work to be done,” Milstone said. His team is now urging the Tennessee government to issue a mask mandate. Gov. Lee has been unwilling to require masks in public so far, despite urging from Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Response Taskforce and the Tennessee attorney general stating that a mandate would be constitutional. Milstone and his team are currently hold-
ing press conferences and organizing people to write letters to the governor in favor of a mask mandate. “It’s just a very difficult time for everybody. But [masks are] such a simple fix. It’s such a juxtaposition to Gretchen Whitmer,” he said, referencing Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who issued an executive order requiring masks in Michigan’s enclosed public spaces at the end of April. Tennessee has seen nearly 125,000 cases of the virus this year, while over 98,000 have been logged in Michigan. Milstone moved to Tennessee in 1994 for his medical residency, but he grew up in Lathrup Village and attended medical school at Wayne State University. His father used to be a fundraiser for the Jewish Welfare Foundation and, though his parents now live in Florida, he still has family in the Metro Detroit area. During the pandemic, missing Michigan has taken on a new meaning for Milstone. “I think one of the interesting juxtapositions is just showing the demographic data difference in terms of where we [in Tennessee] are with the pandemic versus Michigan. I would love to be Michigan,” Milstone said. “Michigan, to me, represents what we should be.” In addition to his advocacy work, Milstone has spent the pandemic working directly with COVID-19 patients. “In practicing medicine for 25 years, I personally have never seen anything quite like this,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything so communicative — so easy to catch. And I’ve never seen something that picks certain people to make them really sick and picks other people to cause no symptoms whatsoever.” But Milstone remains optimistic that the virus will eventually be contained across the globe through better treatments and viable vaccines. “I think that that with time and effort, we will get better than where we are right now,” he said.
The Suit Depot gives away free masks to help support local businesses. ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I
t might be easy to shop with just a single click on Amazon, but why not help Michigan’s economy as much as possible by shopping locally instead? When that’s the united call of many customers, then the impact can be huge. That’s what’s behind the #MichiganStrong masks you might be seeing on people around town. The Suit Depot in Oak Park is behind the masks. But according to owner Mordy Babayov, it’s not about his company — it’s about the initiative. “Everyone’s struggling right
now,” Babayov said. “Many small businesses had merchandise that went stale in the three months they were closed. Our goal is to create a whole culture of supporting each other.” The Suit Depot made 2,500 simple black masks with the #MichiganStrong hashtag. They donated 500 to Macomb County, 500 to Oakland County and another 500 to the city of Oak Park. Anyone can come into The Suit Depot in Oak Park and ask for and receive a free mask. Small businesses are invited to walk in and pick up masks
for their employees, whatever the number. They pose for pictures, masked, and tell The Suit Depot about their business and how they’ve tweaked their services to suit the times. Then the Suit Depot profiles these businesses on all their social media — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn — and encourages their followers to help spread the word. Their goal is for followers to share the posts, with Michiganders turning their resources inwards and supporting local businesses in any way they can. Babayov said he used to purchase supplies for his store online but has now started buying them from a local company instead. It might be more expensive, but the knowledge that he’s helping his own community more than makes up
COURTESY OF THE SUITE DEPOT
#MichiganStrong
A Suit Depot employee with a customer who runs an urgent care in Hamtramck
for the few dollars he would have saved. Babayov recently brought a stack of masks to his sister’s wedding, in case people didn’t come with their own. He noticed that the masks sparked a conversation; he was thrilled to see how enthusiastic people were about the initiative. It’s the hope that if everyone’s talking about it and supporting #MichiganStrong, it will benefit everyone in the long run, he said.
The Dorothy and Peter Brown Jewish Community Adult Day Program Invites you to join in its 4th Annual Award-Winning
Dementia Friendly
Kol Nidre/Yom Kippur Service This special service will include familiar prayers and melodies led by Cantor Pamela Schiffer within a 45-minute timeframe created for families and their loved ones living with Dementia. Open to the Community – No charge
Sunday, September 27 at 11 a.m. Zoom link and holiday gift bag with prayer book will be provided with registration For online registration: https://bit.ly/BCservice2020 For questions or to register by phone call (248) 592-5031, leave a message with your name, address, phone number and email. Registration by September 14 preferred to ensure delivery of your High Holy Day gift bag. This event has generously been underwritten by a friend of The Brown Center
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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LEFT: 6-year-old Camila of Pontiac, in her KKC T-shirt, holds onto her new yellow belt at the drive-through. CENTER: 10-year-old Leah of Highland, with her artistic Power, Peace, Purpose sign. RIGHT: 6-year-old Amanuel of Detroit gives a big two-thumbs up.
Driving Through with Power, Peace and Purpose Kids Kicking Cancer’s virtual classes lead to in-person belting ceremony for young martial artists. SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
his summer, just like in years past, celebrants of the Kids Kicking Cancer’s (KKC) belting ceremony were treated to dinner, laughter and special gifts. Unlike in year’s past, the July 22 honorees enjoyed the revamped aspects of the annual event from inside their vehicles at a stop-and-go pace, pausing at various outdoor stations. More than 100 children and their parents were greeted by waves, cheers, horn blasts and the presentation of merited martial arts belts. The kids are participants of the KKC’s Heroes Circle, created for pain management in children with chronic or acute life-threatening illnesses. The program strives to empower
them to heal physically, spiritually and emotionally, through martial arts therapy. They are taught traditional karate moves along with the mind-body techniques of meditation, breathing, relaxation and visualization to lower pain levels. A unique element in the program is the inclusion of siblings, both in classes and in the earning of the belts, which are distributed based on KKC’s individual grading system. “They participate equally, right alongside each other and support one another,” said Cindy Cohen, KKC’s global program director. “In turn, they teach the techniques to other children with challenging illnesses, and even to adults.”
JOSH SCHWARTZ /ARJO PHOTOGRAPHY
Jews in the D
For the past 10 years, belting ceremonies took place in donated space at Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills. This year’s pandemic variation, organized by the KKC program team, took place in the parking lot of the Charach KKC Global Center in Southfield. Along with their belts and belting certificates, the children received ice cream sandwiches donated by Cool Jacks, a pizza dinner to-go and KKC Heroes Circle T-shirts to wear as part of their martial arts uniforms. The drive-through followed months of online martial arts classes that began this past March after in-person programs were canceled. “We already had digital Zoom in place because of our programs around the world,” Cohen said. “We also do camps and other cross-programming in our various regions. One of our local senseis, Michael Hunt, even woke up to be a guest teacher at 4 a.m. in our South African KKC program, alongside our South African instructors.” Hunt was present, in person, to boisterously greet children with pride at the belting ceremony. “The day we started our
face-to-face program online the kids all showed up — in uniform,” Cohen said. “All of our programs are now virtual, including those our martial artists had been conducting in schools and hospitals.” Individual Zoom support is provided for those who need it and videos are recorded for kids to take with them during medical procedures. READY AND WAITING Thirty minutes before the start of the drive-through, carloads of kids — some in their uniforms — were already lined up in anticipation. On hand were KKC staff, including martial artists and a slew of volunteers wearing gloves and face masks. “We created a real party celebration and even had students from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine tie balloons onto each car,” Cohen said. Some of the vehicles were colorfully decorated with messages of congratulations and gratitude drawn with car markers supplied in “summer in a bag” packages, distributed at an earlier curbside pickup. Many of the kids called out the KKC mantra, “power, peace, purpose,” from their open car windows. “Every belt is a sign of continued on page 30
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
ROSH HASHANAH GREETINGS
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Jews in the D
For information on KKC, go to: www.kidskickingcancer.org. To join the Heroes Circle program, access KKC’s social media links on the website.
continued from page 28
power, but (the kids) are not just powerful martial artists,” said Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, the founder and global director of KKC known to kids as “Rabbi G”. “They are breathing in light, pushing out darkness.
So that’s peace. And what’s purpose? Ask any kid here and they’ll tell you: to teach you to teach the world.” The international nonprofit KKC, serves more than 7,000 children, some as young as 3, in seven countries. Here in Michigan, approximately
2,100 children are served by the organization. Worldwide, kids are involved at 93 hospitals, and through community classes, family support involvement, illness-based camps and school-based teaching programs, including at Farber Hebrew Day School. Funded by private donations, there is no cost for KKC martial arts classes and uniforms along with other programs, events, healthcare-professional workshops, and individual and family counseling. In a collaboration with KKC’s new virtually shared programming, the drivethrough was recorded on video with Ned Specktor, the organization’s on-the-spot digital reporter, leaping from car to car, individually encouraging, chanting with and acknowledging the achievements of the kids. In his role as social media and digital content director, Specktor has created new creative content
that is shared online. “This is especially important during this time of COVID-19 where so many of us need ways to reduce stress and find ways to calm ourselves,” Cohen said. “Our Heroes Circle content can help anyone with breathing and relaxation techniques.” Even with the benefits of KKC’s virtual component — including podcasts, video interviews with kids, sensei and Rabbi G., and a TikTok presence — the staff found great value in the face-to-face drive-through. “Knowing the kids were dealing with Zoom fatigue, we wanted to make the connection in person,” Cohen said. “The kids overcome a lot dayto-day. They were excited and really, really wanted to be there to celebrate each other. “The event exceeded all of our expectations. This is a really strong community with really strong connections, and seeing them all come together was heartwarming.”
Food Baskets Were a Hit On Aug. 23, 170 Hazon baskets, created in lieu of the canceled Jewish Food Festival, were picked up by happy foodies, raising $22,000 for the organization. The event also gave much needed support to local small businesses. “Thank you so much for supporting us small businesses!” said Kirsten Marie. “Dillicious Canned Goods would have struggled without your help!” The people on the receiving end of the baskets were pleased as well. “The basket exceeds expectations! Fantastic array and so many delicious goodies,” said Kari Grosinger Alterman. Judy Front added, “This was an amazing event. I tasted things in my basket that I never would have tried at the festival! Thank you, Hazon, for supporting local food makers and making us foodies more aware of what’s in our own neighborhood!”
