DJN October 8, 2020

contents Oct. 8-14, 2020/20-26 Tishri 5781| VOLUME CLVIII, ISSUE 10

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Views

Business

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‘Free-From’ Munching

Jews in the D

30 Local nutritionist offers healthier snacks on new app.

JCC Health Club to Permanently Close 10 The community center can no longer afford to operate its fitness facilities, its CEO said.

Here’s To 31

Arts&Life

2020 Rising Stars

Contemporary Fantasy

12 Keep your eye on these young people making a positive impact on the Jewish community.

32 Former Oak Parker provides sequel for YA fans.

JFMD Annual Meeting Goes Virtual

Movie Lover Extraordinaire

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34 This Holocaust survivor has seen more than 40,000 films … and counting.

Ginsburg’s Detroit Connections

Celebrity Jews

20 A romance sparked between RBG’s former law clerks, and an artist pays tribute with a memorial.

A Place of Their Own

34

Shabbat & Holiday Lights

Online Events 36

22 Group neighborhood provides independence to adults with disabilities.

Health

Lawsuit Targets White Supremacists

37 Psychiatrist pens book that suggests ADHD medications.

24 Alleged planners of Charlottesville violence could face financial ruin.

Moments Moments

New Hope for Chronic Fatigue Sufferers

* Times according to Yeshiva Beth Yehudah calendar.

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On the cover:

Etc.

Spirit

The Exchange Soul Danny Raskin Looking Back

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Shabbat & Shemini Atzeret start: Friday, Oct. 9, 6:41 p.m.

Simchat Torah begins: Saturday, Oct. 10, 7:40 p.m.

Holiday ends: Sunday, Oct. 11, 7:39 p.m.*

Orthodox Union Issues Health Guidelines for Simchat Torah

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Torah portion

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Cover design: Michelle Sheridan

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OUR JN MISSION: We aspire to communicate news and opinion that’s trusted, valued, engaging and distinctive. We strive to reflect diverse community viewpoints while also advocating positions that strengthen Jewish unity and continuity. As an independent, responsible, responsive community member, we actively engage with individuals and organizations dedicated to enhancing the quality of life, and Jewish life, in Southeast Michigan.

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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SUPPORT INDEPENDENT, CREDIBLE JEWISH JOURNALISM Dear valued reader, Let’s get right to it.

During these very difficult times, why does the Jewish News matter more than ever?

• It connects us when we feel separated and surrounded by chaos. With the Jewish News, we are not alone. We are all in this together as a community.

• It is our trusted, distinctive, independent news source. With fake news, conspiracy theories and half truths rampant, the Jewish News provides us with facts, not sensationalism.

• It updates online content multiple times a day, always having a Jewish Detroit focus. The Jewish News and its www.thejewishnews.com website provides us with free access.

• It helps us continue to purchase goods and services from local friends and neighbors whose businesses are struggling. The Jewish News brings us to who’s open for business.

However, like other small businesses and especially media companies that depend on advertising, the Jewish News continues to suffer from the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

That’s Why Your Help Is Needed Today.

Please go to www.thejewishnews.com/contribute and give generously in support of independent, credible Jewish journalism. Help the Jewish News continue to matter – more than ever during these turbulent times — to all of us and Jewish Detroit.

Wishing you and your family a safe, healthy and sweet New Year.

Sincerely,

Arthur Horwitz

Publisher Emeritus

thejewishnews.com/contribute In addition to contributing online, you may also send a contribution to: The Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Highway #110, Southfield, MI 48034

Views

letters

for openers

Need More Than Slogans

If it Fits ...

T

here are several clothing items which we refer to in everyday conversation. I’d like to recall expressions that may enliven your speech; some are still in meaningful use.

Since genSy Manello tlemen’s hats Editorial are making a Assistant comeback, consider: a feather in your cap (the action will be fodder for your resume). If you are a person of many talents, you may wear more than one hat. If your latest gossip item is no longer news, it will be referred to as old hat. Get into dire straits and we may need to get you on your feet by passing the hat.

When you deal with something you have experienced many times before, you may indicate that the action is as comfortable as an old shoe.

A person very set in his ways may be described as tough as

an old boot. Fearful at every turn? You may quake in your boots. Gamble a lot? Well, if it is with the company’s money, you may soon get the boot as you lose your shirt; then you will have to get along on a shoestring. (Those of you only familiar with Velcro will have to have an older person to explain that one.) Knowing the worst is yet to come? You are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Have you ever been so proud that you were bursting at the seams? Have you gotten extremely angry? Then you have been hot under the collar.

Be wary of what you say when you speak off the cuff; you do

not want to put a foot in your mouth (shod or not). Do not appear to be a know-it-all (a stuffed shirt).

If you are very creative, you may undertake a project with little or no instruction and find that you must fly by the seat of your pants. If this is the case, roll up your sleeves, tighten your belt and get to it. When you accomplish the goal, try not to be a smarty pants and brag about it.

If you make a successful career choice, it may be said that the job fits you like a glove.

Well, there are some expressions for you to use as a clothes horse; and that ain’t hay.

guest column

We Will Prevail in Peace

O

ver the next several days as we continue to celebrate the chagim in this new year of 5781, we look forward to what hope and promise the year will bring. To many, myself included, Rosh Hashanah meant “good Aviv Ezra riddance” to 5780 and sincere wishes that 5781 will be a good, peaceful, healthy year.

Enough ink has been spilled and tears have been shed from COVID-19. We all know the devastation it has caused and the uprooting that may take decades to replant. As Israel has begun another strict lockdown, I pray the next few weeks will mean compliance that will translate to numbers that allow us to reopen safely.

Despite the chaos, there is always a silver lining. And a certainty that we as Jews and Israelis will prevail.

This theme is pervasive

throughout Jewish history and provides the backdrop for the message I carry with me at this time of self-reflection. That message can be summed up in one word: belief. Belief that a sense of normalcy will return; that we will forge a new path through turbulent waters; that better days are ahead.

There have been moments throughout our people’s history when hope seemed futile — when it seemed certain we would join the long list of peoples who are now just a

Representative Levin’s call for support of the Black community, however convincing, didn’t explain what actions are appropriate (“Blowing the Shofar of Racial Justice,” Sept. 24, pg.

6). I believe Black lives matter, but I don’t believe Black Lives Matter. Written in lower case, it is a principle. Capitalized, those words name an organization, created by followers of Louis Farrakhan, that posted anti-Israel propaganda until pressured to take it down.

It’s ironic that BLM sided with the Palestinians, who have no genetic claim of Blackness, while Israel is home to actual Black people who happen to be Jewish, much to the chagrin of the BLM founders from the Nation of Islam. Their lack of focus and leadership allowed the movement to go off the rails to become an undisciplined mob that provides cover to rioters and looters and now is doing more harm than good.

Chanting in front of police stations or city halls won’t fix the problem, especially if the chants are for foolish and incoherent ideas. Good policies require more thought than a slogan. Levin didn’t fill in any blanks for me.

There is one form of protest that cannot be ignored, and that is the protest voiced on a ballot. That motivation to march needs to be redirected to marching down to the city clerk’s office to vote and then marching to their friends and neighbors to get them out to vote. Those who know Donald Trump in private report nearly unanimously of his racism, misogyny, exclusive self-interest and sociopathic lack of empathy. It couldn’t be more obvious that persuasion is beyond any possibility, so only regime change can make Black lives matter.

— Dennis L. Green Farmington Hills

continued on page 8 OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Views guest column

Planting Partnerships at Yad Ezra

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ur mission at Yad Ezra’s Giving Gardens is to provide educational opportunities and resources to address hunger in our Jewish community at its roots, with a focus on healthy and sustainable practices. The pandemic has not dried up our resolve. We have capitalized on the nicer weather and have been hosting classes, providing a socially Lea Luger distant way to interact with people safely and provide the community with knowledge.

This year, more produce than ever has been brought in from local community gardens. We have been able to extend our reach through partnerships with the Hazon Garden Relief Initiative, as well as with partner gardens like the Bowers School Farm and the Farber Tamarack Farm.

As Giving Gardens flourishes, an increased volume and value of produce goes to Yad Ezra’s clients every year. Every Yad Ezra delivery gets a taste of the Giving Gardens in their package.

The pandemic has tested the reach of communities around the world. In Metro Detroit, we are so fortunate that our community has come together to help our own as well as our neighbors and friends. At Yad Ezra’s Giving Gardens, we are proud to share some of our partnerships which have been developed over the past few years and have quite literally begun to bear fruit.

Judaism emphasizes the importance of community in so many ways. One of the most compelling arguments is the Talmudic passage that defines an appropriate city in which to live. In order for a city to be habitable, it must accommodate the needs of all its members, assuring there is appropriate care for everyone (Sanhedrin 17b).

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Genesis Garden at Lady of La Salette Church in September

Our Lady of La Salette Church is our neighbor — the church has been a landmark in Berkley since the 1920s. The land behind the church was not being used; it was a flat, expansive lawn. Giving Gardens has a new productive partnership with the church. They have allowed us to farm their land, which we call the Genesis Garden.

The farmed plot has doubled our growing space, adding more than 5,000 square feet of garden space. The Genesis Garden is currently growing beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, radish, turnips, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, basil and peppers. All these vegetables will be harvested and distributed to our clients. Not only does this allow us to offer more food, it also raises the amount of fresh nutritional choices to food insecure families who often otherwise eat less nutritional foods.

Since the middle of June, Giving Gardens has been participating in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) partnership. Generously funded by an anonymous donor, the Central Detroit Christian Farm and Fishery and Fisheye Farms have sold Yad Ezra 15 and two full shares, respectively, of their farm harvest.

This amount of fresh produce is enough to generously supplement the grocery distribution of approximately 35 people.

Additionally, for every two shares Yad Ezra receives, one share is donated to a family in the neighborhood in which the CDC farm is located. Our Giving Gardens team has organized a trial of this 20-week partnership with the 35 Yad Ezra clients who are also members of our Giving Gardens Club. Each client has been receiving a

Josh bags produce grown at Giving Gardens for clients.

weekly distribution of farm fresh produce to supplement their regular Yad Ezra grocery delivery. The farm produce is delivered to Yad Ezra and Giving Gardens volunteers and staff divide the shares and deliver the produce to our clients/club members.

This is truly an innovative way for Yad Ezra to engage in a community effort that helps the farmers, who cannot otherwise distribute all of their harvest during these times, and gives healthy, fresh food to food-insecure families in our community.

We hope that this test program will serve as a model for others. The ripple effect of helping our clients, helping a local business, and helping feed people in other communities is rewarding.

Giving Gardens was started at Yad Ezra with an amalgam of goals that were all rooted in the concept of partnership. We had partnered for years with master gardeners who grew produce on our property, and we have embraced the culture of partnership and teamwork that is an inherent part of the urban farming and community farming culture, as well as celebrating and supporting partnerships of other Jewish and community organizations that work toward sustainability and community education.

We are proud of what Giving Gardens gives our clients and welcome any who are interested to join us — opportunities abound!

Anyone interested in classes at Giving Gardens is welcome to join! Check us out on Facebook @YadEzra or Instagram @Yad.Ezra.

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Views WE WILL PREVAIL IN PEACE from page 5

memory. And yet, here we are, and here we will remain. This moment in history will surely be no different. We will prevail.

A LANDMARK AGREEMENT Many of us were not yet alive in 1978, or can hardly remember, when the first signing of a peace deal between Israel and one of its 19 Arab neighbors, Egypt, sent shockwaves through the Middle East. It took 16 years until another of Israel’s neighbors, Jordan, followed suit. Now, 26 years later, we have arrived at another historic crossroads.

A few weeks ago, Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced they would be normalizing relations, followed soon after by Bahrain.

This landmark agreement, most significantly, does not come at the expense of the Palestinians, but in fact presents them with a unique opportunity to return to direct negotiations with Israel. Israel is ready to do so and will come to the negotiating table with the principles of the American administration’s peace initiative.

The peace deal provides a practical and realistic basis upon which the two sides can begin negotiations. In the light of the Abraham Accords, achieving a lasting resolution between Israel and the Palestinians now seems that much more attainable.

The Accords represent an alternative and paradigm-shifting step forward for the region.

radical forces who oppose peace and prefer to perpetuate conflict until victory is won instead of resolving conflict in a peaceful manner and reaping the benefits that cooperation can provide.

Moreover, the agreement effectively strengthens the power of moderatism in the face of the extremism that Iran and its proxies sow across the region.

They have fostered a revolutionary opportunity for other Arab nations to establish formal ties with the State of Israel, a concept previously deemed far-fetched and impossible. It provides a striking alternative to those

Ultimately, the Accords represent an alignment of values.

Israel, the UAE and Bahrain are all facing the shared challenges of climate change, diminishing resources and, most pertinently, disease. It is essential that we

Contributing Writers: Nate Bloom, Suzanne Chessler, Shari S. Cohen, George Elkind, Elizabeth Katz, Jennifer Lovy, Mike Smith, Ashley Zlatopolski

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

focus on agreement over disagreement and combine our capabilities for the well-being of our citizens.

This is exactly what the agreement has achieved. The Accords should be the guiding light for all other nations in the region of the good that can come from making peace with Israel.

While to many these events transpired relatively unnoticed, they represent another seismic shift in Israel’s status among its neighbors. People may point out that Israel was not in a state of war with either country, so what’s the big deal?

But it is a big deal. Israel’s neighbors have begun to recognize that peace with Israel is the road to success. They see that their economic futures will be better off by forging long-lasting ties with a small and mighty nation than by denying the fact of its existence.

They have begun to recognize what we, as Jews, have known for millennia: We Will Prevail.

Aviv Ezra is consul general of Israel to the Midwest.

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Community Response

COURTESY JCC FACEBOOK

Jews in the D

JN READERS HAD A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE JCC’S HEALTH CLUB CLOSING ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE.

JCC Health Club to Permanently Close The community center can no longer afford to operate its fitness facilities, its CEO said.

T JOHN HARDWICK

he Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit in West Bloomfield Township is closing its health club, effective immediately.

Brian D. Siegel, CEO of the JCC, spoke exclusively with the JN to lay out how this all came about. He said the decision was due to a mixture of financial, philoBrian Siegel sophical, political and practical reasons, all in different ways exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The financial impact had much to do with the JCC suffering from “overbuilt” real estate for the past 20 years, Siegel said.

