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theJEWISHNEWS.com
A JEWISH RENAISSANCE MEDIA PUBLICATION
>> It's Fun Being Jewish! Discover new things to do
for every day of Jewish Heritage Month. See page 12.
» An Artist's Soul New exhibit at JCC Charach
Gallery features spiritual work by a Detroit native living
in Israel. See page 45.
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
>> Yom HaZikaron Detroiters recall standing
together on Israel's Memorial Day. See page 65.
Former Detroiter Avraham Lowenthal in his
gallery in Tzfat, Israel
metro » cover story
Rare Mitzvah
Orthodox community comes together
for redemption of a firstborn donkey.
Keri Guten Cohen I Story Development Editor
I
t's not often than a synagogue social hall plays host
to live animals, but, on April 17, a baby donkey and a
sheep were the main players in a rare mitzvah held at
Young Israel of Oak Park.
More than 1,200 Orthodox men, women and children cre-
ated standing room only to be part of the mitzvah known as
Pidyon Peter Chamor (redemption of the firstborn donkey).
It was a first for Detroit. Not counting Israel — where Jewish
farmers with donkeys abound — the mitzvah is seldom
performed because of the difficulty in obtaining a firstborn
male donkey.
The quest for Detroit's baby donkey began several years
ago after Moshe Rose of Southfield heard the mitzvah was
performed in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, by its Orthodox
community.
"It was the first I'd heard of in quite some time:' says Rose,
an attorney. "The kollel there had just finished learning this
Lone Soldiers Miro
Falic of Panama and
Aaron Goss of West
Bloomfield are IDF
paratroopers.
.7
-
Diaspora Jews, including Metro Detroiters,
sign on to help protect Israel.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
Jake Sharfman I Special to the Jewish News
t was 66 years ago on May 14, 1948, the fifth day of Iyar, when every Jew's life would change forever.
David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence aloud in front of 250 attend-
_ ees at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv and Israel officially became a state — a Jewish state.
At the conclusion of Ben-Gurion's near 16-minute reading, he called on Rabbi Yehuda Leib
Fishman, leader of the religious Zionist movement, to recite the Shehechiyanu blessing to close the
ceremony, a common prayer to celebrate special occasions, but also to encourage Jews to offer thanks
to new and unusual experiences.
In this spirit of unusual experiences as well as the celebration of that special day now known as Yom
HaAtzmaut, it seems appropriate to highlight three of the 11 young Metro Detroiters who took the
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
Printed In
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1942 - 2014
Covering and
Connecting
Jewish Detroit
Eve y Week
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Rabbi Dovid Kahn, a kohen, receives a sheep as
redemption for the firstborn male donkey during the
Pidyon Peter Chamor mitzvah.
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