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
The Jewish Emergent Network, in partnership with Yavilah McCoy and Dimensions, launched Confessions of the Heart — Antiracism in Practice, a 30-Day Racial Equity Challenge for Elul. Based on an adaptation of the Al Chet liturgy by McCoy, the challenge is open to the public and engages participants with a full month of antiracism reflection, discovery, action and transformation. Through weekly emails and web posts, a daily regimen of readings, videos, podcasts and calls to action will aim to open hearts and deepen practices around dismantling racism. Across diverse entry points, the racial equity challenge will move folks to re-engage their emotions, inspire their belief, expand their mindset and recover their connections to the infinite. This journey offers four weekly emails, 20 daily prompts and two virtual communal conversations co-facilitated by McCoy and Jewish Emergent Network rabbis. To take the challenge, logon to jewishemergentnetwork.org/confessions-of-the-heart
Drive-By Birthday COURTESY OF LAUREN LESSON
COURTESY OF SARI CICUREL
Antiracism Challenge
Faye Jacobs enjoyed a two-day, drive-by celebration to mark her 96th birthday. Organized by her three children, family and friends signed up for 15-minute time slots when they could drive up to Faye and talk with her while she sat in the shade wearing her rhinestone mask. People came from as far away as Chicago to help her celebrate.
Jeremy Yagoda (left) and his father Marvin stand in the arcade.
Iconic Museum Asks for Public Help
JEREMY YAGODA
Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum opens GoFundMe page to help with expenses. MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
M
arvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum has opened a GoFundMe page to help cover expenses incurred while the arcade has remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The GoFundMe was started by Jeremy Yagoda, current “Ringmaster, Grand Poobah & Self-Designated Adult In-Charge” at Marvelous Marvin’s and the son of founder Marvin Yagoda, who passed away in 2017. Over $62,000 out of a goal of $75,000 has been raised as of Aug. 31. More than
1,500 people had donated as of that time. “It is our goal to reopen Marvin’s once it is safe to do so and without risk to patrons and staff. However, financially speaking, we cannot afford to wait that long,” Yagoda wrote on the page, also mentioning that the arcade’s expenses — including rent, insurance, electrical and general maintenance — are currently over $10,000 a month. As an arcade, Marvelous Marvin’s cannot reopen until Michigan moves into Phase 5 of coronavirus containment.
In an interview with the Jewish News last month, Yagoda said he was hesitant about creating a GoFundMe page. His family was used to giving to others, not taking from them, he said. “It just doesn’t feel right asking for help to keep a business to survive when there’s people who are literally starving because of this, and even before this — people who really need help to live every day, not to keep their business open,” he told JN. But Yagoda also told JN he was hopeful that Marvelous
Marvin’s would make it past this pandemic. On the GoFundMe page, he wrote, “All of us at Marvin’s are grateful for the memories and pictures you shared, and we hope to build lots of MARVELOUS new memories with all of you soon! #smallbusinessrelief.” The GoFundMe page for Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum can be found at this link: www.gofundme.com/f/ marvins-marvelous-mechanical-museum?utm_source=facebook.
Michigan Jewish Groups Sign Ad in Support of Black Lives Matter The New York Times ad calls the BLM movement “our best chance at equity and justice.” MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
M
ore than 600 Jewish organizations — including at least 12 Michigan groups — signed onto a message supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, published as a full-page ad in the New York Times on Friday, Aug. 28. Protests in support of Black lives have erupted throughout the nation this summer in response to continued racism and police violence against Black people in the United States. The message from Jewish organizations comes days after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was paralyzed following being shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“We support the Black-led movement in this country that is calling for accountability and transparency from the government and law enforcement. We know that freedom and safety for any of us depends on the freedom and safety of all of us,” the message reads. The Michigan groups that signed onto the ad include: • Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Greater Ann Arbor • Beth Israel Congregation (Ann Arbor, MI) • Detroit Jews for Justice • Habonim Dror Camp Tavor • Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor • Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue • JCRC/AJC of Detroit • Jewish Communal Leadership Program, University of Michigan • Jewish Community Center of Greater Ann Arbor • Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor • Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus • National Council of Jewish Women — Michigan Some Jews have disavowed the Black Lives Matter movement for ties between its leaders and the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as well as for repeated instances of synagogue vandalism and anti-Israel
rhetoric that has accompanied several BLM marches (including graffiti targeting a synagogue in Kenosha). But the message in the Times calls for Jews to support the movement, saying “when Black movements are undermined, it leads to more violence against Black people, including Black Jews.” “The Black Lives Matter movement is the current day Civil Rights movement in this country, and it is our best chance at equity and justice. By supporting this movement, we can build a country that fulfills the promise of freedom, unity, and safety for all of us, no exceptions,” it concludes.
SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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CONTRIBUTED
Business
Rachel Charlupski
Taking Care of the Kiddos Metro Detroit native parlays babysitting experience into a million-dollar business. STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
he founder of an international babysitting business began her love of watching children during her Junior Congregation days at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. “I’m a part of a big intergenerational (CSZ) family,” said Rachel Charlupski, founder of The Babysitting Company. “I remember when my big cousins would watch me and my friends at Junior Congregation. When I was older,
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
I did the same for other little children. Then I started babysitting for kids in the neighborhood.” That passion has grown. For the last 15 years, The Babysitting Company has provided babysitting services for thousands of clients in a handful of cities in the United States and Canada. Prior to the pandemic, according to media reports, the company pulled in seven-figure revenues. Though Charlupski would not disclose how COVID has affected her business’s bottom line, she and her three other full-time employees have noticed changes to the kinds of babysitting services clients request. There are fewer last-minute calls for social plans, but households with two working parents may call for last-minute work Zooms, and there are still urgent requests where families need a sitter for children at home while having a baby. The company began its virtual program, which is also seeing an uptick in requests, and expanded its existing tutoring services, as many of their contracted workers are certified teachers. Charlupski was studying journalism and Jewish studies at Arizona State University in Phoenix and imagined a career as a teacher back at Hillel Community Day School, where she received her Jewish education. She began working for a string of hotels near campus that needed sitter services for out-of-town guests. Visitors traveling with small children needed babysitting for nights on the town or attending events. She landed friends babysitting jobs at the hotel as well. “I never imagined I’d have a business in babysitting, and only when I was in college did I discover there was such a need for the placement of qualified and reliable babysitting services,” said Charlupski, who now splits her time between Los Angeles and Detroit. Now, The Babysitting Company has a network of more than 1,200
screened and certified sitters in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto. In preCOVID times, it partnered with hotel chains and resorts to create kid-clubs and professional athletic clubs to watch the children of athletes and staff during games. While many babysitters come to families by way of word of mouth, Charlupski said hiring a sitter through her company means clients are getting someone who has had a background check, is insured and comes with multiple verified references. This is especially reassuring for travelers who need a babysitter when traveling away from home, she said. As parents now grapple with balancing work obligations with the possibility that their children will not be able to return to in-person schooling, Charlupski said her clients’ needs are changing. Her company is screening qualified teachers who can teach children in small “pods” in private homes or tutor virtually for older kids who need an extra boost of support. Additionally, if a client does request in-person babysitting, Charlupski said her company is following strict CDC guidelines so her sitters and the families they work for are as safe as possible. Though the needs for babysitting are shifting, Charlupski remains optimistic during a tough economy. “After all, I started this business during a recession,” she said. “I’m kind of used to doing things in difficult times. Childcare is such a sensitive occupation, and we have always been excessive and had high standards about taking health precautions. This is now extended to ensuring our sitter, the children and all in the household are feeling well. We want to provide the safest experience for everyone.” For more information on services and rates, visit www.thebabysittingcompany.com.
Moments AUG. 17, 2020 Erica and Yaron Jacobovits of Boca Raton, Fla., are thrilled to share the arrival of their baby girl, Lillian Rosa (Tziporah Chaya). Lilian Rosa was welcomed home by her excited big brother Abraham. Delighted grandparents are Eva and Sheldon Hamburger of Raleigh, N.C., Eli and Sherry Jacobovits of Coral Springs, Fla., Stuart and Terry Jankelovitz of West Bloomfield; beaming great-grandmothers are Shaynee Jankelovitz of Lincolnwood, Ill., and Hilda Hamburger of West Bloomfield. Lillian Rosa’s Hebrew name is in loving memory of her paternal great-grandparents Tziporah Jacobovits and Chaya Lane; her English name is in loving memory of her maternal great-great-grandmother Lillian Schaffer and great-grandmother Rosa Lichter.
Ava Morgan Ashmann, daughter of Lori Kaplan and Taal Ashmann and sister of Lila, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020, at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills. She will be joined in the celebration by her proud grandparents Lynn Feuerman, Alan and Sharon Kaplan, and Dina and Sandford Ashmann. Ava is a student at West Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills. For her meaningful mitzvah project, she made dog treats and sold them to raise funds for Almost Home Animal Rescue. Jackson Joshua Eisman will become a bar mitzvah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. He is the loving son of Lisa and Heath Eisman and brother of Zachary and Maxwell. Joining in his celebration will be his proud grandparents Janis and Harvey Eisman, Sally and Ron Lamer, Pamela and Anton Sheridan,
and great-grandparents Caroline and Chester Machiela. Jackson is a student at Hillside Middle School in Northville. As his most meaningful mitzvah project, he participated in Fleece and Thankyou, helping to make blankets for children in the hospital. He also made a donation to this special organization. Griffin Victor Fleischer (Yitzchak), son of Tiffany and Michael Fleischer of Birmingham, will lead the congregation in prayer as he becomes a bar mitzvah at Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield on Friday Sept. 4, 2020. He will be joined in celebration by his siblings Grant and Gianna as well as proud grandparents George and Linda Fleischer of Bloomfield Hills, and Chuck and Cheryl Vescoso of White Lake. Griffin is a student at the Cranbrook boys’ middle school in Bloomfield Hills. His mitzvah projects included assistant teaching at Sunday school at Shir Shalom and volunteering at Yad Ezra and Focus Detroit.