The health club contributed to overhead costs but was not running a net profit, and that was even before the pandemic. If the health club were to open, the impact short-term would be devastating and the long-term impact even worse, according to Siegel.

The health club’s membership has seen a 50% decline in the last decade. A crucial part of that decline is the drop in Jewish membership.

“What was once a core value proposition, of Jews wanting a safe place to work out next to other Jews, has gone away for the majority of people,” Siegel told the JN. “The JCC health club was declining both by virtue of a loss of its core

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

value proposition, but also an exploding competitive marketplace.”

Prior to the pandemic, the JCC was in a committee process with representatives of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and the United Jewish Foundation to try to solve its real estate problems.

“A plan was established to shrink the size of the JCC substantially, including reducing the size of the health club,” Siegel said.

‘RIGHT-SIZING’ THE BUILDING The pandemic accelerated plans rapidly. A new committee was formed with Federation to see how the pandemic affected the JCC’s prior plans to “right-size” the building.

Instead of just reducing the size of the health club, the new committee decided to close it completely.

The committee is in the process of issuing a report, and the report will recommend that the health club be demolished.

Until the money is raised to tear down that section of the building, it will be shuttered or its use will be radically modified.

In a joint statement, the incoming and outgoing presidents of both JFMD and the United Jewish Foundation said they were aware of the move to close the health club but that the decision was the JCC’s own.

“We know that this is a pain-

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER JCC

ful moment for those who have called the Health Club home for decades,” the statement read. “Like each of the local partner agencies that receive funding from Federation, the JCC operates independently and is responsible for all decisions regarding its programs and services.”

In a follow-up statement, new Federation President Matt Lester and Foundation President Dennis Bernard said the JCC “is committed to maintaining and restoring wellness programs including fitness classes, basketball and swimming,” and that the closure “will mainly affect the Fitness Club members.”

The club was also failing to bring younger members onboard. “Young Jewish people today don’t make a decision on where to work out based on where there are other Jews there or not,” Siegel said.

On the political side, Siegel said the JCC had been trying to negotiate with the community to take responsibility for a building that no longer fits its purposes.

“It’s only the crisis that allowed that conversation to be productive,” Siegel said.

The political question the JCC asked itself was what they should do with a 340,000-square-foot building with business operations that no longer support it.

The JCC has operated as the sub-landlord of the build-

“When they closed the Oak Park JPM branch, which was always busy and active and had a highly incentivized membership, they said that the building was too old, and the W. Bloomfield building was the one to save. Now they delete services to the community at that building as well. It isn't turning a profit? Since when does profit define the mission of a community service? I was at the meetings for JPM and heard the same stuff. It infuriates me.”

— Jodie Stein “So sad that the Federation can't help keep the JCC intact. The Y doesn't seem to have the problems we do!”

— Jane Lori “That is so sad. Enjoyed working out at the JCC through the years. Glad to know the pool will be open.”

— Jodi Roth Isser “Sad that us members had to learn about this from an article in the DJN and not directly from the J.” — Danielle Gordon “They have done nothing to recruit or incentivize young families or people for membership.”

— Rachel Williams Bloch “I remember going to the JCC men’s health club as a child. It’s a shame they haven’t figured out how to keep it going.”

— Gregory Firestone “Should have kept the Oak Park JCC open but those WB Jews left Oak Park and HW and Southfield and would not support it. I guess they don’t support their building either.”

— Ronald Fry “JCC, WB … totally overbuilt … and ignoring Jews from other areas … you did this all by yourself!!!!”

— Elaine Cohen

ing, with the real estate being owned by the United Jewish Foundation.

On the practical side, Siegel said the JCC realized the building couldn’t just be reduced “hodge-podge,� and that there needed to be specific plans in place on which parts were reduced.

The “right-sizing� committee had plans to keep the health club before the pandemic and was going to fill the indoor pool and place a new health club over it. The pandemic stopped that, and it was agreed that a more aggressive demolition and size reduction of the JCC made the most sense. “The JCC is going to be a much more nimble, financially viable operation that no longer has to chase a building it can’t afford,� Siegel said. “It’s a historic moment, a heartbreaking moment, but a critical moment for the future of the JCC.�

The outdoor pool will remain, with a goal of it being covered with an inflatable structure so it will become a yearround pool. The indoor pool will be closed long term, but short-term plans are uncertain.

The JCC basketball leagues will move over to the Rosenberg Center. That facility, which includes inline hockey, will be retained. The area that houses volleyball will be covered with wood floors so basketball and volleyball can be played there.

There will be no impact or negative implications for the Detroit Maccabi Games.

The JCC has plans to retain its JCC Day Camps, with goals to renovate their standing day camp center into a “world-class day camp� in partnership with Tamarack Camps, the managing entity that runs the camps.

Frankel Jewish Academy’s athletic department currently uses many of the JCC’s athletic facilities. Siegel said the JCC intends to fulfill all obligations

under its current lease to FJA, which may mean using the existing gymnasiums until alternate spaces are found in the Rosenberg Center.

END OF MEMBERSHIP MODEL The membership model will simply cease to exist. “We intend to build in partnership with our members a robust wellness operation, but it will not be membership-based,�

Siegel said.

Instead, it will be fee-for service. For example, there may be monthly passes that will allow an individual to swim every day.

Siegel wouldn’t go into specific numbers but stated that many at the JCC will be losing jobs, including many longstanding employees who worked in the health club, which Siegel describes as just as heartbreaking as the close of the club.

An official vote was taken Sept. 28, and both the executives committee and the board voted overwhelmingly in favor of the closing.

The health club is located in the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Building, which currently spans 340,000 square feet. The committee is proposing to demolish about 110,000 square feet, leaving the remaining JCC with about 140,000 square feet (not including 90,000 allotted for other tenants and service areas). “It was time for a paradigm shift,� stated JCC President Mark Rubenfire in a press release. “For decades, the JCC had been struggling financially.

A large part of the problem related to the size and deteriorating nature of the building.

Reducing our footprint will free up capital and resources to get back to our core mission to build a more dynamic Jewish community by collaborating to create world-class education and engagement programs throughout Metropolitan Detroit.�

Our STORY Scott Marcus is a commercial real estate developer, a franchise owner of Orangetheory Fitness, and a Hebrew Free Loan Board member. “What intrigues me about HFL is the scope,� Scott said. “For instance, a loan for a used car allows the borrower to work, which supports a family, helps keep a business running and improves a community. It’s meaningful.�

When Scott’s father passed away after a brief battle with cancer, Scott and his family established the Henry F. Marcus, D.O. Medical School Education Fund, under the umbrella of the William Davidson Jewish College Loan Program. The fund beneďŹ ts medical students who wish to follow the path of osteopathy and pediatrics in general practice. “My father actually began as a pharmacist, switched to medicine and genuinely loved it,â€? Scott said. “He was proud that he served families through 40 years and three generations. Young patients grew up and brought their own children to him.â€?

Scott says HFL has touched the lives of borrowers for generations, in much the same way as his father worked directly with his patients. “When I work with HFL, I think of how many facets of people’s lives we affect, and that speaks to me,� Scott said. “It’s not much different than my father’s philosophy.

He had medical students rotate through his ofďŹ ce, teaching them how to listen and be there for patients. “He was passionate about medicine that touched people’s lives directly, and I think he would be pleased to support education for the next wave of medical professionals.â€?

Click. Call. Give Now. www.hfldetroit.org • 248.723.8184

6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48301 Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

@HFLDetroit

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Jews in the D on the cover

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e are proud to announce this year’s Rising Stars: Teens Making a Difference! Judges chosen by the JCC selected these 18 remarkable teens for their incredible achievements and for the positive impact they are making on others and in the community.

Detroit Jewish News, the JCC of Metropolitan Detroit, Jfamily and the Youth Professionals Network, who partnered on the project, had planned to announce these Rising Stars in April, but — like so many other things in 2020 — our plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 Keep your eye on these young people making a positive impact on the Jewish community.

COMPILED BY JN AND JCC STAFF

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

“The JCC and our community of youth-serving organizations are pleased to once again partner with the Detroit Jewish News to recognize 18 outstanding teens making a positive impact on our world,” said the JCC’s Director of Teen Engagement Katie Vieder.

“A lot of the news we see related to teens can be really negative, focusing on the challenges and problems youth experience or cause. We are excited to place the focus on the positive and shine a light on the kindness, innovation and leadership we see in our teens. These youth are doing amazing things, and they deserve to have their voices heard and their accomplishments recognized.”

The JN team is also excited to showcase these accomplished young people in our pages. “This might be the first time you hear these names,” said JN Associate Editor Jackie Headapohl, “but it definitely won’t be the last. I’m confident we’ll be hearing more from them in the future as they continue on their paths of being shining lights in the Jewish community.”

Without further ado, please meet the Metro Detroit Jewish community’s Rising Stars of 2020.

CARLY COHEN Carly, 17, of West Bloomfield is a senior at Bloomfield Hills High School. She is a member of Temple Israel, YFTI and BBYO. She has been one of the Madrichim (teenage guides) at Temple Israel since ninth grade. Carly has been on her BBYO chapter’s executive board for three years and participated in a BBYO Entrepreneurship program.

She was selected to be on the Jewish Fund Teen Board, where she has been learning about philanthropy and engaging in grant making in the Jewish community. Carly is also a member of the UMatter Board.

In the West Bloomfield community, Carly has participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life by volunteering for several years and, since ninth grade, has been a teen coordinator for the event and recruits other teens to volunteer at the event.

At Bloomfield Hills High School, Carly is a member of Yearbook. She also serves on the board of the Key Club, a volunteer organization that raises money for charitable causes. Carly has participated in DECA for the past two years, a group that prepares students in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.

Carly participated in a DECA state competition in March. She is also a member of the Jewish Student Alliance and the National Honor Society.

JONAH COHEN Jonah, 16, of Farmington Hills, is now a junior at the Interlochen Arts Academy. He had attended North Farmington High School up until his junior year and plans to return for his senior year.

Jonah and his family are members of Temple Israel, where he is a member of YFTI. Jonah is an all-A student who maintains a rigorous schedule, participating in many clubs and the ski racing

team.

Jonah’s true passion is music. He plays the piano and cello and composes classical music as well. He earned a scholarship to attend Interlochen, where he is majoring in music composition and continuing his study of piano and cello as well as more traditional academic studies. While at home, Jonah studies composition with a graduate student from U-M, takes weekly private lessons on both of his instruments and plays the cello in both his school orchestra and the Detroit Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Jonah has also participated in summer composition programs at Interlochen and the Curtis Institute of Music. He has had several of his original works performed and recorded and has won several competitions for young composers. While home, Jonah also participates in Monday night school at Temple Israel and serves as one of the Madrichim each Sunday.

MORGAN COOK Morgan, 16, of West Bloomfield is a junior at the International Academy and a member of Temple Shir Shalom, where she belongs to SSTY. Morgan is not the kind of student that cares about what the “cool kids” are doing, she just cares about what the right thing to do is, say the leaders at Shir Shalom. “She is accepting of everyone that crosses her path and, although she can be soft spoken, it is because she is a deep thinker,” they note.

Morgan not only worked hard to go to International Academy but pushes the boundaries of her schedule by involvement with Biff Radio at Bloomfield Hills High School and the International Academy News. She is on the Jewish Federation Teen Board and is the social action vice president of SSTY. She is a writer for her school newspaper, and she still finds time to pursue music, playing piano competitively for the MSBOA solo and ensemble, the Federation Competition at Schoolcraft College and the American Guild of Music Regional Festival.

ELISHA COOPER Elisha, 18, of West Bloomfield, graduated from Frankel Jewish Academy this year. She is a member of Adat Shalom Synagogue. At FJA, Elisha was involved in the National Honor Society, was the captain of both the Girls Varsity Soccer and Girls Varsity Basketball teams and founded the Girls Basketball Club. She was chosen by the head of the science department to be his lab assistant and a student chemistry tutor. Elisha also coordinated a school-wide fundraiser for the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, an organization that supports a cause that is very important to her personally.

Last year, she spent her summer interning for FRIENDS of Jewish Senior Life and was later chosen by FJA as one of the eight high school students to present at the Eight Over Eighty event at Jewish Senior Life. She also attended the RoboTraffic competition at the Technion in Israel last year with the FJA Robotics Team, winning first place for her and a fellow student’s design of a fuel injector, which the judges deemed “professional quality.”

Outside of school, Elisha is a technology tutor, helping an elderly couple with any technology questions they may have. She was the vice president of the Teen Volunteer Corps at Adat Shalom Synagogue, as well as an event chairperson for Tech Connect at Adat Shalom and a three-year Madricha.

She was also a two-year Teen Board Member for the Jewish Fund and a Because We Care Fellowship Board Member with Jewish Family Service. She was also a twoyear member of the JSERVE Teen Board and a recent first-place winner of the National Council of Jewish Women essay scholarship competition.

ALYSSA DISKIN Alyssa, 18, of Commerce Township recently graduated from Walled Lake Northern High School.

Since she was in the eighth grade, she has been a Madricha (teen teacher assistant) at the Adat Shalom-Beth Achim Learning Community. She is passionate about help-

ing kids with special needs learn Hebrew and actively participate in the community.

In addition to actively participating in Madrichim trainings, she has participated in the JCC Opening the Doors community-wide Madrichim Leadership Training program since eighth grade. She is always willing to help others and solve problems and is passionate about being Jewish and nurturing Jewish kids’ identities.

Because of her experiences at Adat Shalom and through the Opening the Doors program, she is now majoring in education with a focus on special education at Eastern Michigan University.

MICAH EIZEN Micah, 18, of Southfield, graduated this past June from Farber Hebrew Day School. With his family, Micah is a member of Young Israel of Oak Park, as well as being an active member of NCSY and B’nei Akiva. Last summer, he worked at Camp Stone assisting in daily operations and general maintenance. Last year, he served as the regional vice president for Central East NCSY while also serving as the president of the Detroit Executive Board.

At Farber, he was the president of the student government and a former grade representative. Micah participated in Model U.N. for multiple years, even serving as the captain during his senior year, and represented the school at the annual AIPAC policy conference. Additionally, he was editor-in-chief of the school yearbook and team captain of the varsity basketball team.

