Metro
HERE'S TO...
Growing A Minyan
Community celebrates investiture of Judge Mark Goldsmith.
Alan Hitsky
Associate Editor
T
he audience reflected the man.
More than 400 communal
leaders, lawyers, judges, politi-
cians, rabbis and lay people crowded into
two court rooms in the Theodore Levin
U.S. Courthouse in downtown Detroit on
Nov. 8 to celebrate the formal swearing-
in of Judge Mark A. Goldsmith.
The heavily Jewish portion of the audi-
ence ranged from black hats to no-hats, a
tribute to the self-described grandson of
an immigrant peddler who has davened
at Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak
Park and the Woodward Avenue Shul in
Birmingham.
Tributes to the newest judge on the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan ranged from Chief Judge Gerald
Rosen, who grew up with Goldsmith in
Oak Park, to U.S. Senators Carl Levin
and Debbie Stabenow, the Michigan
Democrats who nominated Goldsmith for
the post.
Jeff Appel, a longtime friend of the
judge and the afternoon's master of cer-
emonies, told of Goldsmith's days at the
University of Michigan where he was an
all-A economics major, a judge on the
student judiciary and who took a calcu-
lus class "for fun.
"But don't let his seemingly serious
demeanor fool you," Appel told the audi-
ence.
"He knows how to have fun," even let-
ting dinner guests know it is time to go
home by changing into his pajamas and
bathrobe.
Barbara McQuade, the U.S. attorney
for Michigan's Eastern District, said
Goldsmith approaches everything in his
life "with total immersion?' Presidents
of the Federal Bar Association for the
Eastern District usually advance one
major project during their tenure. "Judge
Goldsnith," McQuade said, "did six!"
During a Federal Bar event while
Goldsmith was president, a glitch in the
program was filled by Goldsmith chant-
ing his bar mitzvah haftorah.
In just the few months that Judge
Goldsmith has been on the federal bench,
McQuade said, he has shown himself to
be "extremely thorough, well prepared,
and asks thoughtful questions!'
14
November 18 2010
The Goldsmith family: Judy and Mark, Jared, Alexis and Stephanie Rosenbaum,
and Molly Goldsmith.
Goldsmith was an attorney with
Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn
in Detroit. He served six years on the
Oakland County Circuit Court bench and
began a number of programs there, said
Oakland County Circuit Judge Edward
Sosnick, including a Jewish Law Lunch
and Learn Odyssey.
Sosnick said he was Goldsmith's men-
tor, "but what could I tell a cum laude
graduate of Harvard Law" who also took
the test for the Israel Bar Association in
Hebrew.
During the background check for
Goldsmith's appointment by President
Barack Obama, Sosnick received a call
from a frustrated FBI agent. "Unless
you've got something': the agent told
Sosnick, "I can't find anything wrong
with this guy."
Other speakers at the investiture
included Gary Torgow, a member of
the board of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and a leader of
Jewish Detroit's Orthodox commu-
nity, and Senators Levin and Stabenow.
Goldsmith's wife, Judy, introduced a five-
minute family video.
Goldsmith thanked his guests. "I am so
blessed to have 400 friends come honor
me on a Monday afternoon."
But he added, "How come 400 people
have nothing else to do on a Monday
afternoon?"
The serious theme of his remarks was
how "in America, anyone's dream can
come true." He mentioned his Russian
grandfather's dream of freedom, the
dream of America's founders "that an
unruly people could rule themselves"
and that the judicial system helps that
happen.
"I'm also grateful to the Almighty,"
Goldsmith said, "for allowing my plan to
be part of His plan?'
Among the guests at the event was
Goldsmith's sister from Jerusalem. His
brother Merwin, a television actor in
New York, began the program by lead-
ing the audience in singing "America the
Beautiful" and concluded it with "God
Bless America?'
Rabbi Chanoch Hadar of the
Woodward Avenue Shul and Rabbi Neil
Cooper of Philadelphia, Goldsmith's
college friend, recited in Hebrew and
English the "Prayer for Our Country?' E
Judicial List
The United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Michigan
is believed to have the highest
percentage of Jewish judges of
any federal district in the country.
Eight of the 22 judges are Jewish.
They include Paul D. Borman,
Avern Cohn, Nancy Edmunds,
Bernard Friedman, Mark Goldsmith,
Gerald Rosen, Arthur Tarnow and
Lawrence Zatkoff.
Corinne Stavish of Southfield will be
featured at the National Storytelling
Festival in Jonesborough, Tenn.
Mark Rosenthal of Belleville took the
title of "Best Detroit Party Entertainer"
from Nickelodeon's Parentsconnect. He
won this honor with his ability to enter-
tain kids and adults with a magic show,
which incorporates exotic animals as
well.
Kenneth Chelst, Ph.D., of Southfield,
a professor of industrial and systems
engineering in Wayne State University's
College of Engineering in Detroit, helped
write the core of the MINDSET cur-
riculum. Mathematics Instruction Using
Decision Science and Engineering Tools
(MINDSET) is a new, innovative pro-
gram designed to improve high school
students' aptitude and attitudes toward
math. The program utilizes decision-
making tools of Industrial Engineering
and Operations Research to enhance
students' multi-step math problem-
solving skills. The program is funded
by a five-year, $3 million grant from the
National Science Foundation.
Philip Handleman of Birmingham, a
pilot and aviation photographer, was
awarded the Combs Gates Award by the
National Aviation Hall of Fame. He has
authored or edited 21 aviation books and
more than 70 articles spanning subjects
from air shows to air warfare and from
airliners to air racing.
Sarah Crane has joined the Jewish
Community Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit as community rela-
tions associate. A 2009 honors gradu-
ate of the UniVrersity of Michigan, she
worked this past year as a team leader
with City Year Detroit, where she led a
culturally diverse team of volunteers in
service at a Detroit public school. Crane
will bring new internet/social net-
working capabilities to the Bloomfield
Township-based JCRC.
Ed Borstein, 13, of
Buffalo Grove, Ill.,
displayed some of his
photographic work
(20 photos) at Indian
Trails Public Library in
a monthlong exhibit.
His exhibit was titled
Borstein
"Nature Through My
Lens; " three of the pictures were sold as
the show ended. He is the son of former
Detroiter Sharon Manello Borstein and
her husband, Richard.