Sydney C. Hertzberg will chant from the Torah as she becomes a bat mitzvah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020. She will be joined in celebration by her proud parents, Julie and Robert Hertzberg. Sydney is the loving grandchild of Marilyn and the late Stuart Hertzberg, Tony Malshuk and Virginia Salazar, and Kevin Peck. She is the great-grandchild of Janet and Alfredo Salazar, and Dorothy Salazar. She is a student at Cranbrook Girls Middle School in Bloomfield Hills. As part of her mitzvah project, Sydney volunteered her time to rescue, foster and tame feral kittens with the Ferndale Cat Shelter, working at the Catfe Lounge in Ferndale and fundraising on behalf of the organization. Harrison David Ruskin, son of Danielle and Aaron Ruskin, led the community in prayer as he became a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. He was joined in celebration by his sisters Sasha and Sydney and his proud great-grandmother Cappy Binder, his grandparents William and Joyce Ruskin, and Joanne Binder. Harrison is also the grandson of the late Bruce Binder. He was also joined by extended family and many friends. Harrison is a student at Novi Middle School. As part of the many community service projects he has participated in, his special mitzvah project continues to be providing a boost in spirits for a friend and class-
mate with special needs who remains quarantined due to COVID-19. Harrison was scheduled to have his bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills and continued to work with Rabbi Bergman and Michael Wolf. Due to COVID-19, the service was held offsite and led by dear friend Rabbi Jason Miller. Ethan Maddox Schwartz, son of Stacey and Mark Schwartz, will lead the congregation in prayer on the occasion of his bar mitzvah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020. He will be joined in celebration by his sister Rebekah and his proud grandparents Marlene and Dr. Elliotte Moss, and Carole Schwartz. Ethan is also the loving grandchild of the late Hon. Michael D. Schwartz. Ethan is a student at West Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills. For his most meaningful mitzvah project, he volunteered at JARC in West Bloomfield, including helping at their annual Chanukah party. HOW TO SUBMIT ANNOUNCEMENTS Mazel Tov! announcements are welcomed for members of the Jewish community. Anniversaries, engagements and weddings with a photo (preferably color) can appear at a cost of $18 each. Births are $10. There is no charge for bar/bat mitzvahs or for special birthdays starting at the 90th. For information, contact Editorial Assistant Sy Manello at smanello@ renmedia.us or (248) 351-5147 for information or for a mailed or emailed copy of guidelines.
SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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Make Time For â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Put-Upsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
O
ne of my favorite tales who was determined to use his centers around Rabbi words to oppress and annihiChaim of Brisk who late the emerging and evolving was traveling on a train, sharing Israelite nation. a compartment with a group of Words have power and can stylishly dressed people. be used for evil as well The rabbi was dressed as good. They can harm modestly. but they also can heal. Throughout the trip This is the moment on the passengers made the Jewish calendar, disparaging comments as we approach Rosh to one another about the Rabbi Joseph Hashanah, the Jewish Krakoff rabbi, never attempting New Year 5781, when to talk to him. They only we are urged to consider Parshat talked about him, rudely seriously every single Ki Tavo: Deuteronomy word that comes out whispering back and 26:1-29:8; forth. of our mouths. During Isaiah Once the train arrived, these Days of Awe, we 60:1-22. the travelers noticed a ask forgiveness from crowd of people gathered those who we have hurt around the rabbi to excitwith our words through edly welcome him. Only then, gossip, slander and other misthey understood how important truths we have spread, both he was. Feeling embarrassed, accidentally and on purpose. the travelers begged the rabbi With the onset of the High for forgiveness. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realHolidays, mixed with the overize who you are,â&#x20AC;? they declared. whelming stress and anxiety The rabbi responded, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Please, caused by the COVID-19 panyou do not need to ask forgivedemic, it is the perfect time to ness of me. Instead, I suggest get into the habit of consciously you ask forgiveness of the many seeing the absolute goodness in good people you thought I was.â&#x20AC;? one another. Judaism is a religion that puts Building people up with tremendous value on words. loving words is so much better After all, this is how God crethan tearing them down. In this ates the world in the very begin- spirit, may we each create for ning. For God said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let there ourselves a space where there be lightâ&#x20AC;? and so it was. is no room for put-downs but In this weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Torah portion, only for put-ups. A put-up is we learn about a sacred cerean offering of kindness, commony focused on words. One passion and encouragement by of the earliest celebrations to telling a family member, friend, be observed after our ancestors neighbor or stranger what we arrived in the Land of Israel like most about them. involved the presentation of Imagine how great the world first fruits to the Almighty. The would be if we each took a Israelites were instructed to moment to offer one sincere recite a short, yet powerful, forput-up each day. So, what are mulaic summary of Jewish hiswe waiting for? Just do it! tory. The words hearken back Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff is the senior to the Book of Genesis, recalling director at the Jewish Hospice and Jacobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father-in-law Laban, Chaplaincy Network.
Tree of Life
Arts&Life festivals
Old Jaffa
The
Beat
Goes On
Israeli artist to participate in this year’s Arts, Beats & Eats festival. Yoram Gal
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I Jerusalem
sraeli artist Yoram Gal is among some 20 artists participating onsite in this year’s Arts, Beats & Eats, the annual festival currently diverging from its usual format because of COVID-19. The Labor Day Weekend — and extended — schedule has only limited in-person outdoor activities based in Royal Oak, mixed with lots of digital presentations. Gal, who has been coming to Michigan for many years to show his paintings at different summer art fairs, is introducing 10 large works that span Israeli locales and personal outlooks. Among his new pieces are “David’s City Jerusalem,” “Galilee Poppies” and “The World.” As part of Art by Appointment, taking place Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 5-6, at the Royal Oak Farmers Market, Gal will schedule 75-minute appointments to discuss the paintings, which also can be seen online. Tickets to meet with any of the multi-media artists are $5. “My art evolves all the time,” said Gal, who also will be showing an image adapted from visions appearing in a disturbing pandemic dream. “I am using more diverse materials because I don’t like being bored. I try new styles and techniques and allow myself freedom with subject matter. — YORAM GAL “I have a following of collectors in 40 countries, and the interaction with them influences the work. More and more portraits of mine and of patrons who commission theirs are happening.” Gal, who has felt safe with masks and social distancing during recent professional travels and will do so for the Michigan event, said experiencing the deserted airports disturbed him. Although booked by four other United States festivals, he is disappointed that three have been converted to totally digital events. Jon Witz, event producer for Arts, Beats & Eats, has been working with health officials in Oakland County to maintain appropriate conditions. “We found a safe way to bring people together in a fun, physically distanced way
PHOTOS COURTESY OF YORAM GAL
“My art evolves all the time. I am using more diverse materials because I don’t like being bored.”
continued on page 36 SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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Arts&Life film review
Painted Bird’
Film adaptation is beautiful but impersonal. GEORGE G O G ELKIND CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Petr Kotlár as “A Boy” in the new adaptation of Jerzy Kozinski’s novel The Painted Bird.
I
n Václav Marhoul’s new find. fairly literal and so “faithful” Over the film’s near-three adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s hours, he’s received both well influential, controand poorly in versial novel The discrete episodes, Painted Bird, things Where To Watch with true security are mostly what they and stability prov‘The Painted Bird’ is seem. An unnamed, ing elusive. The now available on VOD orphaned refugee boy large international rental for $6.99 from (Kosinski described cast of the boy’s all major providers. run-ins includes him as a “gypsy or Harvey Keitel, Udo Jewish stray ... oliveKier and Stellan Skarsgård. The skinned, dark-haired and blackHolocaust is felt as a constant eyed”) trudges between brief, presence — but an atmospheric, fragile harbors amid the remote generally destabilizing one rathvillages and elder forests of er than an immediate threat. Eastern Europe under fascism, Marhoul follows the boy dutiaccepting any hospitality he can
COURTESY OF IFC FILMS
‘The
fully (he’s played by Petr Kotlar), but The Painted Bird’s screen adaptation never quite lives inside its lead character’s mind. It could be the nature of streaming this at home, but for this viewer the experience of watching ran parallel to the character’s experience, never intersecting. The film is stately, attractive and precise — successfully conjuring a sense of place and tone. Yet many of its gestures feel distant. Call it the burden of prestige, the influence of film-historical bigwigs like Tarkovsky and Bergman. This remove leaves viewers aligned with the story’s concerns and the character’s experiences but not exactly “in” them. The procession of hardship and violence onscreen is modulated by a safe, too-tasteful distance for an adaptation of an offbeat, transgressive and perverse novel. Bestiality, eye-gouging and dimly ironized bloodshed all feature, and Marhoul’s team shoots
them coolly, cutting swiftly over dead-on depictions of violence in a “straight,” unglamorous way. The 1965 novel is kind of a morbid picaresque. Kosinski’s protagonist doesn’t understand what it’s like to be deprived of basic human dignity because he knows of little else. It’s this juxtaposition — of the boy’s innocence with the adult reader’s more jaded perspective — that makes for an immersive book: a vision of Europe under fascism delivered through a personal lens (although the author’s early claim it was autobiographical has been extensively contested). The film adaptation is accomplished and often beautiful. It is also the first major film to use the hybrid constructed language of Interslavic. But it’s missing something personal beyond the inhumanity depicted onscreen. Well-told though it may be, it’s ultimately a story we’ve already seen.
