DJN November 4, 2021

THE DETROIT

JEWISH NEWS Nov. 4-10, 2021 / 29 Cheshvan-6 Kislev 5782

thejewishnews.com

Sophie’s Sorrow Holocaust survivor shares the agony of doomed girl from the Lodz Ghetto.

See page 12

contents Nov. 4-10, 2021 / 29 Cheshvan- 6 Kislev 5782 | VOLUME CLX, ISSUE 13

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26 Purely Commentary

4-10 Essays and viewpoints.

Our Community 12

Sophie’s Sorrow

Holocaust survivor shares the agony of doomed girl from the Lodz Ghetto.

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A New Normal

During the pandemic, synagogues adjust policies for masks, vaccines and distancing.

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Celebrating Hope for the Future

Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Annual Dinner inspires thousands.

What’s Next for

We Need to Talk?

Program moves from Federation to Jewish Family Service.

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Come Play at The Yard

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Family First

Frankel Jewish Academy boys tennis team’s success is built on and off the court.

Mazel Tov 34

Moments

Spirit 35

Torah portion

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Communication Matters Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Synagogue Directory

She ‘Exemplifies the Best’

HMC to honor Nancy Grosfeld at its annual benefit.

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An Unimaginable Pain

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Foundation aims to eliminate financial stress associated with burying a child or baby.

New 8,000-square-foot axe-throwing facility opens in Corktown.

Sports

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A New Lunch-And-Learn Series for Women

Well-Connected explores Judaism as a system of action.

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Arts&Life 42

Sing and Be Happy!

Ann Arbor’s Theatre Nova to raise funding through new Kander and Ebb production.

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A People’s Poet

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Celebrity News

Ed Codish: Selected Poems due in mid-November.

Events 45

Community Calendar

Etc.

The Exchange 46 Faces & Places 48 Obituaries 48 Looking Back 54 Shabbat Lights

Shabbat begins: Friday, Nov. 5: 6:02 p.m.

Shabbat ends: Saturday, Nov. 6: 7: 04 p.m.

* Times according to Yeshiva Beth Yehudah calendar.

ON THE COVER: Cover photo/credit: Sophie Klisman at the Holocaust Memorial Center. Photo by Jerry Zolynsky.

Cover design: Kelly Kosek

thejewishnews.com Follow Us on Social Media: Facebook @DetroitJewishNews Twitter @JewishNewsDet Instagram @detroitjewishnews NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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PURELY COMMENTARY essay

Over and Done With

I

n 1917, many an ear caught the bars of “Over There,” a highly patriotic song by George M. Cohan.

It was hard to overlook its popularity. It was never considered overdone; however, we can easily make a case for the Sy Manello overuse of “over” Editorial in our everyday Assistant speech.

We are desirous of having roofs over our heads; but to purchase the same, we may get in over our heads. Home costs are often over the top. Buying without doing due diligence may find you crying over spilt

milk.

Don’t get the gambling bug; lean over backwards to avoid it. It may lead you into a situation where you are asked to fork over what you owe. If you do not, you may get a working over, which could then lead to you being hung over.

Have you ever been so surprised by an action that you could be knocked over with a feather? Maybe you were the one someone else put one over on. Well, if it is over and done with, there is no use in losing sleep over it.

It is no fun to be taken advantage of; when you realize that you have been run

roughshod over, you know that the party’s over and vow that such a thing will happen again only over your dead body!

Do not wait until you are over the hill to fall head over heels in love. It is nice to have someone to make a fuss over.

If that someone can skim over your faults rather than chew

them over, you will know that your wait is over for the love of your life.

Well, it is time to end this set of observations because I hear the zaftig woman warbling. (That means it is over because the fat lady is singing. I do wish you would remain a bit more with it!)

Over and out.

opinion

To My Fellow Progressives: Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism

I

’ve spent most of the last decade focused on grassroots organizing and capacity building inside the American progressive movement.

From helping build the largest leadership development organization Oren on the left, to Jacobson launching a JTA first-of-its-kind organization to mobilize male allies into the fight to protect and expand reproductive freedom, I’ve proudly helped elect progressive changemakers and pass landmark legislation.

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I’ve done all of that as a Jew who wears a kippah in public, as someone who, statistically speaking, shouldn’t exist.

My grandfather is one of the 10% of Polish-born Jews to survive World War II. Three million of his Jewish neighbors, and another 3 million across Europe, were packed into boxcars and sent to the slaughter, to gas chambers, to the ovens.

What I am is central to who I am. So when I saw the statement from the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Sunrise movement explaining its refusal to march in a voting rights rally with Jewish groups because they are “Zionists,” I understood immediately that it

was deeply problematic. Not only did the decision have the potential impact of spreading anti-Jewish bigotry, but it also weakened our movement more broadly at a time when democracy, which is necessary to ensure civil rights, is under assault in America.

I also understood right away that, for many people, the anti-Jewish nature of the statement wasn’t so obvious.

When moments like this arise, I get texts and calls from progressive peers across the country who ask: “Is this antisemitic?”

To answer the question, I begin by explaining what it means to be a Jew. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. But Jewish identity

is so much bigger and more diverse than religion. Some of us are deeply religious. Some of us are totally secular. All of us are Jews.

We’re a people, not simply a religious community.

Contrary to what most think, antisemitism is not anti-Judaism in its modern form (several hundred years). It’s anti-Jew. It’s not about how Jews pray, but rather about who they are and what they are accused of doing.

Jews get attacked for supposedly controlling the world (governments, banks, media), for being disloyal to our home countries, for killing Jesus, for making up the Holocaust, for being greedy, for undermining the white continued on page 10

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

THE IRVING AND BEVERLY LAKER CONCERT SERIES presents

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2021 3:00 p.m.

Share an afternoon of stories and songs with ZALMEN MLOTEK, the artistic director of the National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene who conceived the New York production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, and the performers who played Tevye and Golda: the much-acclaimed STEVEN SKYBELL, who won the coveted Lucille Lortel award for Outstanding Actor in the 2019 Broadway and Off-Broadway season; and JENNIFER BABIAK, a seasoned Broadway actress. Additionally, the Farmington Hills actor who played Nokhem the Beggar in Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, MIKHL YASHINSKY, will participate.

General Seating in the spacious sanctuary at Congregation Shaarey Zedek: No charge, but reservations are required. COVID-19 protocols are in place.

Patron Levels: Gold Patrons ($180) receive two tickets, premium seating, names listed in the event program, and a Patron afterglow with the artists immediately following the concert, with photo opportunities.

Silver Patrons ($72) receive two tickets, reserved seating, names listed in the event program, and a Patron afterglow with the artists immediately following the concert, with photo opportunities.

The concert will be live-streamed for those viewing from home.

For information, tickets and links, please visit www.shaareyzedek.org/events/fiddler.

PURELY COMMENTARY Jonathan Sacks, seen as the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, circa 2000.

commentary

R

abbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who passed away on Nov. 7, 2020, left a legacy that is well known: As chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, he led a renewal of vibrant Jewish life through the growth of Jewish schools and the revitalization of the London School of Jewish Rabbi Studies; delivered erudite Raphael speeches, books and articles Zarum JTA that inspired the United

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Synagogue and beyond by advocating a realistic, modern and yet uncompromisingly faithful view of traditional Orthodoxy; and served as a public intellectual whose wisdom was sought by politicians, academics, CEOs and other faith leaders around the globe.

But can his contribution to modern Jewish thought be easily summarized?

As a dedicated disciple, I would never even attempt such a thing. But I can offer this. The colloquial term for a leading rabbinic sage is gadol, meaning, simply, “great.” With the rise of ultra-Orthodoxy, the word today evokes aged men garbed

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Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Was One of a Kind

Contributing Writers: Nate Bloom, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Louis Finkelman, Stacy Gittleman, Esther Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, Robin Schwartz, Mike Smith, Steve Stein, Ashley Zlatopolsky

in monochrome, surrounded by devotees and making pronouncements from their insular enclaves. But the intricate discussions of Jewish law of which these men are experts were described by Maimonides, the 12th-century scholar, as a dvar katan (small matter), reserving the phrase dvar gadol (great matter) for discussions of the nature and purpose of Creation.

A scholar must, Maimonides insisted, master the small before the great, for if the former makes up the framework of everyday Jewish life, it is the latter that establishes the ultimate value and meaning of existence — what we would call philosophy.

If one follows Maimonides’ argument, the so-called gedolim of today would be better termed ketanim, “small ones,” for they only concern themselves with Jewish law. The title “gadol” should be reserved for a rabbinic scholar who is not only steeped in Jewish law, but also able to understand and address the deep questions of life: Why are we here? What is our purpose? How can we make a difference?

A true gadol can speak to the religiously minded as well as to those of little or no faith. A gadol can translate ancient Jewish

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NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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wisdom into contemporary insight and realistic policy.

To my mind, only Rabbi Sacks has earned the title of gadol in recent times.

ENGAGING THE WORLD Rabbis today, like the clergy of other religions, have been compartmentalized as the leaders of the faithful only, with little to say in the public square. The sad result is that many rabbis now perceive themselves in this limited way too. But Rabbi Sacks always championed “a Judaism engaged with the world.”

He was able to speak to all people, using a language anyone could understand and that could move them to action. He was at home in the beit midrash, the Jewish house of study, and in the academy, but he learned to be most at home in the community.

Toward the end of Morality, his final book, he writes: “I had the privilege of studying with some of the greatest philosophers of our time, yet I learned more about morality in my years as a congregational rabbi than I did at Oxford and Cambridge, and I did so by conducting funerals.

“As a young rabbi in an aging congregation, I often did not know the deceased personally, so I had to ask relatives and friends what they were like and what they would be remembered for.

“No one ever spoke about the clothes they wore or the cars they drove, the homes they lived in or the holidays they took. They spoke about their role in their family, their place in the congregation and its activities, the good deeds they did, the causes they supported, the voluntary work they undertook and the people they helped.

“It is not what we do for

ourselves but what we give others that is our epitaph and that ultimately floods life with meaning.”

The loss of Rabbi Sacks is felt most acutely by British Jews proud that such a great thinker and rabbi emerged from their ranks. Yet his influence spread across the oceans to the entire Jewish world, and well beyond the Jewish community. He began as a rabbi in a small synagogue, then he became the chief rabbi of Anglo-Jewry and, in his later years, a rabbi to global Jewry as well as to some of the most influential people, both Jewish and nonJewish, on the planet.

INSPIRING OTHERS I am not fond of hyperbole, but I honestly wonder if we will ever see his kind again. He was a genuine gadol, a Jewish voice heard by all, a rabbi in the widest sense of the term.

But he is not the last true rabbi, because of the other great focus of his life: leadership and empowerment.

I am just one of thousands of men and women for whom he is a crucial inspiration, who have built their leadership upon his principles. His many books line our shelves, and his deep belief in us compels us to continue his legacy.

No one can fill his shoes, but I am sure he would prefer that we fill our own. He would always say, “Education is not what we do, it is who we are.”

Rabbi Sacks was not the last true rabbi, precisely because he was a true rabbi to the last.

Rabbi Raphael Zarum is dean of the London School of Jewish Studies, where he trains teachers and lectures in modern Jewish thought. This article is adapted from “The Last Rabbi,” an essay in The Jewish Quarterly, Issue 246, November 2021, and is used with permission.

Bring Danny Home!

Journalist Danny Fenster, before his captivity, wearing a Detroit Pistons cap

The Detroit Jewish News urges the community to continue raising awareness for Huntington Woods native Danny Fenster — a journalist who has been unjustly held without cause and without specified charges for

165 days by a military regime in a gruesome prison in Myanmar (Burma).

The family is looking for people to create portraits of Danny that can be shared on social media at https://bringdannyhome.com/pages/gallery.

You can also support Danny at:

BringDannyHome.com fenster-verse.tumblr.com facebook.com/groups/1164768597279223.

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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PURELY COMMENTARY

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’m a singer by name and by trade. I am neither a sports fan nor an expert on the subject. But this summer, after seeing the Associated Press report that “no practicing Orthodox Jewish player has made it to the big leagues,” I challenged Cantor Daniel sports journalists Singer to recognize the Times of most observant Israel Orthodox Jew to have played and won the World Series, Morrie Arnovich.

I never imagined the article about my hometown heroes from Superior, Wis., would have led me to discover Morrie was also my blood relative.

I didn’t know why I cared so much about Morrie Arnovich.

After the Forward published my article, I heard from journalists and sports fans who questioned my research and politely cast doubt on Morrie’s religious observance, as well as from some of his family who had thanked me for correcting the record.

While I was able to accurately answer most questions in the spirit my father, a reference librarian, would have, I was surprised to discover that Arnovich, like the recently

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NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

WIKIPEDIA

My Superior (Wis.) Jewish Genealogy: From Historic Baseball Diamonds to Bob Dylan

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

essay

‘New’ mishpachah: Cincinatti Reds left fielder Morrie Arnovich and singer Bob Dylan.

drafted Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jacob Steinmetz, actually did play in some games on Shabbat and other holy days while he was in the major leagues. But Arnovich still proudly considered himself to be an observant Orthodox Jew. As I dug even deeper, I found that, according to the oral history delivered by his first cousin, Rabbi Alex Hyatt (originally Arnovich), in the Litvak shul Agudath Achim in Superior, the strictest observance of Shabbat — shomer Shabbos — was especially required of the chazzan. This tradition had gone all the way back to his hometown of Wilkomer, Lithuania.

I intentionally avoided questioning any of the players’ claims to Orthodoxy. But from these conversations with family, journalists and critics, I learned that while Rabbi Hyatt undoubtedly expected everyone to observe the Sabbath, he also recognized the reality of ministering to a remote industrial town where Jews worked for non-Jewish businesses and could not always be shomer Shabbat.

Morrie’s father was a gas station attendant and his family observed to the highest extent that they could under

the circumstances. But Rabbi Hyatt had to require at least the minimum requirement of the chazzan being shomer Shabbat from all of those who observed in the community. I also learned that prior to 1950, far fewer Jews were shomer Shabbat than today, including the Orthodox. Labor laws eventually allowed for a twoday weekend and Orthodox Jews later made greater efforts to encourage universal Shabbat observance.

ZIMMERMAN’S BLUES Responding to my last article, one journalist felt that the crossroads between Bob Dylan and Civil War hero Gen. John Henry Hammond’s family, Superior’s founders, was the most interesting part.

In the last year of his life, my father helped to research David Engel’s acclaimed 1997 book, Just Like Bob Zimmerman’s Blues. It was Gen. Hammond’s grandson, music producer John Henry Hammond II, who was key in launching Dylan’s career.

The first chapters include many details on Dylan’s Jewish upbringing in Minnesota, just accross Duluth Harbor from Superior, Wis. Superior’s Jewish community was founded by the Kaners who also were from Wilkomer.

Many of them went by the first name Shabsie, a Yiddish name.

There were so many Shabsie Kaners in Superior, they had to distinguish them by their street name or other distinguishing characteristics: “Shabsie Downtown,” “Shabsie Connor’s Point,” “Shabsie the John Kaner,” and so on.

Tugging on that thread, I learned that Bob Zimmerman was given the Hebrew name Shabtai to honor his grandfather Benjamin David Solemovitz (Stone), whose Russian patronymic surname was taken from his greatgrandfather, Sholem Karon.

Shabtai is the Hebrew form of Shabsie in Yiddish, which means “a child of Shabbat.”

The Shabsie name was carried down in the family for generations from Dylan’s sixth great-grandfather, Girsh Shabsel Karanovich. The Karanovich family became the Karons, Kaners, Canners, etc., and the Arnovich rabbis were all cousins who had encouraged one another to escape Russian pogroms in the solace of Superior.

My father never could have discovered this in his day. His research as a librarian preceded the internet. It was before the digitization of countless genealogical records, digital

genealogy websites, social media and DNA testing, which is all continuing to advance and change how we conduct research and make genealogical connections.

HUGE FAMILY TREE My connection was made by accident, only after I’d posted a tongue-in-cheek question on Facebook about the possibility of Zimmerman’s surname originally being Zemerman. It was a cute midrash, perhaps designating a singer instead of a carpenter.

One of my cousins reading my post insisted I immediately get in touch with Ian Levine, a renowned British DJ and record producer who has researched his Kuklya family obsessively for 26 years, organized family reunions with thousands of confirmed Kuklya descendants, and is about to publish a massive 2016-page Kuklya Encyclopedia.

My cousin believed that we were related to Ian. After Ian and I analyzed our DNA and confirmed our blood relationship — and checked to be certain it corresponded with the work he and I had done separately on our trees — he welcomed me warmly as family.

In Ian’s work, I was absolutely astonished to see my great-grandfather and many tens of thousands of other ancestors.

There, just one generation beyond the reach of my own research, I learned that my second and third greatgrandfathers had married Karanovich daughters, and I discovered the same Girsh Shabsel Karanovich is also

my sixth great-grandfather.

Bob Dylan, Morrie Arnovich, the Singers — we are all cousins descended from the same Karanovich and Kuklya families in a long lineage of rabbis going back to Rashi and beyond.

