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Jennifer Slaim's donated bat mitzvah T-shirt is where?

Shell! Liebman Dorfman

Spanx CEO
to headline
Federation's
'Big THANX'
women's event.

I Contributing Writer

W

hile ironing her daughter's
name labels into camp cloth-
ing in 1994, Debbie Ellias
Williams could never have imagined one
of them would provide the necessary clue
to a mystery in Kenya nearly 20 years later.
The strange investigation began with
a Dec. 2 NPR Planet Money T-shirt proj-
ect report, "The Afterlife Of American
Clothes" about donated T-shirts from the
U.S. being sold in African markets. At the
end of the report was a request for help in
locating the original owners of randomly
chosen T-shirts discovered washed, ironed,
folded and laid out on horse carts for sale
at the Gikombo Market in central Nairobi.
When Adam Soclof of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency saw that the first of
several shirts displayed in the report had a
whimsical Jewish connection, he took the
challenge to heart, setting out to find its
donor and share his findings on the JTA
Archive Blog. His story then went viral on
the Internet.
The shirt depicted a colorful sketch of
cartoon stars playing music and bopping
on a dance floor. The words "Jennifer's Bat
Mitzvah, Nov. 20, 1993" were printed on
the front and the name Rachel Williams
was stamped inside on an iron-on tag.
Through Facebook, Soclof, originally
from Ann Arbor, located Rachel, now
Rachel Aaronson. Through Rachel, he
found her longtime friend, Jennifer
(Slaim) Rasansky. The shirt was a give-
away at Jennifer's bat mitzvah party at the
Somerset Inn in Troy.

The Owner Is Found

Turns out the girls are both from
Farmington Hills.
Rachel was the first contacted by
Soclof, who, in his search for the "right"
Rachel Williams, posted a message on her
Facebook page that read: "Rachel, super
random, but recognize this bat mitzvah
shirt?" The post was accompanied by a
link to a photo of the shirt, on kveller.com ,
a Jewish parenting website.
"I was very surprised and in a bit of
disbelief that NPR was actively looking
for me said Rachel, 32, who now lives
in Chicago. After studying the photo, she
said, "There was no doubt. That was my
shirt, and I was the Rachel they were look-
ing for!"
Jennifer was just as stunned. "At first, I
was in disbelief and couldn't stop laugh-
ing; then I contacted my entire family"
she said. "It honestly is incredible how 20
years later my bat mitzvah T-shirt resur-

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Jennifer Slaim Rasansky with her bat mitzvah T-shirt at home in West
Bloomfield and a identical T-shirt discovered in Kenya.

faces in Africa and I learn about it via
NPR!"
Rachel said she and Jennifer, 33, who
lives in West Bloomfield, "got in touch right
away. It was really fun to catch up and remi-
nisce about our middle school days."
The two grew up in the same neigh-
borhood, went to Forest Elementary
School, Warner Middle School and
North Farmington High School, all in
Farmington Hills, together and to religious
school at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield, where Jennifer's bat mitzvah
service took place.
They also shared summers at Tamarack
Camps where the famed shirt with the tell-
ing name tag first traveled.
In addition to the shirt that made its
way to Africa, there is at least one other
whose location has been verified. "I have
one of my T-shirts" Jennifer said, explain-
ing that its design came from her fascina-
tion with a specific cartoon character.

Inspiring Others

For Rachel, seeing photos of the shirt
brought back fond memories. "I got that
shirt at a party during a really fun time
in my life, and then took it to Camp
Tamarack, which was a wonderful and
special experience. So, I like to think that
there is some positive energy associated
with that shirt that has made its way to
Africa"
Rachel said she remembers her mom at
the ironing board getting her shirts ready
for camp.
And her mom remembers very clearly
standing and adhering each label onto
piles and piles of clothing. "I just hoped
they would stay on until end of the sum-
mer" Williams said. "Since the NPR

article, I've received messages from friends
and relatives all over the country suggest-
ing that now that I'm retired and famous,
I should start my own business ironing
name tags on kids' camp clothes"
The shirt was among many that Rachel's
mom donated to Purple Heart about five
years ago. "She asked me first and I agreed
that it was time to give it away in the hope
that it would find a second home Rachel
said.
Jennifer said she and her husband,
Michael, also donate clothing to several
charitable organizations including Purple
Heart, Salvation Army and Vietnam
Veterans of America.
"It is wonderful to see the impact of
the donations beyond our borders" she
said. This is just one T-shirt and one story.
Think of all the stories and good behind
all the other thousands of donated shirts
in that market and in all the other markets
in Africa. Hopefully, others will realize
that their donations can have an impact,
too"
According to NPR's report, "The U.S.
exports over a billion pounds of used
clothing every year, and much of that
winds up in used clothing markets in sub-
Saharan Africa"
But how many of those actually come
from Farmington Hills? It's possible there
are dozens more, Williams said.
"When combining the shirt collections
from both of my daughters, I probably
donated over 50 labeled bar and bat mitz-
vah shirts at that time" she said. "Maybe
someday I'll get a call from Rachel's sister,
30-year-old Sarah Williams Licavoli, tell-
ing me that one of her labeled shirts from
her camp, Camp Tanuga, has found its way
to a market in Kenya as well"

Laurie Ann Goldman, Spanx CEO

Vivian Henoch

Special to the Jewish News

A

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❑

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January 2 • 2014

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