He was the commissioner for two years of the David Tanzman Memorial Tournament, a varsity basketball tournament that honors the legacy of a founding member of Yeshivat Akiva-Farber HDS, David Tanzman. The annual tournament was initially started by his brother, Ari, three years ago with four teams. Micah has since expanded the tournament to a total of six teams this past year.

Micah is a true leader and has been devoted to making a difference as a community leader. Throughout high school, Micah was extremely active in NCSY as a youth leader who works hard to help other teens see the beauty in Judaism and continued on page 14 OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Jews in the D continued from page 13

increase their involvement. Micah has an entrepreneurial spirit and has always looked for ways to help create new programs in his school and the wider community.

Micah is now in Israel, learning at Yeshivat Orayta.

ALEXANDRA FINKELSTEIN Lexie, 18, works tirelessly to improve her community and help those around her. She is a recent graduate of Bloomfield Hills High School where she was president of her senior class. During her high school career, she worked with teachers, school administration and fellow students to promote events to address mental health, bullying and student safety as well as coordinate fundraisers and spirit and political-awareness activities. Her tremendous work ethic led to her being selected as the first intern for the Bloomfield Hills School District Board of Education. She was instrumental in representing the student voice during the selection of a new superintendent.

During high school, Lexie founded and operated two charities. “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Dog) is an annual fundraising event held at the Village of Franklin park each spring, raising money and facilitating five pet adoptions in 2019 alone.

Her Project 1:1 idea grew out of a school assignment and has led to the donation of hundreds of handcrafted bracelets, money and notes of encouragement to pediatric patients at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Lexie is also a certified volunteer at the Friendship Circle.

Currently, Lexie is studying

at U-M where she was accepted into the Ross School of Business and the Michigan Community Scholars Program.

EMILY GOLDSTEIN Emily, 17, of Royal Oak is a senior at Berkley High School and member of Temple Shir Shalom, SSTY and BBYO. According to the youth professional at Shir Shalom, “Emily is one of the most responsible teens we have in our program. She volunteers when no one else does, and I can always depend on her to do what she says she is going to.”

Emily was formerly the Mazkirah for her BBG chapter, the secretary of SSTY board and a PeerCorps mentor. She is also a member on the Peer to Peer Board and participates in the Link program. She was the JV Tennis captain (2020) at Berkley High School, is a member of NHS and is on the highest honor roll. She is a member of HOSA and a graduate of the Perry Outreach Initiative for aspiring doctors. Emily is also a Tamarack camper and was on its teen board.

She enjoyed her service trips to the Dominican Republic in both 2019 and 2020. In addition, amid the pandemic, Emily volunteered with Brilliant Detroit by tutoring children in Detroit.

JACK HARRIS Jack, 17, now a senior at Frankel Jewish Academy, of West Bloomfield, is an active participant in Masa

Teens, TBE’s Religious School program, and BETY, its youth group, and he volunteers his time on Sundays as a Madrich in the religious school office. One of Jack’s best qualities is his drive to always learn more. He is constantly asking questions on a wide variety of topics, from interpreting Biblical texts to translating Hebrew.

In addition to his involvement at Temple Beth El, Jack is very involved with student government at FJA and is the all-school president. Jack is also a member of the National Honor Society at FJA and a member of the tennis, quiz bowl and robotics teams.

Last year, Jack helped make the notice of nondiscrimination policy for FJA more inclusive. Jack’s biggest accomplishment was creating the young activist group, Queer Not Quiet, or QNQ. QNQ is a group of young activists that meet to discuss their experiences regarding their identities. Under Jack’s leadership, this group of young people has begun meeting to share experiences and support each other in a safe space. They can be followed on Instagram.

Jaden took over performing CPR, and when other EMTs at the scene told him he could stop and were ready to call the man’s death, Jaden insisted on continuing compressions. Jaden’s persistence paid off and the man’s heartbeat returned. Jaden received a medallion from United Hatzalah of Israel celebrating his first life save as an EMR (Emergency Medical Responder).

Jaden is also a member of the National Honor Society and a Dale Carnegie alumnus (he does have a dual curriculum at Farber Hebrew Day School). He is currently the student council treasurer. Jaden is one of two teens chosen in the state of Michigan to be a StandWithUs high school intern. He has been a delegate for the Yeshiva University National Model United Nations for the past three years.

He participated in the Chidon HaTanach (National Bible Competition) in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Jaden is also a member of the Jewish Scholars Program and afterschool Kollel learning. Jaden is also a PeerCorps, AIPAC and Bookstock volunteer and tutors students in math and science.

JADEN JUBAS Jaden, 17 of Southfield is a senior at Farber Hebrew Day School and member of Tiferes Nachman, NCSY and B’nei Akiva. At the young age of 16, Jaden saved a life. On July 16, 2019, while on a summer program called Hatzalah Rescue, Jaden found himself using his newly learned lifesaving procedures while on an ambulance run in the Israeli city of Bat Yam. He arrived on the scene to find an 80-year-old man unconscious with CPR in progress.

IAN KRAFT Ian, 15, now a sophomore at North Farmington High School who lives in Farmington Hills, has brought a breath of fresh air to YFTI at Temple Israel. As a freshman, Ian became a song leader at YFTI and brought a new way to celebrate Shabbat and Havdalah. Ian now serves as the Jewish Programming Chair of YFTI and participates in weekly Monday night music class, learning to perfect his continued on page 16

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Jews in the D continued from page 16

skills and find new songs and tunes to bring to his youth group.

Ian has taken every opportunity to be a leader with his voice and his guitar. Ian heard about a music and leadership weekend presented by the URJ and wanted to be a part of this experience to better YFTI’s ruach and rhythm. He was one of 10 teens to take part of the URJ’s Nashir: Song Leading for Action, where he led Shabbat services for more than 500 Jewish teens.

Ian took that energy from the leadership cohort and came home to lead YFTI’s Ski Trip weekend in music and celebration. Ian’s example as YFTI’s teen song leader has created more participation in services, a new energy to YFTI and a resurgence in teens wanting to help lead services.

Along with his involvement in YFTI, Ian is an active member of BBYO and has also been on five regional committees and is the vice president of the Jewish Student Union at North Farmington High School.

MIA LEWIS Mia, 16, who is a senior at Seaholm High School, is a member of Temple Israel and is actively involved with BBYO and PeerCorps, a part of Repair the World that works with young Jewish teens using Jewish values to try to bridge the gap between the city of Detroit and the suburbs. The Birmingham resident volunteered every week at a community garden and helped tutor kids in Detroit. She is also a member of the Jewish Fund Teen Board, where she

works on philanthropy and making a difference to help others.

At Seaholm, she was on the board for the Jewish Culture Club, which tried to educate their mostly Christian school about Jewish values by creating opportunities such as bringing in Holocaust survivors and holiday events. She was also active in the American Sign Language Club and Crafts 4 Kids (making crafts for cancer patients in hospitals).

In BBYO, she is the vice president of Dora Savage BBG and ran as a candidate for Student of the Year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, running a campaign to raise $15,000 for blood cancer patients and research. She was also a member of NHS and studies hard to keep a near-perfect grade point average, overcoming struggles with dyslexia.

CARA LOPATIN Cara, 17, has had to deal with some of the most stressful events while maintaining a positive attitude, strong academics, being community service-minded and serving as a positive role model for both adults and kids.

This senior at Farber Hebrew Day School had a malignant brain tumor when she was in second grade and then again when she was in fourth grade. She had chemotherapy, proton beam radiation and a stem cell transplant. She missed a lot of school and continues to deal with the effects of the tumor and its treatments. Despite that, she became involved in the community as a youth group leader, a Torah and Megillah reader and as a “motivational” speaker as a cancer

survivor, both in her schools and synagogues.

Cara, who lives in Huntington Woods, is also a co-chair of B’nei Akiva Detroit where she plans activities and supervises counselors. She is a group leader, greeter, kiddush setter-upper, and all-around volunteer at her synagogue, Kehillat Etz Chayim.

She volunteers at Friendship Circle, serves on the Jewish Fund Teen Board and continues to be involved in Chai Lifeline, an organization serving kids with serious life-threatening illnesses and their families.

ISAAC MINTZ Isaac, 18, of West Bloomfield, graduated from West Bloomfield High School in 2020 and now attends the University of Michigan where he looks to study philosophy, political science and economics. He is a member of Temple Shir Shalom.

At school, Isaac was a school ambassador and student member of the administration.

He achieved the Outstanding Civics Student award in 2019.

Isaac was an active member of DECA, a business competition program, where he was recognized as the State Champion in the Retail Merchandising Series Event, received an Award of Excellence in the Mathematics Examination in the Retail Merchandising Series at the state level and an Award of Excellence for all standards of performance in the Retail Merchandising Series at the international level. At West Bloomfield High School, he was a member of the National Honor Society, a staff writer

for the school newsmagazine, co-president of the WBHS Yoga Club and the Earth Club and Executive Chair of Policy and Communications. Additionally, he won the Dale Carnegie Highest Award for Achievement in 2018.

He was happy to have worked during high school, which has included an internship with Robin Schwartz PR, a robotics internship at Lawrence Technological University (where he focused on artificial intelligence, coding and autonomous vehicles) and freelance work (babysitting, auto detailing, lawn work, etc.). He is currently growing his photography business.

Isaac has given back to the community through over 100 hours of community service, including serving youth in the After School Program in Detroit at an underprivileged school, working with the Adat Shalom Teen Volunteer Corps and with J-Serve, providing tech help to the elderly and tutoring students at school. He won the Youth Volunteer Leadership Award of Greater West Bloomfield in 2018 and 2020.

HANNAH RASHTY Hannah, 16, of West Bloomfield, is a junior at West Bloomfield High School and member of Keter Torah and BBYO, and she spends her summers at Camp Tamarack. She is very passionate and involved in many sports at her school from field hockey to tennis to basketball.

She has been involved in student leadership at her high school and is currently on the continued on page 18

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Jews in the D continued from page 16

leadership executive board as the treasurer. She is a member of the “Upstander Committee,” which takes a strong stance against bullying, making sure everyone “matters.” She is a member of the Federation Jewish Teen Board where she works on allocating funds to various philanthropic organizations. Her dream is to help make a difference in the availability of funds and programs in our community for mental health.

She is part of her school’s HOSA Club, Jewish Club and the Martin Luther King Jr. Club. Through the Martin Luther King Jr. club, Hannah helped emcee the “United We Stand” WBHS event for the community. She helped to lead a march down Orchard Lake Road. Hannah was the HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) first-place winner in December and went on to compete at the state level.

HANNAH RESNICK Hannah, 18, of Farmington Hills, graduated from Frankel Jewish Academy this year with a 3.5 GPA. Hannah is attending Lawrence Technological University where she plans to study architecture and design and join the volleyball and bowling teams. She is a member of Temple Shir Shalom and BBYO. Hannah was nominated because she is “caring, loving, compassionate, hardworking, artistic, athletic, a good friend, respectful, a loving daughter, loves being Jewish, and loves animals and music.”

The biggest obstacle Hannah had to overcome is anxiety and confidence, and she has dealt

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with this with grace. Hannah has been part of the volleyball, soccer and boys’ bowling teams at school and, this year, she held the title “captain” for the volleyball and bowling teams. Hannah is coaching club volleyball for 12-year-olds because her age group was not available. Hannah has a talent for art. Many of her pieces over the years have been recognized. For the past three years, she has volunteered at an art camp and last summer acted as a counselor.

Hannah is a recipient of the Stars of Tomorrow Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation Scholarship in honor of Steve Rosen, and the winner of the Kappy Family Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel Art and Writing Competition through the Holocaust Memorial Center. She was also recognized as MVP for both volleyball and bowling and won Female Athlete of the Year at Frankel Jewish Academy, receiving a scholarship from the Doris J. and Donald L. Duchene Sr. Foundation.

LAUREN SCHOSTAK Lauren, 18, of Huntington Woods, graduated from Berkley High School in 2020 and is a member of Adat Shalom Synagogue, where she is one of the Tri-Presidents of the Teen Volunteer Corps. She loves to volunteer and help organizations in the Jewish community and in Metro Detroit. She is dedicated to helping teens experience meaningful volunteer projects and is a positive role model for others. She finds comfort through writing and art.

Last year, she won the CohnHaddow Center for Judaic

Studies community-wide essay competition. Her winning piece, titled “A Once Blinded Jewish Woman,” grapples with the fact that the leaders of the Women’s March have been seen condoning antisemitism and how Lauren finds her identity as a Jewish woman.

Lauren has also been open about her struggles with mental health. Few teens have the courage to share their challenges like Lauren has. Only a few years ago, she found out that she was diagnosed with a learning disability. Instead of thinking about it as a problem, this diagnosis helped her understand herself better and determine what she needs to be healthy. She shared her story at the UMatter “One Thing I Wish You Knew” program with the hopes that it would help someone else who was struggling.

Lauren is also an entrepreneur. A few years ago, Lauren and longtime friend Julie Krasnick started Ba-Gals, a Sunday morning bagel delivery service in Huntington Woods and Berkley. She is the co-CEO and has worked hard to grow the business and has trained teens to run the company while she attends Michigan State University. Lauren will be studying at MSU’s Lyman Briggs College in hopes of majoring in neuroscience and attending medical school one day.

JOSEPH WINER Joey, 16, of Huntington Woods, is a junior at Farber Hebrew Day School and a member of Young Israel of Oak Park (YIOP), B’nei Akiva and

NCSY. He is a religious leader or gabbai of the teen minyan at YIOP, and a teen counselor and programmer for B’nei Akiva youth. The kids love his fun spirit and playfulness at their weekly youth groups and events.

Joey ran cross-country last fall for Farber, plays basketball for Farber, and hockey for Royal Oak ice arena.

He has stayed committed to hockey, despite being Sabbath-observant and having to regularly give up ice time for religious beliefs. Joey has maintained a 3.8 GPA despite having a dual curriculum and was recently inducted into the National Honor Society.

He also attends optional extra Gemara classes at school every Thursday night. His teachers enjoy his unique insights and quick mind.

At the beginning of his sophomore year, Joey was diagnosed with a seizure disorder. Despite the challenges this diagnosis posed, he never let it stop him from doing any team sports, physical activities like rafting and ropes course, class trips or community work.

