>> ... Next Generation ...

World

Destination
Israel

Student makes aliyah
after 10-month Israeli
teaching program.

D

anielle Longo,
28, from Troy,
made aliyah to
Israel July 11 on
a Nefesh B'Nefesh charter
flight that left out of JFK
airport in New York.
Longo grew up a
Conservative Jew in
West Bloomfield and
attended Hillel Day School
in Farmington Hills. She
graduated from the
University of Michigan
with a bachelor's degree in
psychology and then went
on to receive her master's
in counseling from Oakland
University.
In August of 2011, Longo
Danielle Longo at JFK airport is
packed her bags and began
excited
to make aliyah and board
a 10-month program to gain
the
Nefesh
B'Nefesh charter flight
some teaching experience in
to
Israel.
Israel with the MASA: Israel
Teaching Fellows program.
"I fell in love, not only
with the land but the culture and the people," Longo says.
She returned to Metro Detroit when the program was over,
but was unable to find work.
"I figured this was the next best thing," she says. "It is so
easy to be myself here: blunt, open and honest."
She is returning to live in Rishon Lelion, where she taught
during her time with MASA. She has several interviews lined
up and eventually hopes to move closer to Tel Aviv.
Longo's mother, Susan Wilson of Troy, is very supportive of
the move. "She sees how happy I am," Longo says. "Of course,
I will miss my family, and all the big and little events as well,
but I have an amazing family here, too. I am so lucky."
Longo does admit to being concerned about finances, as the
salaries are much lower In Israel than the United States. "But I
know I will make do."
Longo made aliyah along with 229 other Mtn (new
immigrants), among them 38 families, 100 children and 59
singles. Nefesh B'Nefesh, in cooperation with the Israeli
government and the Jewish Agency for Israel, is dedicated
to revitalizing aliyah from North America by removing or
minimizing the financial, professional, logistical and social
obstacles of aliyah.

38 July 26 2012

Good Read

U-M Football

Former Michigan Daily editor
quarterbacks history book.

I

website ... oh, and going to class?
But then the biggest Michigan news
of the year happened January 2011.
Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez
had just been fired and
replaced by San Diego State
coach Brady Hoke. After three
seasons of depressing losses,
the students and alumni had
high hopes that Hoke would
return the football program
to its former glory. As letters
Football: A History of the
to the editor flooded in
Nation's Winningest Program.
praising Athletic Director
I'll be honest, I'm not a
Dave Brandon for choosing
football fanatic. Sure, I stood in
a
true "Michigan Man" to
the Big House student section
Stephanie
become
head coach, I realized
during sweltering heat, torrential
Steinberg
how
much
Wolverines, young
downpours and what I would
Special to the
and
old,
care
about Michigan
consider a blizzard one Saturday
Jewish News
football. It dawned on me
in November of my freshman
that now was the perfect time
year. And I pumped my fists on
to create that book — when Hoke was
every "Hail!" of "the Victors." But if
the talk at parties, and fans were actually
you asked me how many
excited for the football season to
downs we had (is that even
start again.
the right terminology?)
So I
or to name a defensive
assembled a
lineman, well, you would
team of Daily
have gotten your answer
editors, and
asking someone else.
though I had
Needless to say, I
absolutely no idea
surprised quite a few
what I was doing,
people during the first
they all agreed to
month of my term as
create this book
editor in chief of the
with me. Over the
Michigan Daily when
next 16 months,
I announced plans
sports editors, one
to produce a book
designer and I pored
— a football book,
over thousands of
that is:
photos and stories
A few months
ranging from Michigan's
before, I spent an afternoon
three Heisman Trophy
in the newsroom with then-editor-in-
winners to the team's most recent win
chief Jacob Smilovitz of Franklin. As he
in the 2012 Sugar Bowl. It was quite
explained everything I needed to know
a challenge to condense 132 years
about taking over his job, he briefly
of Michigan football into 176 pages.
mentioned that previous editors have
There were hundreds of stories and
kicked around the idea of creating a
images we wish we could have included,
Michigan Daily football book using the
but couldn't. Yet by the end, we were
print archives to compile all the Daily's
confident we chose the moments that
football coverage, including stories and
define Michigan football.
photos, from 1890 (when the paper
While I usually left the paper around 3
started) to the present. At the time, I
or 4 a.m. as editor-in-chief, I saw the sun
noted the suggestion but didn't give it
rise many more times while working on
much thought. What editor had time to
the book, and I lost count of the number
produce a book while producing a daily
of milkshakes I had ordered from Pizza
newspaper and managing a 24/7 online

f you told me I would publish a book
by the time I graduated college, I
wouldn't have believed you. And
if you told me that book would be
about University of Michigan
football, I would have laughed in
your face — and then laughed
some more.
Yet, here I am, a few weeks
away from holding a published
copy of my book Michigan