DETROIT ROOTS My father, Barry Singer, was born in Detroit in 1936 and was an only child. His father had died when he was 2 years old, and he was raised by his mother’s cousins of the Oppenheim family.

He graduated Wayne State University before making aliyah prior to 1967’s Six-Day War. He married in Israel and eventually returned to the U.S. and settled in Superior.

His father’s brothers and sisters and their descendants who had remained behind in Lithuania were brutally murdered by Lithuanian Gen. Jonas Noreika and his followers during World War II. My father had searched for his family his entire life.

Now, I’ve discovered he was never alone. Superior had mysteriously beckoned to him just as it did his ancestors.

Maybe that’s why it bothered me so much when the press snubbed Morrie. And maybe that’s why I care so much about the preservation of Superior’s history.

Turns out: Morrie is family, after all. And Superior’s history is my history.

Originally from Superior, Wis., Daniel Singer, a graduate of the University of Michigan, is the cantor of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City. To read Cantor Singer’s previous article, visit forward.com/scribe/473521.

Cantor Singer can be reached at dsinger@swfs.org.

CORRECTION In “‘EPIC’ Changes for NEXTGen Detroit’s Annual Big Event” (Oct. 28, page 28), the co-chair of the EPIC event should have been identified as Andrew Sherman.

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PURELY COMMENTARY continued from page 4

THE RIGHT TO EXIST For the average Jew, Zionism has become simply the idea that Israel has the right to exist, rather than an embrace of the policies of its government. The Zionist movement got its name in the late 19th century, but it really put a label on a 2,000-year-old yearning to return to the native land Jews were violently forced out of (in an act of colonization).

That yearning grew over time as we failed to find sustained peace and security elsewhere, including in Europe, North Africa and the broader Middle East.

That’s why when people attack Zionists, we hear “Jews.” We hear them saying that the 80-90% of Jews who believe Israel has a right to exist are unacceptable, and that Israel, a country that came into existence with the vote of the international community and today is home to 7 million Jews, must be ended.

Why is that antisemitism? First, it singles out Jews when most people believe Israel has the right to exist. (In fact, 85% of the general public in America believes the statement “Israel does not have a right to exist” is antisemitic, according to a survey released this week.)

Second, it seeks to deny Jewish people the right to self-determination by erasing our peoplehood and connection to

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NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

from representative on the question of what constitutes antisemitism. If someone ignored the voices and lived realities of 80-90% of any other minority group, most progressives would quickly recognize that as an act of tokenization to shield biases (or worse).

Some who identify as progressive feel it’s OK to use the word “Zionist” to Members of attack others, claiming that Sunrise DC the word is not about Jews.

I encourage everyone to go on far right-wing message boards on occasion. Once there, you’ll see how white supremacists typically call Jews Zionists. The prominence of the word, in connection with claims that they control the governments and are trying to replace white “patriots” with Black and brown “interlopers,” will stun you.

While there is plenty of room for criticism of Israeli government policy, there should be no room for the exclusionary, reductionist and dehumanizing language of white nationalists in progressive discourse on the topic, or the denial of the right for Jewish self-determination on this earth.

I believe in standing up for those who are attacked for the crime of being who they are as much as I believe in standing up for Jewish life. For me, this work is personal.

Not because every issue affects me directly. But because I feel like I owe it to my grandfather. To Jews who were murdered and never had a chance to live. To my peers here who face systemic racism and bigotry.

And yes, because I believe “Never Again” isn’t just a slogan to hope for, but rather a mission to fight for.

TWITTER/JNS

race and subverting people of color (among other things).

We’ve been blamed for plagues, famine, economic hardship and war.

Whatever major problem a society has, Jews have been blamed for it. None of those things has anything to do with religion.

Criticism of Israel or opposition to it isn’t necessarily antisemitic.

Harsh criticism of Israeli government policy may make us uncomfortable but isn’t antisemitic. But the Sunrise DC statement wasn’t about policy. By attacking “Zionist organizations” in a voting rights coalition and saying that they can’t participate in in a coalition that includes them, Sunrise DC basically said it won’t work alongside Jewish organizations (or Jews) that believe the State of Israel has the right to exist.

the land.

Third, it declares that a national movement for Jews is uniquely unacceptable, while at the same time advocating in support of another national movement.

Fourth, it divides Jews into good and bad. Only those who oppose their own national movement can stay. Only Jews who reject Zionism are allowed. Replace “Jew” with any other group and ask if that would be acceptable.

Even if you forswear coalitions with anyone, Jewish or not, who thinks Israel is legitimate, that still denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.

It says that Jews must be a perpetual minority on this earth subject to the whims and bigotries of the societies they live in. For thousands of years Jews tried that and failed to find permanent refuge — which, fairly or not, is part of the reason most Jews believe in the right to, and need for, national self-determination in some portion of a contested land.

PROGRESSIVES’ BIGOTRY Sunrise DC wasn’t interested in the nature of their shunned Jewish allies’ support for Israel — even though each of the three groups, like most Jews in America, have advocated for a Palestinian state and for an end to policies by the government of Israel that harm the Palestinian people, including, but not limited to, the occupation of the West Bank.

Ultimately, only Jews get to define who and what we are and what antisemitism is. Too often in progressive spaces that right is denied to Jews. Instead, to justify their own positions, some rely on Jews whose voices, while relevant, are far

Oren Jacobson is the co-founder of Project Shema, which helps Jewish students, leaders, organizations and allies explore the difficult conversations surrounding Israel and antisemitism. Previously, Oren served as national chapter development director for the New Leaders Council, growing NLC into the largest social justice-focused leadership development organization in America. He holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago, a master’s in Economics and Policy Analysis from DePaul University and an MBA from Regis University.

THE DETROIT

JEWISH NEWS

36 UNDER 36

Nominations Now Open!

Do you know someone making an impact in the community for this special honor?

Nominations for The Detroit Jewish News’ annual 36 under 36 are now open to recognize doers, activists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, community organizers and other young Jewish professionals reshaping and broadening Metro Detroit’s Jewish community.

Do you know someone who gives of themselves to the community in robust — and often thankless — ways?

Someone you admire and aspire to be like?

Someone whose accomplishments you want to celebrate?

Jews in the D

36 UNDER 36

Leaders Among

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• 2020 FEBRUARY 13

JOSH GERSHON OWICZ High School, Jessica Josh Gershonowicz looks forward to attending college is founder and in fall CEO the executive director 2020 and passing of Rebuild Group, position of Sib4Sib a to a part-time profession fast-growing marketing al. Jessica will remain involved agency contribut on the ing In addition to Sib4Sib,board of directors. to the renaissan ce Jessica holds leadership positions of Midtown Detroit. in Teen Volunteer Started in 2012, Corps, the Jewish Rebuild breaks Fund Teen Board the mold on the large agency and Youth United model Interfaith Camp. Sh positioning to campaign — from brand wants to thank e her parents, Scot creation and implementation. and Judy Goldberg, Sammi Josh Shapiro, Max Newman, to create a different and his team set out Barrett Harr, Betty Chu, approach to marketMartha ing and advertisin Goldberg, the Wish g, centered on a and Mall families, culture and of entrepreneurial the entire communi spirit, creative tension, ty for its support curiosity and hustle. on this exciting He has worked journey. igently to focus dilJessica resides in on creating emotiona Farmington Hills experiences people l her family and with have as they interact goldendo with brands. He More info at Sib4Sib.or odle, Goldie. said he believes g.

Detroit’s next hit neighborh ood will be Milwauke Junction: “The e future home where KIM RUBIN art and technology meet, ” he said.

Kim Rubin, 34, A graduate of the of Novi Goldman Sachs is an entrepreneur 10,000 Small Businesse and the sole practition combines his business s program, Josh er of acumen with a Rubin Psycholog personal sense ical of philanthropic Services, specializin duty. His charitable work, g which includes in behavioral/developMidtown Detroit Inc., Hebrew Free Loan and sponmental pediatrics soring the Boy . Kim Scouts of America moved ach year, The Well Dodge to Metro Detroit for Detroit Dodgebal after graduating and l Tournament, from Indiana University Jewish News partner the underscores his where she earned , commitment to her nize young leaders, to recogthe city he calls home. Josh ogy, and the Southern Ph.D. in psycholhumanitaris also a real estate ians, educators developer and a , social activists School of Medicine Illinois University Huffington Post and entrepreneurs (Springfie contributor. He was married who are reshaping ld, Ill.), where she completed and broadening the her residency. In 18-month-old son. in 2016 and has an Jewish commun Springfield, she His favorite Jewish ity in Metro Detroit. volunteered to food is his wife’s start a NFTY youth group, kugel.

Nominees submitted which became recby commuognized regionally nity members and nationally for were sent to a rapid growth and its panel of impartial volunteer JESSICA GOLDBER emphasis on performjudges who had G ing mitzvot througho the difficult task At 15, Jessica Goldberg ut 36 names from of choosing only In Michigan, where the community. noticed the lack the list of impressiv she married her of young professio e husband, Mike, support for siblings nals.

Kim in Here, meet this the Children’s Center started working at the mental health year’s cohort of of Wayne County, “36 Under 36” and specializin — developmental we admire and the kinds of people disability treatment g in autism assessment and aspire to be, whose communities. So . In her own practice, accomplishments she she now helps children and started Sib4Sib, and who we want we want to celebrate adolescents overcome a supthe social, world to know educational and port network for make their home behavioral issues. individuals who have in Additionally, she a sibling who struggles If you know these Metro Detroit. mentors younger with mental health individuals, therapists to help them know why they or has cognitive hone their skills were chosen. If you or developmental to help others. haven’t met them you differences. In three yet, you’ll want years, Jessica has built — soon.

Kim enjoys involving to Sib4Sib into a thriving her children, community with Reece, Brooks and We asked the honorees four different support Chase, in the Jewish to submit groups (facilitated brief bios. Here community through by licensed profession they are, in no events hosted by als), resources, particular order. networking, advocacy - The Well, Adat Shalom Synagogue, social outings — and Temple all free of charge.

Israel and PJ Library.

Jessica serves as She has a great core group the executive director of Jewish families and president of who share the same Sib4Sib, a 501(c)3 values, have children nonprofit that has raised will grow up who A senior this year more than $100,000. who don’t together and girlfriends at North Farmingt mind sharing a bottle of on wine. Unbeknown st to many friends,

Us

The Well and the Jewish New s spotlight 36 up-and-comin g leaders in the Metro Detroit Jewish commun ity.

E

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FEBRUARY 13 • 2020

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GO ONLINE TO THEJEWISHNEWS.COM AND NOMINATE THEM BY NOVEMBER 18, 2021 A special group of seven volunteer judges will be reviewing submissions and choosing the 36 winners. Honorees will receive free three-year subscriptions to the JN and be featured in a February 2022 issue.

OUR COMMUNITY

Sophie’s Sorrow Holocaust survivor shares the agony of doomed girl from the Lodz Ghetto.

AL AN

MU SK OV ITZ

ALAN MUSKOVITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER JERRY ZOLYNSKY PHOTOGRAPHY

Baby Shoes in the HMC Exhbit

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A

somber, but reflective Sophie Klisman, 92, grasped a tissue as she gazed at a large map of the city of Lodz, Poland, displayed on a wall of the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills.

Her clenched tissue stood at the ready as tears welled up in her eyes as she focused on the area of the map that the Nazis had cordoned off and designated as the Lodz (pronounced “Ludge”) Ghetto.

The map is part of a touring exhibit, “The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Lodz Ghetto,” that runs through Dec. 30.

Rywka’s diary was unearthed after the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland in June 1945. The writings were found by a Soviet doctor, absent of its young author, Rywka (pronounced Rivka) Lipszyc, an Orthodox pre-teen who wrote of her ghetto experiences from that perspective.

The diary would remain in private hands for 60 years before being discovered and an exhibition created by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, Poland. Rywka’s Diary has also been translated into English and other languages and published as a book by Harper Collins in 2015.

Rywka was eventually liberated from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. In 1955, a woman who was mentioned in the diary testified that Rywka, gravely ill, died at the age of 16 after being hospitalized in Germany. A displaced person’s certificate from September 1945 is the last known official document of her existence.

Rywka’s story is all too familiar to Sophie Klisman for she, too, lived the nightmare of the Lodz Ghetto and was imprisoned in two of the three same concentration camps as was Rywka.

Sophie has been sharing her story as a speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Center (HMC) for the past seven years. Prior to that, for over a half century, Sophie rarely shared her experiences, even with her family.

Sophie and her husband and fellow Holocaust survivor, Bernard, of blessed memory, like so many survivors wanted to spare their children the details of their painful past. Sophie said,

Sophie Tajch Klisman and her daughter Lori Klisman Ellis

“It was not an ongoing conversation” between her and her husband. “No, no, we tried to build a life in this country, tried to get Americanized and tried to build a good life for our two children,” referring to her daughter Lori Klisman Ellis, 62, and son Mark Klisman, 64, both of West Bloomfield, who were standing by her side at the HMC exhibit.

TOGETHER AT HMC I met Sophie at the HMC last month, along with Lori, Mark, their spouses, Jeff and Anne, and WWII veteran Doug Harvey of Sterling Heights and some of his family members. Lori has authored a book continued on page 14

Mark Mulder, manager of curatorial affairs at the HMC, leads the group through the exhibit.

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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ABOVE: Liberator Doug Harvey of Sterling Heights with his family. RIGHT: Harvey with Sophie Tajch Klisman.

about her mother’s survival; daughter-in-law Anne is a docent at the HMC; and Doug was a member of the 84th Infantry Division that liberated Salzwedel, the last of the three camps where Sophie was held captive. They all have played a role in Sophie’s decision to begin sharing her story, not just with family, but with the public at large. (See adjacent article.)

I had the privilege of joining them to chronicle Sophie’s reaction to her first visit to the exhibit. It would afford her the rare opportunity to be on the receiving end of the story of the Lodz Ghetto through the eyes of someone else who lived the same personal horror.

We were afforded a private tour of the exhibit, “The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Lodz Ghetto,” by HMC Manager of Curatorial Affairs Mark Mulder.

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“I am in this field because of people like Sophie,” said Mark. “I’ve dedicated my career to giving survivors and victims of the Holocaust a voice. I believe that visitors who learn personal stories like Sophie’s and Rywka’s develop a deep sense of compassion for Holocaust victims and survivors. Seeing Sophie walk through the exhibit and how she connected with the maps and the artifacts really solidifies that this work is still important.”

SURGE OF MEMORIES “It has just brought back all these horrific memories of what life was like,” Sophie told me as we began walking through the exhibit. “I was so young, and that’s my connection to Rywka because we were born in the same year.” To be precise, the two girls were born just over two

months apart in 1929. But the similarities don’t end there.

Sophie and Rywka were 10 years old when the war broke out in 1939. “My memories were that we were poor, but I had a lot of love from my family,” Sophie said. Then, the Germans invaded Poland and soon afterward both their families would be forced from their homes and into slave labor within the barb-wired confines of the ghetto.

Sophie entered the ghetto with her parents and her two older brothers, Moishe and Srylek (pronounced Shruelek). Even more heartbreak was to come as Sophie’s older sister Felicia would end up being separated from the family within the ghetto.

Tragically, Sophie and Rywka would also have the shared experience of witnessing the agonizing deaths of their parents who succumbed

to beatings, starvation and illness. Sophie’s brother Moishe would meet a similar fate in the ghetto. Sophie and Srylek would eventually be reunited with Felicia when the three were transported to Auschwitz.

“My worst memory, I mean there were so many, was watching my mother, my father, my brother dying of such a horrible, slow death,” said Sophie, taking small pauses to compose herself as the visions of the atrocities resurfaced. “No medical help, no medicine — nothing — no food.”

RELIVING GHETTO LIFE Rykwa’s diary is supplemented throughout the exhibit by commentaries from rabbis, historians, psychologists and doctors; largely from female contributors, that add historical context to what Rywka described in her writings that was the life of

a young, observant Orthodox girl in the ghetto.

A collection of photographs, videos and artifacts throughout the exhibit also adds visual content that further magnify the impact of Rywka’s words. As Sophie and I turned the corner from one display to another, one artifact lay hauntingly under glass — a lone pair of intricately woven baby shoes. They were the kind that Rywka’s diary described her making in the ghetto’s sewing factory, yet another example where Sophie and Rywka’s ghetto experiences would intersect.

“At the beginning of the ghetto, I worked in the knitting shop,” said Sophie, “and making all this stuff, and everything was being sent to Germany.” Sophie was taught to knit beautiful linens, gloves, scarves and hats. “I was grateful that maybe that’s the reason I survived. I had a job,” she said, a responsibility that at times served as a distraction from the harsh reality of her tortured existence.

By “being sent to Germany,” of course, meant the items Sophie and Rykwa were producing were strictly for the benefit of the Germans. Specifically, the very baby shoes we were standing in front of — a stark reminder to her that they were never intended for the Jewish babies in the ghetto.

“The worst part was the babies,” said Sophie, of the fate of the little ones. Too young to work, they were of no use to the Nazis. “They were killing babies, so innocent,” Sophie’s voice cracked visualizing the atrocity her memory elicited.