ARTS, BEATS & EATS continued from page 35
ARTS, BEATS & EATS
to help support local musicians while giving people access to the type of entertainment they’ve been missing,” said Witz, a Brandeis University graduate who also has produced Menorah in the D. “All events meet Jon Witz current state of Michigan event guidelines.” While live concerts are popular at the annual event, this year’s music will be offered Sept. 4-7 in a drive-in setting at 6th and Main streets and online Aug. 27-Sept. 3 with nearly 200 performances. Among the performers representing a wide range of musical styles will be Thornetta Davis, Laith Al-Saadi, Eva Under Fire and Larry Lee & The Back in the Day Band. Each drive-in performance will deliver a pair of 30-minute, high-energy sets.
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
“We want to raise money for a hard-hit industry.” — JON WITZ Concerts are planned to benefit local music performers with a total goal of raising $500,000, made possible with the addition of matching grant funding from Oakland County.. “We want to raise money for a hard-hit industry,” Witz said. “There will be application forms for monetary assistance for any musicians who have agreed to perform in concert, virtually or drive-in, if 50 percent of their employment revenue came from the music industry prior to COVID-19.” The “Eats” part of Arts, Beats and Eats will appear directly in communities as food trucks
travel to unannounced areas. “We’re not announcing where the trucks will be so we don’t overwhelm the neighborhoods,” Witz said. “We’re trying to be creative, spread some fun around and keep people safe from a crowd perspective.” Arts, Beats & Eats is maintaining its associated health activities for eventgoers, live and online, while supporting people who have been out of work. A live Zumbathon Celebration goes virtual at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 5. Donations of $5 will benefit Forgotten Harvest and the Beats Go On GoFundMe campaign
for unemployed musicians. “Stretch for a Cause, Yoga to Live Music” begins at 9 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 6, in the main stage area. The family-friendly program will feature live music by Blackman/Wailin, and the $15 donation fees will be split among local yoga instructors and musicians. “We do not know how long we’re going to be dealing with COVID-19, so I think it’s important to move the needle forward in the event industry in a safe fashion,” Witz said. “I think the decisions we make now in exploring creativity, how to do things effectively and what the public might be interested in will shape the future of the industry.” For more information on Arts, Beats & Eats – live and virtual – go to artsbeatseats.com.
Arts&Life
La Rafle – ChaiFlicks
1945 – ChaiFlicks
television
CHAIFLICKS
The Women’s Balcony 2 – ChaiFlicks
Dough – ChaiFlicks
One-Stop-Shop for Jewish Entertainment ChaiFlicks streaming service has arrived. CHERYL WEISS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
C
haiFlicks, a new streaming service dedicated to Jewish and Israeli entertainment, has just launched and the timing is perfect. Created as a Jewish Netflix, ChaiFlicks has over 150 acclaimed movies, TV series, documentaries, short films and theater selections, including multiple award-winning and classic films, and it is available on every major streaming device. It’s founded by Neil Friedman and Heidi Bogin Oshin of Menemsha Films, and Bill Weiner, formerly of New Regency Productions. “It’s a one-stop-shop for Jewish entertainment,” Oshin said. “We are thrilled to bring quality Jewish and Israeli programming to the streaming universe.” The inspiration for ChaiFlicks was a response to the real Netflix creating more of its own
original content and purchasing fewer titles from distributors. Although Friedman sold two movies to Netflix in the past, the company declined 1945, a Hungarian drama about the Holocaust which brought in $1 million at the box office and earned 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. “We threw up our arms and said we can’t run our company relying on others to make our acquisitions… It’s time for us to be the masters of our own destiny,” he said. In this COVID-19 pandemic, with movie theaters shuttered for an indeterminate amount of time, the founders knew this was the right plan at the right time. “We knew people are at home with nothing else to do. They can’t go to the office and work. We should start this now,” Friedman said.
With 80 Jewish and Israeli titles from Menemsha’s library and programming acquired from the American Sephardi Federation and the Jewish Women’s Theater, they built a catalog to appeal to every interest. The most viewed title so far is Left Luggage, winner of the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. Set in 1970’s Antwerp, a Holocaust survivor is obsessed with finding the luggage filled with items he buried when he escaped from the Nazis. His daughter, a nonobservant young philosophy student, becomes a nanny for a Chasidic Jewish family and as the story unfolds, they all learn powerful lessons from each other. Left Luggage portrays the power of love to transform lives, and the heartbreak of sudden tragedy; it is one of those movies that you think about long after the movie ends. Another delightful show, Soon By You, is a hilarious, Friendsstyle relatable story of a group of young Modern Orthodox men and women dating in New York City. From awkward first dates to building friendships, you will want to see every episode. For those wanting to know
more about Israel’s food, the documentary In Search of Israeli Cuisine shows “the complexity of things here and the beauty of things here.” From home chef to restaurant owner, many cuisines are displayed as they debate the question: “Is there an Israeli cuisine?” This is just the beginning. According to Friedman and Oshin, three new titles are added each week. By the end of this year, they expect to have 300 films, and by the end of 2021, they plan 1,000 titles and growing. Other plans for ChaiFlicks include more Sephardi titles, as well as theater, dance groups, orchestras and programming for youth. “We are trying to include everyone. It’s a great way to get back in touch with your Jewish values,” Friedman said. “Our culture is storytelling, right? You feel a connection with other people who have experienced the culture and the history that we have. These stories are in our DNA.” For more information, please visit www.ChaiFlicks.com, download the ChaiFlicks app to your device and start a free 14-day free trial. Subscriptions are $5.99 a month, or $65.99 a year.
SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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Arts&Life books
How Can You Laugh at That? New book takes a look at Holocaust humor. LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
N
o topic seems as uninviting as Holocaust humor. How can you laugh at that? How dare you? And yet, before and during the Holocaust, people did tell jokes about Jews, Nazis and mass murder. Even now, decades afterwards, people still tell jokes. Who tells these jokes, about whom, to whom? Exactly who finds the jokes funny, and who finds them intolerable? Scholars examine who does Holocaust humor and why in Laughter After Laughter: Humor and the Holocaust (Wayne State University Press, 2020). The editors, David Slucki, Gabriel Finder and Avinoam Patt, professors in Australia and the United States, include essays by experts in television, film and literature in the high and low culture of countries across the globe. Their sampling of Holocaust humor includes: Works by antisemites for non-Jews: Before the Holocaust, Nazi propagandists used the traditional iconography of antisemitism in cartoons, movies and stories, showing Jews with exaggerated physical features as financial and sexual pred-
TOP LEFT: “Lin Jaldati as the Yeshiva Boy,” 1935, photo by Boris Kowadlo. Courtesy of the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, and the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. BOTTOM: Advertisement for “An Evening of Song and Dance by the Famous Yiddish Artist from Holland, Lin Jaldati,” Stockholm, Nov. 25, 1946. Courtesy of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
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ators. Ilan Stavans, in his essay in Laughter after Laughter, presents modern Latin American cartoons that use the same set figures. Stavans sees the cartoons as part of an orchestrated antisemitic campaign “to deliberately erase the border between antisemitism and anti-Zionism.” The cartoonists cast Israel as Nazis, Palestinians as victims and Jews as unwelcome in Latin America. Humor that identifies with the Nazis, sadly, has a place in the modern world, and not just in Latin America. Works by Jews or allies for non-Jews: Rebekka Brilleslijper, a Dutch Jew, performed Jewish material in cabarets in the 1930s before appreciative non-Jewish audiences. In one of her favorite routines, she sang an Eastern-European Yiddish song in which a naïve Yeshiva student innocently asks his teachers about the king’s life and gets an exaggerated answer of the king’s extravagant luxury. Brilleslijper was sent to the camps, where she allegedly witnessed the death of her friend Anne Frank. She herself nearly died. She moved to East Germany — she had become a communist — and began performing again. Now she modified the song. She would not mock the observant Jews of Eastern Europe after their destruction. She did mock the past Kaiser, Franz Josef, and a current West German political leader, Franz Josef Strauss, a too-easily rehabilitated Nazi. In East Germany, she could safely make fun of the hypocritical capitalist. On the topic of too-easily rehabilitated Nazis, in 1960, Warner Brothers made a sanitized bio-pic about Werner Von Braun, I Aim for the Stars. Mort Sahl suggested a subtitle: “But I Hit London.” Charlie Chaplin made one of the first anti-Nazi films, The Great Dictator, in 1940. The Three Stooges did one earlier. “Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps,” Chaplin famously wrote in his autobiography, “I could not have made The Great Dictator.” That knowledge did not stop Mel Brooks. The Producers, as a film in 1968, later in other versions, presents unreconstructed Nazis as inherently ridiculous losers. Brooks defends the The Producers, saying, “You can bring down totalitarian governments faster by using ridicule than you can with invective.” In this volume, Stephen Whitfield calls
or Auschwitz, by tourists. Especially in Israel, jokes challenge politicians who use awareness of the Holocaust to justify political decisions. Ferne Perlstein and Robert Edwards’ essay, “The Last Laugh?” describes the making of their own documentary film by the same name, about the morality of Holocaust humor. In it, a survivor, Renee Firestone, comments on the efforts of a dozen humorists, and recounts an anecdote of her own: Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele did hideous experiments on twins, including Firestone and her twin sister Klara. Klara did not
Ridicule didn’t work when Hitler was alive . . . Nor are gales of laughter likely to neutralize enduring vestiges of neo-Nazism. — STEPHEN WHITFIELD
1967 satirized Hogan’s Heroes for not mentioning Jews. Works by Jews to challenge other Jews: Comedian Lewis Black, on the absence of the Holocaust in God’s Bible, writes, “You would think he would put out at least a pamphlet about the Holocaust.” Novelist Shalom Auslander invokes the Holocaust with savage humor to protest against his own Orthodox Jewish upbringing. In his novel, Hope: A Tragedy, Anne Frank appears as a bitter old woman, cursing and complaining as she hides in an attic, working on her next novel. Recent works by Jews satirize, not the Holocaust, but popular use of the Holocaust: They critique those visits to Anne Frank’s house,
survive. Mengele examines Renee, “And then he says to me, “If you survive this war, you better have your tonsils removed. You have big tonsils.” Renee says, “So, I was thinking, ‘Is he insane? Tomorrow I may die. I’m worried about my tonsils?’ But when I survived and came back, and I thought about what he said, it was funny!” Renee’s daughter Klara observes: “Most people don’t expect survivors to have much humor after the Holocaust, but that’s really not the case at all. The survivors actually have some of the worst gallows humor ever. And I guess that they’re the only ones allowed to do that!”
