Roots from page B11 Name: Leonid "Lenny" Feller. Age: 31. Home: Oakland County. Family: wife, Lisa; children Lucas, 3, Logan, 21 months. Parents, Emilia and Emil Feller, and in-laws, Pam Radzinski and Isaac Radzinski; all live locally. Education: West Bloomfield High School graduate, 1993; University of Michigan, bachelor's in political sci- ence and economics, 1996; Harvard University, juris doctor, 2000. Synagogue: Temple Israel, West Bloomfield. Charitable Causes: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, Bloomfield Township; U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. munity was another incentive to come back. It's where Feller and his wife grew up. "Chicago unquestionably has a strong and vibrant Jewish community, but it wasn't our Jewish community," Lenny said. Lisa added, "It is especially meaningful to us to see our children not only attend the synagogue where Lenny and I attend- ed Hebrew school, but also develop a rela- tionship with the rabbis that married us." Detroit is special to the Fellers. "Moving back to Detroit has given us the oppor- tunity to celebrate our Judaism with our closest family and friends and give our children the opportunity to learn about Judaism from their grandparents:' Feller said. The Fellers attend Temple Israel in West Bloomfield and have taken part in that West Bloomfield synagogue's Imagine pro- grams for young adults. With two young children, family outings often consist of birthday parties at My Gym and trips to Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook and the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak. The Fellers also are fans of University of Michigan football and Detroit's professional sports teams. Lenny grew up at Temple Israel and was active in the youth group. He visited Israel with the synagogue in 1992. Feller also cut his spiritual spurs at camp. From 1987 to 1990, he attended Michigan's Tamarack Camps. He attended Kutz Camp, a Reform movement camp in Warwick, N.Y., in 1991; he was a counselor there in 1993. The Fellers count Holocaust education among their key endeavors, given that Lisa's paternal grandparents and other relatives jumped off a train headed for Treblinka and both of Lenny's grandfa- thers fought in World War II for the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. The tug of Jewish Detroit isn't lost on Lenny Feller. As he put it, "Just the chance to be Jewish brought my parents from the Soviet Union to Detroit. The chance to be part of the Jewish community in which I was raised brought my family back from Chicago to Detroit." ❑ High-Profile Cases Current: • The Detroit Thug Lordz, a nine- defendant case involving an armed street gang alleged to sell crack cocaine, powder cocaine and mari- juana. • The AK-47 Bandits, five defendants alleged to be responsible for 10 bank robberies netting $550,000. The lead defendant is alleged to have shot a Detroit police officer and a bank teller. • A defendant alleged to have taken photographs of himself molesting his 9-year-old daughter and her friends during sleepovers. Previous: • Sisaye Dinssa admitted to fund- ing the Oromo Liberation Front, an Ethiopian separatist group, and was sentenced to 12 months' imprison- ment after smuggling $78,000 into Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus with articles about the fail- ure of nuclear power plants. • John Gdyra, a personal banker at Comerica Bank in Detroit, was sen- tenced to 3 1/2 years' imprisonment after embezzling $360,000 from the surviving spouses of his 70- to 90- year-old clients. GALLERY of West Bloomfield A unique Oriental Rug Store filled with the finest hand made rugs from India, Pakistan, China and Persia. Such as Kashan, Tabriz, Isfahan and many more. 6335 Orchard Lake Rd. West Bloomfield, MI 48323 On Orchard Lake Road just North of Maple. Mon-Sat 10-6 • Thurs. 10-8 • Sun 12-5 B12 February 14 • 2008 Melton Names Director The board of directors of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School have named Rabbi Loren Sykes, 41, as the director of the North American Division of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School. Sykes will commence his position on Aug. 1. Sykes was the founding executive direc- tor of Camp Ramah Darom in Georgia and has a record of educational leader- ship and innovation. He is a fellow at the Senior Educators Program of the Melton Center for Jewish Education and is study- ing under the tutorship of Dr. Jonathan Mirvis, the international director of the Mini-School. Teacher Is Honored Leonard H. Schiffman of Novi has been selected to receive the 2008 Dr. William C. Morse Teacher of the Year Award. This state-level award is given by the Michigan Council Schiffman of Exceptional Children and will be presented to him at its 2008 Conference in Grand Rapids. Schiffman has been teaching for more than 30 years and is working with the severely cognitively impaired students at the Kingsley Montgomery School in Waterford.