While touring the exhibit of

Rywka’s life, Sophie was in fact finding herself, her history, with every step she took. Like coming upon a small sewing machine sitting on a pedestal, just like the one her father, Icek-berek Tajch (pronounced E-seck Ty-ch), toiled at in the ghetto.

His being a tailor before the war broke out made Icek a valuable asset to the Nazis.

The very profession that once provided a modest income for his family, now performed at no cost for the benefit of his captors. He sewed through hunger and exhaustion until his barbaric treatment led to his demise. Said Sophie, “I remember my father sitting at the sewing machine.

He was, when he died, only 51 years old, but he was like an old man in the ghetto.”

Sophie’s father died in August 1942; her mother Luba Rozrazowska (pronounced Rose-ruhzuh-skuh) Tajch, preceded him in death by 11 months, also at 51.

We then came upon a photo in the exhibit projecting two smiling, young girls in the Lodz Ghetto. “Yes, it definitely reminded me of my sister,” said Sophie of the image. “We were so young that we should have been carefree and happy, but it also brought back such horrible, unimaginable pain and suffering.”

AFTER THE GHETTO Sophie and Srylek would finally be reunited with their sister Felicia, when a packed boxcar transported them from the continued on page 16

Sophie Finds Her Voice Seven years ago, at age 85, Sophie Klisman was finally ready to break her decades-long silence on sharing her Holocaust survival story. “Most of my friends, also survivors, were passing away, dying one by one … none of them are alive … I’m the only one,” said Sophie.

“So that made me realize I better start telling my story. It’s getting late. I want to educate. I want the people to know what happened.”

That decision has had a ripple effect.

The veil of secrecy slowly being lifted by Sophie further fueled a longing by her daughter Lori to learn more about her mother’s hidden history. Lori was introduced to The World Memory Project, a free online resource of information about victims and survivors of Nazi persecution “to restore the identities of people the Nazis tried to erase from history and enable families to discover the fates of missing loved ones.”

Lori’s search on the website paid incredible dividends. Her most dramatic discovery was being able to identify and confirm that Sophie’s mother, Luba, and brother Moishe, who perished in the Lodz Ghetto, actually had burial sites in Lodz, Poland.

It took some Lori Klisman Ellis, convincing by Sophie Tajch Klisman and Anne Lori, but this Klisman revelation led Sophie to agree Lori’s book cover to what was for years unthinkable for her — a return to Lodz. She now had a reason — to erect and place a tombstone at her mother’s gravesite that would honor all her lost loved ones. It offered, Sophie said, “A little closure. We could never go to a funeral. We never knew where they were buried.”

A daily blog by Lori during that eventual trip to Poland in 2016, initially intended just for family as a legacy to her mother, evolved into her penning a book about her mother’s incredible Holocaust history: 4,456 Miles: A Survivor’s Search for Closure — continued on page 16 NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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continued from page 15

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Lodz Ghetto to AuschwitzBirkenau in August 1944. The reunion was short-lived, as upon their arrival, Srylek was separated from his sisters and was never seen or heard from again.

After only 15 days in Auschwitz, Sophie and Felicia were sent to Bergen-Belsen for six weeks. Finally, on to Salzwedel concentration camp for nine months before being liberated.

Thankfully, in the absence of her parents, Sophie had Felicia, eight years her senior, who would nurture her baby sister to survival like her own mother.

Sophie and Felicia would eventually immigrate to the U.S., settling in Detroit in 1949.

They began life anew, started families of their own, finally free to share many happier and fulfilling years together.

However, Sophie didn’t share her sister Felicia’s desire to revisit and discuss their past and, for the remainder of their lives, very little conversation occurred between the two in that regard. Felicia passed away in Sunrise, Fla., in 2016.

I can’t adequately describe what it was like to observe Sophie walking through the exhibit, “The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Lodz Ghetto,” reflecting and reliving the

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horror that was hers and Rywka’s childhood. I had no reference point to fully comprehend or compare the trauma they had experienced.

When Sophie and Rykwa were 10 years old in 1939, they were in a battle for survival having been forced to move into a cramped, filthy ghetto; child slave laborers, hungry, weak and forced to witness the annihilation of their families before their

Sophie Tajch Klisman views photos on display at the exhibit.

eyes. When I was 10 years old in 1965, I was experiencing a move of my own, from the peace and tranquility of an idyllic life growing up among the beautiful Dutch elm-lined streets of Detroit to a new home in the suburbs.

That is the constant reminder you receive every time you walk through the doors of the Holocaust Memorial Center. It is, as Mark Mulder said previously, “giving survivors and victims of the Holocaust a voice.”

For everyone else, it gives us a much-needed perspective that can never be taken for granted or forgotten.

Awakening Her Daughter’s Search for Understanding the Holocaust. The mileage representing the distance between West Bloomfield and Lodz.

“I feel strongly about education and remembrance,” said Lori, a retired speech pathologist. The book is available at Amazon.com, with proceeds supporting the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities.

SPEAKING AT HMC Witnessing the courage to begin sharing her story had a profound impact on Sophie’s daughter-in-law Anne Klisman. Anne suggested to Sophie that she should share her story with visitors of the Holocaust Memorial Center. Sophie responded to Anne: “If you will be a docent, I’ll start speaking, as difficult as it is.”

A deal was struck and for the last several years, visitors to the HMC have been the beneficiaries of this mother-in-law/daughter-in-law volunteer duo.

In 2019, another powerful chapter was added to Sophie’s legacy, when the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) gave her the high honor of returning once again to Poland, this time chaperoned

by Israeli soldiers during their “From Holocaust to Independence” mission.

“I’ll never forget walking into the gates of Auschwitz,” said Sophie of her escort by 45 Israeli soldiers. “The Israeli flag, the Torah, and to come back with such a delegation that the Jews and Israel survived and thrived.” The last leg of that FIDF mission finishing in high symbolic fashion with a trip to Israel for Sophie aboard an Israeli military plane.

The FIDF story received press coverage around the world. Local press caught the eye of, now 97-year-old, Doug Harvey of Sterling Heights. Doug was a member of the 84th Infantry Division that liberated Salzwedel, the final of three concentration camps where Sophie was imprisoned. He reached out to Sophie and a reunion ensued which to this day remains an endearing friendship between the two.

Sophie and Doug were together again during their recent visit to the HMC and the “The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Lodz Ghetto” exhibit.

“He’s a very modest man, but he and the 84th, liberated and gave me a life,” said Sophie of Doug, whom she describes as “my hero.”

Doug is a reluctant hero who never fails to mention that he was “just one of thousands” who helped liberate the camps. He does, though, recognize the significance and impact of sharing the horrors of the Holocaust he witnessed.

“I’m thoroughly in favor of not letting people forget that this happened,” he says. “So, if I’m some small part, that’s great. I’m happy to do it,” adding that it’s “been a great privilege, my time with Sophie and her family.”

Save the Date for the Trip of a Lifetime!

March 12 to March 21, 2023

Get ready! We’re going back to Israel as a community for the first time in over a decade and want you to join us.

Here’s your chance to experience the heart and soul of Israel and the Detroit Jewish community at the same time. To explore the history, beauty, tastes, sounds, magic and wonder of the Homeland together. 2023 is Israel’s historic 75th Anniversary, too.

Am Yisrael Chai. Together again in Israel in 2023!

Sign up for eMail Updates

There’s much more to come as details of this remarkable adults-only mission are finalized. Let us know you’re interested and we’ll keep you up to date and alert you when registration goes live.

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A New Normal

During the pandemic, synagogues adjust policies for masks, vaccines and distancing.

TEMPLE EMANU-EL

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ADAT SHALOM

TOP: The bimah at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.

MIDDLE: Stained glass at Temple Emanu-El. BOTTOM: Shiffman Chapel at Adat Shalom Synagogue.

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haina Shevin Warshay moved from the Detroit suburbs to Israel. She reports that the shul she goes to regularly has outdoor services.

“Over a certain number of people, and we are required to mask,” she adds.

In subtropical Israel, even in the cool rainy season, people can usually stay outside long enough for services; many synagogues have an outdoor service, a “street minyan.”

Warshay adds: “The other shul we had been frequenting is still having indoor services. Masks are nominally required. We have not been going lately because it would require getting the kids tested each week so they could come inside.”

Michigan has real winters.

Synagogues in Michigan have generally had to decide what rules to set for indoor services.

Dr. Leonard Pollack — a pediatrician who attends the Young Israel of Oak Park — reports that it has a reopening committee, which he chairs. “We regularly review recommendations from both medical and rabbinic sources and modify the policy based on the situation existing at the time.”

So, subject to change, Young Israel of Oak Park has the following policy: “Masks are mandatory for those (including children) who have not had at least one dose of the J&J vaccine or two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine with the last dose being at least two weeks ago. Masks are highly encouraged for everyone who is fully vaccinated at all times except for when eating. In addition, all services provide a section for those who prefer to be in a mask-only, socially distanced section. In addition, anyone with symptoms or a significant exposure is instructed not to attend services, even if fully masked and immunized. Every morning (weekdays, Shabbat and Yom Tov) we have two minyanim in

order to allow for less crowding.

The larger minyan meets in the main sanctuary which allows for greater distancing.”

Dr. Pollack says, “Our minyanim have been averaging at least 80% masked since we instituted the present policy. A survey of our regular attendees showed that of the people over age 16, approximately 90% are immunized.”

MASKS AND VACCINES Rabbi Aaron Bergman reports that, at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills, “We require masks for everyone in the building. We strongly recommend vaccines but have not yet decided on proof of vaccination. We are large enough so people can distance appropriately. We are also still Zooming services as an option.”

At the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Farmington Hills, Rabbi Jeffrey Falick says, “Our rules for in-person programs, which include our Sunday school, Friday night services and at least one upcoming class, are that everyone eligible must be ‘fully’ vaccinated and wear masks in public areas. We also have air filters and reduced capacities in all program areas.”

For further information, Rabbi Falick recommends checking the website, which lists COVID safety measures, including: “Guests who are not members may be asked to show proof of vaccination. Masks are required for everyone in public areas.”

However, according to the website, “At congregational events where a meal is served, when seated at a table participants may eat and drink without masks.”

The congregation allows for special advance arrangements at some events for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. The congregation also “will place ventilation units (with HEPA filters) in all occupied program areas.”

Rabbi Matthew Zerwekh says Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park is

UPSCALE CONSIGNMENT & AUC TION HOUSE

hosting services both in-person as well as streamed in order to reach all of the community. “As things continue to change, we will adapt as we have throughout the pandemic,” he says.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin reports that Kehillat Etz Chayim in Huntington Woods “is making every effort to ensure an uplifting and safe davening for everyone.”

Rabbi Lopatin explains, “To that end, we have determined that if you are 12 years old and older, you must be fully vaccinated to attend any of our indoor davening or activities.

While we respect individual rights and understand some may choose to not be vaccinated, this step is necessary to protect our wider community. Properly worn masks, covering the nose and mouth, are also mandatory when inside the shul buildings for all adults and children over 2 years old. Within these guidelines we are thrilled to have children in our services.”

A ‘BRACELET’ SYSTEM Robert Rich, executive director of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, is proud that Shaarey Zedek was one of the first to open up after the lockdown. “Pretty much all the synagogues came to the decision to shut down in-person activities together back in March,” he recalls.

The decision to reopen was made in consultation with the synagogue’s medical advisory committee, including specialists in infectious diseases and epidemiology. “They have been advising us on all of our decisions,” Rich says. “We want everyone to be comfortable and safe when they come back in … and we do want them to come back in, fully participating and keeping safe.”

Rich adds that people have different comfort levels. “Some want to maintain an extra

degree of care; some want to get back closer to normal. So, we set up a system for members to indicate to each other how they feel about physical proximity to each other using colored bracelets.”

Rich said Shaarey Zedek didn’t invent the system but is happy to use it: • For people who want to avoid any physical contact and maintain distance from everyone: a red bracelet.

• For those comfortable with elbow bumps, but not hugs and handshakes: a yellow bracelet.

• For those who accept hugs and handshakes: a green bracelet.

“This makes awkward conversations not necessary and respects everybody’s level of comfort,” Rich says.

Shaarey Zedek maintains other policies for safety. The congregation asks people to wear masks indoors and to stay home if they’re sick.

The congregation has made changes to increase ventilation and opened additional space to increase both airflow and physical distance.

It has increased the distance between clergy and congregation. It holds many events outside, including the youth Shabbat experience “Prayground.” Kiddish is held outdoors, too.

“But we do want people to come back; physical proximity is a significant part of experiencing that you belong to a community,” Rich says.

Congregation Or Chadash in Oak Park has met in a tent in a congregant’s backyard for more than a year, which, of course, included the Michigan winter. Much of the congregation would rather not spend another winter out-of-doors; the congregation currently debates what rules should apply to indoor services.

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ROBERT BRUCE PHOTOGRAPHY

OUR COMMUNITY

Celebrating O Hope for the Future

n Oct. 24, more than 2,000 people celebrated an Evening of Hope and Renewal with the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah. They came to the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center for an inspiring and heartwarming evening highlighting the special place the children of the Yeshiva occupy in the hearts and minds of our community.

And they left feeling they were part of a transformative movement.

Based in Oak Park and JACKIE HEADAPOHL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL Southfield, the Yeshiva is the educational home to 1,300 students in Pre-K through grade 12, who receive the essential foundations to become the next generation of leaders. Their campuses also house the Partners Detroit Adult Learning Program and the Yeshiva’s Scholars’ Kollel, a full-time postgraduate Talmud program with more than 40 resident scholars.

More than 200 guests came to the dinner an hour early to participate in the Partners Detroit Torah study session. Each of them learned with a specially selected study partner from a curriculum developed by Partners educator Rabbi Chaim Fink. Along with the rest of the Yeshiva’s dinner guests, they were there for the chilTOP: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at the dais of the dren of the Yeshiva, celebrating hope 2021 Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Dinner. for the future of our people and our ABOVE: Mark Davidoff accepts the Yeshiva’s prestigious Guardian Award. community.

Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Annual Dinner inspires thousands.

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A PROGRAM TO REMEMBER Rabbi Gershon Miller, the Yeshiva’s new dean, underscored the role of the children. “As we go through life and are beset by its many challenges and difficulties,” he told the crowd, “it is all too easy to become weary, negative and pessimistic about our world and the future. But then we look at our children. Through them we see a world of endless possibilities of goodness and kindness … of hope and renewal.”

Yeshiva president Gary Torgow inspired the audience with a Dvar Torah about Noah and the devastating flood brought upon his generation by the Almighty. “The Bible tells us when the floodwaters receded, Noah sent two birds from the ark, the raven and the dove,” he said. “The holy commentator the Or Hachaim explains that the dove was sent on a mission which it completed by bringing back from the newly barren world an olive branch, indicating that the world was again habitable. The raven, in contrast, had no mission whatsoever. Noah simply discharged the raven from the ark strictly to banish it from his and his family’s presence.”

Torgow continued, “Throughout literature and world history, the raven represents darkness, despair, pessimism and negativity. Edgar Allen Poe describes the raven as a symbol

of hopelessness, that which was destroyed will never be rebuilt.

That is why Noah needed to banish the raven, as he and his family were about to rebuild and repopulate the world. They could not allow space for pessimism and hopelessness.

“It was the dove, the symbol of hope and renewal, that was sent out to herald the dawn of the new era of rebuilding. The Torah describes that when the dove came back to Noah on the ark bearing an olive branch it was to proclaim that there is always the opportunity for rebirth and renewal, if we reject despair and focus on the positive.

“That is our message this evening, a proclamation of hope and renewal summoning us as a diverse but unified community to rebuild, to grow, to dream and to believe in our ability to bring those dreams to fruition.

This is why tonight we celebrate as we invest in every child, as each of them has their own ability to change the world, one person at a time.”

Torgow recognized the assembled guests for their part in the Yeshiva’s success. “By all of you joining together, COVIDconscious, but hopeful, you have become identified with the beautiful dove that represents the shared vision of hope and renewal. Tonight I am supremely confident that with your friendship and generosity the Yeshiva will continue to succeed in this cosmic vision.”

Both diversity and unity were evident on the dinner dais, featuring a veritable who’s who of politicos, CEOs and community leaders from throughout our state and country. Last year’s virtual event, An Evening of Unity, reached hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world and included video messages from national and world leaders. But this year’s attendees seemed grateful to gather in per-

son once again.

The dinner dais and the entire ballroom were filled with rabbis, senators, congressional representatives, supreme court justices, mayors, and sheriffs, along with Dinner chairpeo­ple, Jewish Federation leadership, and the evening’s keynote speaker, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.

The event was presented by General Motors and sponsored

by DTE Energy. Lead sponsors also included Lear Corporation, Huntington Bank and Princeton Enterprises. Greetings were presented by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, both of whom were grateful to be there in person.

A highlight each year is the Yeshiva Boys Choir, a group of talented middle school boys who perform under the direction of Rabbi Rocky Stewart and Rabbi Dudi Kalish. After being introduced by Sen. Gary Peters, the boys choir dedicated one song to Mary Barra and another in honor of the First Lady.