Joey was the first local student to participate in the Discovery for a Cure summer internship through Wayne State University program, which introduces students passionate about science to advanced laboratory research so they can help be part of scientific treatment and cures. This summer, Joey participated in a STEM competition through Wayne State University and his team won first place by devising an app to make mental health services more widely available for all.

Jews in the D

JFMD/Foundation Meeting Goes Virtual DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

T

he 2020-2021 Annual Meeting of the Jewish Federation and the United Jewish Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit took place on Zoom Oct. 1. Leadership formally elected Matt Lester as the new president of Federation and Dennis Bernard as the new president of the Foundation.

Businessman Dan Gilbert was also presented with the Fred M. Butzel Memorial Award, the highest honor bestowed on a Detroit Jewish citizen by the Federation.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made an appearance at the virtual event, congratulating Lester and Bernard as they begin their new roles. Whitmer also congratulated Gilbert and thanked JFMD and the community during this trying year.

Outgoing Federation President Beverly Liss, outgoing Foundation President Alan Kaufman, Lester and Bernard held a sit-down interview.

“The Federation’s in great shape,” Kaufman said. “The assets under management are over $700 million, real estate’s in good shape, we’ve eliminated properties that weren’t performing as needed, and our property is maintained. The assets that are managed by Federation have increased over the last three years, so I’m really proud to say that the management of the Foundation’s assets are solid footing for the future.”

A big topic was Federation’s response to COVID-19.

“We are stronger when we work together,” Lester said.

“Our response to COVID was frankly unprecedented among any Jewish federation throughout the world ... I think our Federation and Jewish community is extremely well-positioned to take on any challenge that comes our way.”

Lester laid out his priorities for the year.

“I want to be able to enhance our fundraising ability, and for people to feel comfortable without any threshold resistance to being part of or coming into the Federation circle,” he said.

Lester also said he wants to see Federation go “from good to great” in terms of business, have stronger relationships between agencies and “expand the tent” further.

For the Butzel Award, a video montage of Gilbert’s friends, colleagues and confidants played before Gilbert spoke.

“I’m honored to join all the past Butzel recipients,” Gilbert said. “We look forward to partnering with more foundations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to explore solutions to other generational challenges that have plagued Detroit and Detroiters for far too long ...

Jews have always led the way in philanthropy and giving, and we are honored to carry on that tradition.”

The meeting did not discuss the closure of the JCC’s health club. The club sits on land managed by the United Jewish Foundation, but both the Foundation and JFMD have said the decision to close the club was entirely the JCC’s.

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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COURTESY OF EDWARD STROSS

Jews in the D

Mural by Edward Stross

Ginsburg’s

Detroit Connections A romance sparked between RBG’s former law clerks, and an artist pays tribute with a memorial.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

W

hen Sam Bagenstos heard the news about the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, he was in the middle of a Rosh Hashanah service on Zoom and was instantly overcome with emotion.

“Tikkun olam is a principle and a practice that mattered a lot to the justice, and it’s something I think she’s passed along to a new generation, even for those who don’t know or use Sam that term,” Bagenstos said.

Bagenstos Bagenstos, a civil rights lawyer and professor of law at the University of Michigan, served as a law clerk for Ginsburg from 1997-98, and is one of many Detroit-area connections and admirers of

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

Ginsburg mourning her recent passing.

“She was always incredibly meticulous about getting the cases right. She worked 20-hour days and inspired you to work as hard as she did,” Bagenstos said. “We worked on some quite significant cases and some cases nobody has heard of, but she took all the cases equally seriously.”

Ginsburg was appointed to the high court in 1993 and was the first Jewish woman and only the second woman ever to become a justice. Ginsburg was one of the most important figures in fighting for gender equality in U.S. history.

While Ginsburg was known for being stoic and focused, Bagenstos’ experiences with the justice give a peek into who she was on a personal level and how much she

cared for her law clerk family.

“The first case I argued in front of the Supreme Court, I lost 9-0,” Bagenstos said.

“She wrote me a note when the opinion came out about how great I was in the argument, and it was really all about the side I was on and not about my lawyering. I really appreciated that.

“Often, when I would file a brief in the court, she would write me a little note with some kind of funny joke about a line in the brief I wrote, showing me she had read the brief very carefully,” Bagenstos continued.

Bagenstos married another law clerk of Ginsburg’s, Margo Schlanger, and it was through their shared link to Ginsburg that they connected.

Schlanger was a clerk of Ginsburg’s from 1993-95 and was looking to work at the Justice Department once her clerkship was over.

In a conversation with former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who headed the civil Margo rights division of the Justice Schlanger Department at the time, Ginsburg mentioned Schlanger as someone he should interview for a job.

In return, Patrick mentioned the name of Bagenstos, a young lawyer at the time working under Patrick, as someone Ginsburg should interview to become one of her clerks. Bagenstos hadn’t even applied for the job. They were both hired in their respective roles.

Bagenstos and Schlanger eventually started going out to lunch every week to maintain open lines of communication.

“One thing led to another and we fell in love, and in the middle of my clerkship I proposed, and Margo said yes,” Bagenstos recalled. “When I told Justice Ginsberg, it really was the happiest I’d ever seen her.”

Schlanger, also a professor of law at the University of Michigan, applied to work for Ginsburg on the D.C. Circuit prior to her SCOTUS appointment because Ginsburg was already such a hero in regards to gender rights.

“The guiding principle for Justice Ginsburg was that men and women should be equal, not only when they do the things you’d expect men and women to do, but however they choose to be men and women,” Schlanger said.

“I was a women’s history major in college.

The importance of this kind of an idea

about equality was something that I walked into the clerkship thinking that that’s why I wanted to be there learning from her.”

Schlanger wrote a piece for Time magazine after Ginsburg’s death, reiterating what kind of warrior Ginsburg was for equality under the law.

“RBG’s crucial contribution to America was as a stalwart, eloquent fighter for expanding the scope of ‘We the People,’ pushing the United States to be its best self. Whether she wrote in majority or in dissent, her voice on the Supreme Court is irreplaceable,” Schlanger wrote in the piece.

Jonathan Weinberg, a professor of law at Wayne State University, clerked for Ginsburg from Jonathan 1983-1984, also Weinberg

“... her voice on the Supreme Court is irreplaceable.”

— MARGO SCHLANGER before she was on the Supreme Court. He also heard about Ginsburg’s death during Rosh Hashanah services on Zoom.

“Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it was simply taken for granted that women, legally, were not expected to, did not and could not play the same role in society as men,” Weinberg said.

“Ginsburg wasn’t the only person to play a part in changing that, but she played a tremendously important part in bringing us to a world where it’s so much more taken for granted.”

ARTIST PAINTS MURAL IN HONOR OF JUSTICE GINSBURG Edward Stross, owner of

Roseville’s Gonzo Art Studio, painted a mural over a two-day period honoring Ginsburg on the brick wall of his Gratiot Avenue building. Stross was influenced by her life’s accomplishments.

“She represents giving people a voice,” Stross said. “She’s a beautiful woman physically and on the inside, and once you start doing someone’s portrait you’re able to look in their face and their eyes and you’re able to become instantly closer to the individual.”

Stross has been painting murals since 1996, but a specific mural he made of Michelangelo’s Creation of

Love years ago led to the city ordering him to remove it and eventually taking him to court.

His subsequent experiences in the court system gave him a new appreciation of Ginsburg’s work.

“The ACLU took the case. It went all the way up to the State Supreme Court, and I won,” Stross said. “That’s another part of the reason why I did this. I really appreciate the high courts that correct these decisions.”

Stross said he has received some abuse online from people who weren’t fans of Ginsburg, but he is moving forward and weathering the storm, just as Ginsburg would.

“She didn’t allow people to determine what her life was going to be,” Stross said. “She was a fighter for the underdog.”

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Getting ready for game night: Jonathon Reinheimer, Reed McAlphia, Spencer Cohn, Stanley Wolf, Adam Garfield Turner and James Pentis.

A Place of Their Own

Group neighborhood provides independence to adults with disabilities.

JENNIFER LOVY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

L

osing a sister to breast cancer forced Melanie Cohen to address the question that keeps every parent of a child with a disability awake at night: “Who will take care of my child when I’m gone?”

Watching her nieces and nephew become orphans, Cohen suddenly realized the importance of making and implementing a long-term plan for her 23-year-old autistic son Spencer. Although she and her husband are healthy and Spencer has a younger brother, Cohen felt it was important to find housing that would give Spencer his independence and allow him to live in an environment where he would not feel isolated.

While researching options, she came across the concept of an intentional community and felt it would be the best living situation for her son. The idea intrigued her because Spencer could live with his peers in housing that would be walking distance from shopping and a potential place for him to work, which is especially important since he does not drive. Plus, living among the residents, there would be a community builder whose part-time job would be to mediate roommate disputes, etc.

While the concept was intriguing, there were no local options. Cohen, who lives

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in West Bloomfield, joined a handful of like-minded moms who were creating an intentional community. They shared a vision, agreed on a mission statement, and ultimately formed a nonprofit organization called Integrative Neighborhoods of Oakland County.

Melanie Cohn and Spencer Cohn

The group has seven young adults with varying degrees of disabilities, all living in three apartments in Hunters Ridge Apartments and Townhouses, in Farmington Hills. They are also looking to expand to other areas around Oakland County and collaborating with almost a dozen families looking to establish an intentional community east of Woodward.

In the Hunters Ridge Apartments, each resident has a daytime caregiver providing a set number of hours per week. The residents also work or attend a day program.

For example, Spencer has a job cleaning at West Bloomfield High School and has state funding for a caregiver to spend 20 hours a week with him.

When Spencer isn’t working, he likes to ride his bike around the neighborhood or walk to one of the nearby stores, where he regularly buys a diet Coke. He also enjoys participating in game nights organized by his roommate Stanley Wolf.

During the summer, these bi-weekly Saturday night gatherings took place outside because of COVID. As the temperatures dropped, game night moved to an online format. There was also talk of starting Shabbat dinners (four of the seven residents are Jewish) but until there is a vaccine, Friday night dinners are on hold.

Spencer and Wolf share a three-bedroom apartment with one other roommate.

According to Wolf, they’ve lived there for one year and five months and love their independence.

“I can do what I want, and I have good roommates,” said Wolf, who likes to go

PHOTOS COURTESY OF INTEGRATIVE NEIGHBORHOODS OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Jews in the D

“It was very important for my son to feel and be as independent as he can be.”

— HELEN BARRON

Spencer Cohn and Stanley Wolf

bowling, hang out with friends and watch movies. From his apartment, Wolf watched Temple Israel’s High Holiday services. “I was excited about living on my own. There’s nothing hard about it.”

As for the parents, they said it was difficult initially, but the growth and independence they’ve seen from their kids has been remarkable.

“At first, I was very anxious and worried,” said Helen Barron, whose son Jacob, 30, just signed his third one-year lease. “Were they going to lock the door?

Would they remember to turn

off the oven or would he call if there was a problem?”

Cohen added: “It was a hard decision to move him out. We know he’s young, but we felt there wouldn’t be a difference if we did it now versus 10 years from now.”

PERSONAL GROWTH Barron and Cohen marvel at the growth in their sons’ independence and feel comfortable with each of them living on their own. They appreciate the fact that their sons are part of a community and can make their own decisions.

“I didn’t want him to feel isolated or living in a situation where someone else would make choices for him because he’s capable of making his own decisions. It was very important for him to feel and be as independent as he can be,” Barron said.

Although their sons are doing well, the mothers’ work is far from done. They are looking to bring in an on-site, parttime staff member to handle nighttime emergencies, help the residents resolve conflicts and facilitate social activities. It’s a position they had hoped to fill long ago, but securing funding is

challenging, and being in the middle of a pandemic doesn’t help.

While the group is actively fundraising, many of the events they had were canceled or modified because of COVID. A No-Go July 4 party brought in some revenue. The group is selling tribute cards and soliciting donations on its website. Plans include reaching out to local businesses for support as well.

More information about Integrative Neighborhoods of Oakland County can be found at https:// integrative-neighborhoods.com.

O ober is Domestic Abuse Awareness Month How can you get involved? #1- F low the campaign

#3- Learn more!

Jewish Family Service and JCADA are posting all month long on social media to raise awareness of domestic abuse in our community.

Follow us, comment and share! Be part of the conversation.

Join us for a workshop on identifying healthy and unhealthy practices within any relationship and learn practical tools for offering support to individuals in crisis.

Fostering Healthy Relationships Through a Supportive Community with

#2- Reach out If you or someone you love is experiencing domestic abuse, seek help.

Contact JFS at 248.592.2313 or resourcecenter@jfsdetroit.org For 24-hour crisis and local support, contact HAVEN at 877.922.1274 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800.799.7233

Dr. Shoshannah Frydman, PhD, LCSW Executive Director, Shalom Task Force

Monday, October 19, 2020 at 7pm Webinar ID: 941 2168 3140 Passcode: 094445 For more information contact Sammie Rosenbloom at 248.592.2244 or srosenbloom@jfsdetroit.org jfsdetroit.org OCTOBER 8 • 2020

| 23

A scene from the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Jews in the D

ANTHONY CRIDER VIA WIKIPEDIA

Lawsuit Targets White Supremacists Alleged planners of Charlottesville violence could face financial ruin.

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

D

uring the past several years, Jewish Americans and others have been shocked by the increase in antisemitic public statements, physical assaults and the killings of Jewish individuals across the country by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and members of other hate groups.

In response, Jewish communities have strengthened security at their facilities, spoken out at community and interfaith events, and sought action from public officials to counteract threats and violence.

In August 2017, white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other extremist groups organized a “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville, Va., protesting the city’s plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Violent clashes occurred between the Unite the Right supporters, many from outside the area, and peaceful, local counter-protestors, including interfaith groups.

The extremist groups marched in downtown Charlottesville, many with torches, some wearing dark military-like helmets and chanting antisemitic slogans — “Jews will not replace us” and “Blood and soil” — reminiscent of Nazi parades. Some carried shields and pepper spray. They marched around Temple Beth Israel, Virginia’s oldest synagogue, chanting threatening slogans, as temple members participated in a regularly scheduled service.

One hate group supporter purposely drove a car into the peaceful counter-protestors, killing one woman and injuring

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

dozens of others. The driver was tried and convicted of second-degree murder by the state of Virginia and is imprisoned there.

