News and gossip for the Jewish community of Metro Detroit
On April 24, Jewish Senior Life presented the film “Eli’s Story” at the Maple Theatre to benefit The Program for Holocaust Survivors and their Families. Photographs by Shawn P. Connelly
Photo Album at Hour Detroit Jewish Senior Life Presents Eli’s Story – Hour Detroit – April 2013 – Detroit, MI
Aaron Chernow, Nikki Raimi
Alex Rockwell, Andrea Switch, Ruth Yarrows, Dan and Carol Fink, Rae Sharfman
Annie Chernow, Allyson Rockwell, Molly Chernow, Jennifer Freedland
Aaron and Danielle Ruskin
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Judy Silberg Loebl, Director of the Florence Melton School of Metropolitan Detroit, Jewish Federation’s Alliance for Jewish Education and Gail Greenberg, Assistant Director, were presented with the prestigious Florence Melton Award at the 18th annual International Director’s Conference held in Israel January, 2013. The Conference brought together 36 directors and staff from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Israel for its annual summit.
The Florence Melton Award is given annually to one Melton School that exemplifies the highest standards of excellence and leadership in the field. CEO Judy Mars Kupchan praised Loebl and Greenberg, as well as Alliance for Jewish Education’s Director Jeffrey Lasday for the model and inspiration that the Detroit Melton School provides to the entire Melton network worldwide.
Loebl, in accepting the award on behalf of the Detroit Jewish Community, extoled the Detroit Jewish Federation’s leadership for their continued commitment to adult Jewish education. She spoke about the successful partnership with the Jewish Community Center of Metro Detroit, highlighted the incredible cooperation the congregational rabbis have given in promoting Melton and praised the exceptional Melton instructors, staff and site assistants, without whom there would not be a program. Loebl gave special thanks to the students whose thirst for knowledge makes Detroit an exemplary learning community. Concluding her remarks, Loebl thanked Jeffrey Lasday and Gail Greenberg for their continued support and gave special accolades to the “glue that has held together Melton for the last 12 years,” Federation Staff Associate, Marion Bronstein.
A community presentation of the Florence Melton Award will take place during the 10th annual Melton graduation/Siyyum ceremony on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. at the West Bloomfield Jewish Community Center. As part of a larger 10 year celebration of Melton graduations, Judy Kupchan and Gordon B. Zacks, son of Florence Melton and chairperson of the Melton School, will bestow the honors to representatives of the Jewish Community. The event will be free and open to the public. The award will be displayed at the Max M. Fisher Federation Building.
The Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, a project of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was established in 1987 and is the largest global network of pluralistic adult Jewish education, with Melton Schools in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and South Africa. For information on the Florence Melton School in Detroit call 248-205-2557 or jewishdetroit.org/melton.
via Jewish Detroit Detroit Melton School Receives Prestigious Florence Melton Award | Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
BY MARK HICKS
THE DETROIT NEWS
Metro Detroit was not immune last year from a spike in anti-Semitic violence worldwide, according to a study by an Israeli group.
The 2012 Anti-Semitism Worldwide Report, published by Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, found incidents jumped 30 percent internationally, after a two-year decline.
The annual report noted 686 attacks in 34 countries, including physical violence and vandalism to synagogues, Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials, compared to 526 attacks in 2011. Regions with the most incidents included France, with 200; the U.S. with 99; the United Kingdom with 84; and Canada with 74.
Among suspected acts or threats cited in the U.S. was a suspected white supremacist in Ohio alleged to have a “hit list” that appeared to target Jewish and African-American community leaders in Metro Detroit.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP, and Scott Kaufman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, said Ohio FBI officials told them about the list, which allegedly was linked to a Toledo ex-felon indicted in January on weapons and counterfeiting charges.
Read more at Detroit News Attacks on Jews up globally, study says | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com.
DETROIT, MI – It has become a familiar refrain. Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans and owner of the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers, said he thinks the Detroit Pistons’ arena should be in downtown Detroit.
The Pistons have played at the Palace in suburban Auburn Hills since 1988.
Gilbert was asked Thursday at the Detroit Athletic Club whether he’s spoken to Pistons owner Tom Gores lately about his feelings on the team relocating.
“I always try to put the bug in his ear,” Gilbert said. “You know, our teams are in very similar situations. In fact, we’re like one or two wins – I should say, one or two losses – apart.”
Read more at mLive Dan Gilbert again says Detroit Pistons’ arena should be moved downtown | MLive.com.
Levi & Bassie Shemtov
Founders, Friendship Circle
This married couple started the innovative Friendship Circle in 1994, having been inspired by the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s unconditional love for every human being and his belief that none of us is complete unless all of us are included. When FC began, there was a simple goal: to pair teenagers with special needs children, the idea being that each had much to learn from the other. Eighteen years later, the Friendship Circle has become something of a phenomenon with 79 locations across North America and overseas in countries such as France, Israel and Australia, serving thousands of children and their families.
via Algemeiner Jewish 100: Levi & Bassie Shemtov – Innovation | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com.