A FEW SURPRISES In a surprise presentation, distinguished community leader and Dinner Chair Jim Grosfeld announced the induction of Mark Davidoff as the newest Yeshiva Guardian, a cohort of longstanding Yeshiva friends and supporters. Mark received the Yeshiva’s Outstanding Leadership Award in 2018 and has served as a Dinner chair for the last three years. He was commended for his dedication to ensuring the success of the Yeshiva Dinner year after year.

Another announcement was the inauguration of the Yeshiva’s boys educational complex, to be named for philanthropist Mickey Shapiro. Mickey’s relationship with the Yeshiva began more than 70 years ago, when he was enrolled in the Beth Yehudah Preschool at age 4. The child of Holocaust survivors, Mickey’s generosity continues

TOP: The Yeshiva Boys Choir. ABOVE: Outstanding Leadership Awardee Mary Barra. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden at the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Annual Dinner.

to reinforce his belief that we must never ever forget the past and we must do everything possible to strengthen and guarantee our future. He called the dedication of the Mickey Shapiro Educational Complex of the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah “a dream come true.”

Torgow presented the Yeshiva’s Outstanding Leadership Award to Mary Barra, Chair and CEO of General Motors. Mary’s work at GM emphasizes her commitment to creating a better, more sustainable and more inclusive world for our children. Mary expressed her joy at seeing so many “from all cultures, religions and walks of life gather in the city of our world headquarters to support the education of our future innovators, educators, physicians, leaders and anything else they choose to

be.” She shared that her parents and teachers encouraged her love of learning and taught her that “with hard work, I could be and do anything I wanted.

It’s the very same message I shared with the students when I visited last month.”

Barra applauded the leadership and supporters of the Yeshiva. “You are modeling, through example, the values that will shape their character and citizenship for the rest of their lives. With your environment of learning, encouragement and hope at Yeshiva, you, too, are inspiring the next generation of innovators and leaders.”

The Yeshiva’s Dinner staff is already hard at work preparing for next year’s event. Mark your calendars for the next Yeshiva Dinner, on Oct. 30, 2022.

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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OUR COMMUNITY

What’s Next for ‘We Need to Talk?’

Y

outh mental health challenges have been on the rise, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

News outlets report that increasingly younger children are ending up in hospital emergency rooms experiencing mental health crises. In fact, three prominent children’s health organizations recently declared the rise in youth Julia Cohen mental illness a national LMSW emergency.

The local Jewish community saw this unfortunate challenge coming, and that was the reason the We Need to Talk youth mental health program was created back in 2017.

“We Need to Talk was developed by Federation and its partners in response to a 2016 community needs assessment that revealed a significant amount of our youth were struggling with sadness, anxiety and depression,” said Todd Krieger, senior planning director at Jewish Federation and a member of the team that developed the program.

“It was created to raise awareness of mental health Todd issues in our community, Krieger reduce stigma and increase access to services.”

Four years after its creation, the dayto-day operations of the program are now moving to Jewish Family Service, so the program can be more closely aligned with a community organization that provides formal behavioral health supports. I, a clinical social worker, have been hired as coordinator of We Need to Talk, and my perspective and experience as a youth mental professional will help to guide the

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initiative through its next stage.

I’ve seen firsthand how today’s youth are under immense pressure to fit in and succeed and often feel challenged to meet the high expectations that are set for them. But that pressure doesn’t need to be debilitating. We’re looking to grow and impact more youth in our community by providing engaging programming and events that help them understand the signs of mental illness, strategies to cope and the importance of asking for help if they are struggling.

TIME TO TRANSITION “From its inception, Jewish Family Service has been an integral part of We Need to Talk and an important community partner providing training, program assistance and formal supports,” said Ashley Schnaar, former youth mental health coordinator who now serves as Federation’s planning associate. “As we continue to make our way through Ashley COVID, now is an ideal time Schnaar to transition the program to JFS, which is well positioned to continue the impactful work that was started and even take the program to the next level.

While the day-to-day operations of the program will be leaving Federation, we’ll continue to be involved in program strategy and play a critical role in ensuring the program is properly funded.”

Perry Ohren, JFS CEO, is appreciative to Federation for taking on the issue of youth mental health. “JFS is a proud Federation partner,” Ohren said. “We’ll continue to do Perry this critical work alongside Ohren

FEDERATION

Youth mental health program moves from Federation to Jewish Family Service.

the many other community organizations who have been working on this. Together, we can help young people learn to manage their mental wellness and avoid tragic outcomes.”

We Need to Talk has made significant progress in addressing its three programmatic pillars: awareness, knowledge and skills, and access. Since its inception, nearly 1,000 community professionals have been trained in mental health and suicide alertness trainings, more than 5,100 community members have attended 37 events, and funding has been secured for more youth mental health professionals, which include social workers at Tamarack Camps, school social workers at the Jewish day schools and yeshivahs, and a child psychiatrist at JFS. “Federation has done a remarkable job developing and creating the foundation for this initiative and making a real impact in our community, said Dini Peterson, chief program officer at JFS. “We look forward to continuing to partner with Federation and everyone else — from synagogues to day schools to camps — who have Dini Peterson dedicated so much time and effort to this vital initiative.

It is critical we ensure our youth’s mental health needs are addressed.”

Julia Cohen, LMSW, is the youth mental health coordinator at Jewish Family Service.

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OUR COMMUNITY

Nancy Grosfeld

She ‘Exemplifies the Best’ HMC to honor Nancy Grosfeld at its annual benefit.

37th Annual Anniversary Benefit Honoring Nancy Grosfeld The ticketed event will start with cocktails and checkin at 5:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi. A seated dinner by Quality Kosher Catering begins at 6 p.m., followed by the program, Michael Feinstein’s performance and a dessert afterglow.

The benefit co-chairs are Jim Grosfeld and Gary Torgow. COVID protocols will be announced in advance of the event to guests. Register at holocaustcenter.org/benefit or call Ruth Stern at (248) 536-9601.

ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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ident and co-chaired the Federation’s Annual Campaign.

She also is deeply committed to advancing Holocaust education in Michigan, supporting the Center’s mission to engage, educate and empower by remembering the Holocaust.

“Receiving this honor from the Holocaust Memorial Center touches my heart because I am passionate about Jewish LEPESTATE VIA WIKIPEDIA

T

he relaxed musical stylings of singer, songwriter and pianist Michael Feinstein, a five-time Grammy Award nominee, will bring a warm ambiance to the 37th Anniversary Benefit for the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus, the first freestanding institution of its kind in the United States.

Nancy Grosfeld will be honored at this year’s in-person fundraising event which will be held Sunday, Nov. 14, at Suburban Collection Showplace, 46100 Grand River in Novi.

“Nancy exemplifies the best in our community for her leadership and philanthropic pursuits, in tandem with her husband, Jim. She’s an exceptional role model,” said Holocaust Memorial Center CEO Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld.

Through her work with Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, Grosfeld was its second woman pres-

Michael Feinstein

continuity,” Grosfeld said.

“I’m especially interested in educating young people and reaching out to vulnerable populations, including our precious Holocaust survivors. We must continue to respect them, care for them, appreciate what they have to teach us, and keep their memories alive.”

The honoree said she feels strongly that the Holocaust

Memorial Center must continue educating the public about the atrocities Jews and other targeted minorities experienced at the hands of the Nazis. “Ultimately, we want museum visitors, and especially our young people, to come away feeling a sense of responsibility while also instilling hope to make this a kinder and more inclusive world.”

Grosfeld is currently global

Michael Feinstein

Not only is Michael Feinstein an acclaimed musician, but he’s also the archivist for the Great American Songbook. His best-known recordings from the classic repertoire include “The More I See You” and “Isn’t It Romantic.” Feinstein serves on a national board seeking to preserve America’s sound recording heritage. His prodigious resume includes Emmy-nominated TV specials and NPR series. He has given concerts at worldwide venues — the White House, Buckingham Palace, Sydney Opera House and Detroit’s own Fox Theatre among them.

Feinstein is breaking from his national tour to perform at the Annual Benefit.

chair of resource development at the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a leading Jewish humanitarian organization.

JDC assisted Jewish war refugees and helps Jews in need today. Her other major roles with the Jewish Federation include past president of Women’s Philanthropy, immediate past chair of both the Jewish Fund and Federation’s Centennial Fund for Detroit’s Jewish Future.

Since 2002, more than half of those participating in the Grosfeld Leadership Mission, a program endowed through the Centennial Fund, went on to communal leadership roles. The prestigious Fred M. Butzel Award for Outstanding Community Leadership went to Nancy Grosfeld in 2015 for her volunteer service to Federation and multiple Jewish agencies.

Imbued with an inclination to help others, Grosfeld earned university degrees in social work and nursing.

The Grosfelds also created the Nancy & James Grosfeld Cancer Genetics Program at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. The center provides up-to-date information on the genetic basis for cancer and tests individuals having potential cancer risk.

“It is an honor to recognize Nancy for her activism and heartfelt philanthropy,” added Rabbi Mayerfeld. “We thank her for championing the Holocaust Memorial Center.”

Holocaust Memorial Center The museum and library devoted to Holocaust education was founded in 1984 by the late Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig, its first CEO, and fellow members of the Holocaust survivors’ organization, Shaarit Haplaytah. For hours and additional information, contact: info@holocaustcenter.org, holocaustcenter.org or (248) 553-2400.

The Holidays Must Go On Last year, generous donors brightened the holidays during a very dark time for 822 individuals served by Jewish Family Service.

This year, JFS is turning to the community to once again work a little holiday magic.

Given the unpredictability and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is with an abundance of caution that JFS has decided to brighten the holidays for those it serves through a monetary donation from generous supporters.

It is the hope that in 2022, the JFS Adopt a Family program will have people back in stores with wish lists in hand, shopping and wrapping gifts.

JFS understands that making a monetary donation can’t compete with the fun of selecting a Barbie doll off the shelf, but you will still be making a big difference for so many in our community. Those JFS serves are so appreciative of the gift cards that allow them to shop for their loved ones.

To make a donation to the Adopt a Family fund, visit jfsdetroit. org/adoptafamily or call (248) 592-2339.

If you wish to make a gift by check, make it payable to Jewish Family Service and mail to 6555 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield, MI 48322.

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OUR COMMUNITY

An Unimaginable Pain Foundation aims to eliminate financial stress associated with burying a child or baby.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

n May of 2020, Brandon and Kate Movitz, both 33 of Bloomfield Hills, welcomed their new son, Pierce, into the world.

Pierce was known as a “COVID baby,” or a baby born during the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave Brandon Movitz a unique chance to be with his son as he worked remotely from home. “I didn’t have that long with him,” Movitz says, “but I felt like I did because I was with him every single day.”

On July 21, 2020, when Pierce was three months old, Movitz woke up to find that his newborn son, who had been sleeping nearby, had unexpectedly passed away. “It was a fluke,” Movitz says. “He was a perfectly healthy baby. One minute he was breathing; one minute he was not.”

Despite the unimaginable grief of losing a child, especially a newborn, Movitz says he and his wife were lucky. They could afford burial costs and didn’t have to deal with financial stressors that make navigating grief that much harder. He learned through attending different grief groups that many families throughout Metro Detroit struggle with this on a regular basis, often without assistance.

Seeing the need in the community, particularly the Jewish community, Movitz started the Pierced Forever Foundation, a nonprofit organization named in honor of his son that helps provide financial and burial support to parents who have lost their babies.

“I really want to help all parents who

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to help the first family, Movitz is currently working on laying down the groundwork so that when the need arises, the foundation is ready to step in.

FINDING AND SHARING FAITH “When my son passed away, I was completely caught off guard,” Movitz recalls. “I refound my faith, and that’s what got me through the hardest of times.”

Movitz, who is Jewish, and his wife Kate, who is Lutheran, both leaned into their faith for support.

“We both have a really strong faith,” he says, “and that’s what holds our bond.”

Being able to help the Jewish community and work with Jewish funeral homes in the area was important to Brandon Movitz as he developed the Pierced Forever Foundation. Even on the foundaKate and tion’s website, families can read Brandon Movitz, with faith-based resources and scriptheir sons tures.

Jude, 4, “Faith is such a big part of my and Beau, life that I wanted to make sure I 5 months. included that in at least some of the resources I could provide for other parents,” he explains. have lost a baby,” he says. “I feel their But in speaking to other fathers in his pain. It doesn’t matter how it happened; it grief groups that have also lost their childoesn’t matter if it was cancer or what the dren, Movitz saw an even greater need. circumstances were.”

“What I found was that most of these For the Movitz family, they were blessdads didn’t have the resources to give ed with a new son, Beau, this year. their baby or their children a proper buriThrough the Pierced Forever al,” Movitz says. “And I realized how forFoundation, officially launched in July tunate I was not just to be able to do that, 2021, Movitz has already raised $25,000 but that it wasn’t a stressor for me after in preparation to assist families who my son passed away.” need support in taking care of burial It was in those moments that Movitz, a costs for their babies. While he has yet health coach, decided to make it his mis-

Art from last year’s memorial

‘Let There Be Light’ a Kristallnacht Memorial Nov. 9

The first annual Pierce’s Cup squash tournament at the Birmingham Athletic Club.

sion to prevent funeral costs from giving grieving parents even more pain.

“Financial stress shouldn’t be something that affects your grief,” he says.

RAISING FUNDS Pierced Forever Foundation held its first fundraising event last month, a squash tournament at the Birmingham Athletic Club that saw 60 players compete for a good cause. Out of the $25,000 raised over the last three months, $15,000 came from the event alone.

Now, Movitz hopes to do the BAC tournament annually. He’s also planning a second squash tournament fundraising event for 2022 that will include a dinner as well. An online shop on the foundation’s website that sells clothing and other items also helps bring in donations.

Through the funds raised, Movitz plans to address each family’s needs that come to the foundation for help on an individual basis. Some families, he says, may need assistance with medical bills for a

terminally ill or injured child, while others might need support with burial costs.

“A proper burial can cost up to $10,000,” Movitz explains, “and the average is about $7,000.” These figures, he adds, don’t include medical bills, which can create even more financial stress for grieving families.

As the Pierced Forever Foundation continues to grow, Movitz says he’ll keep looking for new ways to help parents who have lost babies or children. “There’s a lot of emotional support that I want to give to the parents,” he says, “but I don’t want to go too fast.

I want it to be personal.”

Currently, the Pierced Forever Foundation aims to serve families in a 25-mile radius, but Movitz is open to helping any grieving parent or parents if the situation occurs. “You can’t control when and how often tragedies happen,” he says. “We’re ready to help when someone is in need.”

For more information or to donate or shop, visit www.piercedforever. com.

On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, the Nazis organized the murder of Jews and the burning of 1,400 synagogues and Jewish institutions in Germany and Austria as part of the Kristallnacht pogrom. It was a seminal moment that led to the Holocaust.

To mark this historical event and to stand in protest against the rise of antisemitic events and hate crimes, International March of the Living announced the continuation of its “Let There Be Light” global initiative and invites individuals, institutions and houses of worship to leave the lights on during the night of Nov. 9, as a symbol of mutual responsibility and the shared struggle against antisemitism, racism, hatred and intolerance.

Last year, thousands of houses of prayer across the world took part in this initiative and left a symbolic light on during the night of Nov. 9. Messages of hope were projected onto the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City and onto Coventry Cathedral in Britain, which was destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War. Through this unique virtual initiative, people around the world can once again join this important call to action.

To leave your message of hope, visit kristallnacht.motl. org.

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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OUR COMMUNITY

A New LunchAnd-Learn Series for Women Well-Connected explores Judaism as a system of action.

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new course for “As a people, we have women, Wellbeen gifted with a unique Connected: It’s Not way of connecting to the What You Know. It’s What You very essence of our existence Do, explores how while we — our life force, our souls. often think faith is a core Through study and practice set of beliefs surrounded by we realize the purpose and ceremony, Judaism function of the is, in fact, less a mitzvot, enabling system of belief us to soar freely on than a system of the wings of gratiaction. tude,” says Mushky This November, Dubov, instructor Chabad Jewish of the course. “I Center of invite you to join Bloomfield Hills me in discovering launches a new how each Jewish course for women, Mushky Dubov ritual is transWell-Connected. formative in its In this seven-part monthly ability to connect the dots lunch-and-learn series, Well- between heaven and earth.

Connected examines how the This will be an incredibly do’s and don’ts reveal the well-connected journey, soul of Jewish ritual life and filled with remarkably fulhow each deed connects us filling, impactful actions.” to something far beyond This course will not only ourselves. be a learning opportunity, From the mysteries of the but a chance to connect with mezuzah and the kosher diet fellow Jewish women over a to the recitation of blessings delicious lunch and meanand prayers; from what we ingful conversation. owe to and how we perceive Well-Connected will be each other to the meanings offered the second Tuesday of lifecycle ceremonies of each month, beginning marking major milestones Nov. 9, 12:30-1:30 p.m. at — and so much more — the Dubov home. To registhe class will delve into the ter and for more informarationale, relevance, praction, visit www.bhchabad. tical applications, beauty org/connected, or contact and richness of the divinely Mushky Dubov at mushky@ inspired real-life messages of bhchabad.org or (248) 882Jewish practice.

