Publisher's Notebook
Pure Jewish Detroit
0
ver the past few months, I've accumulated little
pieces of paper with scribbled notations contain-
ing ideas or observations that could find their way
into a future Publisher's Notebook. A
few are borderline goofy, like using
the large number of rusting, bent and
mostly unused basketball rims and
backboards in driveways through-
ot4t my neighborhood as a tangible
measure of our community's aging
demographics (for the record, 42 of
91 homes in my West Bloomfield
neighborhood have basketball hoops
with 80 percent of those hoops rust-
ed, bent or broken). Others are, well,
you judge ...
A New Sapling Takes Root
I imagined Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, the late founder/
director of the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family
Campus in Farmington Hills as an imposing, aged horse
chestnut tree and Stephen Goldman, his new successor, as
a sapling waiting to grow and sink his roots. Why? A story
in last week's New York Times described a
project by the Anne Frank Center to take
11 derivative saplings from the dying horse
chestnut tree described by Anne Frank
in her diary and send them to specially
selected locations for planting and nurtur-
ing. Sapling recipients include Little Rock
Central High School, where the Little Rock
Nine infamously integrated that school in
Rabbi Charles
1957; the White House; the World Trade
Rosenzveiq
Center site in New York; Boston Common;
the William Clinton Library and ... the Holocaust Memorial
Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills.
The arrivals of Goldman and the sapling are a sign of
rebirth and rejuvenation for this important and often
overlooked Detroit Jewish community asset, one that will
continue to be influenced by the imposing shadow of Rabbi
Rosenzveig.
We Need Moishe Now
While hardly a messianic answer to the Detroit Jewish com-
munity's problems attracting and retaining 20-somethings,
Moishe Houses are popping up across the country and the
world. At last count, there were 29 houses in 10 countries.
In the U.S., there are Moishe Houses in Boston; Chicago;
Cleveland; Denver; Great Neck, N.Y.; Hoboken, N.J.; Los
Angeles; New Orleans; Orange County, Calif.; Philadelphia;
Portland, Ore.; Providence, R.I.; San Francisco; Seattle; Silver
Spring, Md.; St. Louis; and Washington, D.C. None in Detroit.
Moishe Houses started in 2006 in Oakland, Calif., as hubs
for Jews between 21-30 years of age. Typically, a self-select-
ing group receives a rent subsidy to live in a house and a
program budget to make it a Jewish communal space. In
an average month, Moishe Houses host between 50-300 20-
somethings with Shabbat dinners, educational, social, com-
munity service and other identity-building programming.
A handful of national Jewish foundations have been under-
writing most of the Moishe House investment.
It will take more than a Moishe House to rebuild our
20-something population. The Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, which was successful in maintaining
and growing a Jewish presence in North Oak Park and por-
tions of Southfield with its Neighborhood Project revolving
loan fund, would be wise to investigate how a Moishe House
in Royal Oak could serve as a focal point for a revised and
revived Neighborhood Project that serves as a magnet for
Jewish 20-somethings inside and outside of the Detroit met-
ropolitan area.
All That Zazz
While veteran Free Press writer Mitch Albom has received
national buzz for his latest book, Have A Little Faith, another
Jewish Detroiter has struck book publishing pay dirt twice
and is about to do it a third time, in barely 18 months.
Jeff Zaslow was already a well-regarded
Wall Street Journal writer and advice col-
umnist when he teamed with the termi-
nally ill Dr. Randy Pausch to co-author The
Last Lecture, which has been translated
into 45 languages and remains a New York
Times bestseller for the 75th consecutive
week. Zaslow recently authored Girls From
Ames, a wonderfully written and criti-
Jeff Zaslow
cally acclaimed account of how 11 women
maintained and nurtured friendships over a 40-year period.
And coming off the presses is a can't-miss bestseller
Zaslow co-authored with Captain Chesley B. "Sully"
Sullenberger, the skilled and celebrated U.S. Airways pilot
who defied odds by safely landing his disabled jet in the
Hudson River.
Zaslow has willingly sentenced himself to additional years
on the annual national Jewish book fair circuit. For some,
that would be a burden. For Zaslow, it's an opportunity to
share his success with friends and admirers around the
country ... and to gather new ideas for stories, columns and
books.
They Ask Me Anyway
I was introduced last month to a Lansing-based Cooley Law
School professor with a national reputation for understand-
ing the intricacies of evidence collection and admissibility.
After volunteering that he has been a Jewish News sub-
scriber for more than 30 years, he said he had a question for
me. Would his query be some fine point of international law
involving Israel? Would it relate to evidence-gathering tech-
niques used in the Kilpatrick text messaging scandal?
No. He had a question about Danny Raskin.
Wherever I go, people want to know about Danny. How
long has he been writing for the Jewish News? (Since the
publication was created in 1942). Does he still drive?
(Yes, and I'll leave it at that). Does he pay for his meals?
(Whenever I've been with him, he always offers to pay).
What you should know about Danny is that he is com-
mitted and devoted to the Jewish News, its readers and the
many, many friends he has made in the restaurant and
entertainment industry. He is a Detroit and a Jewish com-
munity treasure. There will never be another one like him,
as evidenced by the multiple generations of readers who
continue to follow his column every week. II
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