Arts&Life
IMDB
that “delusionary.” “Ridicule didn’t work when Hitler was alive and dangerous . . . Nor are gales of laughter likely to neutralize the enduring vestiges of neo-Nazism,” he writes. In Woody Allen’s film Manhattan, a character suggests going to a neo-Nazi demonstration “with bricks and baseball bats and really … explain things to them.” Works crafted not to offend: The television series Hogan’s Heroes had Nazis but no Holocaust. Bumbling Nazis ineffectively run a prisoner-of-war camp. Jarrod Tanny, in this volume, appreciates how Mad Magazine in
celebrity jews NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
BILL & TED ARE BACK Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, 55, co-star in the third Bill and Ted movie (Bill & Ted Face the Music). It was supposed to be released to theaters, but plans were changed at the last minute and it was released to video-on-demand (VOD) on Aug. 28. Here’s the capsule plot: A mysterious stranger warns the pair that they have 78 minutes to create a song that will save all life in the universe. The first Bill and Ted movie was released in 1989. Reeves, now 55, went on to become a major film star (The Matrix films, John Wick films). In several interviews, Reeves has noted that he went to a Jewish summer camp during the time when he (briefly) had a Jewish stepfather. In 1995, Reeves narrated the documentary Children Remember the Holocaust. He read excerpts from diaries and letters written by young Holocaust survivors. Winter was born in England, the son of an English father and an American Jewish mother. His parents relocated to St. Louis in 1970, where they both taught dance. His parents split in 1973, and Alex was raised by his mother in New Jersey. He has become an important documentary director, most recently helming Showbiz Kids for HBO. The comedic film Guest House will be released on VOD on Sept. 4. Pauly Shore, 52, stars as a “party animal” occupant of a guest house who just won’t leave. Shore now lives in Las Vegas, where he does stand-up comedy. His younger brothers run The Comedy Store, a Los Angeles nightclub founded by their late mother, Mitzi
Shore. Many famous comics got their start there. A five-part Showtime documentary about the club, directed by Detroit native Mike Binder, 62, will premiere in October. Something fun: I was inspired to do this “top five” list by the recent death of a Jewish inventor. All five invented something critical to entertainment, broadly defined. My entries are minimal, so look them up, please. (1) Russell Kirsch died on Aug. 11, age 91. He invented the pixel and scanned the first digital photo; (2) Emile Berliner (1851-1929), inventor of the flat disc or gramophone record; Peter Goldmark (1906-77), inventor of the 331/3 rpm, long playing record; Ralph H. Baer (1922-2014). He was called the father of the video game. He was critical to the creation of the first home video console; and Martin Cooper, now 92. He’s called the father of the handheld cellular phone. I had the pleasure of talking to Cooper a couple of years ago. He told me had his second bar mitzvah when he was 83. This is not unique; there is a tradition that once you reach 70, your biblically “allotted” lifespan is up and if you reach 83, a second bar mitzvah is appropriate. Cooper said that he studied with a rabbi via phone calls (what else?) for several months before his “second.”
SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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On The Go people | places | events
AUTHOR EVENT 5-6 PM, SEPT. 7 Fredrik Backman at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor
MAGICAL TRAIL SEPT. 1-30
MAGICAL TRAIL SEPT. 1-30
SMOOTH JAZZ ONLINE SEPT. 4-7
Winding through a half-mile of dark forest in Commerce Township, Glenlore Trails, put on by Bluewater Technologies Group, is a multi-sensory, interactive experience perfect for all ages. This family-friendly installation includes the use of lights, sensor-activated shows and more to create an otherworldly environment that makes for great photos. Tickets are available online and can be purchased by date and time slot. Tickets sold per time slot are limited to ensure social distancing for guests. Purchasing tickets in advance is recommended, as they go fast.
Another local favorite, the world-renowned Detroit Jazz Festival, which draws international talent and attendees, will also be pivoting to a virtual experience this Labor Day Weekend. Streaming online and via radio and public access television, viewers will be able to enjoy the music of their favorite jazz artists from the comfort of their own homes. Performances will include sets from local groups such as The Dr. Prof Leonard King Orchestra, among many others. The full lineup can be viewed at detroitjazzfest.org.
DRIVE-IN CONCERTS SEPT. 4-7 In lieu of the traditional Arts, Beats & Eats festival, the community is pooling together to put on alternative experiences. Over Labor Day Weekend, downtown Royal Oak will offer a series of live, drive-in concerts from local musicians that feature up to five shows per day with room for 50 vehicles per show. Tickets can be purchased online for $30 and will admit two people per vehicle, with proceeds going toward the bands performing. The concerts are expected to generate upwards of $30,000 for musicians who have been impacted by limited performance opportunities due to COVID-19.
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
AUTHOR EVENT 5-6 PM, SEPT. 7 Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor will host this virtual event. New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman will discuss his latest novel, Anxious People. There is a charge; each ticket includes a link to access the event and a hardcover copy of the book. Virtual Event URL: facebook.com/ events/literati-bookstore/fredrik-backman/333689678037362/.
HADASSAH MEETS 7 PM, SEPT. 10 A virtual Hadassah Greater Detroit 2020 Judi Schram Annual Meeting is scheduled to support Youth Aliyah and will feature Carol Goodman Kaufman, Hadassah Youth Aliyah Chair. Shirley Shultz, dedicated Hadassah life member, will also be
honored at this event. RSVP by Sept. 8. Donation: $45, hadassahmiwest. org/GDannualmeeting. For info: contact greaterdetroit@hadassah.org or call 248-68-5030.
ART SHOW & SALE SEPT. 10-30 Community House in Birmingham will hold this annual event to support local artists. Sixty-five percent of the proceeds from the art sales will go directly to the region’s artists. The show goes live on Sept. 10; art enthusiasts may view and purchase art by going to communityhouse.com/event/ our-town-art-show-sale. To purchase a piece of art, click on the inquiry button next to the image or email info@ communityhouse.com.
CHAMPAGNE & YOGA SEPT. 12 The Whitney, one of Detroit’s most iconic, historic buildings, will be hosting a special, socially distanced event where yoga and champagne are the stars of the show. On a Saturday morning, the classic structure will be home to a yoga class taught by certified yoga teacher and Reiki master Paul Barr, where attendees can stretch, sip on Veuve Clicquot champagne, and enjoy fresh fruit and live music. The yoga class will be suitable for all abilities and levels, from first-timers to experienced yogis. Tickets are available online for $45 and include valet; self-parking is also available.
BRUNCH TOUR 10:30-1 PM, SEPT. 13 Feet on the Street will hold a tour of Capitol Park. Cost: $35. Accommodations and procedures are in place for safety and comfort amid COVID-19 concerns: as much as possible outdoors (including utilizing outdoor patios at food establishments), limited size of groups, social distancing, follow mask wearing in the places visited. Reserve early. Info: EnjoyTheD.co; 313-393-2055.
CREAM TRIBUTE SEPT. 24 Otus Supply, a live music venue and restaurant in Ferndale, will be hosting a free streaming concert where various Metro Detroit artists will perform. Wheels of Fire will be playing a tribute to the band Cream, which was responsible for classic hits such as “White Room” and “Sunshine of Your Love.” Featuring additional talent such as Laith Al-Saadi, who made it to the final of NBC’s The Voice, this is a show not to miss. Visit The Parliament Room at Otus Supply Facebook page to tune in from 8-10 p.m. Compiled by Sy Manello/Editorial Assistant. Contributing Writer Ashley Zlatopolsky added to this report. Send items at least 14 days in advance to calendar@ thejewishnews.com.
Nosh
cover story
No
Schmear Coincidence Grandson turns lessons from his baking Bubbie into a thriving Traverse City bagel business. ALAN MUSKOVITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER PHOTOGRAPHY BY GARY HOWE
I
f you bake it, they will come. And since its grand opening in February, they’ve been coming out in droves to Bubbie’s Bagels on Front Street in Traverse City. The bagel shop has been a success story, despite Michigan’s COVID-19 lockdown halting the store’s indoor traffic just weeks after opening. But these bagels have proven curb appeal, because curbside pick-up is how their loyal and growing number of customers continue to pick up an average of 700800 bagels a day. But it’s the “hole” story behind Bubbie’s Bagels that make this bagel bistro really truly special. The key ingredient is the store’s 29-year old founder, Sam Brickman, born and “bread” in West Bloomfield to parents Risa and Bruce Brickman. I live nearby and the couple graciously dropped off a mixed baker’s dozen of Bubbie’s Bagels and homemade scallion cream cheese on my doorstep.
Sam Brickman
continued on page 42
SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
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Nosh
eats | drinks | sweets
details Bubbie’s Bagels 1215 E. Front St., Traverse City, MI 49686 (231) 252-3587 www.bubbiesbagelstc.com
His Bubbie, Esther Kraft, is shown on the labels below and on the wall with Grandpa Aaron.
continued from page 41
Sam has had Jewish vacationers and local residents visit the store. The president of Traverse City’s Beth Shalom synagogue and a rabbi from Petoskey’s Temple B’nai Israel have been customers. As for shipping of Bubbie’s Bagels for downstate Metro Detroiters to enjoy, “for now that is limited to what my parents are willing to shove into the backseat of their car,” Sam said with a laugh. It’s not unusual for orders of 200 bagels to be packed into the Brickman’s backseat for their friends and family upon a return trip from visiting their son. I consumed, actually, inhaled 12 bagels over a four-day period. I have no shame when it comes to a schmear on a bagel. They were worth every one of the 4 lbs. I gained.