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Open floor plan, hardwood floors, high ceilings, stone counters, premium stainless appliances. First floor master with spacious bath.

Nice sized bedrooms.

Great value at 4424 sq. ft plus finished walk-out. 6 bed, 4.2 baths, .75 acre. Lovingly maintained with updated bathrooms & newer stainless appliances. Flowing floor plan, floating staircase, marble foyer, oversize rooms, large windows, park-like backyard.

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Remarkable 3 acre building site with Twelfth floor end unit, 2 bed, 2 bath, over 190’ of sandy clear waterfront 1215 sq. ft. Beautifully renovated with on Long Lake. Plans available for open floor plan, floor to ceiling windows, 7600 sq ft home with walk-out lower wood floors, island kitchen. Gated & level. 600’ long private drive to this secure, covered parking, workout room, waterfront paradise. pool. Views of river and Belle Isle.

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PHOTOS BY THE YARD

OUR COMMUNITY

Come Play at The Yard New 8,000-square-foot axe-throwing facility opens in Corktown.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

He calls it a “combo” space, one that will blend the original elements of Detroit Axe (think: axe-throwing) with a fullfledged kitchen.

“We bought an Airstream [trailer] and we tricked it out in the kitchen,” Kretchmer continues. That means The Yard, which has partnered with Ruckus Taco Co., will be serving up tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, churros, french fries and more straight out of the trailer, with a full bar nearby.

Like the Ferndale facility, The Yard will have 12 axe-throwing lanes. It will also offer a selection of more than 500 board games, plus fire pits for bonfires and cornhole on its outdoor patio.

Eventually, Kretchmer dreams of also adding an area for volleyball or a pool table, making The Yard a one-stop

“We love what has happened to the city, especially in the central business district.”

In Corktown, they found the ideal building that Kretchmer explains “fit their style,” and it just happened to be right on BRINGING AXEMichigan Avenue, THROWING TO which goes through THE DETROIT the heart of the neighVENUE borhood.

After opening the “It just felt like first Detroit Axe our sweet spot,” location in Ferndale Kretchmer says. and seeing the sucWhile Kretchmer cess of axe-throwGeoff Kretchmer, runs the day-to-day ing, Kretchmer and top, and Brian operations of the Siegel had their Siegel, above. three venues, Siegel, eyes set on finding who serves as CEO of the a perfect location in Detroit Jewish Community Center of proper to one day bring their Metropolitan Detroit, is the business to the city. creative mind behind the busi“We love the crowd,” ness.

Kretchmer says of Detroit. shop for all entertainment needs.

“It’s a fun space,” he says, “where people can hang out in a comfortable setting, kind of like a giant tailgate.”

PHOTOS BY JOHN HARDWICK

W

hen business owners Geoff Kretchmer and Brian Siegel opened Detroit Axe in Ferndale in 2017, they knew axe-throwing would be a hit, but they never anticipated it to become popular enough to eventually open a third location just four years later.

Joining the original Ferndale location and a newer spot in Clinton Township’s Partridge Creek that opened in 2019, The Yard in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood is now open for business. The 8,000-square-foot attraction will be complete with board games, an outdoor patio and, of course, plenty of axethrowing.

“The Yard in Corktown is a phenomenal, interactive space,” says Kretchmer, 54, who is also president of event planning and production company Star Trax.

any incidents. “Unlike other sports where you go and nobody watches you, we’ve got somebody watching every axe throw,” he explains.

TOP: The fun space also has 500 board games to choose from.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The Yard in Corktown features 12 axe-throwing lanes.

“His focus is on the growth of the JCC,” Kretchmer says of Siegel, “but he’s our visionary.

He’s our vision guy.”

Yet the two business owners share the same passion: axe-throwing. “When we first heard about it, we fell madly in love with it,” Kretchmer recalls.

“Brian and I, we just thought

it was the coolest thing in the world.”

Despite encountering skepticism surrounding access to alcohol and axe-throwing, Kretchmer says the activity is “incredibly safe” and that the Ferndale and Partridge Creek locations have seen more than 2 million axe-throws without

NAVIGATING THE PANDEMIC Kretchmer feels lucky to be able to open a third axe-throwing location in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Partridge Creek opened just a few weeks before the crisis swept the country, the business was hit hard and wasn’t able to gain the same type of traction as the Ferndale location. It just recently began picking up speed as COVID-19 restrictions eased.

Since securing the building in March of 2019, Kretchmer and Siegel have been planning what The Yard might look like, though those plans were temporarily put on hold

Q

due to the pandemic.

Now, two years later, The Yard is finally ready for customers.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Kretchmer says of the process. As a new Jewishowned business opening in Corktown, Kretchmer, who is also president of Tamarack Camps, is looking forward to The Yard joining a diverse group of restaurants, bars and more.

“It’s important, being in a diverse population,” he adds.

Throughout his four years of operating axe-throwing venues, Kretchmer has discovered an interesting fact: that almost anyone can participate in the sport, regardless of age.

“You don’t have to be a strong 24-year-old male to throw an axe,” he says. “My mother, who is 83 years old, can stick an axe to the target.

It’s really for everybody.”

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NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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31

SPORTS

Matthew Kay was a captain of the Frankel Jewish Academy boys tennis team for three years.

RICK DORN

FRANKEL JEWISH ACADEMY

It was a happy bus ride home from Grosse Ile after the Frankel Jewish Academy boys tennis team qualified for the state tournament.

Family First Frankel Jewish Academy boys tennis team’s success is built on and off the court.

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

T

here are many reasons for the Frankel Jewish Academy boys tennis team’s remarkable success since Larry Stark took over as coach in 2015.

Talent and hard work have been the driving forces behind the Jaguars’ five appearances in the Division 4 state tournament in Stark’s seven years as coach.

Frankel qualified for state in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019, finishing as high as eighth

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place in 2015, before its 13th-place finish this fall.

The Jaguars had never qualified for state in 15 years before Stark was hired following a successful seven-year run as the West Bloomfield High School boys tennis coach.

Behind the scenes, a family atmosphere has been the glue that has kept everyone on the Frankel boys tennis team on the same page through a season each year that has stops and starts because of religious

holidays and bad weather.

The lifting this season of COVID-19 restrictions that were in place last fall allowed those family ties to blossom once again.

“We actually could have our motivational huddle before each match and give each other a high five for a good point,” said senior Matthew Kay. Perhaps nobody has benefited more from the family atmosphere created by Stark than Kay, a team captain since he was a sophomore and twotime participant in the state tournament (2019 and 2021).

Douglas Kay, Matthew’s father, died in 2009. Ronna

Harwood Kay, his mother, died in 2018. Andrew was 5 and 13 when his parents passed away. He’s now 17.

“Coach Stark has been like a father to me,” Matthew said.

The feeling is mutual for Stark, who named Matthew the team’s Coach’s Pick for this season for all his extra efforts as captain.

“My wife and I have two daughters. Matthew is like a son to me. I’m going to miss him when he goes off to college,” said Stark, a 2006 inductee into the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame following outstanding tennis careers at Berkley High School and Michigan State University.

Monica Stark, Larry Stark’s wife for 27 years, has been the Frankel boys tennis team’s assistant coach for two years.

Matthew said Monica dishes out the tough love players on the team need when they’re struggling and need encouragement.

This was Matthew’s fourth year on the team. He said he started experiencing the family atmosphere when he was a freshman.

“It was great back then getting to know the older guys on the team,” he said. “Plus, watching them and hanging out with them gave me a perspective of what the next couple tennis seasons would be like.”

The Jaguars had a solid regular season this fall. They went 6-3-1, facing much larger schools, and finished second in their Catholic League division with a 3-1 record.

They qualified for the state tournament by scoring 12 points — two more than needed — while finishing third among nine teams in a regional tournament Oct. 6 at Grosse Ile. Frankel battled Grosse Ile to a 4-4 tie Sept. 1 in a regular-season match at Grosse Ile. There was a reason for the Jaguars’ trip there.

“I wanted our kids to get used to the venue because we were going there for regionals,” Larry Stark said.

All the Oct. 15 matches in the Division 4 state tournament were played indoors at the University of Michigan because of bad weather.

Frankel scored three points at state, winning three matches in the single-elimination competition, and finished in a three-way tie for 13th place.

Larry Stark is confident Frankel’s state tournament run will continue.

“It’s a tradition on our

Season Summary

This was Frankel’s lineup this season, with facts about the players including their season record: • No. 1 singles — Junior Ethan Grey (8-6).

• No. 2 singles — Junior Max Charlip (11-3).

• No. 3 singles — Junior Aidan Charlip (5-9).

• No. 4 singles — Freshman Hayden Dean (9-5).

• No. 1 doubles — Senior Eli Gordon and sophomore Tony Carson (7-6).

• No. 2 doubles — Seniors Matthew Kay and Caleb Kleinfeldt (6-7).

• No. 3 doubles — Juniors AJ Goodman and Gabe Gordon (11-4).

• No. 4 doubles — Sophomores Jonah Miller and Harry Shaevsky (10-4).

• Grey, Max Charlip and Goodman/Gabe Gordon each won their first-round match at the state tournament.

• Team MVP Max Charlip won all four of his Catholic League matches and was named to the AllCatholic League team.

• Aidan Charlip, Dean, Goodman/Gabe Gordon and Miller/Shaevsky played in regional championship matches.

• Eli Gordon was named the team’s most improved player. team now. The kids want to go to state every year,” he said. “We’re losing three seniors from this year’s team, but we have some good players coming up from Hillel Day School.”

Please send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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MAZEL TOV! Logan Scott Grant, son of Ronald Grant and Marcy Grant, will lead the congregation in prayer as he becomes a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021, at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township.

Logan will be joined in celebration by his brother Miles and proud grandparents Joyce Ordower, Chuck Grant, and Judy and Joel Adelman. He is also the loving grandchild of the late Marvin Ordower and Sharon Grant.

Logan is a freshman at Seaholm High School in Birmingham. For his mitzvah project, he volunteers for Birmingham Youth Assistance and at City Mission, helping feed the homeless.

Jacob “Jake” Harrison Ingber, son of Jill and Steven Ingber, will become a bar mitzvah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. He is the grandchild of Barbara and Jay Moskowitz, and Roberta

and Paul Ingber. He will be joined in celebration by his siblings Cooper, William and Lucas Ingber.

Jake is a student at Norup International School in Oak Park. For his mitzvah project, he collected toys and games for Brilliant Detroit.

Samantha “Sami” Nicole Perry, daughter of Stephanie and Jeffrey Perry, will become a bat mitzvah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021. She is the grandchild of Patti and Fred Erlich, Frank and Mary Ellen Perry, and Pamela Perry, and the great-grandchild of the late Gert and Sam Erlich, and the late Sara and Abe Chaben. She will be joined in celebration by her siblings Ben and Rachel Perry.

Sami is a student at West Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills. For her mitzvah project, she collected donations for the Michigan Animal Rescue.

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@thejewishnews.com or (248) 351-5147 for information or for a mailed or emailed copy of guidelines.

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Jackson-Kastan

D

r. Richard and Ronda Jackson of Birmingham and Boca Raton, Fla., announce the engagement of their daughter Nicole Arielle to Benjamin Ari, son of Dr. David and Carol Kastan.

Nicole and Ben completed Beth Hayeled preschool and the University of Michigan together. Nicole received her degree as a clinical psychologist from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and practices locally.

Ben is a Converter Markets Specialist with 3M and is completing his M.B.A. at the Kelly School of Business.

Nicole is the granddaughter of Sanford and Marlene Walkon, and the late Ted and Maxine Jackson. Ben is the grandson of Sharon Horwitz, the late Dr. Jerome Horwitz, and the late Alvin and Selma Kastan.

The wedding will take place June 2022.

Kleiman-Krainen

C

indy and Gordie Krainen of West Bloomfield and Lynn and Danny Kleiman of Town & Country, Mo., are delighted to announce the engagement of their children Carly Alyssa Krainen and Elliott Hirsch Kleiman.

Carly earned a bachelor’s degree in supply chain management from Michigan State University and is employed by Dell Technologies as an online business manager.

Elliott completed his bachelor of arts degree in history at University of Southern California and is a real estate investor.

A September wedding is planned in St. Louis, Mo., where the couple reside.

A Need For Self Control

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our into me now, some of “We want the world, and we that red stuff (HaAdom), want it now!” Some people go for I am exhausted.” He through life “grabbing with was therefore called Edom (red)” gusto.” They want instant grat(Bereishit 25:30) ification and give little conIn this week’s parsideration to decisions shah, Esau comes back — major or minor. They from a hard day’s work, feel that if they don’t sees Jacob making a “grab” they will miss stew, demands some out on one of life’s great and agrees to sell his opportunities. Impulse birthright to Jacob for buying becomes a way of Rabbi Ari Kostelitz it. He is therefore called life not only for trinkets, Edom. gadgets and snacks but Parshat The Midrash says also for major life deciToldot: that Esau returned sions such as job offers, Genesis home that day after choice of schools, friends 25:19-28:9; committing five very and even husband or Malachi serious sins (including wife.

1:1-2:7. murder and rape). Why The opposite of a does the Torah focus on the “now” person is a “never” perepisode with the stew, a seemson. Business deals, social and ingly trivial/minor event, to spiritual choices do require name him (Edom) after, rather consideration, but they also than the more serious event of cannot be put off forever. the sins he committed?

Insecurity leads to indecision.

Perhaps here the Torah is The “never” person loses out telling the very inner core on all the right things out of Esau. His willingness to of the fear of making a bad forgo his birthright so quickly choice once in a while. shows how he was quick to This is why the Torah throw logic out of the window focuses on a mere lentil stew. and follow a more “instant It shows us the nature of gratification” route. It was this Esau and the power of the same desire, to fulfill his needs following our instant gratifiimmediately, that led him to cation desires. When we lose commit the other sins. self-control and get caught up This is how the evil inclina“in the moment,” we are handtion works. When it arouses ing over our “remote control” a desire in a person’s heart, it to someone else. That’s why tries to remove the reins of it’s important when we realize self-control. It manages to get that we are losing control over an individual to a state where ourselves, to never say or do he is no longer in control of anything. Just wait, and then himself; nothing more is need- make a decision with a clear ed! Once a person reaches head. such a level, he is not able to think/act logically.

Rabbi Ari Kostelitz is a rabbi at In the ’60s, impatient Congregation Dovid Ben Nuchim in Oak Park. youth adopted the slogan,

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35

SPIRIT

A WORD OF TORAH

Communication Matters

T

he Netziv (Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, 1816–1893, dean of the yeshiva in Volozhin) made the astute observation that Isaac and Rebecca seem to suffer from a lack of communication. He noted that Rebecca’s “relationship with Isaac was not the same as that between Sarah and Abraham or Rachel and Jacob. When they Rabbi Lord had a problem, they were Jonathan not afraid to speak about Sacks it. Not so with Rebecca.”

(Ha’amek Davar to Gen. 24:64) The Netziv senses this distance from the very first moment Rebecca sees Isaac, as he is “meditating in the field” (Gen. 24:63), at which point she fell off her camel and “covered herself with a veil” (Gen. 24:65). He comments, “She covered herself out of awe and a sense of inadequacy, as if she felt she was unworthy to be his wife, and from then on this trepidation was fixed in her mind.”

Their relationship, suggests the

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Netziv, was never casual, candid and communicative. The result was, at a series of critical moments, a failure of communication.

A SECRET KEPT For instance, it seems likely that Rebecca never informed Isaac of the oracle she had before the twins, Esau and Jacob, were born, in which God told her “the elder will serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23). That, apparently, is one reason she loved Jacob rather than Esau, knowing that he was the one chosen by God. If Isaac had known this foretelling of their sons’ futures, would he still have favored Esau? He probably did not know because Rebecca had not told him.

That is why, many years later, when she hears that Isaac was about to bless Esau, she is forced into a plan of deception: She tells Jacob to pretend he is Esau. Why does she not simply tell Isaac that it is Jacob who shall be blessed? Because that would force her to admit that she has kept her husband

in ignorance about the prophecy all the years the children were growing up.

Had she spoken to Isaac on the day of the blessing, Isaac might have said something that would have changed the entire course of their, and their children’s, lives. I imagine Isaac saying this: “Of course I know that it will be Jacob and not Esau who will continue the covenant.

But I have two quite different blessings in mind, one for each of our sons. I will give Esau a blessing of wealth and power: ‘May God give you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth … May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you.’ (Gen. 27:28-29) I will give Jacob the blessing God gave Abraham and me, the blessing of children and the promised land: ‘May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May He give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.’” (Gen. 28:3-4).

Isaac never intended to give the

blessing of the covenant to Esau.

He intended to give each child the blessing that suited them. The entire deceit planned by Rebecca and carried out by Jacob was never necessary in the first place. Why did Rebecca not understand this? Because she and her husband did not communicate.

Now let us count the consequences.

