$2.00 SEPT. 19-25, 2013 / 15-21 TISHREI 5774

A JEWISH RENAISSANCE MEDIA PUBLICATION

» `Shlugn Kapores'

Chabad of Farmington Hills
fulfills a traditional Yom Kippur rite of atonement.
See page 22.

» Aid On The Way Jewish organizations open funds

to help victims of Colorado floods. See page 26.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

» Younger Focus Directing teen mission among roles
of new Federation staffer. See page 36.

metro

theJEWISHNEWS.com

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high-tech and business

opportunites to Michigan.

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island's first
kosher tour.

Barbara Lewis I Contributing Writer

Recycled Sukkah

Old doors lend extra meaning
to the holiday.

Benji Rosenzweig I Special to the Jewish News

The Rosenzweig family built its first sukkah from
recycled doors.

Printed In

Michigan

1942

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2013

Covering and
Connecting
Jewish Detroit
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1 1 1

8 08805

t started with a mutual fascina-
tion with Cuba, especially its
tiny Jewish community.
Now two Jewish women, sepa-
rated by a generation in age and
more than 760 miles in physical
location, have become best friends
and turned their love of Cuba into
a thriving tour business that has
brought thousands of people to the
island. And they're about to coor-
dinate the first — at least in Castro
times — kosher tour of Cuba.
Marla Whitesman, 47, of Flint,
wasn't thrilled about her first trip
to Cuba in December 2000. She
went as a favor to her husband,
Barney, but from the moment she
set foot on the island, she says,
she was "smitten" with everything
about it.
"I came home thinking I had
to work to get the Jews off the
island:' she said. "I knew I couldn't
do that, so I decided to work to
make their lives better on the
island. I did a Web search for Jews
in Cuba and saw an article on a
B'nai B'rith site. That's how I met
Miriam"

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Old American cars are a Cuban
staple. Here they drive along
the Malecon, Havana's seawall.

ukkot is by far my favorite holiday;

it's a chance to get creative and
build something — whether using
traditional wooden panels or the new pre-
fab sukkot kits. Either way, it's always fun
for me to assemble the sukkah.
Then there are the decorations. Every
sukkah is different; each is unique and
shows a little insight into the family that
built it. Hand-drawn art projects, construc-
tion paper chains, pictures of rabbis or
Israel embrace you each time you enter a
new sukkah.
Some of my fondest memories took place
in sukkahs. Growing up in Windsor, my
parents always invited more people over

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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