More than just a catchy name, there’s a real baking Bubbie behind Bubbie’s Bagels — Esther Kraft, Risa Brickman’s mother, of blessed memory, who passed away in 2012. While she didn’t actually bake bagels, s, Bubbie Esther’s renowned cooking prowesss is the inspiration for and the face of her grandson’s business. Her strawberry and apricot ruggalah is featured in the store and d her mandel and banana breads may not be far behind. In 2012, just prior to Chanukah, the Detroit Free Press dedicated a two-page spread to Esther’s latke recipe. But she didn’t seek fame. Esther was only into cooking for the fun, the food and, most importantly, the family. That was the recipe for three generations worth of incredible memories in the Kraft’s Farmington Hills kitchen.
Time to make the bagels. Charlie Baker shows how it’s done.
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fun,” Risa said. “She taught us baking was fun” said “But it was serious, too. You had to level your flour exactly, line up your cookies and admire your results. To this day, all 12 grandchildren, boys and girls, are creative bakers and are comfortable in the kitchen.” The family still has regular baking challenges, a babka competition being the most recent. Sam is the lone grandchild to turn his experiences with his Bubbie in the kitchen
I wanted to create my own cr bagel, not replicate a certain style.
continued on page 44
Tov Bagel A little rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of three young bagelers in Detroit.
JERRY ZOLYNSKY
into a culinary career. “Every Friday night we would go to her house for Shabbat and cook and bake. Always cookies for dessert,” Sam said. “Growing up listening to her stories, hearing her rules in the kitchen and the tips and tricks, was a great learning experience.” He also credits his being “a child of the Food Network boom” for inspiring him to make cooking his life’s calling. Upon graduating from the University of Michigan in 2012, Sam enrolled at the nationally renowned Escoffier Culinary School in Boulder, Colorado. After initial experiences in kitchens in Denver, Sam returned to Detroit where he was a sous-chef for two years at Gold Cash Gold in Corktown. Then in 2016 came the call of the north. “I was tired of the city and really like to be surrounded by the quiet of nature,” Sam said. “It’s — SAM BRICKMAN more of my personality, and Traverse City fit the bill.” Over the next three years, Sam worked for Fustini’s Oils & Vinegars, where he also taught at their onsite cooking school. “But I knew eventually I wanted to do my own thing,” he said. That’s when he had a brainstorm. Or, if you will, a bagelstorm. “Up here, there are absolutely no bagels at all,” Sam said. At least not the kind that met his high standards in the Jewish tradition of a really great bagel. Perhaps this is a side effect of the tourist city having little in the way of a Jewish community at all — although it is home to Congregation Beth Shalom (formerly Beth El), housed in the oldest continually operating synagogue in Michigan. But the “Up North” locale’s appeal with Metro Detroit Jews this year seems to have grown, as Michigan’s COVID-19 travel guidelines encourage intrastate tourism only.
ANDREW LAPIN EDITOR
T
Joe Penn and Devon Malloy are bringing
he Aug. 28 grand opening of bagels back to Detroit. Tov Bagel’s new downtown Detroit location proceeded as in the city itself, and partnered with planned, despite disagreeable weather. Dayne Bartscht, owner of Eastern The newest bagel shop on the block is Market Brewing Company, to bake selling its innovative flavors and large and sell their bagels out of his ASHE schmear selection out of the ASHE locations. This June, Tov Bagel opened Supply Co. café at 1555 Broadway its first outpost at the Ferndale Project St., via an outdoor, socially distanced (formerly Axle Brewing Co.) on 567 walk-up counter. Livernois St. in Ferndale. Tov bakes its Tov Bagel is the bagels in Ferndale but brainchild of Joe Penn, Tov Bagel is open Tues.sells them from both 23, from Boston; Sat., 8 a.m.-2 p.m., at locations. Devon Malloy, 23, 1555 Broadway St. in The name, Penn said, from Lancaster, Pa.; Detroit and Tues.-Sun., doesn’t just mean “Good and Dan Lenz, 24, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., at 567 Bagel”; it’s an homfrom Evanston, Ill. Livernois in Ferndale. age to “Tov” as Israeli They all moved to Detroit location is walk-up slang. “[It’s] more of an Detroit’s Woodbridge service only. Ferndale loca- acknowledgment: ‘Tov, I neighborhood in July tion is curbside pick-up see you,’” he said. 2019 as members and dine-in on their patio. And what must be of the entrepreneur acknowledged are the fellowship program fanciful flavors, which Venture For America, and, as bagel look to bridge the gap between oldfanatics, made weekly pilgrimages to world bagel tradition and the millenthe nearby Detroit Institute of Bagels. nial/gen-Z appetite for cutting-edge For the last year, the housemates baked goods. There are new spins on also entertained each other by making old favorites (sea salt with rosemary; experimental bagels on a breadmaker black-and-white sesame) and origthat once belonged to Malloy’s grandinal flavors (za’atar; cracked pepper mother. When COVID-19 kicked in, asiago). Half of their schmears are “we now had the opportunity to bake vegan. Tov is betting that bagels are all the time because we were always the next big thing among trendy home,” Malloy said. foodies. “I’ve eaten a bagel every morning “I’ve always felt that bagel shops for my entire life,” said Penn, who was have the ability to be a lot more creactive in NFTY growing up. Though ative than they are,” Penn said. “Bagels Penn is the group’s only Jew, bagel cul- are an awesome base that you can put ture has bonded the trio to Jewish life; so many cool things on.” they even celebrate Shabbat together. The Tov team would like to open With most of Metro Detroit’s bagel their own shop within the next year, mainstays located in the suburbs, barring a certain pandemic. They also Tov saw an opening for their product hope to add challah to their lineup. SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
| 43
Nosh eats | drinks | sweets
Bagels Galore Bubbie’s Bagels has it all: plain, sesame, poppy, onion, Everything, cinnamon raisin, black pepper parmesan, caraway rye, salt stick … The biggest seller is the “Everything” bagel. According to Sam, “The Caraway bagel is one that’s really near and dear to our hearts. It’s probably the one we’ve worked the hardest on. We use a locally milled rye flour. In essence, it’s a pumpernickel bagel without the dark appearance because we don’t use food coloring like other bagel shops.” Bagels can be enjoyed with the store’s own signature coffee affectionately named and packaged as “Bubbie’s Blend.” Plus, Bubbie’s Bagels is also supplied with extraordinary tea blends harvested by a local flower farm.
continued from page 43
“Bread has always been something that’s interested me because there is so much science behind it. It involves the manipulation of time, temperature and humidity. I wanted to create my own bagel, not replicate a certain style,” Sam said, sounding like a scientist in his own bagel laboratory. To that end he began experimenting, formulating his own recipes by tinkering with ingredients and using sourdough yeast instead of the typically used commercial brand. His crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside bagels made their Traverse City debut at the Sara Hardy’s Farmer’s Market in June of 2019. He would set up at 6:30 a.m. and be sold out by 8 or 9 a.m. The bagel fressing (feeding) frenzy was on. He continued to sell out for weeks on end and realized there was enough “dough” in his bagel biz to support a storefront. “The really cool thing about Traverse City,” Sam said, “is it actually reminds me of the Jewish community in Detroit. Everyone kind of knows everyone and there’s just a lot of love and support.” That support that Sam is a beneficiary of in Traverse City extends to the close-knit food community as well. He has great friends in the local farming community, who play a major role in supplying him with the produce to create his
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
wide variety of fresh, homemade cream cheeses. Even before founding Bubbie’s Bagels, it wasn’t unusual for Sam’s grandmother’s influence and his love for his Jewish upbringing to show up in his work. I tongue-in-cheek inquired if that meant he catered his own bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom in 2004. Not exactly that far back, he confirmed. But it was at a catered event in Traverse City in 2018 that his pride in his Jewish heritage showed up. It was just before Rosh Hashanah. Sam, in the role of corporate chef for Fustini’s, had been charged with presenting and describing each course in a prepared multi-course dinner for a gathering at Bowers Harbor Vineyards. The only dessert featured that night was Bubbie Esther’s honey cake, which Sam purposely prepared in honor of the Jewish High Holiday. To the mostly non-Jewish diners, Sam explained the significance of the ingredients of apple and honey in the cake. “With Rosh Hashanah approaching, I wanted everyone to know that the ingredients were symbolic of my wishes for a sweet year,” he said. Sam’s parents were in attendance that night and proudly witnessed what they described was “an incredibly proud and heartwarming scene.” He’s earned quite the reputation for
bagels. “I’ve gotten a lot of messages on Instagram and Facebook from other bagel shops around the country talking about expansion and different ideas,” Sam said. He also gives tremendous credit to Ben Newman of Downtown’s Detroit Institute of Bagels, whom he describes as “an awesome resource, amazing.” Today, Bubbie’s Bagels also features incredible bagel sandwiches, plus all the must-have accoutrements that accompany a legitimate bagel meal — Nova lox, tuna, whitefish and egg salad (sold by the pound) and add-ons like homemade pickled red onion and capers. Sam’s journey has been a labor of love — for his Bubbie, his culinary career and his Traverse City community. It’s also been, well, a lot of labor — nine employees and five days of prep required for one batch of bagels, made to perfection using age-old fermenting, boiling and baking techniques, which are the hallmark of a truly great bagel. While it does sound like Bubbie’s Bagels is destined for expansion, Sam said, “I’m just taking it day by day, focusing on the bagels, making sure everything is consistent. I want to keep the quality as high as possible because that’s absolutely the most important thing.” It’s what his Bubbie Esther would want, too.
