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‘A True Renaissance Woman’

E

velyn Hoffman Kasle, 89, of
Franklin, died April 29, 2016.
A true Renaissance woman,
she spent her life involved in learning, in
music, in travel, in Judaism and in giving
to others.
Born in 1926 in Detroit to Jewish immi-
grants from Eastern Europe, Helen and
Sol Kanat, she taught piano to neighbors
as a teenager. A few years later, she and
her husband, Walter, taught piano for Karl
Haas. As a young bride, she wrote the
house organ for Lester Gruber’s London
Chop House. Raising her three daughters,
Anita, Linda and Lisa, in Oak Park, she
worked hard on her master’s degree in
English. Anita always said she went to
sleep to the sound of typewriter keys.
Evelyn became involved in
Congregation Shaarey Zedek after her
father, Sol, passed away in 1965. She
chaired the cultural commission for sev-
eral years. Her involvement in Judaism
extended beyond charity although she
donated to the Jewish Federation, to Bar-
Ilan University, JTS and to multiple Jewish
causes. She, along with Beverly Baker,
arranged a show of Jewish illuminated
manuscripts from JTS to travel to and be
shown at the DIA. She was honored by

the seminary as Shaarey
Zedek’s person of the year
and later, the seminary
named its Rare Book
Room alcove for Mrs.
Kasle. She, her children
and her grandchildren
traveled together to New
York for the dedication.
Sadly, her husband
Walter Hoffman passed
away while all three girls
Evelyn Kasle
were still in their teens.
Evelyn traveled extensively
alone and with her beloved
second husband, Robert Kasle, to Europe,
the U.S., Russia, Israel and Jordan. After
Bob passed away, the entire family went
white water rafting down the Colorado
River. She took each of her seven grand-
children on a special trip alone with her.
Chamber music was a passion of hers.
She and Walter had often entertained
musicians and jammed in their living
room in Oak Park. She was a stalwart sup-
porter of the Chamber Music Society, the
DSO and of Chautauqua. Even her style
was admired, and once the Observer and
Eccentric did a feature article on her per-
sonal sense of fashion.

Evelyn became a social
worker by obtaining her
M.S.W. from Wayne State.
She saw clients at the Maple
Clinic and taught English at
Highland Park Community
College. In addition, she
taught humanities at Oak
Park High School. Later, she
obtained a certificate in ger-
ontology at the University
of Michigan and was the
first person to lecture on
the “sandwich generation,”
a subject in which she had
personal experience, at Canyon Ranch in
Tucson, Ariz.
In her later years, Mrs. Kasle rediscov-
ered an old friend from Detroit, David
Faigenbaum. The two traveled back and
forth from his residence in Palo Alto,
Calif., to hers in Franklin with great joy
until he, too, passed away. With two
beloved husbands and a partner gone,
alone and with her children and grand-
children, Evelyn Hoffman Kasle truly
made her 89 years a life worth living.
Mrs. Kasle was predeceased by her
beloved husbands, Dr. Walter Hoffman
and Robert Kasle; her dear friend, Dr.

David Faigenbaum.
Mrs. Kasle had three daughters,
Anita Hoffman Ehrenfried, the late
Linda Hoffman Kozlowski (Dr. Jay and
Renee) and Lisa Shiffman (Gary). She
was blessed with seven grandchildren,
Joshua Hoffman Ehrenfried (Dahlia),
Rachel, Anna Sofen (Dr. Bryan) and
David Kozlowski, and Matthew Kozlowski
(Mallory Walter, fiancee), Alex and Adam
Shiffman; two great-grandchildren, Caleb
and Estelle Ehrenfried. She had a group of
dedicated and loving caregivers through-
out her long illness, Laurie Hill, Sharon
Perry, Drea Perry and Barbara Geer.
Evelyn was the dear sister of the late Dr.
Irvin Kanat; daughter of the late Helen
and Sol Kanat.
Interment was at Clover Hill Park
Cemetery. Contributions may be made to
Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network,
6555 W. Maple, West Bloomfield, MI
48322, www.jewishhospice.org; Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit,
6735 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills,
MI 48301, www.thisisfederation.org;
or Jewish Theological Seminary, 3080
Broadway, New York, NY 10027,www.
jtsa.edu. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman
Chapel.

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continued on page 70

spotlight » mentshes of the month

Love Of Sports

Jacob Rubenstein and
Jared Char with some of
the sports equipment they
collected for Detroit PAL

Harrison High seniors put values into action.

Stacy Gittleman | Contributing Writer

J

ust in time for the opening pitch
of the 2016 baseball season this
spring, Jacob Rubenstein and Jared
Char, both of Farmington Hills and seniors
at Harrison High School , loaded up an SUV
with gently used baseball equipment they
collected since last summer and delivered it
to the Detroit Police Athletic League (PAL)
in March.
Rubenstein and Char met while playing
little league when they were 7. The boys both
attended Hebrew school at Temple Israel in
West Bloomfield, where they learned the
value of kindness and social action. Now
varsity baseball players for the Harrison
Hawks, the two wanted to share their love of
the game with other kids in Detroit by giving
back to the community before they head off
to college in the fall.
Char and Rubenstein will both receive
International Baccalaureate (IB) diplomas
upon graduation. IB students enroll in a
rigorous curriculum that consists of acceler-

ated academic classes and other demands
that challenge them to build leadership skills
and thinking globally while practicing local
community-minded service projects called
Creativity Action Service.
Last year, on a school trip to the
Dominican Republic, Char spent time in a
community where he helped build a baseball
diamond for local schoolkids in this baseball-
obsessed country.
“When I returned home, I thought it
would be a great idea if I could help other
kids locally enjoy the game of baseball as
much as I do,” he said.
Through research, Char and Rubenstein
decided that Detroit PAL would be the best
place to donate the equipment they collected
from members of the Bullpen, a baseball
sports facility in Novi.
Detroit PAL runs year-round athletic and
leadership programs for more than 12,000
youth in the city of Detroit. According to the
organization, Detroit PAL annually trains

more than 1,500 individuals to make a dif-
ference in the lives of children by coaching
and getting involved in youth sports.
Athletic programs like those offered by
Detroit PAL provide a multitude of proven
benefits to a child’s well-being. The statistics
are clear. Youth who participate in sports are
27 percent more likely to get better grades
and 37 percent more likely to do better on
standardized tests.
The organization does not turn down any
child to play due to financial situation, but
often the costs of registration do not cover
the expense of equipment or gear.
Char has been accepted to the Stephen
M. Ross School of Business at the University
of Michigan, and he is “pretty sure he will
attend.” However, at press time, he was still

waiting to hear back from the Ivy
League schools. He added that
this experience taught him how
to start and carry through on a
project.
“I never did anything like this
before,” said Char, who plays catcher for the
Hawks. “But I learned how to work with
administrators, effectively communicate to
community members about our project goal
and execute a plan. Plus, it was a mitzvah. I
did something I was always taught to do all
my life.”
Rubenstein, who plays second base, also
echoed his classmate’s feelings on the power
of doing something good within the com-
munity and sharing his passion for baseball
with others. He will attend Michigan State
University in the fall.
“Helping and learning from others has
always been a central value in my life,” said
Rubenstein, who participated in the 2014
Detroit Maccabi Games.

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May 5 • 2016

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