Isaac, old and blind, felt betrayed

by Jacob. He “trembled violently” when he realized what had happened, saying to Esau, “Your brother came deceitfully.” Esau likewise felt betrayed and experienced such violent hatred toward Jacob that he vowed to kill him. Rebecca was forced to send Jacob into exile, thus depriving herself of the company of the son she loved for more than two decades. As for Jacob, the consequences of the deceit lasted a lifetime, resulting in strife between his wives and even between his children.

“Few and evil have been the days of my life” (Gen. 47:9), he said to Pharaoh as an old man.

So many lives scarred by one act which was not even necessary in the first place — Isaac did in fact give Jacob “the blessing of Abraham” without any deception, knowing him to be Jacob not Esau.

HONEST AND OPEN COMMUNICATION Such is the human price we pay for a failure to communicate. The Torah is exceptionally candid about such matters, which is what makes it so powerful a guide to life: real life, among real people with real problems.

Communication matters. In the beginning God created the natural world with words: “And God said: ‘Let there be.’” We create the social world

with words. The Targum translated the phrase, “And man became a living soul,” (Genesis 2:7) as “And man became a speaking soul.” For us, speech is life. Life is relationships.

And human relationships are built through communication. We can tell other people our hopes, our fears, our feelings and thoughts.

That is why any leader — from a parent to a CEO — must set as their task good, strong, honest, open communication. That is what makes families, teams and corporate cultures healthy. Everyone must know what their overall aims are as a team, what their specific roles are, what responsibilities they carry, and what values and behaviors they are expected to exemplify.

There must be praise for those who do well, as well as constructive criticism when people do badly.

Criticism must be of the act, not the person; the person must feel respected whatever their failures. This last feature is one of the fundamental differences between a “guilt morality” of which Judaism is the supreme example, and a “shame morality” like that of ancient Greece (namely, guilt makes a clear distinction between the act and the person, which shame does not).

There are times when much depends on clear communication. It is not too much to say that there are moments when the very fate of the world depends upon this.

One such instance happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war. At the height of the crisis, as described by Robert McNamara in his film, The Fog

of War, John F. Kennedy received two messages from the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. One was conciliatory, the other far more hawkish. Most of Kennedy’s advisers believed that the second represented Khrushchev’s real views and should be taken seriously.

However, one man offered a different perspective. Llewellyn Thompson Jr. had been American ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1962 and had come to know the Russian president well. He had even spent a period of time living with Khrushchev and his wife. He told Kennedy that the conciliatory message sounded like Khrushchev’s own personal view while the hawkish letter, which did not sound like him, had probably been written to appease the Russian generals. Kennedy listened to Thompson and gave Khrushchev an opportunity to back down without losing face — and the result being that a potentially devastating war was averted. It is terrifying to imagine what might have happened had Thompson not been there to establish which was and which was not the real act of communication.

So many aspects of our lives are impacted by misinformation and enhanced by genuine communication.

This is why friends, parents, partners and leaders must establish a culture in which honest, open, respectful communication takes place, and that involves not just speaking but also listening. Without it, tragedy is waiting in the wings.

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, 1991-2013.

His teachings have been made available to all at rabbisacks.org. This essay was written in 2014.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR TOLDOT

If God knew that Rebecca and Isaac did not communicate freely, why was the prophecy only given to Rebecca before the twins were born?

Can you think of other examples from the Torah when communication issues had consequences?

Is it ever better to hold back and communicate less?

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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SPIRIT

A WORD OF TORAH

B

eginnings are definitive moments. They set the tone, the foundation for what follows. The beginnings of the Jewish people are no exception.

These portions of the Torah which we are reading at the moment, from the Book Chief Rabbi of Genesis, detail Warren the origins of the Goldstein Jewish nation, telling the events of our forefathers and foremothers — Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov; Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah. These are the formative moments of our faith; the lives they lived and the ideals they upheld brought the Jewish people into being, and the values they embodied are those we still live by today.

Avraham and Sarah were the first two to reach out and connect with God. In a world filled with paganism and idolatry, they re-established the idea of monotheism, a belief in one God. They reached out to the people around them, spread these ideas, but, most importantly, handed them on to their children and grandchildren so that our ancestors became the custodians of faith in God. God established His covenant with them and their children and made pledges to them about the future blessings which awaited their descendants.

The founding mothers and fathers are the original biological ancestors of the Jewish people. But, it is their spiritual parenthood that is crucial. We see this from the fact that converts can join Am Yisrael and

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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants be considered the children of our forefathers and foremothers even though they are not biologically connected. In fact, converts are explicitly referred to as sons of Avraham and daughters of Sarah.

So when we encounter God today, we do so standing on the shoulders of giants, continuing the journey of our great ancestors who took those cosmically significant first few steps. At one of the greatest moments of Jewish history, the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, the Jewish people who crossed over on dry land declared: “This is my God and I will glorify Him.” (Exodus 15:2) Our sages explain the word “this” indicates they had such a degree of prophetic insight that they were, in a manner of speaking, able to point to God, and perceive Him with a clarity that even the greatest prophets in later generations were unable to experience. And yet, even at this climax, this pinnacle of human spiritual achievement, the verse continues: “[He is] the God of my fathers and I will exalt Him.” FOUNDATION OF OUR ANCESTORS Rashi paraphrases: “I am not the beginning of the holiness;

rather, the holiness and His divinity has been established with me from the days of my fathers.” Even in their heightened prophetic state, they were completely dependent on the spiritual endeavors of those who came before them. Everything rested on the foundations laid by their ancestors.

Rav Elya Meyer Bloch cites a similar example from the Talmud (Shabbos 30a). The Talmud discusses the inauguration of the Temple by King Solomon, and how the gates of the Temple would not open, no matter how much he prayed.

Eventually, he invoked the merit of his father, King David, at which point they opened.

In building the Temple, King Solomon reached a level of greatness that even his father, King David, had not reached.

Nevertheless, at such a time, he was reminded that his achievements were based on the merit of his father. And similarly, so much of what we have today as the Jewish people, so much of what we have achieved and who we are, rests on the foundations of the generations that came before us.

It is for this reason that we begin the Amidah, the central Jewish prayer, by invoking our

ancestors: “Blessed are you Hashem our God and God of our Fathers, God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob…” We encounter God not on our own merits, but on the merits of our forebears.

We acknowledge the spiritual foundations that they built, which have prepared the way for us to commune with God, Himself. We stand before God in the merit of the community among whom we pray, but also in the accumulated merit of the generations of Jews who came before us, and especially those who laid the foundations for our people, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov; Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah.

THEY PAVED THE WAY Our spiritual fathers and mothers also did something else. They paved the way by connecting to certain key values that are central to how we serve Hashem and to the kind of people that we are today.

And in that sense, we are also their spiritual children, having received their values. The Mishna in Pirkei Avot says the world stands on three spiritual principles: the learning of Torah, the service of God, and acts of lovingkindness (Pirkei

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Avot 1:2). These are the spiritual pillars of the world. The Maharal of Prague explains that our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, each embodied one of these pillars.

Avraham is the icon of acts of kindness. He embodied compassion, giving and love for all people. Yitzchak is the icon of service of God. It was he who willingly submitted himself as a sacrifice to God, and embodied devout service and prayer. And Yaakov is the icon of Torah learning.

This week’s parshah, Toldot, describes him as a pure man who dwelt in “tents,” which our sages understand to mean the tents of Torah learning. Yaakov was someone devoted to the pursuit of truth.

Rav Yaakov Kamanetsky raises an interesting question.

He points out that Avraham and Yaakov each have a number of Torah portions devoted to their life story, while Yitzchak has just one — Toldot. Why is there so much told about Avraham and Yaakov and comparatively little about Yitzchak?

Rav Yaakov Kamanetsky explains the discrepancy is related to the impact each had on the world around them.

The Rambam writes that Avraham influenced tens of thousands of people to become adherents of ethical monotheism. His impact on the world was substantial. As the embodiment of loving-kindness, he reached out to others — and people associated his kindness and compassion with God’s own kindness and compassion.

The Midrash says, for example, that when Avraham would host guests in his home, at the end of the meal they would thank him, and he would redirect them to thank Hashem.

As the one who disseminated Torah to the world, Yaakov had a similarly momentous impact. Rav Yaakov Kamanetsky explains that Yaakov’s approach in teaching Torah was through its intellectual power. He was able to convey the depth of the wisdom of Torah to so many, illuminating both the world around them and within them.

Yitzchak, on the other hand, was very private. He embodied personal discipline and self-sacrifice, and a deep, unwavering commitment to God. His impact on the world was through his one and only disciple — his son, Yaakov.

Rav Yaakov Kamanetsky goes on to explain that Avraham and Yaakov had a much wider impact because their teachings were based on kindness and wisdom respectively, which are appealing and compelling to people. But Yitzchak’s message was one of discipline and self-control, of personal integrity and self-sacrifice. These aren’t popular notions, and therefore his impact on the world was far more limited.

Rav Yaakov Kamanetsky makes the point that while these three different approaches impacted the world to different degrees, nevertheless all three are essential. Kindness and empathy; wisdom and insight; self-discipline and personal integrity — all three are vital components of true greatness. And all three — and the people who embodied them — are the spiritual pillars on which the world stands and the very essence of the Jewish people.

Rabbi Warren Goldstein is the chief rabbi of South Africa. This essay was first published on aish.com.

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NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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SPIRIT

Synagogue Directory CONSERVATIVE Adat Shalom Synagogue Farmington Hills (248) 851-5100 adatshalom.org

Temple B’nai Shalom Benton Harbor (269) 925-8021 tbnaishalom.org

Ahavas Israel Grand Rapids (616) 949-2840 ahavasisraelgr.org

INDEPENDENT Grosse Pointe Jewish Council Grosse Pointe Woods (313) 882-6700 thegpjc.com

Congregation Beth Ahm West Bloomfield (248) 851-6880 cbahm.org Congregation Beth Israel Flint (810) 732-6310 cbiflint.org Congregation Beth Shalom Oak Park (248) 547-7970 congbethshalom.org Beth Tephilath Moses Mt. Clemens (586) 996-3138 bethtephilathmoses.com B’nai Israel Synagogue West Bloomfield (248) 432-2729 bnaiisraelwb.org Congregation B’nai Moshe West Bloomfield (248) 788-0600 bnaimoshe.org Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue Detroit (313) 962-4047 downtownsynagogue.org Congregation of Moses Kalamazoo congregationofmoses.org Congregation Shaarey Zedek Southfield (248) 357-5544 shaareyzedek.org

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Kehillat Hatzhav Hagadol Mackinac Island (906) 202-9959 mackinacsynagogue.org

Beth Tefilo Emanuel Tikvah Southfield (248) 559-5022 Birmingham-Bloomfield Shul Birmingham (248) 996-5818 bbchai.org B’nai Israel-Beth Yehudah Oak Park (248) 967-3969 bi-by.org B’nai Zion Oak Park (248) 968-2414

ORTHODOX Agudas Israel Mogen Abraham Southfield (248) 552-5711 aymadetroit.org

Chabad House-Lubavitch of Eastern Michigan Flint (810) 230-0770 chabad.org

Ahavas Olam Southfield (248) 569-1821 Ahavasolam.com

Chabad Jewish Center of Commerce-Walled Lake Commerce Township (248) 363-3644 jewishcommerce.org

Ahavas Yisroel Oak Park (248) 298-2896 Learntorah.info Aish Hatorah in the Woods Oak Park (248) 327-3579 Aishdetroit.com Bais Chabad of Farmington Hills (248) 855-2910 chabad.org Bais Chabad of North Oak Park (248) 872-8878 chabad.org Bais Haknesses Hagrah Oak Park (248) 542-8737 Balfour Shul – K’Hal Rina U’Tefila Oak Park (732) 693-8457

Chabad Jewish Center of Novi-Northville (248) 790-6075 novijewishcenter.com Chabad Jewish Center of Troy Troy/Rochester Hills (248) 873-5851 jewishtroy.com Chabad-Lubavitch of Bingham Farms Bloomfield Hills (248) 688-6796 chabadbinghamfarms.com

Etz Chayim of Toledo Toledo, OH (419) 473-2401 Etzchayimtoledo.org First Hebrew Congregation South Haven (269) 637-1603 firsthebrewcongregation.org Kehillat Etz Chayim Huntington Woods etzchayim-detroit.org Kollel Institute of Greater Detroit Oak Park (248) 968-1891 kollel@kolleldetroit.org Mishkan Israel, Nusach H’ari, Lubavitch Center Oak Park (248) 542-4844 theyeshiva.org Ohel Moed Shomrey Emunah West Bloomfield (248) 737-2626 ohelmoed.org Or Chadash Oak Park (248) 819-1721 or-chadash.org Sara & Morris Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center of West Bloomfield (248) 855-6170 baischabad.com Shaar Hashomayim Windsor (519) 256-3123

Chabad of Western Michigan Grand Rapids (616) 957-0770 chabadwestmichigan.com

Shaarey Zedek Windsor (519) 252-1594 shaareyzedekwindsor.com

Dovid Ben Nuchim-Aish Kodesh Oak Park (313) 320-9400 dbndetroit.org

Shomer Israel Oak Park (248) 542-4014 godaven.com

Shomrey Emunah Southfield (248) 559-1533 congregation-shomreyemunah-105705.square.site The Shul-Chabad Lubavitch West Bloomfield (248) 788-4000 theshul.net Woodward Avenue Shul Royal Oak (248) 414-7485 thewas.net

Congregation Beth El Windsor (519) 969-2422 bethelwindsor.ca

Temple Emanu-El Oak Park (248) 967-4020 emanuel-mich.org

Temple Beth El Battle Creek (269) 963-4921

Temple Israel West Bloomfield (248) 661-5700 temple-israel.org

Temple Beth El Bloomfield Township (248) 851-1100 tbeonline.org

Temple Jacob Hancock templejacobhancock.org

Temple Beth El Flint (810) 720-9494 tbeflint@gmail.com

Temple Kol Ami West Bloomfield (248) 661-0040 tkolami.org

Temple Beth El Midland (989) 496-3720 tbe_midland@yahoo.com

Congregation Shaarey Zedek East Lansing (517) 351-3570 shaareyzedek.com

Young Israel of Southfield (248) 358-0154 yisouthfield.org

Temple Beth Israel Bay City (989) 893-7811 tbi-mich.org

Temple Shir Shalom West Bloomfield (248) 737-8700 shirshalom.org

RECONSTRUCTIONIST Congregation Kehillat Israel Lansing (517) 882-0049 kehillatisrael.net

Temple Beth Israel Jackson (517) 784-3862 tbijackson.org

Yagdil Torah Southfield (248) 559-5905 Young Israel of Oak Park (248) 967-3655 yiop.org

Congregation T’chiyah Ferndale (248) 823-7115 tchiyah.org Reconstructionist Congregation of Detroit (313) 567-0306 reconstructingjudiasm.org REFORM Bet Chaverim Canton (734) 480-8880 betchaverim@yahoo.com Temple Benjamin Mt. Pleasant (989) 773-5086 templebenjamin.com

Congregation Beth Shalom Traverse City 231-946-1913 beth-shalom-tc.org Temple Beth Sholom Marquette tbsmqt.org Temple B’nai Israel Kalamazoo (269) 342-9170 Templebnaiisrael.com Temple B’nai Israel Petoskey (231) 489-8269 templebnaiisraelofpetoskey.org Temple Emanuel Grand Rapids (616) 459-5976 grtemple.org

REFORM/RENEWAL Congregation Shir Tikvah Troy (248) 649-4418 shirtikvah.org SECULAR/HUMANISTIC Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit Farmington Hills (248) 477-1410 chj-detroit.org Sholem Aleichem Institute Lathrup Village (240 865-0117 secularsaimichigan.org SEPHARDIC Keter Torah Synagogue West Bloomfield (248) 681-3665 rabbisasson.wixsite.com/keter

Ohr Hatorah Oak Park (248) 294-0613 Ohrhatorah.us MINYANS Fleischman Residence West Bloomfield (248) 661-2999 Yeshivat Akivah Southfield (248) 386-1625 farberhds.org

ANN ARBOR

CONSERVATIVE Beth Israel Congregation (734) 665-9897 @BethIsraelCongregation ORTHODOX Ann Arbor Chabad House (734) 995-3276 jewmich.com Ann Arbor Orthodox Minyan annarborminyan.org RECONSTRUCTIONIST Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation (734) 445-1910 aarecon.org REFORM Temple Beth Emeth (734) 665-4744 templebethemeth.org RENEWAL Pardes Hanah pardeshanah.org SECULAR HUMANISTIC Jewish Cultural Society (734) 975-9872 jewishculturalsociety.org Please email factual corrections or additional synagogues to list to: smanello@thejewishnews.com.

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LEFT: Elizabeth Jaffe playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret at the Dio Theatre in Pinckney.

ARTS&LIFE THEATER

BELOW: Jaffe portraying Queenie in The Wild Party also at the Dio Theatre.

PHOTO BY MICHELLE ANLIKER

Sing and Be Happy!

