Photos by Krim Husa

Motown Sabra

In Hebrew flecked English, Donna Traub engineers a dynamic social life
and vibrant connection to the Jewish community.

"In my department, I'm the only
[woman]," says Donna, a power train
development engineer who makes cars
work before they are sold to the public.
onna Traub has a great
"I have no problem with it. [But] it
laugh. It starts at the corners
would
be cool, when I go on trips,
of her mouth, which turn up
instead of talking about sports
into the widest grin
and cars, to talk with a girl. I
you've ever seen. Then come
Donna Traub:
the crinkles in her eyes and the
Truck- riving always tell the guys, 'You know,
if I was hanging out with my
flowing giggles, so silly and fun,
soft ie.
girlfriends back home, we would
you can't help but be happy in
never talk about this stuff.' They
her presence.
treat me like one of the guys."
Donna, 30, is an oxymoron of the
A University of Michigan graduate,
highest degree. Born in Detroit to Israeli
with
an undergraduate degree in math
parents, she still slips a Hebrew lilt into
control
systems and a graduate degree in
the pronunciation of some words, and
engineering, Donna has built a career at
her Hebrew is far more authentic than
Ford. She drives whatever car she's work-
the pre-bar mitzvah kind.
ing on to see how it runs.
She is a high-powered engineer at
"I work with electronic engine con-
Ford who drives a truck, fully equipped
trols, and I have to make the vehicle run
with computers to measure its efficiency
in all different environments and condi-
and earn her stamp of approval. She is
tions while, at the same time, meeting
also a cute woman with corn-colored
fuel economy, emissions, horsepower
hair who knows how to have fun.
requirements, driveability," she says. "In
Anywhere.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
Scene Editor

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Pickup Softball
B'nai B'rith Leadership Network
presents its second season of
pickup softball.
Schedule:
June 28, July 26, Aug. 9, Aug.
23 at Pioneer Park, Farmington
Hills, July 12 at North
Farmington High School. All
games begin at 11 a.m. Karen
Safran, (248) 426-9520.

Register now!
Jewish Professional Singles trip
to Toronto, July 17-19. Cost:
$197 per person, double; $307,
single. Lisa Boose, (248) 353-
5811.

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6/19
1998

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January, I was in Alaska for minus-50-
degree testing, to make sure the truck
will start at that cold temperature. In the
summer, I go to Arizona, in the desert,
for 120-degree temperatures."
When she's not traveling for work —
or hiking, biking and reading voracious-
ly — Donna lives in West Bloomfield.
She's certainly adventurous, a trait that
dates way back, considering that she
spent four months of high school study-
ing in a castle in the middle of French
vineyards.
Donna loves skiing, loves Israel. (Last
summer, she led the UJA Singles
Mission.) In fact, the Jewish state feels
almost more like home than the States.
Donna says spending childhood sum-
mers in Israel made her feel like it was
her first home.
"We were going to move back to
Israel, but we never did. I always felt,
growing up here, that I was an Israeli
growing up in America — everything in
my home was Israeli, we had no family

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Saturday, lime 20

Chew and putt program, Jewish
Professional Singles. 6:30 p.m. Pita
Cafe in Oak Park. Joel, (248) 398-
3987.

Sunday, June 28

Canoe rendezvous and BBQ Hale' of
Metro Detroit. 2 p.m. Cost: $7, Argo
Park, Ann Arbor. RSVP by June 22,
(313) 577-3459.

here," so holidays were spent with other
Israelis in Detroit.
"Hebrew was my first language.
When I was little, I didn't speak
English."
She even joined the Israeli army.
"When I was 15, I did the Israeli
Gadnah, the youth military camp,"
Donna recalls. "It's only for Israelis. It
was two months, army boot camp. I
jumped from towers, did the obstacle
course, shot guns.
"Always I wanted to live in Israel, and
my parents were like, 'No, you can't.'
"But they promised me that if I went
one year to [the University of]
Michigan, I could go [to Israel] for a
year." She went, but didn't stay for good,
"because studying, reading and writing
in Hebrew is difficult."
Asked how her friends would
describe her, Donna turns shy. "I hope
that I'm fun, I hope I'm nice," she says.
All signs point to yes. ❑

"' tiak,
AC

WO&

Young Adult Division bar night at
Dick O'Dow's, 160 W. Maple,
Birmingham. 8:30 p.m. Marc Berke,
(248) 203-1458.

Monday, Ady 6

Build a house, build a life. 8:30 am.,
Oak Park JCC. Help buildirenovate a
home with the Think Twice
Foundation and. Mel of Metro
Detroit. RSVP b) July 13, (313) 577-
3459.

Hilld of Metro Detroit Coffee House
Night. 9 p.m. Lonestar Coffee Co.,
207 S. Woodward, Birmingham. (313)
577-3459.

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