Detroit-Made Fresh Salsa Is Back
COURTESY OF DAN ARONSON
Dan Aronson and Jack Page
BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
D
an Aronson has salsa in his blood. He was just a toddler when his parents, Jack and Annette, opened a restaurant, Clubhouse Bar-B-Q, in Ferndale. One of their customers was Jim Hiller, owner of Hillerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Markets, who loved the restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s salsa so much he asked if he could sell it in his stores. Garden Fresh Gourmet was born. Dan was 6. His earliest memories include working in the business next to his parents and four older siblings. For many years, Garden Fresh Gourmet, started at the back of Jackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s restaurant, sold salsas and hummus through high-end specialty markets like Hillerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Westborn. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation grew when Meijer started carrying the products; soon it was the best-selling fresh salsa in the country. In 2015 the company made national news when Campbell Soup bought it for $231 million. Three years later, Campbell sold the company, and the Aronsonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bid to buy it back was unsuccessful. A non-compete clause in the original sales agreement meant no one in the family could market similar products for five years. After the Garden Fresh Gourmet sale, Dan, 29, and his siblings started Clean Planet Foods, making packaged, refrigerated ready-to-eat meals in a bag that could be heated in a
microwave, and Skinny Butcher, similar meals made with plantbased protein. Both lines are sold through food markets rather than directly to consumers, often with the marketâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brand name. Almost as soon as the non-compete period ended, Dan and his stepbrother, Jack Page, 42, of Milford, were back in the salsa business. Their new Missy & Melâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brand â&#x20AC;&#x201D; named for their two sisters, Melissa Bihl and Melanie Mena â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is producing salsas and tortilla chips at a commercial kitchen in Royal Oak. Like the original Garden Fresh Gourmet brand, Missy & Melâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s salsas and chips are made from scratch, in small batches, using only fresh ingredients. Aronson says the recipes are different, though, and the products are somewhat higher-end. The new companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first effort was a medium-hot salsa made with Scotch bonnet peppers. They also produce a chipotle flavor and a fruit salsa made with mango, peaches and pineapple. For now the salsa, priced at $6 for a 14-oz. jar, is available at the Rust Belt Market at Woodward Avenue and Nine Mile Road in Ferndale, which is open on weekends, and at the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s factory, a commercial kitchen at 2520 W. 14 Mile Road in Royal Oak, which is open on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aronson hopes to have the products in area food markets soon.
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| 45
the exchange community bulletin board | professional services
For information regarding advertising please call 248-351-5116 Deadline for ad insertion is 10am on Friday prior to publication.
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SEPTEMBER 3 2020
| 47
TRADIT TRADIT
Soul
of blessed memory
A Life of Service JUDY GREENWALD CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A
dedicated military man, a proficient technical writer, married to his childhood sweetheart for 68 years, a proud father and grandfather, selfless, humble, with a love of country and family — these qualities only begin to describe Calvin Blum, who died Aug. 18, 2020, at age 92. The youngest of five sons of Abraham and Celia Blum, four of whom simultaneously served in the armed forces, Mr. Blum was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a wellknown Yiddish playwright. The celebrated song “Bei Mir Bistu Shein”— made famous by the Andrew Sisters — was written for his 1932 Yiddish operetta, I Would If I Could. His father’s talents were instrumental in Calvin’s love of music, culminating in his playing trumpet for the Wurlitzer Youth Orchestra. His brother Murray was killed in action in 1943 while saving a drowning sailor, and it was this heroic act — one of many performed by “the Blum boys” — that prompted him to enlist in the Air Force at 17. He served for 23½ years, attaining the rank of Master Sergeant, and while in Vietnam, exhibited bravery under fire as he worked to repair communications equipment when a bomb exploded nearby, and a piece of shrapnel narrowly missed him. He proudly displayed that piece of metal alongside his many military honors.
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SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
Phyllis and Calvin Blum
Mr. Blum’s long service record was outranked only by his marriage to wife, Phyllis. The two met when he was 12 and she 10, and their friendship led to real romance. The military played a role in that as well. “He looked so handsome in his uniform,” Phyllis recalled. “We had a fairytale wedding. We were married in June 1952 on the nationwide CBS television show, Bride and Groom.” To honor his father’s desire to connect people, Mr. Blum worked to improve relations in the countries where he was stationed and helped to establish the People to People program in Japan. Using books supplied by Washington, he and his wife taught Japanese children to speak English. “The local teachers said these students were the only children speaking with Brooklyn accents,” Phyllis recalled. After his USAF service, Mr. Blum became an expert in military defense vehicle operations and authored technical manuals. He and his wife later opened a travel agency and were able to travel the world.
The couple raised four children, first in Livonia and then in West Bloomfield, where they attended Temple Israel. High Holiday services were especially meaningful, as were the joyous family dinners shared afterward. “We must also remember the pride, love and humility Calvin maintained even to the end for his family and country,” Phyllis said. Mr. Blum was specially honored with a full military funeral and military flyover during his memorial service. In his family’s words, this honor was a well-deserved recognition of the Blum family’s legacy of patriotism. Phyllis summed up her own lifelong legacy of love with her husband: “When we first met, I saw something special in him. He was smart, strong, brave, patient, an amazing father and grandfather, a wonderful listener with a good sense of humor. He always said ‘Today, we’re going to make it a happy day … and he always did!” In addition to his wife, Mr. Blum is survived by his four children, Laurence, Arlin, Keith and his wife, Dawn, and Adina; grandchildren, Breanna, Maxwell, Mia, Preston and Bentley; brother Monte’s wife, Helene, and their children, Robin, Murray, his wife, Kelley, and their son Jordan; grand-niece, Carle. Mr. Blum was predeceased by his parents and his brothers, Herman, Simon, Murray and Monte.
DORIS BILLES, 93, of Novi, died Aug. 24, 2020. She is survived by her husband of 68 years, Eric Billes; daughter, Elaine Billes; grandchildren, Allison Billes and Gregory Billes; brotherin-law and sister-in-law, Bruce and Phyllis Billes; many loving nieces and nephews. Mrs. Billes was the proud grandmother of the late Brian David Billes; the loving sister of the late Willard Stringer. Interment was at Clover Hill Park Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334, holocaustcenter. org; Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 46104, donate.splcenter.org/sslpage. aspx?pid=463; or to a charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel. GLORIA COLLEN, 92, of West Bloomfield, died Aug. 22, 2020. A lifelong Michigan resident, she led a full and active life characterized by intellectual curiosity and humor and a deep love for her family. Mrs. Collen is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Joni and Dr. Fred Fischer of Farmington Hills; sons and daughters-in-law, Dr. Andrew and Kathy Collen of Commerce Township, Michael Collen and Susie Cohan of Farmington Hills, David Collen of Farmington Hills; grandchildren, Dr. Melissa and
Eric Novetsky, Jessica and Steven Migliore, Dr. Daniel and Paula Fischer, Noah Collen, Zachary Collen; great-grandchildren, Lily Novetsky, Emma Novetsky, Alexis Migliore, Jacob Migliore, Dylan Migliore; many loving nieces, nephews and friends. She was the beloved wife of the late Seymour Collen; dear sister and sister-in-law of the late Norman and the late Florence Zacks. Contributions may be made to Kadima, 15999 W. 12 Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48076. A graveside service was held at Hebrew Memorial Park. Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial Chapel. DOROTHY DRILICH, 93, of Royal Oak, passed away on Aug. 23, 2020. She was the beloved mother of Neal (Karen) Drilich and the late Brian Drilich; loving grandmother of Emily Drilich, Aaron Drilich, Leia (Gavin) Flure, Shira Weston and Arielle Weston; adoring great-grandmother of Camilia, Ivy, Emerson, Eden and Eelani. She is adored and fondly remembered by many loving nieces, nephews and cousins. Interment was at Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, Ill. Contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or to a charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.
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continued on page 50
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Soul
of blessed memory continued from page 49
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17 Elul Sept. 6, 2020 Joseph G. Betansky Sam Dubin Louis Gottlieb Esther Grossbard Rose Krise Kay Topor 18 Elul Sept. 7, 2020 Sophie Blue-Bluestein Edith G. Cohen Israel Eizen Sol Hammerstein Isaac Kresch Ethel Mall Harry Mitz 19 Elul Sept. 8, 2020 Joseph Goldman Fannie Lifshitz Arthur Schechter Jacob Steinbock Bessie Weingarden Fred Weiss Harry Weiswasser
20 Elul Sept. 9, 2020 Anna Bloom Herman Diamond Sam Fenkel Dora Esther Green Louis Klavons Nechemia Lieberman Bernice Osborne Bertha Shear
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SEPTEMBER 3 â&#x20AC;˘ 2020
SUSAN DUBIN, 74, of West Bloomfield, died Aug. 26, 2020. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Dr. Howard Dubin; sons and daughterin-law, Arthur Dubin, and Matthew and Debbie Dubin; grandchildren, Alivia Dubin, Marcus Dubin and Tessa Dubin; brother and sister-inlaw, James and Nancy Jonas; best friend and caregiver canine, Wally; nieces and nephews, Jennifer and Brad Carlson, Jessica and Jason Cooper, and Julie and Judd Hirschfeld; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Larry and Kitty Dubin; their son, Nick Dubin. She was the devoted daughter of the late Arthur and the late Ann Jonas. Interment was at Beth El Memorial Park. Contributions may be made to American Heart Association, 27777 Franklin Road, Suite 1150, Southfield, MI 48034, heart.org/en/ affiliates/michigan/detroit; or Temple Israel, Arthur Dubin Special Needs Fund, 5725 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, MI 48323, temple-israel.org/tributes. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel. EARLÂ JAY FELDMAN, 90, of West Bloomfield, died Aug. 15, 2020. He is survived by his wife, Marion Feldman; son and daughter-in-law, Larry and Rebecca Feldman of Buffalo Grove, Ill.; daughter, Alyse Feldman of West
Bloomfield; grandchildren, Alexa Feldman and Mara Feldman; many loving nieces and nephews. Mr. Feldman was the dear brother and brother-in-law of the late Lynn and the late Stuart Jacobson. Contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society at cancer.org/involved/donate/ memorial-giving.html. A graveside service was held at Machpelah Cemetery in Ferndale. Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial Chapel. MARLENE J. FRANKEL, 85, of Fenton, died Aug. 20, 2020. She is survived by her beloved husband, Marvin F. Frankel; sons and daughters-in-law, Randy and Catherine Frankel, Douglas and Lisa Frankel; daughters and sons-in-law, Kimberly and Kenneth Levin, Lisa and Vince Bove; grandchildren, Autumn, Dylan (Samantha), Brianna, Hannah, Emily, Dustin and Daniel; great-grandchild, Harper; brother, Roger Lundgren; sister, Diane Prechtel; many other loving family members and friends. Mrs. Frankel was the sister of the late Leonard Lundgren. Contributions may be made to the Parkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Foundation or to a charity of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choice. Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.