Ann Arbor’s Theatre Nova to raise funding through new Kander and Ebb production.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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explains, “and there will be some solos, duets and group numbers.”

Jaffe will be performing “Maybe This Time” from Cabaret, a musical she says is one of her favorites. She’ll also be singing “The Grass is Always Greener” from Woman of the Year and joining a group number “He Had it Coming” from Chicago.

Sing Happy!, among other recent productions, is Theatre Nova’s way of making a comeback after a long hiatus, Jaffe says.

“It’s been really hard for everyone,” she says of COVID’s impact on the theater industry, which left many performers and venues without work or revenue for months. “This is Theatre Nova’s way of saying ‘we’re still here.’”

The idea for the Sing Happy! production was in the works for several years, a performance that Jaffe says was essentially ready to go. “Their music is beautiful,” Jaffe says of Kander and Ebb. “It’s interesting because some of it is really dark, and then the other half is the opposite.”

“It’s everything that you would want in a COURTESY ELIZABETH JAFFE

B

roadway songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb are world-renowned for their stage musicals, which include the smash hits Chicago and Cabaret. Now, Ann Arbor’s residential performing arts group Theatre Nova is paying homage to that legacy with a performance dedicated to their music.

The nonprofit theatre will present a limited engagement of Sing Happy! through Nov. 7. The 70-minute show will celebrate the lasting impact of Kander and Ebb, traversing the duo’s many Elizabeth Jaffe hits and taking shape in the form of a musical revue.

An ensemble of singers, including Jewish performer Elizabeth Jaffe, will recreate hits from Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman and more. Sing Happy! will also double as a fundraiser, generating funding for Theatre Nova, which like many theaters across the country was hit hard by COVID-19 during lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions.

“Everyone will be singing Kander and Ebb Songs,” Jaffe, 35, of Ann Arbor,

concert,” she adds. “It goes through every motion.”

Still, she calls Sing Happy! an upbeat, energetic production that will be fun for the audience to experience. “Because it’s Kander and Ebb music, it’s so great, and a lot of it is not very well known,” Jaffe says.

“The audience will probably be hearing a lot of the songs for the first time.”

For Jaffe, who has been performing with Theatre Nova for several years, she appreciates the theater’s embracement of other cultures and willingness to step outside of the norm. As a Jewish performer, she often felt unrepresented in holiday productions, which tended to focus on Christmas. Yet Theatre Nova, she explains, has put on Chanukah-centric shows.

“For the first time during the holiday season, I felt included,” Jaffe says. “I was really excited when Theatre Nova reached back out to me to be a part of Sing Happy!”

Theatre Nova will require proof of vaccination and the wearing of masks during the show to keep patrons and performers safe. “The show will be happy and fun,” Jaffe says. “It’s going to be great for the community.”

POETRY words from different neighborhoods that rub together and produce beauty. Poet William Minor writes, “The poetry of Ed Codish offers the best, the most engaging effects the art form can possess.”

A People’s Poet

Ed Codish: Selected Poems by former Oak Parker.

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

N

ow past 80, Ed Codish continues to work on his poetry nearly every day, producing new and inventive works.

Codish drew significant international notice with the publication of his sonnet sequence, Sailing to Gaza, some 40 years ago. Hailed as one of the finest poets working in English in Israel, he dismissed the praise as “the equivalent of being called one of the finest downhill skiers in all of Uganda.”

In reality, he is not so alone as a creative writer working in English. They have an organization, the Israel Association of Writers in English (IAWE) which produces an ongoing journal, ARC, year after year presenting the best English fiction and poetry from Israel. Codish has edited volumes of ARC. The forthcoming volume, Ed Codish: Selected Poems, includes a total of 266 poems, many short works, in addition to reprinting the sonnet sequence. The shorter poems, many if free form, include delicate love poems to Codish’s wife, Susann; apprecia-

Details

tions of the pigeons who live on his windowsill; imagined encounters with the leading poets of ancient China; meditations on Jewish learning; reconsiderations of political credos; expressions of admiration for natural beauty in the Israeli landscape and in the poet’s garden; and contemplations of the consolations — if any — of old age.

The sonnet sequence, Sailing to Gaza, tells of a man who is determined to reconstruct his life after a bitter divorce by building a sailboat in the desert. Each winter, when the floods come, he takes his boat to a wadi and sails a little farther into the desert. This impractical mythic journey helps him and also provides material for his funny, poignant and wise reflections.

You do not have to like poetry to find something to love in this volume. That is no accident. Codish explains why he insists on writing accessible poetry: “I wanted to talk and be understood,” he says.

Nearly all the poems contain surprises: unexpected turns of phrase, slant insights,

Ed Codish: Selected Poems. Author: Ed Codish, illustrated by Jacob Yona Horenstein Trade Paperback: ISBN 978-1-948403-290, $24.95, 416 pages (including front- and back-matter) The book will also be available as an ebook (ISBN 978-1-948403-30-6) on all major platforms; price is still under discussion.

There will be a hardcover edition, ISBN 978-1-

MEMORIES OF OAK PARK In his religious poetry, Codish says, “I wanted to write as a Jew as naturally as Donne writes as a Christian.”

Codish, originally from Camden, New Jersey, studied at various schools around the United States, earning his master’s of fine arts at the famed Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

As faculty adviser to college Jewish students, he developed a deeper commitment to Judaism and Zionism, which led to his aliyah. After decades in Israel, he returned in the 1980s to America, where he lived for 10 years in Oak Park, Mich. Twenty years ago, Codish returned to Israel, where he resides with his wife in Pardesiya.

Recalling his decade in Oak Park, the poet remembers that he and his wife hosted writing workshops at their home, inviting high school students to critique and encourage each other’s writing, while enjoying homemade pastries. “I learned how to be a teacher there,” he says. He also notes that “being a poet has helped me be a good teacher of literature and writing.”

Susann recalls her husband’s admiration for the late Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, a master teacher who taught Jewish texts to school students during the day and to adults nearly every night of the week. Rabbi Cohen was also a lifelong learner; when Ed Codish suggested they study Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption (1921) they began a one-night-aweek study partnership in this difficult work of Jewish philosophy. Ed and Susann Codish were among the founders of Congregation Or Chadash, where Rabbi Cohen served as rabbi.

948403-28-3, that (at least for now) will not be sold through “trade” channels but will be available only by direct order; a very limited number of signed copies will be made available.

Hardcovers will be shipped from Israel.

Published by Kasva Press LLC, Alfei Menashe, Israel and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Website: http://www.kasvapress.com Publication date: Nov. 16, 2021.

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ARTS&LIFE

MOVIE NEWS THE TREK STORY, HANKS’ ‘HUMAN’ ROBOT, COURIC’S NOT NEW “REVEAL” On Nov. 5, The History Channel will premiere a 10-part docuseries called The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek. It’s directed by Brian Volk-Weiss, 45, the director/producer of The Movies That Made Us, a hit Netflix series. Each episode focuses on different “chapters” of the Trek franchise: live-action TV series, animated series and films.

Many people associated with Trek were interviewed for the docuseries, including actor Walter Koenig, 85

BY SUPER FESTIVALS VIA WIKIMEDIA

Walter Koenig

Brent Spiner

(‘Chekov’ in the original Trek series), actor Brent Spiner, 72 (‘Data’ on Star Trek: The Next Generation), Nicholas Meyer, 75 (He directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and co-wrote Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), and Rick Berman, 75, the head producer of five Trek TV series — beginning with Next Gen and ending with Star Trek Enterprise.

It’s always seemed a ‘miracle’ to me that three of the seven main cast stars in the

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BY GAGE SKIDMORE VIA WIKIPEDIA

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

“original” Trek were Jewish (Koenig; the late Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock; and William Shatner, now 90, as Capt. Kirk). I hope the docuseries, as it covers the first “failed” Trek pilot and the “retooled” successful pilot, provides some support for my (following) explanation of this “miracle.”

Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wanted good actors, but he had a small budget. He managed to get a “name actor,” Jeffrey Hunter, for the failed pilot.

But Hunter walked away from Trek after NBC opted to not turn that pilot into a show. Roddenberry then followed the example of Rod Serling, the creator of The Twilight Zone, and hired low-salary but very talented character actors and cast them in lead roles. For a variety of reasons, Jewish actors were/are much more likely to be first-class character actors than leads.

Shatner didn’t have much of a track record as a leading man. But he did guest star on two memorable Twilight Zone episodes. Nimoy was a guest actor on other shows Roddenberry had worked on, and he knew Nimoy was talented. As for Koenig — well, he could do a really good

Russian accent because his parents were Russianspeaking Jewish immigrants.

Post-Script: Of course, we all know that Shatner recently went into space. Here are answers to two questions I always get asked about him: (1) Yes, he is very open about being Jewish (see his two volumes of memoirs) and he has done some Jewish charitable events and (2) His first wife was Jewish, and she is the mother of his children (three daughters). Shatner often celebrates Jewish holidays with his daughters.

‘HUMAN ROBOT’ Finch is a new film that was set to be in theaters in 2020, but the pandemic intervened, and it will now premiere on Apple+ on Nov. 5. The premise is that the Earth was turned into a wasteland by a solar event.

Tom Hanks plays Finch, a robotics engineer and one of the few survivors. His companion is a beloved dog. Things get dicey when Finch learns he is dying. He creates a robot and trains it to be “so human” that it will be able to take over the care of his dog. The director is Miguel Sapochnik, 47, a British Jew whose parents were Argentine immigrants.

Sapochnik is best known as the Emmy-winning director of the spectacular, big-battle Game of Thrones episodes (Battle of the Bastards and others).

You might have read a recent JTA piece about a new autobiography by Katie Couric, the former NBC anchor. The headline said that Couric “revealed” that her late mother was Jewish.

Well, Detroit Jewish News

Miguel Sapochnik

BY GAGE SKIDMORE VIA WIKIMEDIA

CELEBRITY NEWS

readers found this out in 2004 when I reported that Couric had just told a Fox reporter that her mother was Jewish. Couric added she was raised in her father’s Protestant faith. Then, in 2007, I told News readers about a new full-scale biography of Couric. It reported that Couric’s Jewish-born mother had converted to Christianity after marrying her father. This important detail isn’t in the JTA piece. In 2015, I reported that Couric wed her current husband, a Jewish banker.

The fourth season of the Paramount Network’s modern Western Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner, begins on Nov. 7.

Yellowstone is one of the bigger hits in the land of basic cable. I thought it was time to clue you into what I know of the Jewish background of Cole Hauser, 46, one of the show’s stars. His father wasn’t Jewish. He was raised by his Jewish mother, Cass Warner, 73, the granddaughter of Harry Warner, one of the founders of Warner Brothers. I regret to say that I’ve never been able to find out if Hauser has any “Jewish ties” other than being the son of a Jewish mother.

ON THE GO

PEOPLE | PLACES | EVENTS

SELF ENRICHMENT 8:30 AM, NOV. 4 On Thursday mornings, The Well starts the day by nourishing bodies and souls. Join for mindful morning learning and music that will leave you energized, connected, and ready to start the day. Info: meetyouatthewell.org.

Desserts served according to dietary laws. Info: Rev. Tim Munger, tmunger@foi. org, (248) 303-2337.

VIRTUAL TOUR 1:30-5:30 PM, NOV. 8 Online, you will get a window into the rabbinical school of the Jewish Theological Seminary. See how students develop the knowledge, spiritual awareness and professional skills to become inspirational and innovative leaders.

Registration info: jtsa.edu.

Michelle Cann

PIANO CONCERT 8-9:30 PM, NOV. 5 The Chamber Music Society of Detroit will present Michelle Cann in her Detroit debut. At Schaver Music Recital Hall, 480 W. Hancock, Detroit. Ticket info: chambermusic.org.

YOGA MOVES MS NOON-4 PM, NOV. 6 Individuals with MS, family members, care partners and friends can join to increase awareness and gain a broader understanding about an integrative and whole systems approach to wellness.

Event is free; $25 donation appreciated. Info: yogamovesms.org.

GIVING THANKS 1 PM, NOV. 7 Thanks for Israel Day at Adat Shalom, 29901 Middlebelt, Farmington Hills. Sponsored by the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry Inc., Adat Shalom.

CONGRESSMAN SPEAKS 7:30 PM, NOV. 8 Congressman Andy Levin will discuss his recent proposed legislation “The Two-State Solution Act” at Jewish Ferndale, 1725 Pinecrest Drive, Ferndale.

The evening will be moderated by Sheldon Freilich, president of the Detroit Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America.

The event is open to the public and is free of charge. Only people who are vaccinated or have had a negative COVID test in the three days prior will be allowed to participate live.

The event will be live-cast on facebook.com/rabbifinman. For information or to submit a question, contact Rabbi Herschel Finman, 248-798-5082. continued on page 46 NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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the exchange

ON THE GO

PEOPLE | PLACES | EVENTS continued from page 45

CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUP 1:30-2:30 PM, NOV. 9 Virtual caregiver support groups are for individuals who are care partners for those living with cognitive changes including various types of dementia. Please contact Dorothy Moon, Brown Adult Day Program social worker, for Zoom link and information: 248- 2334392, dmoon@jvshumanservices.org.

BIAS & RACISM 7 PM, NOV. 10 Hadassah Greater Detroit and Nurses & Allied Healthcare Professionals Council will present “The Unconsciousness of Bias: Understanding Anti-Black Female Racism.” Register

by Nov. 8. $18 event fee.

Info: hadassahmidwest. org/GDbias. Dr. Patricia Coleman-Burns will talk about how implicit or unconscious bias, as social cognitions, are unconscious attitudes and stereotypes that can manifest themselves in our daily lives. 2.0 contact hours for nursing CEU’s. Note: this is not applicable for Social Work CEUs. Info: greaterdetroit@ hadassah.org or 248-6835030.

Dr. Patricia Coleman-Burns

community bulletin board | professional services BOOK TALK 7:30 PM, NOV. 10 Through the courtesy of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, hear an online discussion with Julian E. Zelizer, author and historian, who will talk about his book Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement.

Registration info: jtsa.edu.

TRADE SECRETS 6-10 PM, NOV. 11 This virtual and onsite event (at Troy Marriott) is sponsored by JVS Human Services. It is the annual fundraising event to support the JVS Women to Work program and other employment services for women.

Info: info@jvshumanservices.org; 248-559-5000.

ART FAIR 11 AM-9 PM, NOV. 11-12 The Royal Oak Market: Art Fair Edition returns to the Royal Oak Farmers Market, 316 E. 11 Mile Road, Royal Oak. This jury-selected show features 60 artists. In addition, enjoy live entertainment, food trucks, craft beer and free admission.

Info: RoyalOakArtFair.com.

Compiled by Sy Manello/Editorial Assistant. Send items at least 14 days in advance to calendar@ thejewishnews.com.

For information regarding advertising please call 248-351-5116 or 248-234-9057 or email salessupport@thejewishnews.com Deadline for ad insertion is 9 a.m. on Friday prior to publication.

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faces&places

Reach for Hope A few technical glitches couldn’t stop the Reach for Hope Benefit from being a huge success. On Oct. 21, A Single Soul, Black Family Development and L!FELeaders Inc. hosted the event, featuring a table reading of the play Right Before I Go, by Stan Zimmerman and starring Hill Harper. Detroit native Lily Tomlin sent a video message.

The event, held at Cass Tech High School and emceed by Fox 2 personality Lee Thomas, raised funds to provide free suicide prevention training in Detroit, a passion of Rabbi Daniel Syme, rabbi emeritus

at Temple Beth El, who shared with attendees how he lost his brother, Michael, to suicide more than 40 years ago.

Among the many attendees was Donna Rene’e Harris, who traveled by bus from Oklahoma to see the table reading of the play written

by Stan Zimmerman (Gilmore Girls, Roseanne, The Golden Girls) which brings to life the last words of those lost to suicide, including the heartsick, the bullied, survivors of war, the mentally ill and the achingly lonely, which aims to provide a sense of understanding and hope for the living.

Stan Zimmerman, Hill Harper, Rabbi Daniel Syme, Amy Nederlander, Kenyatta Stephens, Walter Stephens.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GLENN TRIEST Francie Mutual, Stan Zimmerman, Karen Cantor.

Dr. Jill Syme, Rabbi Daniel Syme, Elder Cameron Bracefull and Jane Smitt.

Filmmaker Steve Palackdharry, filmmaker Dr. Sherry Rogers and Stan Zimmerman.

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Donna Rene’e Harris and Rabbi Daniel Syme.

Hill Harper, Amy Nederlander, Kenyatta Stephens, Walter Stephens

OBITUARIES

OF BLESSED MEMORY

MARILYN DUBRINSKY, 81, of Oak Park, died Oct. 28, 2021.

She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Alan and Lauren Dubrinsky, Jay and Karen Dubrinsky, and Brian and Ludy Dubrinsky; grandchildren, Hanna Dubrinsky, Ethan Misner, Max Dubrinsky, Arielle Dubrinsky, Emily Dubrinsky and Abraham Dubrinsky; sister and brotherin-law, Janice and David Israel; brother and sister-in-law, Bennett and Rosanne Fienman; many other loving relatives and friends.

