metro » l os s a nd l eg a c y

continued from page 11

of Detroit.
But Wishnetsky was mentally unstable,
alternating between severe depression and
expressions of extreme anger and hostil-
ity. He was deeply troubled by the war in
Vietnam and fantasized about murdering
Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense
under Lyndon Johnson. He spent long peri-
ods in area mental hospitals.
Wishnetsky liked Rabbi Adler and had
reached out to him for counseling in the
months before the shooting, which could
explain the rabbi’s composure on the
bimah.
Goldie Adler, the rabbi’s wife, was also
calm throughout the ordeal. Before leav-
ing for the hospital, she sought out Evelyn
Wishnetsky, Richard’s mother, put her arms
around her and assured her that nothing
that happened was her fault.
While their loved ones were still alive,
Goldie Adler sent a message to Evelyn
Wishnetsky saying, “I am most concerned
for you. The rabbi is holding his own.”
After the shivah for Richard Wishnetsky,
his family visited the Adlers at Sinai
Hospital and Goldie Adler consoled
Richard’s sisters, Ellen and Terry.
“I was trying to convince the girls that
their brother loved the rabbi as much as
they did, that he meant him no harm, that
Richard’s illness was like a cancer … and I
really felt it,” Goldie said later.

AT THE HOSPITAL
Dr. Lenny Lachover was a third-year surgi-
cal resident at Sinai Hospital, on duty when
the rabbi was shot. Fifty years later, he
remembers every detail about that morn-
ing.
He was the third generation of his fam-
ily to belong to Shaarey Zedek, and Rabbi
Adler had officiated at his bar mitzvah, so
the news of the shooting came as a shock.
“The operator paged me and said she
didn’t know if it was true or not, but the
rabbi had been shot and the ambulance

was on its way,” Lachover said. “We got the
operating room ready — it was on the third
floor — and then we went to the emergency
room entrance to wait for the ambulance.”
Lachover worked with neurosurgeon
Harvey Gass, who was at the hospital that
morning as well. They heard the sirens as
the ambulance approached.
“The rabbi was still wearing his rab-
binical garb and his tallis, which were both
heavily bloodstained,” Lachover said. “He
was semi-conscious. We had a portable
X-ray machine and, after we got the X-ray,
we rushed him into surgery. Within a half-
hour, he was in the operating room.”
Lachover was relieved of all other duties
and assigned to Adler’s care. He still has the
letter from his chief, Milton Sorock, giving
him the assignment.
“Over the three weeks he was in the hos-
pital, he was seen by all kinds of specialists:
infectious disease, critical care, respiratory
care, pulmonology,” Lachover said. “He had
the best care available.”
One of the hardest things was seeing a
man so well known for his command of the
English language lying speechless, he said.

Gov. G. Mennen Williams signs a bill in 1950 permitting Jews to vote absentee if election
day falls on a Jewish holiday. Rabbi Leon Fram of Temple Israel and Rabbi Adler witnessed
the signing.

MOURNING THE LOSS
The day after the rabbi died, a record
number of congregants attended Shaarey
Zedek’s Shabbat morning service. Rabbi
Irwin Groner, who had
come to the synagogue
in 1959 as Adler’s associ-
ate, devoted his sermon
to reading from Adler’s
writings, encouraging a
rededication to the ideals
he preached and lived by.
News media all over
Rabbi Irwin
the world covered Rabbi
Groner
Adler’s funeral on March
13, which Gov. George
Romney declared a day of mourning in
Michigan.
The 3,100 seats in the sanctuary and

continued on page 16

Walter Reuther, Rabbi Adler and Gov. George Romney

continued from page 11

from the Franks in the 1960s and was at
Shaarey Zedek for Steve’s bar mitzvah.
“I was traumatized for a long time; today
they would call it post-traumatic stress dis-
order,” she said. “When I heard a loud noise,
I would jump 20 feet. When I was out, I
would look around for suspicious people.
I didn’t really talk about it and my parents
didn’t realize I was a nervous wreck for a
while.”
If something similar happened today,
mental health professionals would likely
respond quickly to help the witnesses —
adults and children — cope.
The short-term crisis intervention model
used today developed after a deadly fire

12 March 10 • 2016

at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston
in 1942, which killed nearly 500 people. By
1966, the field was still relatively new.
Psychologists began to realize that
extraordinary events could traumatize
normal people, who needed to have their
confidence and resilience restored.
The most important thing for survivors
to understand is that they are experienc-
ing normal reactions to an abnormal
event, said Susan Silk, Ph.D., who has a
private practice in Southfield and is chair
of the Disaster Resource Network for the
Michigan Psychological Association.
“We reassure people they’re not crazy,”
she said. “They need to know that if they

are anxious and jumpy, feel withdrawn,
can’t sleep, that those are completely nor-
mal reactions to the event.”
Crisis intervention is best done in small
groups of people — 10 to 20 is ideal — who
already know each other. A counselor would
acknowledge that they are likely to be really
upset for a while, but that they’d probably
be feeling better within four to six weeks.
She would encourage those who don’t feel
better quickly to seek individual counseling.
Silk said crisis intervention sessions for
children are best when led by someone
they know, such as a teacher, rather than an
outside expert. Often the crisis intervention
specialists train those who already know the

children.
Jennifer Friedman, Ph.D., dean of student
learning at Hillel Day School in Farmington
Hills and a member of
Shaarey Zedek, agreed.
Crisis counseling today
would be handled within
a supportive community,
she said.
“We know a lot more
now than we did in 1966,”
she said. “There are many
Jennifer
more trained disaster and
Friedman
crisis counselors. People
would come together to
learn coping strategies.”

*