Public officials in Virginia and nationally condemned the violence.

the

AntiSemitism Project But a nonprofit organization, Integrity First for America, is seeking legal action to achieve more — justice for those who were injured and accountability for those who organized the weekend of violence. They filed a civil lawsuit, Sines v Kessler, in federal court in Virginia, charging that two dozen individuals and groups planned and implemented violence against peaceful protestors, violating their rights during the weekend of Aug. 12, 2017.

The lawsuit is based on the KKK Act of 1871, which was passed to prevent Ku Klux Klan attacks against freed slaves. Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, says that the law has been used Amy multiple times during the 20th Spitalnick century.

One of the nine plaintiffs, Elizabeth Sines, a University of Virginia law student, tried to peacefully protest during the Unite the Right

tiki torch march and was a bystander when a car plowed into protestors. Defendant Jason Kessler is a member of Proud Boys who helped plan the Unite the Right events with Richard Spencer. Proud Boys is the extremist white nationalist group that President Trump was asked to condemn during the first presidential debate on Sept.

29. His response was to tell the group “Stand back and stand by,” which has since become one of their organizing slogans. (On Oct. 1, Trump said, “I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the Proud Boys.”)

“The violence during the weekend of Aug. 12 was not an accident, not spontaneous — it was racially motivated violence, planned in advance on social media,” said Spitalnick during a webinar about antisemitism presented several months ago by the National Council of Jewish Women.

Evidence gathered by Integrity First will show that leaders of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other extremist groups incited violence online and brought weapons to Charlottesville.

“The First Amendment provides a right to beliefs and their expression, but it does not permit inciting to violence. Our case takes on the leadership of these organizations to bankrupt and dismantle these organizations,” she says.

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS Robert Sedler, distinguished professor of law at Wayne State University Law School and a special Michigan assistant attorney

“ADL invested in this case by making a grant and offering other support.”

— ADL’S CAROLYN NORMANDIN general for constitutional and civil rights, explains that the lawsuit’s premise is that the plaintiffs were Robert deprived of “their Sedler constitutional rights of engaging in peaceful acts of expression. The plaintiffs will have to prove that the defendants conspired to deprive them of their rights.

As a civil case, damages could be awarded for interference with the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”

Spitalnick says defendants tried unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed and some have declared bankruptcy and destroyed evidence to avoid accountability. Several defendants have been sanctioned and fined for violating court orders. Two have faced court arrests, which is, she said, “fairly unheard of in a civil suit.”

One of the defendants, Jeff Schoep, former commander of the National Socialist Movement, who lives in the Detroit area, claims that his phone fell in the toilet so that he can’t provide evidence, says Spitalnick. (Schoep has claimed that he renounced his extremist views as described in the JN, May 21, 2020.)

According to Spitalnick, Integrity First for America is funded by individuals and foundations with many small donations. In addition, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a nonprofit organization established in 1913 to fight hate against Jewish and other individuals, has con-

tributed $100,000 to this legal effort.

A FINANCIAL IMPACT “Integrity First for America’s case presents a unique opportunity to have a direct financial, legal and operational impact on these hate groups,” says Carolyn Normandin, regional director for the Michigan Carolyn ADL. Normandin “It’s already done so even before trial, as has been acknowledged directly by some of the individual defendants …

Moreover, once a monetary judgment is rendered, it can reach future income and assets of these groups and individuals. It could hobble them indefinitely.”

While the jury trial has been postponed until April 2021 due to COVID-19, final depositions and other trial preparations continue.

“ADL invested in this case by making a grant and offering other support because it’s having — and will continue to have — a concrete, tangible impact in disrupting these extremist organizations,” says Normandin.

“However, the ADL believes other tactics are important in the fight against extremism — including closely monitoring hate groups, advocacy for laws to prevent cyber-harassment and encouraging technology leaders to disrupt hate online.”

"Although I’ve only been here a short time, I can already tell that FJA is an INCREDIBLE PLACE...

The school spirit and enthusiasm of all of the kids and teachers makes for such a warm and welcoming environment.

My T RANSIT ION to high school has been nearly SEAMLESS. I’m beyond excited to spend the next four years of my life at FJA!" - Rozie Aronov, Class of 2024

FRANKEL JEWISH ACADEMY

VIRT UAL OPEN HOUSE Thursday, October 22, 2020 7:30pm RSVP to Arielle Endelman, Director of Admissions for Zoom link aendelman@frankelja.org - 248.671.3248 OWN YOUR JOURNEY. DISCOVER YOUR TOMORROW.

For updates about the trial, visit integrityfirstforamerica.org.

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Moments

AUG. 14, 2020 Andrew and Sarah Cherluck of Berkley are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Eloise Margot Cherluck (Eliora Miriam). Delighted grandparents are Scott and Debra Silver of Beverly Hills, Mich., and Robert and Michele Cherluck of Sterling Heights.

Eloise is named in loving memory of her paternal grandmother Marilyn Silver. She is the beloved great-granddaughter of Florence Holzman of Glendale, Wis., Walt and Laura Cherluck of Sterling Heights, and of the late Robert Holzman, Robert and Joann Genslak, and Robert and Marilyn Silver.

Ari Nathan Fried will lead the congregation in prayer on the occasion of his bar mitzvah at Temple Israel on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. He will be joined in celebration by his proud parents, Randi and Steve Fried, and siblings Ella and Brody. Ari is the loving grandchild of Sari and Marc Roland, and Barbara and the late Joel Fried, and greatgrandchild of Seymour Grundy.

He is a student at Walnut Creek Middle School in West Bloomfield. For his most meaningful mitzvah project, Ari wrote and organized cards of encouragement to homebound seniors and essential workers during the first few months of the COVID crisis and donated to the Henry Ford Hospital COVID relief.

Kate Evelyn Goldman, daughter of Stefanie and Jon Goldman, will lead the congregation as she becomes a bat mitzvah on Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, at Temple Israel in West

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

Bloomfield. She will be joined in celebration by her sister Zoe and proud grandparents Carol and Gary Kushner, Jill and Steve Seldin, and Jane and Budd Goldman.

Kate is a student at West Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills. For her most meaningful mitzvah project, she volunteered at and donated to Gleaners Community Food Bank, raising enough money to provide 1,950 meals to families in need.

Brody Sol Oleshansky, son of Dr. Melissa and Tony Oleshansky, will chant from the Torah on the occasion of his bar mitzvah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. He will be joined in celebration by his sister Jolie and proud grandparents Marlene and Bill Oleshansky, Carol and Michael Corman, and Ann and Stan Hammerstein.

Brody is a student at West Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills. As part of his most meaningful mitzvah project, he became certified as a Junior Kindness Ambassador for the nonprofit

Kindness Matters 365 program. He hosted Kindness meetings during his school’s Leadership Cub meetings to help bring awareness of global kindness, community service and learned how to be a kind leader.

Ava Elizabeth Paige, daughter of Michael Paige and Morgan Goodman and sister of Jourdan, Jack, Branson, Kevin, Crystal, Kayla, Michael and Brandon, became a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township. She is the granddaughter of Bernita Cheeseman, Stella GoodmanBarnes and Carlyle Barnes.

Ava is an eight-grader at Bloomfield Hills Middle School.

She is active in many mitzvah projects, among them is volunteering at a Detroit elementary school for students without a publicly funded afterschool program.

Ellaree Lucille Zack and Olivia Lucille Zack will share the bimah at Temple Israel in West Ellaree Zack Bloomfield on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020, as they lead the congregation in prayer on the occasion Olivia Zack of their b’not mitzvah. They will be joined in celebration by their proud parents, Heather and Scott Zack.

Ellaree and Olivia are the loving grandchildren of Penny and the late Earl Zack, and Bonnie Kaczor.

They attend the Roeper School in Birmingham. They performed many mitzvah projects, but each found working with the children at the Dream Center to be the most meaningful. They helped to provide home-cooked meals from their kitchen to the Dream Center facility, and they engaged in afterschool athletic activities, followed by one-on-one tutoring with the children.

HOW TO SUBMIT ANNOUNCEMENTS Mazel Tov! announcements are welcomed for members of the Jewish community. Anniversaries, engagements and weddings with a photo (preferably color) can appear at a cost of $18 each. Births are $10. There is no charge for bar/bat mitzvahs or for special birthdays starting at the 90th.

For information, contact Editorial Assistant Sy Manello at smanello@renmedia.us or (248) 351-5147 for information or for a mailed or emailed copy of guidelines.

Moments

THEY’RE YOUR METROPARKS. JOIN OUR TEAM.

Margolis-Tochen

E

laine and Barry Margolis are thrilled to announce the upcoming marriage of their daughter Erin Hillary Margolis to Daniel Tochen, son of Mary Beth Schiffman and David Tochen of Bethesda, Md. Erin and Dan met in 2015 while living in Chicago. The couple got engaged in March 2019. Erin works in the family business, Margolis Companies in Ann Arbor. Dan leads a team at cars.com.

The couple currently reside in Ann Arbor and will be wed in October 2020.

HURON-CLINTON METROPARKS

Yedwab-Allmayer

R

abbi Paul and Wendy Yedwab are thrilled to announce the wedding of their daughter Ariella Jae Yedwab to Josh Mark Allmayer, son of Dan and Melanie Allmayer.

The couple were married in the beautiful gardens of Temple Israel. After a mini-moon to the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York, they headed back to their home in Brooklyn, N.Y.

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arah Mervis of Southfield celebrated her 95th birthday on Oct. 6, 2020. Her children, grandchildren and six great-grandchildren were on hand to wish her birthday happiness.

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

| 27

Spirit torah portion

Contact Us

Visit the JN website www.thejewishnews.com NEWS UPDATES Watch videos and read the latest news about Metro Detroit’s Jewish community. thejewishnews.com

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Detroit Jewish News | 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110 | Southfield, MI 48034 OUR JN MISSION: We aspire to communicate news and opinion that’s trusted, valued, engaging and distinctive. We strive to reflect diverse community viewpoints while also advocating positions that strengthen Jewish unity and continuity. As an independent, responsible, responsive community member, we actively engage with individuals and organizations dedicated to enhancing the quality of life, and Jewish life, in Southeast Michigan.

28 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

An Opportune Time

S

hemini Atzeret is the Fortunately, our sages looked end of the High Holiday at ambiguity as an opportunity season. It is perfect for to create deeper meaning.

2020. It is a holiday about They created an additional being attached yet separate holiday on top of Shemini at the same time. It is about Atzeret, which they called finding joy during moments Simchat Torah, which celeof uncertainty. It is an brates both the finishing optimistic message of of the annual Torah the possibility of hope reading and its beginand renewal, even when ning again. it feels like everything The holidays of the has fallen apart. month of Tishri repreRabbi Aaron sent a cycle of spiritual The holiday isn’t Bergman mentioned in the main rebirth and renewal. part of our Torah readOn Rosh Hashanah, we Parshat ing, only in the maftir are created anew, with Shemini from the second scroll potential and possibiliAtzeret: we read, which is taken Deuteronomy ties to become the peofrom Sefer Bamidbar, the 14:22-16:17; ple we want to be. On Numbers Book of Numbers.

Yom Kippur, through 29:35-30:1; The maftir says, “On repentance and introI Kings spection, we think about the eighth day you shall 8:54-66 how to transform our hold a solemn gathermost difficult qualities ing; you shall not work and relationships. at your occupations.” Leviticus Sukkot is about rebuilding 23: 34-36 says, “On the 15th our lives and thinking about day of this seventh month the walls that we have around there shall be the Feast of Booths to the Lord, [to last] us. Which walls need to stay seven days. The first day shall up, and which need to come be a sacred occasion: you shall down? not work at your occupations; Shemini Atzeret is the seven days you shall bring eighth day. This has echoes of offerings by fire to the Lord. when Adam and Eve left the On the eighth day you shall Garden of Eden, which was observe a sacred occasion and the eighth day of creation. bring an offering by fire to the They felt insecure, heading Lord; it is a solemn gathering: into a new and unfamiliar you shall not work at your world. occupations.”

Shemini Atzeret, with A few verses later it says, Simchat Torah, celebrates our “You shall observe it as a festipotential for creating meaning val of the Lord for seven days and goodness no matter what in the year; you shall live in is happening in the world as booths seven days; all citizens long as we stay connected to in Israel shall live in booths.” the values of our traditions Our sages noticed an ambiand to each other. guity here. Shemini Atzeret seems to be the last day of Aaron Bergman is a rabbi at Adat Sukkot, but the Torah says Shalom Synagogue in Farmington that Sukkot is seven days.

Hills.

Jews in the D

Most Read on the Web Each month, the JN will let you know the stories that were read most often online. If you missed any, you can go to the jewishnews.com and search for them by title. Here’s what was most popular in September.

Top 10 on the Web 1. JCC Health Club to Permanently Close 2. The Abraham Accord Between Israel and the UAE: Curb Your Enthusiasm 3. New Bagel on the Block: Tov Bagel Opens Downtown Location 4. No Schmear Coincidence: Grandson Turns Lessons from his Baking Bubbie into a Thriving Traverse City Bagel Business 5. Michigan Rabbi Hilariously Runs Through Ann Arbor Blowing the Shofar [VIDEO] 6. A Mystery: Why Do So Many Haredi Jews Disregard the Pandemic?

7. Remembering My Brother with Garrett’s Space 8. A New Future for the Jewish News: Non-Profit Ownership 9. Butzel Award Winner Dan Gilbert Reflects on Family, Faith and Philanthropy 10. Michigan Attorney General Nessel Compares Trump to Hitler at State Nominating Convention

Feder ation Awar ds Night Tuesday, October 13, 2020 | 7:30 p.m.

Join us as we honor our

2020 Awardees William Davidson Lifetime Achievement Award

Dan G. Guyer Frank A. Wetsman Young Leadership Award

Lou Goldhaber Mark-Lis Family Young Leadership AwarD

Paula Glazier Sylvia Simon Greenberg Young Leadership Award

Ilana K. Liss The Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Award for Outstanding professional Jewish Communal Service

Tops on Facebook 1. JCC Health Club to Permanently Close 2. Study: More than One in 10 Americans Under 40 Thinks Jews Caused the Holocaust (JTA) 3. Special Kol Nidre Service for Those with Dementia 4. Grandson Turns Lessons from his Baking Bubbie into a Thriving Traverse City Bagel Business 5. A New Future for the Jewish News: Non-Profit Ownership

Sam Dubin Hosted by Beverly B. Liss, Immediate Past President Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit

Alan Jay Kaufman, Immediate Past President United Jewish Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit

Gary Sikorski This is a virtual event.

