metro

Honored Advocate

A spirit of good will can build a richer world, activist says.

I

Robert Sklar

Contributing Editor

S

he was the one being recognized as Jewish
Detroit's 2013 Activist of the Year, but Patti
Aaron turned the spotlight on the doers
among 200 well-wishers at her beloved Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington Hills.
From the bimah during the Jewish Community
Relations Council-hosted event on June 12, she
declared: "You are the ones working at free clinics,
getting up early for board meetings, reading to kids in
Detroit schools, hosting interfaith potlucks, bringing
art classes to schools that can't afford them, growing
verdant vegetable gardens in urban deserts, helping
ex-offenders become contributing community mem-
bers, leading innovative fundraising efforts, providing
micro-loans and mentoring to aspiring entrepreneurs,
advocating with legislators ... and the list goes on and
on."
She added, "Thank you, all of you, for inspiring me
every step of the way."
Despite Michigan's economic and social challenges,
she said, "we are rich in community connection and
shared commitment to a quality of life that's fair and

Larry and Andi Wolfe

Patti Aaron and children Nicole, Amanda and Bryan with Ruth Messinger

nourishing to all."
"Our harvest will be abundant if we simply care
enough to cultivate the kind of world that treats all of

READY.

Judy and Mark Kahn

humanity with kindness and care," she said.
Keynote speaker Ruth Messinger, president of New
York-based American Jewish World Service, an inter-
national development organization that
supports human rights for marginalized
people around the world, called Aaron "a
model for everyone that says don't step
back, don't sit idly by — be an upstander,
not a bystander."
Aaron was honored for helping
improve access to quality education,
encouraging interfaith understanding,
and nurturing healthy and safe commu-
nities.
Her crowning achievement as an ORT
America leader locally and nationally
was chairing the campaign that created
the David B. Hermelin ORT Resource
Center, located in West Bloomfield at
the Jewish Community Center. That JCC
building is named for her late parents, D.
Dan and Betty Kahn.
Event co-chairs were Aaron's sister and
brother-in-law Andi and Larry Wolfe
of Bloomfield Hills, sister-in-law and
brother Judy and Mark Kahn of Encino,
Calif., and friends Lisa and Hannan Lis
of Farmington Hills and Rena and Mark
Lewis of Birmingham.
Mark Kahn said humility drives his
younger sister.
"Patti has never expected or needed
recognition for the work she does," he
said at the event pre-glow.
"She does it because it's the right thing
to do:'
Daughter Amanda Aaron, on behalf
of sister Nicole and brother Bryan, said
directly to the guest of honor at the pre-
glow: "You have taught us what it means
to be an active, engaged citizen:'

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June 27 • 2013