JOEL MATTHEW LEVISE, 52, of Southfield, died Aug. 24, 2020. He is survived by his parents, Susan Bilsky and William Levise; sister and brother-inlaw, Dawn Levise and Mark Ellison of Milford; many other loving relatives and friends. Contributions may be made to Michigan Greyhound Connection, P.O. Box 725384, Berkley, MI 48072; or to a charity of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choice. A graveside service was held at Machpelah Cemetery in Ferndale. Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial Chapel.
JOSEPH JONAH (JAY or JJ) MOLINA, 40, died Aug. 20, 2020. He was born Aug. 13, 1980, in Dayton, Ohio, to Laura and Joseph Molina. Jay was a Navy veteran who proudly served during Operation Enduring Freedom. He moved to Columbus after the Navy and worked on his artistry while working various jobs. He will be remembered for his creative artwork, kind heart and willingness to help anyone. Mr. Molina was preceded in death by his longtime girlfriend, Brittany Senft, grandfather, Dr. Ralph Coskey;
grandfather, Frank Molina; grandmother, Clare Molina. He will be missed and loved by all who knew him, especially his parents; his brother and sister-in-law, Matthew and Meghan Molina; and his dog, Ollie. He is also survived by his grandmother, Carol Coskey; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. A private memorial service for the immediate family will be held at Clover Hill Park Cemetery in Birmingham. Contributions may be made to the Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center, Attn: Voluntary Services, 420 N. James Road, Columbus, Ohio 43219 (request the donation be directed to
the Homeless Veterans Fund). Local arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel. EILENE LORAINE PASMAN, 79, of Walled Lake, died Aug. 24, 2020. She is survived by her son and daughterin-law, Darin and Sheryl Monroe Borlack; grandchild, Dustin Borlack; sisters and brothers-in-law, Dodie and Larry Harris, Nancy and Sheldon Satovsky; niece, Nicole (Todd) Miller; nephews, Todd (Monique) Gesund, Ryan Gesund; many loving great-nieces and great-nephews, other family members continued on page 52
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and friends. Mrs. Pasman was the aunt of the late Dana Harris. Interment took place at Hebrew Memorial Park Cemetery in Clinton Townshp. Contributions may be made to the Muscular Dystrophy AssociationMichigan Chapter or the Alzheimer’s Association. Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel. DR. BRADLEY A. SACHS, 49, of Toledo, Ohio, died Aug. 24, 2020. He was the beloved husband of Lauren Sachs; cherished father of Allison and Skylar
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Sachs; loving brother of Kenneth and Jessica Sachs, and Julie and Marc Black. He is also survived by his mother, Kathy (the late Richard) Green; father-in-law, Herbert Korn (Roberta Hodson); mother-in-law, Maida (the late Morton) Genser; brother-inlaw and sister-in-law, Daniel and Laila Korn; niece and nephews, Talia Sachs, Evan Sachs, Noah Black and Simon Black. Interment was at Clover Hill Park Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Allison and Skylar Sachs Educational Fund at any Huntington National Bank branch. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.
ALAN HOWARD TOPPER, 66, of Farmington Hills, died Aug. 21, 2020. He is survived by his sister and brother-in-law, Jolie and Jim Warpool; nephews, Jason Levine and Dan (Leslie) Shingleton; many other loving family members and friends. Contributions may be made to a charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.
CORRECTION The obituary for Philip Vainik (Aug. 27) should have indicated that he was the devoted husband of the late Sallee Rosen-Vainik.
OBITUARY CHARGES The processing fee for obituaries is: $125 for up to 100 words; $1 per word thereafter. A photo counts as 15 words. There is no charge for a Holocaust survivor icon. The JN reserves the right to edit wording to conform to its style considerations. For information, have your funeral director call the JN or you may call Sy Manello, editorial assistant, at (248) 351-5147 or email him at smanello@ renmedia.us.
Raskin
A look back at Van Dyke Place.
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Building of the former Van Dyke Place
L
ooking back to the future … With nothing more to prove in the restaurant world … having carved a solid niche as one of the nation’s finest restaurants … Van Dyke Place added another gem to its treasured list of dining wonders. Danny Raskin Traditional Senior Columnist Jewish foods, even back in 1994, were being received with high popularity at this popular restaurant, noted as one of three Michigan eateries rated among the top 50 by a prestigious Condé Nast Traveler restaurant poll … The others were the Whitney and the Lark for dedication and extraordinary service … A truly distinguished restaurant award was also received by Van Dyke Place. When a restaurant has achieved such high significance, you may ask, why burden the
executive chef with learning culinary skills of yet another cooking style? It would be most difficult to prepare the Jewish dishes served at Van Dyke Place if the executive chef weren’t Jewish and hadn’t been brought up with its techniques and teachings. Executive chef at the time, Keith Supian, had attended Achim Hebrew School, graduated from Southfield-Lathrup High School and was in the very fine Schoolcraft College culinary program … The son of Beverly and Bernard Supian, he had been executive chef at Van Dyke Place three years … If ingredients were in the house, he would make almost whatever customers would desire. In the meantime, his enormous talents had released a wonderful dining experience drawn from Keith’s Jewish heritage … and so the L’chaim style of dining. The rugelach and mandel-
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brot made were from recipes of his grandmother, Hannah Gellerman, who handed down her instructions to daughters Beverly and Roberta Brown. Beverly and Bernard Supian loved it when son Keith came over … He cooked, washed dishes and, with the help of his sister Karen, also served … Karen also assisted with the cooking. L’Chaim was like a restaurant within a restaurant, with reservations required for dining on the non-smoking second-floor level … Guests could also order from a L’Chaim menu in the downstairs areas of Van Dyke Place … When making reservations, folks would ask to be given the L’Chaim menu … The upstairs area was considered the most desirable area because customers were often surrounded by people they perhaps might know. Keith also looked at his Jewish cooking with a sharp eye on the
health angles … He tried to stay away from fat as much as possible, using vegetable oil instead with highly gratifying results. The L’Chaim “Noshing Menu” showcased Keith’s talented culinary expertise … His excellence as chef was one of quiet acclaim. OLDIE BUT GOODIE … The customer tells of being held up in a small town recently because of heavy rains … “This looks like the big flood,” he said to the waitress in a restaurant there. “The what?” she asked. “You know,” said the customer, “the flood when Noah saved the animals in the ark. You must have read about that.” The waitress said, “Mister, on account of all this rain, I ain’t seen a paper in four days.” CONGRATS … To Douglas Goldberg on his birthday … To Harvey Goldsmith on his birthday. Email dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.
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Looking Back From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History accessible at www.djnfoundation.org
75th Anniversary of VJ Day
T
here is another important 75th anniversary this week. On Sept. 2, 1945, on the deck of the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, the Japanese Empire formally signed the papers of surrender to the Allies. World War II was officially over. The fighting in the Pacific Arena had actually ended earlier in August 1945 when atom bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9 respecMike Smith tively. A few days later, in a Alene and Graham Landau radio broadcast on Aug. 15, Archivist Chair Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan had surrendered. That day marked the end of the fighting in the Pacific and was celebrated around the world as Victory over Japan Day, or VJ Day. Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day, had occurred three months earlier on May 8, 1945. This was, perhaps, a more poignant moment for Jews, for those who remained alive in Europe, and for those in America and Detroit, because VE Day meant the end of Hitler and the Nazis and, therefore, the end of the Holocaust. But we should not forget that Detroit Jews were also deeply involved in the war in the Pacific. The Aug. 17, 1945, issues of the JN and the Chronicle celebrated the end of WWII. As the headline on the Chronicle’s front page stated: “City’s Jewry Hails End of Greatest War.” Both Jewish newspapers published lists of VJ Day services held at the city’s synagogues and temples, as well as other such events around the city. Both issues were also full of meaningful articles about the end of the war. A great editorial in the Chronicle neatly sums up the war within a Jewish context: “A People Unconquered.” It takes the reader from rise of Hitler through the
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events of the Holocaust as it developed, using a Jewish lens. In the same issue on page 2, there are a series of articles under the title: “Detroit Rabbis Hail Peace; See Dawn of New Era.” For example, Rabbi Leo Franklin from Temple Beth El “Urges Fight for Universal Peace” and Rabbi Leo Fram from Temple Israel noted that “Peace Will be a Challenge.” Mrs. Joseph Welt, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, wrote about “The Significance of Victory.” Also on the front page, however, wass another story: “Four Jewish Scientists Credited for Bomb.” Indeed, there were a number of stories regarding the bomb in the Aug. 17 issues of the papers. The Editor of the JN, Philip Slomovitz, penned a preceptive editorial: “The Atom and Mankind.” Subsequent issues of both newspapers that fall published other articles that discussed the ramifications of the Atomic Age. One other category of stories from these issues should be noted — stories about the courage and dedication of Jewish Detroiters who served in the Pacific Theater of the war. For example, on Aug. 17, the JN wrote about Sgt. Louis Kaminsky, who was credited with downing six Japanese Zero fighter planes, and about Major Mordecai Fralick, a U-M medical school graduate, who had just returned after 38 months in the Pacific. The end of the greatest conflict in history was something to be celebrated, and something to remember. Hopefully, such a celebration will never be needed again. Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.
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