Please register online at

jewishdetroit.org/event/awardsnight to receive your Zoom link.

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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business SPOTlight brought to you in partnership with

BIRMIN GH A M

‘Free-From’ Munching Local nutritionist offers healthier snacks on new app.

W

hen nutrition consultant Stacy Goldberg first developed the idea for Savorfull back in 2011, an e-commerce platform that offers healthy, “freefrom” snacks, she was receiving more and more calls from clients seeking foods “free from” ingredients such as gluten or dairy.

Stacy “I wanted to Goldberg reach more people,” Goldberg, 44, of West Bloomfield, said. “When you work as a nutritionist, you only see a certain number of people per day, and it was not so scalable.” She was working with children and families and even professional athletes, but her vision was to expand further.

To help more people, Goldberg decided to focus on the free-from market. “I knew there was this boom in the food space where I was seeing more gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free coming into the market,” she recalled, “but I was also getting a number of calls from clients who were looking to be more free-from, whether they had food allergies or wanted to be vegan or plant-based or had specific dietary needs.”

At the time, she was moving away from private practice and into an entrepreneurial accelerator program to learn how to build a scalable business where she could still provide nutrition education information, but also be able to connect people to

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OCTOBER 8 • 2020

COURTESY OF SAVORFULL

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

healthier food choices. It was the early stages of Savorfull, which has recently expanded to include a mobile app for free-from snack purchasing and home or business delivery.

“I found that what was happening, even in my practice, is that people were really overwhelmed by food choices,” Goldberg said. She originally would take people into grocery stores to teach them how to read labels and pick foods right for their needs, and later incorporated that same philosophy into Savorfull, where clients and customers can search for foods based on a variety of free-from choices. The website also accommodates searches for certified kosher food.

Goldberg has five people on her Savorfull team, and the business is housed under the Detroit-based Rock Family of Companies. When users sign up for its services, they receive free-from food choices that are personally vetted by Goldberg and her staff. Shipping is free

for purchases made in the U.S., aside from Hawaii and Alaska, and customers can choose curated snack boxes or create their own assortments from a variety of choices.

More than 40 vendors make up Savorfull’s roster. Goldberg traveled across the country to discover these brands, attending various food shows and exhibitions. There’s even a focus on Michigan-made goods, including the likes of B’Bites, Cooper Street and Germack, among others. “We love local,” she said. “We really work hard to find unique products that are nutritionally dense, free from anything artificial and clean eating-based.”

UNIQUE ITEMS Savorfull’s selection includes bigger brands such as Beanfields and Honey Stinger, but also smaller vendors from other states that aren’t often found in big box stores. “We try to find really cool, interesting brands that maybe you’ve never heard

of,” Goldberg said, “emerging brands and local brands from across the country.”

She believes a healthy lifestyle is one of moderation, so anything from chips to cookies can be found on the Savorfull app and website. “We don’t have any strict guidelines as far as grams of sodium or grams of sugar,” Goldberg explained, “because everyone is living a different lifestyle and not everyone is ready to go from potato chips to kale chips.”

When Goldberg was revamping the Savorfull website earlier this year, she knew she also wanted to incorporate a mobile app for easier online shopping.

Launching in 2020 was always the goal, but it was sheer coincidence that the timing coincided with COVID-19.

In a climate where services like curbside and food delivery are steadily becoming the norm, Goldberg, who serves on Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit’s Women’s Philanthropy board and Jewish Working Women’s Network board, believes the timing couldn’t have been more aligned.

“One of the interesting things that people are realizing in COVID is that it really is easy to shop online,” she explained.

“People who were hesitant before to buy snacks on an app are realizing how much time they’ll save, how much money they’ll save and the convenience of it.”

She believes more and more people will start to lean into the online food shopping space, especially when it comes to free-from snacks. “It’s been exciting to see that growth,” Goldberg said, “and I think it’s here to stay.”

here’s to The 25th Annual Birmingham Bloomfield Cultural Arts Award honorees were announced recently. Among them are Sue Marx, 2020 Special Lifetime Achievement Award; and Jason Polan, 2020 Special Posthumous Award. The jury was impressed by Marx, of Birmingham; many of her documentaries, some of them pro bono, tell the story of our region, including the Detroit Zoo, Children’s Hospital, the DIA, a Cranbrook series, the Purple Rose Theater, the People Mover, the Detroit Boxing Gym, and most impressively the Math Corps, a collaboration with Wayne State Sue Marx University to assist underserved youth to learn math that has been shown all over the country. The jury felt very strongly that Polan, who grew up in Franklin and who passed away this year at the age of 37, deserved to be recognized for the incredible mark he had in Michigan where he left murals in Ann Arbor and mentored local artists from Birmingham and those in the Jason Polan Detroit art scene, but also for his national and international impact on the arts, with collaborations with Uniqlo, Warby Parker, Marvel Comics and Nike, his illustrations in children’s and adult books, his efforts and ultimately a book to draw Every Person in New York, and his daily cartoons in the New York Times, as he “drew to help the world see.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently announced appointments to the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Among them is Anessa Kramer of Bloomfield Hills, a partner and board member at Honigman LLP. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Jewish Fund, the Roeper School and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

Kramer is appointed for a term expiring Sept. 1, 2023. The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs serves to encourage, develop and facilitate an enriched environment of creative and cultural activity in Michigan.

The Michigan Municipal League has honored Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) as one of the League’s 2020 Legislators of the Year. Following his service as the youngest city council person in the city of Southfield’s history, Moss was immediately installed as the ranking Democrat on the Local Government Committee upon his election to the Michigan House in 2014. He has a long record of passionately defending local control, speaking out against efforts to preempt local units of government and pushing for restoring funding to communities.

We can’t help you clean out the garage.

But we can help you bank from home.

BI RMI NG HA M Member FDIC

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

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Arts&Life books

Contemporary Fantasy Former Oak Parker provides spiritualist tale for YA fans.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

N

ovelist Helene Dunbar, a former Oak Parker, experienced an enlightening reader response to her fifth book, Prelude for Lost Souls, released in August as her first fantasy project. Although all her books have drawn favorable responses from fans, this one has garnered more requests for a sequel.

Dunbar, who focuses on works for young adults, has set Prelude in a town where the way of life involves communicating with people who have passed on, and she is glad to report that the sequel is finished and sent to her publisher, Sourcebooks.

“Fantasy readers just have seemed more hungry for new work, and I hope the upcomHelene ing book will satisfy that,” said Dunbar Dunbar, who has qualified the “fantasy” label by describing the book as “contemporary fantasy” while also finding it draws “paranormal” and “magical realism” designations.

“These readers seem to finish books very quickly, and I was able to provide some early buyers with [souvenir] cards designed to represent my characters. That was really a bucket list item for me. You don’t really do that with contemporary stories [in general].”

The idea for Prelude for Lost Souls came while the author was watching the television program Mysteries at the Museum.

“They did a segment based on Lily Dale, N.Y., which is the oldest spiritualist community in the United States,” Dunbar explained.

“Lily Dale is a gated community that closes its gates through most of the year but opens them in the summer.

“People go there to contact deceased relatives or loved ones. Everyone in town is a medium, and I thought it would be an

32 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

amazing place to set a book.

So I did.”

Dunbar’s main character is Dec Hampton, who has lived his whole life in St. Hilaire, the town Dunbar created.

Dec has suffered the loss of his parents and wants to leave town before being convinced to continue the spiritualist tradition of his family.

Enlarging the plot is Dec’s best friend, Russ, who had moved to the town from Chicago, where he had never fit in because he hears ghosts. Dec and Russ get to know Annie, a young piano prodigy who comes into town after her train breaks down nearby and soon learns of linkage to townspeople.

“This latest book can be read at various levels,” Dunbar said. “If you’re somebody who has experienced grief or loss, there can be a much deeper read, which unfortunately is appropriate in these times.”

Dunbar, who was a teenager when she lost her own mother, has written about young people coping with loss throughout her earlier books. She has done research on the subject to provide insight into coping mechanisms.

“Writing about teens is a lot about figuring out what they want their future to look like,” explains Dunbar, who lives in Nashville with her husband and their 11-year-old daughter.

MICHIGAN ROOTS Dunbar, who attended Oak Park High School while being active in the synagogue community that became Congregation Beth Ahm, earned her bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College, where she majored in English with a theater concentration.

Before entering the world of fiction at the encouragement of a college roommate, she did freelance writing that took her to New York and Ireland. Her assignments have reached from drama criticism to an article about a woman imprisoned for killing her children. She also has done marketing for Women of Reform Judaism.

The author’s current day job, moved from office to home because of the pandemic, has her responsible for internal communications developed for a health care company.

Before the pandemic shutdown activities, Dunbar was planning a huge 80th birthday party for her dad, Harold Baker, who lives in Novi and works at Adat Shalom Synagogue.

Instead, she traveled to Michigan for a small celebration.

Dunbar hopes that she soon will have reason to celebrate the transition of her fourth book, We Are Lost and Found, into a film.

About the AIDS epidemic and with a Jewish character, the novel has been optioned by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s production company, Ill Kippers. Fans of Game of Thrones know Coster-Waldau as the character Jaime Lannister.

“Since I started having books published, I’m always changing gears,” Dunbar said. “I move among drafting something, revising something else and marketing.”

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GEORGE ELKIND

Arts&Life movies

generation of Jewish entertainers, who would often canoe into town. Celebrities like Max Schmeling (who fought Joe Louis twice throughout the ’30s) and his wife, Jewish screen actress Anny Ondra, frequented the area — at a time where interfaith marriages like theirs seemed fairly common.

As the godson of a local rabbi, Zydower was introduced to several such “big shots” and stars who attended Fürstenwalde’s synagogue (Bad Saarow, itself, lacked one).

Around the same period, the Zydowers had a family friend who played often in the theater and would bring him props to play with. Though he was only free to see a few movies in his childhood, both due to his age and because of increasing restrictions under Hitler, the ones he caught and the aura that surrounded them combined to make an impression.

Movie Lover Extraordinaire This Holocaust survivor has seen more than 40,000 films … and counting.

GEORGE ELKIND CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A

lfred Zydower is no stranger to coping with trauma, and movies seem to help. Having escaped Nazi Germany with his family shortly after Krystallnacht, the 91-year old Madison Heights resident has followed a winding road before settling into retirement here.

Over the years, he’s taken in an immense repertoire of more than 40,000 films — outpacing many a Netflix binger well before

34 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

streaming was available.

Speaking to the Jewish News on a balmy afternoon, he recalled an early fascination with movies before he’d even seen one — a relationship that dates back to his childhood in Fürstenwalde, Germany, which was near the lakeside community of Bad Saarow.

Known for its healing waters, Bad Saarow proved a popular summer spot for a lost

LIFE IN SHANGHAI That all changed when he and his family fled to Shanghai, China, where he quickly became a regular moviegoer. At the time, he caught films like Black Friday (about the onset of the Great Depression), Snow White and Tarzan and the Green Goddess for about a dime a ticket. For Zydower, the experience of moviegoing itself — the feeling of a theater or of a star onscreen before him — often seems to make as much or more of an impression than the particulars of a certain story.

He rhapsodized from his backyard about seeing Here Come the Waves in 1946, starring Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton, at the Cathay Theatre in Shanghai. The 1930s-era art deco movie palace boasted 12,000 seats but was largely empty — a space Zydower had mostly to himself.

Zydower displays in conversation a special affinity for actresses, mourning Hutton’s early death (“she got a bit carried away in her life”) while expressing a longtime fondness for Barbara Stanwyck.

Moviegoing for Zydower seems entwined deeply not just with the experience of seeing each work of art, but also has become wrapped up in the longer life films take on in memory — though he finds older films to be more durable.

“Some of them, they stay with me for-

ever,” he said. “I can still talk about them, and I still know exactly who was in them. Now today, you see some movies — yeah, they entertain you.

But afterwards? It doesn’t leave much behind.”

Zydower suggests some of this may be due to the loss of stars and the relationship that viewers could form with them across their many frequent works.

“Most movies they are making today, it’s very seldom they have top stars like they used to have before,” he muses. “Even though you never met some of them in real life, you felt like they belonged to you.”

LIFE IN AMERICA But Zydower remains sensitive to painful recollections.

Movies that address the Holocaust can stir memories of both the hate he experienced and the violence he observed and heard about against those around him.

“It upsets me terribly,” he says of watching Holocaustthemed films. “I start crying.”

Even now, he describes a sense of disbelief at the horrors he’s heard of and seen.

Fortunately for Zydower, his time since his arrival in America has been almost exclusively free of antisemitism and hate.

“I tell you, the minute I got off the boat I felt I was in paradise. When I arrived in San Francisco, the driver — who had to be Jewish — he told us that Israel had been created that day.”

Immediately upon arrival, he made the most of the country’s then-penchant for showing double features.

“By the time I came to America, I only had seen 174 movies. And I was 18 years old. In San Francisco, I went almost every other day — the

theaters were open night and day. There was this one on Market Street, I’d go and watch two movies. And then, the next day I would again watch two.”

The habit continued when his family migrated to Detroit, and he began working in industry. Zydower still vividly remembers a range of neighborhood theaters in Detroit that have gone over the years; the Linwood and the Jersey were frequent fixtures in his life, and he still remembers when each would rotate its weekly programming.

Today, Zydower’s vision has declined enough that he can no longer drive, and theaters have been closed amid the pandemic. But he still watches a lot at home on Amazon (he praised Once Upon a Time in Odessa, a recent series about a Jewish gangster) and appears lively and undaunted even amid a historically difficult time.

When asked if movies provide an escapist function, he agreed they often can, especially in “the bad times.” As an example, he recalled a conversation overheard in Shanghai between a couple, a pair of foreign refugees contemplating the price of a Strauss operetta; they were weighing, as he and his family often did, the value of an artistic experience against what they needed to survive.

Whether escapist or not, Zydower’s story suggests the experience of watching movies has largely been worthwhile.

Though not every film’s a winner, impressions of the finest viewings, stars and theaters seem to live on for him as vividly ever.

