SHELL' LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer

r

Taking Action

or many across the Detroit
Jewish community, the
most evil of actions has
brought out the best.
For some, support for victims of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the
Right: Jewelry designer Matthew
United States has come in the form
Gross with one of his sterling
of soliciting donations to help affect-
silver pins.
ed families.
Below: The T-shirt being sold by
"I knew I wanted to help," says
Arthur Kuzin.
Elyse Fleischman of West Bloomfield.
"My mom heard that stores were run-
ning out of flags, so we decided to see
if we could still buy some and then
sell them to make a donation."
After unsuccessfully search-
ing stores near her home,
Elyse, 16, located and bought
250 flags at a Southfield crafts
store. She began her sale by donating
$100 of her own and combined it
with donations of $100 each from
mother Denise and her grandmoth-
er, Ethel Siegal of West Bloomfield.
Elyse then took 150 of the flags to
her classes at West Bloomfield High
School. Her mom sold the remainder
at her women's apparel store,
Complaisant the Stadium in West
he could not work at all.
Bloomfield. The $1,000 they made
"A local news reporter called and
from their sales was donated to fami-
asked
if I was going to make a pin to
lies of employees of the Cantor
raise
money
for victims of the attack
Fitzgerald firm in New York who were
just
as
I
had
made
a fund-raising pin
killed in the attacks.
for the Midwest AIDS Prevention
After briefly selling baked goods at a
Project. She called at 10. I thought for
West Bloomfield supermarket to gath-
five minutes and, in three minutes
er donations for victims, members of
more, I was done," Gross said.
Zahav B'nai B'rith Girls discovered
Gross' Serenity pin is a circular lapel
donors were more interested in mak-
pin
in sterling silver that's full of sym-
ing contributions than in buying
bolism.
The circle represents unity. The
desserts.
two
central
bars refer to the twin tow-
"I went out to the corner to publi-
ers. Framing that is a Pentagon shape.
cize the bake sale," says Alana Kuhn of
Behind the central design is a peace
West Bloomfield, the group's presi-
symbol. The leaf-like pattern recalls the
dent. "Someone stuck a dollar out
grassy area where one of the four
their car window and said they didn't
planes hijacked Sept. 11 crashed in
have time to come into the store to
Pennsylvania. The red, white and blue
buy something from us but wanted to
enamel shows support for our country.
make a donation."
That's a lot to pack into an abstract
Contributions continued to be
design about the size of a quarter. But
handed to Alana and her group. They
the piece is attractive and eye-catching.
accumulated $250 to be divided
So far, Gross, his apprentice and an
between the B'nai B'rith Disaster
assistant at MHG Jewelry Studio in
Relief Fund and the American Red
Berkley have hand-built about 30 per
Cross.
eight-hour day. They have orders for
"When a disaster like this happens,
nearly 200. He's exploring having the
everyone wonders what to do," Alana
design
stamped by machine to expe-
says. "It's great to be able to have other
dite production, and lower the labor
people be able to give through us."
and material cost per piece so more
money can go toward victims' families.
Creative Response
Cost of the pin is $36, with $18
Jewelry designer Matthew Gross, 31,
going
to the local Red Cross Relief
of Huntington Woods needed inspira-
Fund.
If machine stamping happens,
tion. Numbed by the terrorist attacks,

From collections to solutions,
Detroit Jewry shows it cares.

wren
Kuzin is confident that racing fans
will buy the shirts: The front has an
American flag and the back shows the
capture of alleged terrorist Osama bin
Laden. Kuzin has sent 4,000 of the
shirts to an event in Memphis and
another 4,000 to a NASCAR race in
Delaware. He plans to continue sales
until the end of the racing season the
third week in November.
Kuzin will donate $10 of the $20
cost of each shirt to the families of
firefighters, police officers and other
emergency workers who were victims
of the Sept. 11 tragedy.
"It's great to be able to do some-
thing to give," he says.
To order a shirt, call Kuzin at
(248) 647-2770 or e-mail
ssre@iquest.net.

What About The Future?

the amount to the Red Cross could
jump significantly.
"My mom suggested the price
because of the Jewish symbolism of
chai or life," said Gross, who belongs
to Temple Emanu-El. "This makes me
feel really good."
To order a pin, call Gross at (248)
584-0253.

Patriotic Fervor

Knowing the exposure his concession
stand gets at national auto racing
events, Arthur Kuzin of Bloomfield
Hills decided rather than sell his team's
usual memorabilia, he would offer
patriotic wares instead.
"People in the racing business are
basically a gigantic family," says Kuzin,
who manages the Indianapolis-based
Steve Schmidt Racing team. "When
someone gets hurt or killed, racers give
of themselves. In the
past, we've raised a
tremendous amount of
money.
He decided to order
red, white and blue T-
shirts through a
Detroit-area manufac-

Rabbi Kasriel
Shemtov

While Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov of The
Shul in West Bloomfield concedes
"nothing can take the place of helping
the victims of this tragedy, there is no
better way to memorialize them than
by sending the message to our chil-
dren to create a better world."
A Torah will be created in memory
of those lost in the Sept. 11 attacks, to
be housed at The Shul. "On a spiritual
level, a new Torah is a new light into
the world with the eternal message of
truth and morality," he says. "What we
saw was evil and ugliness and we have
to respond in kindness, with the Torah
guiding us to create a better world."
Following the tradition of writing a
Torah in memory of loved ones, mem-
bers of his congregation at The Shul
have sponsored its creation. "Then
Detroit will have something always as
a remembrance of the victims, in a
holy way," Rabbi Shemtov says.
For Steven Silverman, a 10-year-old
student at Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington
Hills, helping others means looking to
the future and being proactive. In a
Sept. 14 letter addressed to President
George W. Bush, he suggested better
airport security and wrote of his
approval of retaliation. "I
believe your dad could give
you some good advice on
how to respond because he
went through the Gulf War,"
Silverman wrote. "Good luck
and be safe and lead the
country the best you can." ❑

Keri Guten Cohen, Jewish
News story development editor,
contributed to this story.

9/28
2001

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