BY LOUIS AGUILAR
THE DETROIT NEWS
Larry Mongo, Courtney Smith and Leor Barak in front of the Downtown Synagogue. MetroTime PHOTO: TRAVIS R. WRIGHT
Detroit — The 63-year-old owner of the popular Cafe D’Mongo’s Speakeasy was attacked and slightly injured when he was confronted Monday night by two young graffiti “taggers” on the roof of his business in downtown Detroit’s Capitol Park.
Larry Mongo says he suffered cuts and bruises when he caught the vandals preparing to deface the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue next door.
“They were trying to hold me down, and I got dragged around a bit on the roof as they ran off,” Mongo said Tuesday morning.
The incident happened around 7:30 p.m.
Mongo said he was in the apartment above his bar at 1439 Griswold St. when he heard loud noises coming from the roof of the two-story building. When he went downstairs, he saw a heavyset woman in her 20s looking in the window of his bar, which was closed. She yelled out and ran when she saw Mongo, he said.
Read more at Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130423/METRO01/304230409#ixzz2RJL76GIb
By NEAL RUBIN
THE DETROIT NEWS
Debbie Levin went looking for cookbooks and wound up with memories, along with a side dish of tears.
They were happy tears, though, so that’s all right. And that’s Bookstock, home to upward of 200,000 used books and a statistically improbable number of reunions.
Bookstock, for which I am an honorary co-chair and loud booster, runs through next Sunday at Laurel Park Place in Livonia. Michigan’s largest used book and media sale has raised more than $800,000 in the past 11 years for literacy and education projects, and exactly zero of those dollars has gone to salaries.
The load is shouldered entirely by volunteers, including Levin, 57, a retired schoolteacher from Southfield whose role at the grand opening presale Sunday morning was to straighten and restock the cookbooks.
Read more at Detroit News Bookstock discovery leaves Southfield woman weeping – but with joy, so that’s OK | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com.
By Chad Halcom
Crain’s Detroit Business
Several former executives at Pleasant Ridge-based ePrize LLC could seek millions in damages in a new lawsuit, claiming they were never paid for their shares when Connecticut private equity Catterton Partners Corp. acquired a majority of the Internet marketing company for $100 million.
The seven executives allege conversion, breach of fiduciary duty and “willfully unfair and oppressive conduct” in the suit Friday at Oakland County Circuit Court against ePrize, founder and former Chairman Josh Linkner, company investor Brian Hermelin and ePrize successor company Crackerjack LLC.
At issue is the Aug. 20 sale of a majority stake in ePrize to Catterton Partners, valued at $100 million, according to Crains research earlier this year.
Suing are former ePrize Executive Vice President of Business Development Ivan Frank, former Senior Vice President of Production Jeffrey Dwoskin, former Senior Vice President of Product Development Phil Jacokes, former associate creative director James Brunk, former controller Blake Atler, former sales associate Matt Kovaleski, Roy Krauthammer and Franks investment company, IJF Holdings LLC.
Read more at Crain’s Detroit Business Former execs suing ePrize LLC, saying they werent paid for shares owed to them | Crains Detroit Business.
After five years of study and work at Harvard University, Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit alum Michael Yashinsky has moved back home to direct a children’s opera at the Detroit Opera House.
The Michigan Opera Theatre Children’s Chorus performs The Happy Prince on Sunday, April 28, at 2:30 p.m. Musical director is Livonia resident Dianna Hochella.
The opera, which is based on an Oscar Wilde story, is set in an unnamed city enduring the pangs of poverty and class struggle. According to Yashinsky, within the city, “a few noble souls take it upon themselves to effect real good and undertake acts of self-sacrificing loving-kindness”.
The setting reflects the similarities between Wilde’s imagined city and Detroit, he said. More than 70 actors ages 8 to 16 will play young people in Detroit, and the set features photographs of the Detroit skyline and local graffiti as the backdrop.
Read more at West Bloomfield Patch Jewish Academy Graduate Returns to Direct at Detroit Opera House – West Bloomfield, MI Patch.
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. - After eating dinner at Leo’s Coney Island Tuesday night Joel Zeidman and his 8-year-old son Aidan headed to their car. When they got in their car they noticed an envelope on the windshield.
Joel found a gift and a note that said: “Please accept this small gift as a way to honor the memory of a brave little boy named Pierce. today’s gift is part of a commitment to make the world a nicer place and happier by practicing random acts of kindness.”
The small gift was a $10 dollar Target gift card.
Joel said, “While you may buy anything you would like with this gift perhaps using it for something that makes you or someone else.”
Read more at WDIV Random act of kindness: Man wants to pay it forward | News – Home.