“I tell you what,” he says of Here Come the Waves, a long-ago viewing experience among an incredible many: “I remember every bit no matter what.”

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celebrity jews

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

NFL AND U-M GRIDIRON JEWS Here are the Jewish players on an NFL team roster as of Sept.

28 (main source: my friends at Jewish Sports Review magazine): Jordan Dangerfield, 30, Pittsburgh, plays (backup) strong safety. This five-year veteran is of Ethiopian Jewish background; Nate Ebner, 32, New York Giants, plays (reserve) strong safety and on special teams. For his first eight seasons he played for New England, often contributing to the Patriots many Super Bowl wins.

He signed a one-year deal with N.Y. in the off-season; Julian Edelman, 34, New England. This great wide receiver doesn’t seem to be slowing down. On Sept.

21, he had eight receptions and a career-high yardage total in a game against Seattle.

As I’ve noted before, Edelman had only one Jewish great-grandparent. It’s unclear if he has formally converted to Judaism, but he identifies as a Jew in a religious sense and in a “community solidarity” way.

Most recently: raising money for Tree of Life synagogue shooting victims and publicly reaching out last July to a player who posted something antisemitic. The Christian Science Monitor called Edelman’s response a “master class on how to handle hate.”

Other players include Anthony Firkser, 25, Tennessee, (backup) tight end and fullback. This Harvard grad had a good 2019 season; Alexander “Ali” Marpet plays offensive guard for Tampa Bay. He has started 75 consecutive games since 2015, earns almost $11 million per season, and was team captain in 2018 and 2019; Mitchell Schwartz, 31, Los Angeles, plays offensive tackle. Like Marpet, he is highly

36 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

Julian Edelman

paid and has a great streak going (over 130 consecutive starts); Sam Sloman, 23, Los Angeles, is a kicker. He’s a rookie who earned a starting spot. His college teammates nicknamed him “the kosher cannon.” (Note: five more Jewish players are on NFL “practice squads” and there’s a chance they will see action this season). Local interest: Two Jewish receivers play for the University of Michigan, which begins its Big Ten season on Oct. 24: Jake McCurry, senior, and Jake Thaw, freshman.

Upcoming: Starz has given the greenlight to a regular series based on Blindspotting, a hit 2018 film. The film was written

by Daveed Diggs, 38, and Rafael Casal. They co-starred in this “dramedy” film as working class guys trying to cope with racism and gentrification. The series (half-hour episodes) will be written by Diggs and Casal. Diggs won’t act in the series, but Casal will reprise his role.

Also: Alana Haim, 28, will be the co-star of a yet untitled 1970s coming-of-age film directed and written by eight-time Oscar nominee Paul Thomas Anderson. Alana and her two sisters (Este, 34, and Danielle, 31) form the popular rock pop band called Haim. The upcoming film features multiple storylines and big-name actors, like Bradley Cooper, who will have small parts in the film. Anderson loves Haim’s music and has directed four music videos for the band.

On The Go people | places | events

STAND WITH TRANS THROUGHOUT OCTOBER The first-ever month-long virtual experience for trans youth and allies, celebrating gender diversity, empowering youth, educating community. Stand with Trans will provide an extravaganza of entertainment, workshops, networking, peer support and more. For additional information, visit standwithtrans.org/beyou.

ANTI-NAZI RESISTANCE 7 PM, OCT. 8 Using stirring music, powerful images and suspenseful storytelling, Dr. Jud Newborn will recount how two former fanatical Hitler Youth leaders transformed into the greatest heroes of the German anti-Nazi resistance. Register at holocaustcenter.org.

FREE SEATING & JUDAISM 2-3:30 PM, OCT. 13 “Free Seating: How an Overcrowded Detroit Synagogue Transformed American Judaism” will be the topic of a Zoom gathering sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan.

“Free seating” — the movement to end assigned or owned synagogue seats and let people sit wherever they want — began in Detroit a century ago at Temple Beth El. Learn how this story took on national significance. Cost: $10 for members; $18 for non-members. Register by 9 pm Oct. 12.

Instructions for joining the Zoom call will be sent the day before.

SPHINXMUSIC.ORG

ALEXANDER JONESI VIA WIKIPEDIA

Arts&Life

SPECIAL EXHIBIT ONGOING THROUGH OCTOBER For one more month, the Holocaust Memorial Center is hosting a special exhibit called Operation Finale: The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann, which chronicles the true story of the secret misXavier sion to bring one of the architects Foley of the Holocaust to justice. View at holocaustcenter.org. In these interactive artifact spotlights, you’ll VIRTUAL CONCERT learn about the personal stories of 7 PM, OCT. 15 The Sphinx Organization will those involved. host an online concert featuring Sphinx artists, alumni and students BRUNCH TOUR and includes a world premiere 10:30-1 PM, OCT. 11

by Sphinx Competition Laureate Feet on the Street will host a tour Xavier Foley and performances by of Midtown/Cass Corridor. Cost $35. Accommodations and proce- Sphinx Virtuosi, EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble, Anthony McGill, Raquel dures are in place for safety and comfort amid COVID 19 concerns: Gonzalez, and more. Sphinx is dedicated to transforming lives as much as possible outdoors through the the arts. Check the (including utilizing outdoor patios Sphinx website or Facebook page. at food establishments), limited size of groups, social distancing, Compiled by Sy Manello/Editorial mask wearing. Info: EnjoyTheD. Assistant. Send items to calendar@ com; 313-393-2055. thejewishnews.com.

Health

New Hope for Chronic Fatigue Sufferers

Psychiatrist pens book that suggests ADHD medications.

ELIZABETH KATZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

M

any people pre-coronavirus pandemic were used to going at a nonstop pace, bustling to and from work and/or school, getting involved in religious and social activities as well as jumping the daily hurdles that life inevitably throws a person’s way.

Some people, however, have a very difficult time dealing with everyday stress, often finding it challenging to get out of bed. Not only do they live with unrelenting fatigue not ameliorated by 10-12 hours of sleep, they Joel L. feel emotionally overwhelmed Young, M.D and deal with brain fog. They also may have physical pain that could be linked to fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) and migraine.

Joel L. Young, M.D., founder and director of the Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine, who has done studies in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), has a message for these individuals: “To patients with ME/CFS, I know you’re out there, and I know you need help,” he said. “We get how much you suffer. You deserve better than what you’ve gotten.”

Young, who has conducted research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for approximately 30 years, has recently published a book titled Understanding and Treating Chronic Fatigue: A Practical Guide for Patients and Practitioners. The book was published by Praeger Press and sells for $39. It is available in hardcover and in electronic book format on Amazon and from Praeger.

Young, a member of Temple Israel, said the term Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was established in the 1990s and is considered an “orphan disease” since no medical specialties have claimed ownership in treating the condition. People of any age can develop CFS, although the age range is typically people in their 30s to 50s. Women are more commonly diagnosed with the syndrome than men.

“Often patients with ME/CFS feel a bit abandoned or diminished or marginalized,” he said. “Here’s where I get involved.

I’ve been interested in ADHD and have been the principal investigator in over 100 clinical trials. I recognize that some of the medicines that we use to treat ADHD specifically addressed many of the symptoms of ME/CFS.”

who were treated with LDX have far less fatigue and pain than those treated with placebo,” he said. “That was published in the academic journal. The book was a way of connecting more to patients with their problem. I hope my book will spur more studies. Good ideas have to be met with skepticism, and they have to be replicated … with multi-site studies.”

Young said he will also open a new clinical trial sometime in the fall, hopefully recruiting 50 patients to test the efficacy of the drug Sunosi (solriamfetol), which is prescribed for excessive daytime sleepiness continued on page 38

LINK TO ADHD? Young has developed the hypothesis that many of the people who have symptoms of ME/CFS may have what could be considered “ADHD inattentive type” as they get older. Essentially, their ADHD symptoms have manifested themselves as fatigue, he said.

Building on that concept, Young obtained independent funding and published a study in 2012 in the journal Psychiatry Research about the effects of LDX (lisdexamphentamine) — also known commercially as Vyvanse — on those with ME/CFS. Vyvanse has been approved by the FDA to treat ADHD as well as binge-eating disorder, although not specifically for ME/CFS. “We found that patients with ME/CFS OCTOBER 8 • 2020

| 37

Health

Orthodox Union Issues Guidelines for Simchat Torah Social distancing, no dancing this year.

DANNY SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

n the tumultuous year that is 5781, celebrating the High Holidays has been anything but a normal experience for the Jewish community.

In response, the Orthodox Union has released a document spelling out guidelines and recommendations for how Jews can spend their Simchat Torah in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, including strict social distancing and no dancing.

The Orthodox Union (OU) has served as an umbrella organization for American Orthodox Jewry since 1898, with over 400 congregations in

its synagogue network.

Rabbi Adir Posy, Director of Synagogue and Community Services for OU, helped craft the document. He believes celebrations can be just as fulfilling as other years, in different ways.

“What we’re trying to guide people with is striking a balance with keeping as much normalcy as possible and being able to connect to the traditions we’ve done every year, with the allowance for making sure we are extremely vigilant about safety protocols,” Posy told the JN. “We must plan and prepare for Simchat Torah, being espe-

cially mindful of the recent rise in positive tests in many communities,” the document reads.

“This uptick is a source of genuine concern, and we must be committed to make every effort to reverse it by proceeding with appropriate caution.”

OU worked with medical experts and public health officials to see if environments for celebration could be created in a safe way.

“In most cases, we found out the answer was yes,” Posy said. “There are ways to create worship indoors or outdoors in ways that are safe.”

The OU advises Jews not to dance during Simchat Torah (Oct. 10-11).

“This special day is typically celebrated by spirited dancing with the Torah, which is something that seems impossible to replicate this year while maintaining proper safeguards,” the document reads. “Even without

holding hands, and even outdoors, when dancing in circles we are continuously walking into the clouds of droplets generated by the vigorous singing and dancing of others. Sadly, there seems to be no way in which this can be safely accomplished … These are certainly meaningful disappointments.”

While there’s hope that next year’s High Holidays will see a return to normalcy, Posy said the restrictions have led to “an explosion of innovation.”

“One of the recommendations we made as we celebrate the Torah is to celebrate the ways in which the Torah or connecting to studying Torah has enhanced people’s lives. So I can imagine that type of sharing is a very meaningful thing that can exist in really any context, and is one of the examples of innovative ideas I think will be able to stand the test of time.”

continued from page 37

due to obstructive sleep apnea or narcolepsy.

LONGSTANDING FATIGUE He also said there’s increasing evidence that there’s a postCOVID syndrome with symptoms that include fatigue and low energy but that the science to trace that is developing. In general though, symptoms of CFS have to be longstanding (six months or more) and cause functional impairment. Often, those with ME/CFS are prescribed anti-depressants though those medications often don’t solve the entire problem, Young said.

One of Young’s longtime patients, Jane (not her real name), said she was referred to Young about 20 years ago after working with a social worker for severe anxiety and depression. Jane had noticed difficulty

38 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

“Often patients with ME/CFS feel abandoned, diminished or marginalized.”

— DR. JOEL L. YOUNG

in concentration and not being able to filter out noise in large crowds. She said she was also having a very hard time waking in the morning and finding energy to tackle the day, considering she was helping her father with dementia get his affairs in order.

The woman who in the past has volunteered with several Jewish organizations, said she learned she had a diagnosis of ADHD, with moderate symptoms in addition to chronic fatigue syndrome.

“I was overwhelmed, and my

energy level came in spurts,” she said. “I felt like I was having a breakdown.”

Jane was prescribed Zoloft for her depression and Adderall XR, which is a common prescription for ADHD. She has found great help with the medications in terms of focusing, recall and managing her emotions.

“Family members close to me noticed the stabilizing effect,” she said. “It was explained to me that it was like putting a shield on your emotions” so that negative emotions don’t

become overwhelming.

“The medication filters and focuses you. I’ve always taken [the Adderall] when I’m working,” she said.

Although she’s found living in the pandemic world challenging, Jane finds joy in singing and has been taking online programming and classes through the Jewish Federation’s JLearn program.

“They have been wonderful in getting you through and feeling productive,” she said.

She encourages those who feel overwhelmed with fatigue and negative emotions to ask for help until all symptoms are under control.

“Try not to tough it out yourself,” she said. “Once I got stable on the antidepressants and my mood, I realized there was still a problem” with focus and fatigue.

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Soul

of blessed memory

SHELDON ADELSON, 86, of Bloomfield Hills, died Sept.

23, 2020.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Elaine Adelson; sons and daughters-in-law, Scott and Mihaela Adelson, and Jay Adelson and Brenda Shea; daughter, Anne Adelson; grandchildren, Ian Adelson, Eitan Kalmowitz, Ezra Kalmowitz, Rowan Adelson, Benjamin Adelson, Cody Adelson and Lisa Adelson; sister, Dr. Lori Adelson.

Mr. Adelson was the dear brother of the late Nancy Saturn and the late Robert Adelson.

Interment was at Adat Shalom Memorial Park.

Contributions may be made to the Parkinson’s Foundation, 200 c. SE 1st St., Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131, parkinson. org; or Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation, 6632 Telegraph Road, Suite 304, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301, michiganjewishsports. org. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

HAROLD BLAIR, 89, of Lathrup Village, died Sept. 25, 2020.

A veteran, c. 2010 Mr. Blair was a self-taught businessman and owned a bar called Salty Dog for 61 years. Generous to family and friends, he helped whoever would ask him. A man who was always conscious of how he was dressed, he was larger than life.

HOW EVERY NEED IS MET.

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continued on page 42 OCTOBER 8 • 2020

| 41

OBITUARY CHARGES The processing fee for obituaries is: $125 for up to 100 words; $1 per word thereafter. A photo counts as 15 words. There is no charge for a Holocaust survivor icon.

The JN reserves the right to edit wording to conform to its style considerations. For information, have your funeral director call the JN or you may call Sy Manello, editorial assistant, at (248) 351-5147 or email him at smanello@renmedia.us.

Monument Center Inc.

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Some days seem to last forever‌

We’re offering one that actually will.

You can honor the memory of a loved one in a most meaningful way by sponsoring a day of Torah learning at Yeshiva Beth Yehudah.