Mrs. Dubrinsky was the proud grandmother of the late Alexandra Misner; the devoted daughter of the late Edward and the late Anne Fienman.

Interment was at Beth El Memorial Park. Contributions may be made to a charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

NORMAN FOSTER, 83, of Bloomfield Hills, died Oct. 23, 2021.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Mo., Norman graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a chemical engineering degree as well as a master’s in business administration. He was the beloved son and only child of Rose (Luger) and Joseph Foster.

He had a spot in his heart for St. Louis. He will be buried near his parents in St. Louis.

Renovating a superfund site on the east side of Detroit, Norman co-founded Petro-Chem Processing Inc., which converted hazardous waste chemicals, paints and sludge into a fuel; that was then used to fuel cement kilns and industrial furnaces.

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OF BLESSED MEMORY continued from page 49

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OBITUARIES

He then founded Solvent Distillers Inc. and RTR Inc., using these materials to add to the fuel reuse programs. In all, he held 11 patents for these companies.

Mr. Foster was heavily involved with his alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, having served on many boards and programs, including as a member of the McKelvey School of Engineering National Council and founding chair of Washington University’s Detroit Regional Cabinet; these were the first of 21 such volunteer leadership groups in 21 cities across the United States. He was also vice chair of the university’s alumni board of governors.

In addition, Mr. Foster served as vice chair of the National Regional Campaign Committee for Washington University from 1998-2004; chair of the Detroit Regional Campaign Committee, 1998-2004; and as a member of the McKelvey School Campaign Committee, 1998-2004.

He was awarded the Engineering Alumni Achievement Award of the McKelvey School as well as Washington University’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

After he retired, golf became a passion, playing three times a week with his “buds” in Bloomfield and Naples, Fla., and showing them up by making three holes-in-1 within two years at two different courses.

His personality was infectious and his humor, though corny at times, brought him loving and supportive friends. He is missed.

Mr. Foster is survived by his wife, Madeline Kaspor Foster; his daughters, Lisa Foster and Jocelyn (Ira) Margolis; grandchildren, Foster Ruby Yates, Amelia Jade Margolis, Magnolia

Rose Margolis; and Mayer Joseph Margolis, many other family members and devoted friends. His family was his proudest and brightest achievement.

Contributions may be made to Washington University School of Engineering, Rose & Joseph Foster Scholarship Fund, MSC 1082-414-2555, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, wustl.edu. Arrangements

by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

DR. STANLEY GREENBERG, 95, of Bingham Farms, died Oct. 25, 2021.

Dr. Greenberg was a practicing c. 1998 dermatologist for more than 50 years.

He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Janet Greenberg. He is lovingly remembered by family, friends and colleagues.

Contributions may be made to a charity of one’s choice.

Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

SYLVIA ISLEY, 94, of West Bloomfield, died Oct. 24, 2021.

She is survived by her daughters, Gail Levin, Dianne Isley; grandchildren, Jake (Amanda) Isley, Andrew (Mandy) Isley and Molly Isley; great-grandchildren, Ava Rose Isley and Lucas Paul Isley; sister and brother-inlaw, Adrienne and Neal Sweet; nieces and nephews, Ian Sweet, Allison (Adam) Grant and Eric (Kristin) Sweet; great-nieces and great-nephews, Joanna, Elena and Henry Grant, Penny Sweet; many other loving family members and friends.

Mrs. Isley was the beloved wife of the late Max Isley; the mother of the late Paul Isley; daughter of the late Jack and Mollie Ekter.

Interment took place at

B’nai Israel Cemetery in Novi.

Contributions may be made to B’nai B’rith or a charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.

ROBERTA “BOBBIE” KAY, 92, of Farmington Hills, died Oct. 21, 2021.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Marsha and Dr. David Friedman of West Bloomfield; brother and sisterin-law, Leo and Sheila Ordin of Scottsdale, Ariz.; grandchildren, Aaron Friedman and Julie Hirsch, Matt Friedman and Dr. Jessie Alperin; great-grandchildren, Max Friedman, Alex Friedman; niece and nephew, Dee and Doug Kahn.

Mrs. Kay was the beloved wife of the late Irving Seymour Kay. Contributions may be made to Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, 1-800-932-2423. A graveside service was held at Hebrew Memorial Park. Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial Chapel.

DR. PAUL B. LATTIN, 76, West Bloomfield, died peacefully Oct. 27, 2021.

He was born Aug. 29, 1945; he graduated in 1963 from Oak Park High School, then attended Wayne State University and Chicago College of Osteopathy.

A practicing radiation oncologist until his retirement, he enjoyed traveling in his motor coach, wintering in Naples, Fla., and riding his Harley with the Chai Riders motorcycle group Dr. Lattin is survived by his beloved wife of 32 years, Cheryl Lattin; sons and daughters-in-law, Brian Lattin, Dr. Joel and Laura Lattin, Daniel and Carrie Bendall; daughter and son-in-law, Darlene and Michael Ladouceur; grandchildren, Morgan, Harper and Avery Lattin, Sloane and Jonah Lattin, Emily (Kevin) Lisiscki, Nolan Bendall and Mikaila

Proctor; great-grandchild, Grace Lisiscki; sister and brother-inlaw, Ellen and Richard Perman; daughter-in-law, Rhonda Shively Bendall; many loving nieces, nephews, other family members and friends.

Dr. Lattin was the father of the late David Bendall.

Interment took place at Clover Hill Park Cemetery in Birmingham. Contributions may be made to Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network, St. Jude’s Hospital or a charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.

STEVEN L. LEIGER, 75, of Plymouth Township, died Oct. 26, 2021.

He is survived by his son and daughterin-law, Steven and Annette Leiger; daughter and son-in-law, Christie and Scott Rener; grandchildren, Christopher, Alex and Sarah; sis-

ter, Dr. Audrey Bruell.

Mr. Leiger was the devoted son of the late Rachel and the late Philippe Leiger.

Interment was at Machpelah Cemetery. Contributions may be made to a charity of one’s choice.

Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

AMY SCAPELLITI, 64, of Farmington Hills, died Oct. 24, 2021.

She is survived by her beloved husband, Stephen Scapelliti; sons, Evan Scapelliti and Jonah Scapelliti; mother, Bernadene (Edward) Spivack; sister and brother-in-law, Patee and Gary Blackman; nephew, Benjamin Blackman; niece, Emma Blackman; father-in-law, John Scapelliti; brothers-in-law, Gary Scapelliti and Christopher Scapelliti; many other loving family members and a world of continued on page 52

We believe that every Jew has a portion in the world to come.

Trust us to prepare your loved one for that journey.

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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OBITUARIES

OF BLESSED MEMORY continued from page 51

devoted friends.

Mrs. Scapelliti was the daughter of the late Larry Strager; sister of the late Jonathan Strager.

Donations may be made to the Loss ECC Programming Fund at Temple Israel. Arrangements

by Dorfman Chapel.

HOWARD SCHWARTZ, 83, passed away on Oct. 12, 2021, surrounded by his family in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Howard was an active and vibrant man, who was stricken by the West Nile virus in late September. The oldest of three children, he was born in Detroit, where he lived until moving his family to Scottsdale in 1977.

During the 57 years that

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Howard practiced law in Arizona, he was one of the first public defenders in Maricopa County and spent 25 years as deputy county attorney, also serving as a special assistant U.S. Attorney in the Federal Organized Crime and Racketeering Bureau.

He simultaneously pursued his interest in real estate, investing in land and residential development across the Valley.

Other highlights of Howard’s career and philanthropy included admission to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, serving as chairman of the Arizona State Lottery Commission, treasurer of the Beth El Congregation Board of Directors and an active member of the Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish National Fund Lawyers for Israel and the Train Collectors Association. He was also an avid art collector and outdoor enthusiast.

Family was Howard’s central focus. He was a devoted grandfather who derived great joy from attending his grandchildren’s activities and sporting events. Vacations primarily consisted of ski trips with as many as 18 family members. Other family travel included attending baseball games at different stadiums across the country and traveling throughout the world.

He was a student of history, an avid art collector and reader and outdoor enthusiast. Howard was well known around the Valley and often recognized in his 1974 Stingray Corvette.

Howard is survived by his wife of 54 years, Brenda (Katcher) Schwartz; their two daughters, Elan Levey (Andrew Levey) and Marni Harp; his sister, Lynda Giles (Conrad Giles); brother, Melvin Schwartz (Cindy Schwartz); grandchildren, Jake, Bennett, Shane and Sloane; and a large extended loving family.

Contributions may be made in his name to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, World ORT or Yad Ezra.

ALAN ROBERT WEINER, 90, of Las Vegas, Nev., formerly of Southfield, died Oct. 21, 2021.

He is survived by his son, Dr. Ira Weiner of Las Vegas; daughter, Jill Weiner (Amelia Lim) of Kilauea, Hawaii; grandchildren, Joshua Weiner of Berkeley, Alex Weiner of Ft. Bragg, N.C., Loren Weiner of Cornell, N.Y., and Herschel Weiner of Hawaii; sister, Barbara Pessell of Boynton Beach, Fla.; Josh’s mother, Shelly Weiner of Henderson, Nev.; Alex’s mother, Michelle Hambrick of Las Vegas.

Mr. Weiner was the beloved husband for 43 years of the late Lorraine.

Interment was in New Montefiore Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y.

A

Dedicated To Healing

llen Silbergleit, M.D., Ph.D., died cializing in tributes and histories.

Oct. 22, 2021.

Over the years, he won innumeraHe was born March 8, 1928, ble awards and recognitions. Among in Springfield, Mass. Allen grew up a stelthese are the prestigious 2007 Parker J. lar student, drummer, violinist, whistler, Palmer Courage to Teach Award from fish-slicer and teenage grocery clerk. the Accreditation Council for Graduate He received his bachelor’s Medical Education, the degree from the University Alexander J. Walt Award of Massachusetts and his of the American College of medical degree from the Surgeons Michigan Chapter, University of Cincinnati. the Wayne State University He did his general surgery Surgical Alumnus of the Year residency at University of Award and the Wayne County Minnesota, his thoracic Medical Society Humanitarian surgery residency at Wayne of the Year Award. In 2015, State University and earned the University of Cincinnati his Ph.D. in physiology from presented him with its Wayne State University.

Distinguished Alumni Award.

He served as a captain The National Association of and flight surgeon in the Program Directors in Surgery Dr. Allen Silbergleit Air Force prior to moving created the Silbergleit Award in to Michigan. As a medical student in honor of Allen in 2015, recognizing him Cincinnati, he served as dormitory house as the longest-serving surgical residency doctor for the Hebrew Union College. program director ever with 40 years “in the saddle,” running the surgical residency A LONG, HONORED CAREER program at St. Joe’s Pontiac. The Silbergleit Dr. Silbergleit was the chief of surgery award will be given to program directors in and the chief of cardiothoracic sursurgery around the country who serve as gery at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in program directors for 25 years or longer.

Pontiac (now St. Joseph Mercy Hospital He envisioned and founded the Oakland Oakland). He also served as the program Health Education Program (OHEP), director of the hospital’s surgical residen- now the Southeast Michigan Center for cy program for 40 years. His dedication Medical Education (SEMCME), which is to medical education at St. Joe’s has now the largest community-based medbeen recognized by the Annual Allen ical education consortium in the United Silbergleit Clinic Day of continuing med- States. He has received the OHEP Lifetime ical education, where renowned speakers Achievement Award for Excellence in are recruited to lecture at the hospital.

Medical Education. He was SEMCME’s Dr. Silbergleit loved teaching and patient first emeritus board member, and they care. He taught and operated well beyond have named their annual keynote lecture his home institution especially at hospitals after him. in underserved neighborhoods throughout He joined the faculty of the Wayne the Detroit area. He was taking weekend State University School of Medicine in trauma shifts at Detroit Receiving Hospital 1962 and served as a professor of surgery to teach surgery residents well into his 70s. and physiology. He was honored by the Dr. Silbergleit was a Fellow and university in 2013 with the Distinguished Governor of the American College of Service Award in recognition of his devoSurgeons and was a longstanding memtion to medical students and residents, his ber of both the Committee on Trauma, extensive knowledge in the fields of basic and the Committee on Cancer, and he science, medicine and surgery, and his gift served in leadership roles in many local for skillful teaching. At that time, he said, and regional professional societies. He “It seemed to me, even when I was a little was also a prolific writer and editor, spekid, that there couldn’t be anything more

important than saving the lives of people on a routine basis.” He continued, “As a physician, as a surgeon, our work is apparent quickly when someone is involved in a severe trauma; and we operate and take care and save a life; what could be more important than that? It is something I intuitively care for more than anything else.”

Outside of medicine, he loved serving as a judge for the Science and Engineering Fair of Southeast Michigan and the State Science Fair competitions with his son Robert for almost 20 years.

As much as Allen enjoyed teaching and the art and science of medicine, he was also a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend to many. Friends included former students, classmates, peers and neighbors from Huntington Woods. Happiest moments were spent with the family during summer vacations at a cabin on Lake Charlevoix. Surrounded by nature and his family and a wide array of friends, he enjoyed swimming, boating, eating fresh-picked corn on the cob for breakfast and dinner, laughing, and enjoying cool nights or mornings when he could effortlessly build a roaring fire in the fireplace.

Allen met the love of his life, Ina, when they were counselors at Camp Shor — a Jewish overnight camp in Indiana. Married for 64 years, he was the devoted husband to Ina, caring and supportive, and proud father and father-in-law to Dr. Richard and Dr. Alice Silbergleit, Nina Silbergleit and Dr. Robert Silbergleit, and Catherine Zudak. He was a proud and loving zaydie to Matthew, Marina and Jay Silbergleit; brother to David Silbergleit; uncle to Paul Silbergleit.

He was the devoted son of the late Fannie and Harry Silbergleit; and brother to the late Milton Silbergleit.

Contributions may be made to the Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334; St. Joseph Mercy Oakland or Wayne State University School of Medicine. A graveside service was held at Adat Shalom Memorial Park Cemetery. Rabbi Aaron Starr and Hazzan David Propis officiated. Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial Chapel.

NOVEMBER 4 • 2021

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Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

A Book Fair to Be Proud Of

O

n Nov. 6-14, the 70th Jewish Book Fair will be held. The oldest and largest Jewish Book Fair in the nation is usually held at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. Due to the lingering COVID pandemic, this year’s version will begin this month as an online program the best books from Jewish authors or about Jewish history and culture.

The Book Fair has a long and illustrious history. I found more than 2,000 references to the Mike Smith Book Fair in the William Alene and Graham Landau Davidson Digital Archive Archivist Chair of Jewish Detroit History, including several excellent articles.

The first Book Fair was a result of a partnership of idea and effort. In 1951, Irwin Shaw became the executive director of the Jewish Community Center with a mandate to increase Jewish education programming. JCC Board Member Louis LaMed had an idea: Why not have Jewish book publishers send their authors to speak at the JCC? Acting upon LaMed’s idea, Shaw went to New York and visited firms that published Jewish books.

Initially, the publishers provided little support, but they did send books to sell.

The first Book Fair was held at the Dexter-Davidson JCC in Detroit in November 1952. It was a modest dayand-a-half event with three authors.

But LaMed and Shaw had planted a seed that would grow swift and strong. Pauline Jackson and Matilda Rubin mobilized volunteers and 25 organizations, largely synagogues, were partners. Henry Meyers chaired the honorary committee. Two years later, the Book Fair had 260 volunteers and involved 34 local groups. It soon became the largest in America.

In 1960, the Book Fair moved to

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the Curtis and Myers JCC Building in Detroit. The D. Dan and Betty Kahn building in West Bloomfield became its home in 1976. Over the years, events were also held at the Jimmy Prentis Morris building in Oak Park.

Two excellent articles relate the history of the Book Fair. I found one about the Fair’s silver anniversary in the Oct. 1, 1976, JN. This report also includes a photo of three generations of volunteers — Sarah Friedman, daughter Betty Sarkowitz and granddaughter Julie Shiffman — and photos of early pioneers of the Book Fair: Gertrude Oberstein, Pauline Jackson and Phyllis Schwartz.

A virtual event this year, the Book Fair has always used the latest technology. In 1957, for example, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver was scheduled to speak, but he could not attend in-person. Michigan Bell Telephone Co. and Book Fair organizers made arrangements to have him speak by phone and broadcast the conversation live to the audience via loudspeaker.

The Book Fair’s 50th anniversary was celebrated in the Nov. 2, 2001, issue of the JN. The story celebrated the role of Shaw and included a timeline of famous authors who presented over the years such as Elie Wiesel, Simon Wiesenthal, Moshe Arens, Mitch Albom, and our JN editor and publisher, Philip Slomovitz. There is also a nice photo of Pauline Jackson speaking at the first Book Fair.

So, let’s celebrate the 70th annual Jewish Book Fair. It’s a wonderful Jewish Detroit event.

P.S. I will be interviewing Michael Shnayerson about his new book: Bugsy Siegel: The Dark side of the American Dream at the Book Fair on Nov. 11 at 7 p.m.

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives for free at www.djnfoundation.org.

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