TODD M. GERS and DANIEL S. GROSS

are pleased to announce the formation of their new law firm
providing real estate, litigation and transactional services
to businesses and individuals.

The Whitts:

GERS & GROSS, P.C.

One Generation At A Time

28175 Haggerty Road
Novi, Michigan 48377
Office: 248.994.2225
Fax: 248.997.1189

tgers@gersgrosslaw.com

dgross@gersgrosslaw.com

Mobile: 248.302.5958

Mobile: 248.924.1184

Additional offices conveniently located in Bloomfield Hills,
Troy, Detroit, Southfield and Livonia.

1197980

Levi, Akiva, Zalman and Chana Whitt, Chaya Daiches and
Sara and Devorah Leah Whitt.

Dr. Ken Jacobs

On your Pharm-D Doctorate!
We are all so proud of you
and your accomplishments!

Wishing you much success,
The Mahj Ladies and Families

1199110

nvi

ons

Save the Date!

Weddings • Showers and Rehearsal Dinners

Menus and Programs • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs

Photo Invites and Photo ThankYou Notes

Spectacular Seating Charts and Frames

Hebrew Calligraphy

Fabulous Papers Printed Same Day

Hand and Computerized Calligraphy

and then...Birth Announcements

La Mirage Center • 29555 Northwestern Highway • Southfield, MI 48034

248-356-2454

34

December 21 2006

Debbie Goldfine VVeisserman, Maureen Weisserman Mansfield

1166470

Akiva and Chana Whitt converted to Judaism when their children were ages 8,
15 and 16. Now they have grandchildren who were born Jewish, and a son who
hopes to become a rabbi.
"We were Pentecostals, living in Fort Worth, Texas, 15 years ago, when a close
non-Jewish friend of my husband told him there were inaccuracies in the King
James version of the Bible Chana said. "My husband set out to prove him
wrong." Together, the two men and their families began to study several times a
week, eventually focusing on Judaism.
"The studying snowballed and more people joined us and we ended up con-
verting our garage into a family room, putting in book shelves, which we filled
with Jewish texts," Chana said. "We threw out the King James Bible and bought a
Chumash and every piece of Jewish literature we could get our hands on." They
also eventually learned with a Fort Worth Chabad rabbi.
"When we first told our children we wanted to convert, my daughter, Chaya,
told me, `I need to be a Jew," Chana said. That day — 21/2 years before they actu-
ally converted — they had their last meal in a restaurant and then bought all
kosher food.
Chaya remembers she was in the eighth grade and had a boyfriend. "We start-
ed without the real intention of becoming Jewish and for years we were 'nothing'
But we became very interested in Judaism because everything we learned and
knew to be true led us to Judaism. We gradually realized that if we were involved
in Jewish things and a Jewish way of life we should consider being Jewish."
Without much of a Jewish community around them — and the nearest Jewish
school 40 miles away — the Whitts home-schooled their children. During a visit
to relatives in Detroit in 1999, they realized that job opportunities for Akiva and
the Jewish community and schools would make Oak Park a perfect new home.
They now are members of Bais Chabad of North Oak Park.
Their daughter, Chaya Daiches, 27, and her husband, and the Whitts' son
Zalman, 26, and his wife all live in Oak Park with their children following the
family's conversion. Their youngest son, Levi, 18, is in Los Angeles in a Chabad
yeshivah. Since converting and moving to Michigan, the Whitts have had two
more children: Sara, 9, a third-grader at Yeshivas Darchei Torah in Southfield,
and Devorah Leah, 31/2, who attends at Ganeinu Nursery School in West
Bloomfield.
Chaya is thrilled that her children were born into Judaism. "I watch my sister
Sara's connection and how much deeper it is than mine. And I know that soon
my four children will be reading Hebrew better than I do." Her plan is to keep on
studying. _