During the coming week, Kaddish will be said for these departed souls during the daily minyan at Yeshiva Beth Yehudah. Your support of the Torah learning of our children and our Kollel’s Torah Scholars brings immeasurable heavenly merit. Please call us at 248-557-6750 for more information.

Samuel Mordecai Levin 7LVKUHL 2FW Louis Dann Brian Marcus Margolis Rose T. Deitch Myrtle Desow Leah Sherr Burt Duchin Irving Elson Bertha Fagenson Gornbein Kalman Silber Joseph Gelberman Helen G. Klein Joseph Silver Alexander Glaser Eva Lesser Ida Solomon Rochel Hoffman Eva Rebecca Waterstone Rose Marks Mery Klepfish Molly Weingarden Yetta Rucker Viola Newman Kopp Simon Young Nathan Sachs David Pitt 7LVKUHL 2FW Nathan Samet Aaron Pollack Israel Grossman Sadie Whiteman Elka Rohlik Chaim Yehuda Aryeh Leib Lazar Nathan Zack Rose Ryback 7LVKUHL 2FW Clara Sherizen Adam Unrot Ida Bailey Edward Stark Irene Weiss Rosann Toby 7LVKUHL 2FW Samuel Cohen Freda Fox Herman Weberman Dora Baruch Bernard Greenbaum Morris Paul Yampolsky Dr. Harold Mark Dana 7LVKUHL 2FW Rachel Kratzenstein Sandra Maxine Davis Anna Apple Gertrude Lubetsky Norman Folbe Louis J Been Anna Maxman Mary Rose Jacobs Muriel Bennet Samuel Rosenberg Aaron David Levin Maurice C. Fink Minnie Ruzumna Abraham Levitin Dr. Rose Malach Sexton Menachem Herz Aaron B. Margolis Etta Josselson Hilda Shoob Bessie Moerman Vita Levine Shana Yalowitz Harry Wetstein 7LVKUHL 2FW 7LVKUHL 2FW Dorothy Stewart Chaya Sarah Dworkin Dinah Superstine Wolfe Willliam Atlas David Milton Garmel Mary Tatelbaum Jeanette Berkowitz Zella C Goulson Chayah S. Tugman A. Howard Bloch Carolyn Leiderman Edith Burk School for Boys • Beth Jacob School for Girls • Bais Yehudah Preschool Weiss Family Partners Detroit • Kollel Bais Yehudah • Maalot Detroit P.O. Box 2044 • 6RXWKoHOG 0, • 248-557-6750 • www.YBY.org

42 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

Soul

of blessed memory continued from page 41

Mr. Blair is survived by his wife of 62 years, Rosalyn Blair; daughter and son-inlaw, Michelle and Martin Keys of Huntington Woods; grandson, Spenser Keys, whom he doted on and was always proud of his continuing accomplishments. He is also survived by other loving relatives and friends.

Mr. Blair was the dear brother and brother-in-law of the late Bessie “Betty� and the late Nate Barnett, and the late Sara Berkowitz.

Contributions may be made to Temple EmanuEl, 14450 W. 10 Mile Road, Oak Park, MI 48237; or to a charity of one’s choice. A graveside service was held at Hebrew Memorial Cemetery.

Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial Chapel.

ESTHER KAHN ROSENBLUM, 96, of West Bloomfield, died Sept. 27, 2020. She was born c. 1973 in Dayton, Ohio, to Harry and Fannie Kahn. Harry was one of the founding members of Beth Abraham Synagogue.

She earned her B.A. from Ohio State University and led a life devoted to public service. Mrs. Rosenblum was president of various philanthropic organizations, including the League of Jewish Women’s Organizations of Greater Detroit and the National Council of Jewish Women (Dayton, Ohio, and Detroit) as well as serving as treasurer and bulletin editor for the same. She was one of

the founding members of the Kosher Meals on Wheels program in Detroit as well as being its treasurer and keeping the books for more than 39 years.

In 2011, Mrs. Rosenblum was honored with the NCJW Ann Rubin Volunteer Award for Outstanding Service for the Welfare of Others. Her many years of organizational service also included treasurer for Maimonides Medical Auxiliary and board member for Children’s Hospital.

She was an accomplished fundraiser and goodwill ambassador extraordinaire everywhere she went.

She was a loving mother to Walter Rosenblum and Nancy Leland, Carol Rosenblum, and Frances and Stuart Rothstein; beloved grandmother of Eric and Amy Rosenblum, Dana Rosenblum, and Daniel and Laura Rosenblum; cherished great-grandmother of Erin Thompson, Morgan Rosenblum, Hayley Rosenblum, Juliana Piper Rosenblum, Collin Hermes and Scott Hermes.

Interment was at Clover Hill Park Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to Kosher Meals on Wheels, c/o National Council of Jewish Women, 26400 Lahser Road, Suite 306, Southfield, MI 48033, ncjwmi.org/individual-donation. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

DR. SAUL ROSNER, 93, of Keego Harbor, died Sept. 24, 2020.

He is survived by his daughters and sonsin-law, Linda and Richard Valentine, Karen and Jeffrey Cantor; son and daughter-inlaw, Robert and Unise Rosner; grandchildren, Max Cantor, Steven (Shira Orlowek) Cantor and Dr. Zachary Cantor; sister and brother-in-law, Elaine and Earl Meyers; many loving nieces, nephews, other family members and friends.

Dr. Rosner was the beloved husband for 67 years of the late Charlotte Rosner; the brother-in-law of the late

Evelyn Felsenfeld and the late Gertrude Zeron.

Interment took place at Adat Shalom Memorial Park Cemetery in Livonia.

Contributions may to the Michigan Animal Rescue League, the Greater Detroit Jazz Society or to any Jewish organization. Arrangements

by Dorfman Chapel.

WILLIAM H. RUSKIN, 78, Las Vegas, Nev., formerly of Farmington Hills, died Sept. 19, 2020.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Francesca Ruskin; sons and daughter-in-

law, Marc and Krista Ruskin, Paul Ruskin, Steven Ruskin; daughter and son-in-law, Mollie and William Polakos; grandchildren, Colin and Sean Ruskin, Justin, Christopher and Maxwell Polakos; brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Sue Lookman; many other loving family members and friends.

Interment took place at Hebrew Memorial Park Cemetery in Clinton Township. Contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association or to a charity of one’s choice.

Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.

LEON SHY, 87, of Commerce Township, died Sept. 28, 2020.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Phyllis Shy; children, Michael and Lori Lieberman, Sharon Firsht, Scott Shy, Faye and Marc Scher, and Edward and Tonya Shy; grandchildren, Andrew Lieberman, Marni Lieberman, Alana Lieberman, Matthew and Elizabeth Firsht, Jennifer Shy and her fiancé, Michael Linde, Joseph Shy, Jacob Scher, Sara and Matthew Bodzy, Fred Shy and Natalie Shy; great-grandchildren, Alexander and Haley Bodzy; brother and sister-in-law, Norman and Carolyn Shy; continued on page 44

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

| 43

Remembering Singer Helen Reddy

Soul

of blessed memory continued from page 43

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ROBERT “BOBBY” WOLOK, 54, of Oak Park, died Sept. 24, 2020.

He is survived by his brother, Mark Wolok; sister, Lori (Wolok) Charlton; nieces and nephews, Jake, Shelby and Harlow Wolok, Logan and Sydnee Charlton; many other loving family members and friends.

Mr. Wolok was the beloved son of the late Sanford and the late Harriet Wolok.

Contributions may be made to Jewish Family Service or the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.

Following shortly after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we have news of the loss of another woman dedicated to women’s rights. Singerlyricist Helen Reddy, known for belting out the words she wrote for “I Am Woman” in the 1970s, died Sept. 29, 2020, in Los Angeles.

She was 78.

During an interview with Reddy in 1999, I learned about her conversion to Judaism as she married for the second time and the way she learned that her maternal grandmother had been Jewish.

Reddy learned of her heritage during conversations with a maternal aunt, who had always lived in a distant city.

The aunt recalled how Reddy’s WIKIPEDIA

sisters-in-law and brothersin-law, Ceil Cicural, June Rubenstein, and Bryan Levy and Diana Trivax.

Mr. Shy was the dear brother-in-law of the late Sol Cicural and the late Seymour Rubenstein.

Interment was at Hebrew Memorial Park Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to Forgotten Harvest, 21800 Greenfield Road, Oak Park, MI 48237, forgottenharvest.org, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, stjude.org,; or to a charity of one’s choice.

Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.

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44 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

grandmother would light the Shabbat candles and travel quite a distance to buy kosher meat. Because the grandmother’s in-laws were Scottish Presbyterians, the woman hid her Jewish practices.

During the JN interview, Reddy said, “I think spirituality is more about what’s in your heart and how you treat people than whether you’re keeping two sets of dishes.”

It could seem a twist of fate that this Grammy Award winner, credited by some as writing the words to what has been called the women’s liberation anthem, moved ahead mirroring the strength shown by her maternal Grammy, who privately held on to Jewish traditions.

Motown Memories: The Clam Shop

L

ooking back to the future … A wonderful little restaurant gem was Dave Goldfine’s Clam Shop in Detroit’s then aging factory and warehouse district.

The building was an ancient structure, originally put up by Danny Raskin a well-known Senior Columnist brewery way back, even before Prohibition … In those days, the bartenders and breweries all but dragged the customers off the street to drink beer for a nickel and partake of a free lunch.

The interior was plain and clean, and the floor dipped gracefully here and there …

The kitchen was very likely not as big as the one in your home or apartment, but the seafood that came out of it was terrific and thought by many to be

FABULOUS RUINS OF DETROIT

Raskin the best of everything

the best in Detroit … and others said it was the best in the Midwest.

Neither Dave, who originally bought the place, or his partner, Frank Van Brusselin, who joined him 10 years later, had any restaurant experience.

As the name implies, the Clam Shop was devoted to those who believed all that is good came from the sea …

The menu featured a high concentration of things like clams, oysters, lobster, king crab legs and fish galore.

Many who dined on lobster in some of the nation’s top seafood restaurants said that the one they had at the Clam Shop was equal or better than the Lobster House or King of the Sea in New York and heads up above any lobster they had ever eaten.

On one particular evening we happened to run into a friend who had eaten lobster

The Clam Shop

at many restaurants in the country and said that the Clam Shop’s was equal or better than any he had anywhere … even tastier than in Chicago, also noted as having the best ones along with those at the Lobster House and King of the Sea. Lobster was king at the Clam Shop and the piece de resistance was the broiled lobster … This was a 1¼-pound beauty stuffed with what many said was the absolute most delightful they had ever tasted.

Oysters and clams were other highly acclaimed specialties at the Clam Shop … Like the lobster, they were flown in every other day, and either Dave or Frank would whip out their weekly price list to show you that they bought nothing but quality, regardless of price.

Dave and Frank were equally proud of their red snapper, fresh pompano, Finnan haddie, shad roe or king crab.

As a concession to the occasion eccentric folks who came in for steak, the Clam Shop had excellent News York strips and steaks of the highest quality … but make no mistake, it was basically a seafood house.

OLDIE BUT GOODIE …

A Jewish man ate at a Chinese restaurant and wondered if there were any Chinese Jews …

When the waiter came to take his order, he asked, “Pardon me, but are there any Chinese Jews?

The waiter says, “I no know.

I new here. I ask manager.”

The waiter goes to the kitchen and returns to explain to the man, “No, no Chinese Jews.

We have orange Jews, tomato Jews, grape Jews and pineapple Jews but no Chinese Jews.”

CONGRATS … To Marilyn Rubin on her birthday.

Danny’s email address is dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.

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

The Second Intifada

N

ot all stories that one finds in the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History are pleasant.

Nevertheless, certain subjects are still worthy of remembrance.

A case in point: This past Mike Smith Sept. 28 marks a Alene and 21st anniversary Graham Landau Archivist Chair that Detroit’s Jewish community will not celebrate. It’s been two decades since the onset of the Second Intifada in Israel, the so-called “Al-Aqsa Intifada.” Allegedly sparked by a visit by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount, this intifada, or “uprising” to use the Arabic translation, was a five-year period of extreme violence directed against Israeli citizens, 20002005. Its only accomplishment appears to have been an estimated 1,000 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinian deaths, and a dimming of the prospects for peace.

Violence between Jews and Arabs has century-old roots, of course. There was prejudice toward and acts of violence against Jews in the Middle East before the 20th century, but after the Balfour Declaration in 1917, there was increasing terrorism against Jews, as well as conflicts between Jews and Arabs. The culmination was a massive attack on the nation of Israel as soon as it was established in 1948. Israel had to defend

46 |

OCTOBER 8 • 2020

itself during the 1948 War of Independence, and subsequent major conflicts including the 1967 Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the War of Attrition between those wars. Casualties from these wars were the worst in Israel’s history. In sheer numbers, however, those of the Second Intifada rank as the fourth largest, the result of suicide bombings and rampant shootings in an extreme escalation from the First Intifada, 1987-1993.

I’ll admit that I hesitated to write about the Second Intifada. However, history is important and should never be forgotten, no matter if pleasant or not. It informs us for the future. Moreover, in this particular instance, I found compelling stories in the Archive, as well as continued references to the Second Intifada.

The JN covered the First Intifada. I found a story, “The Rosh Hashanah Riots,” in its Oct. 10, 2000 issue. This was the newspaper’s first detailed report on the beginnings of the Second Intifada. Another story published in the Nov. 24, 2000, issue of the JN, “Sleepless in Gilo,” discussed the lives of Israelis in the midst of daily gunfire and violence. In the March 28, 2004, issue of JN, while the Second Intifada still raged, there is a review of David Horovitz’s book about enduring the experience: Still Life with Bombers: Israel in the Age of Terrorism.

The Archive also has stories

related to the direct impact pact of the Second Intifada on Detroit Jews. For exam-ple, Zieva Konvisser, like many Detroiters, visited Israel during thiss era which led her to write “Living Beyond Terrorism,” an inquiry into the experiences of terrorism survivors — see the JN from Feb. 19, 2009, 09, and March 2, 2014. The Jewish Federation sponsored trips to Israel in 2001 to help with the flagging tourism industry there. Allan Gale told me how eerie it was to be there on Sept. 11, 2001.

I also wrote this Looking Back while thinking about Israel’s recent diplomatic breakthroughs with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which do bring hopee for the future.

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

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