metro »

Detroit Jewish News Foundation
Approves Four New Directors

S

tephanie Freedman, Norman Pappas,
Jeffrey Schlussel and Larry Jackier
have been approved by the Detroit
Jewish News Foundation for initial three-
year terms, effective as of Jan. 1, on its
15-member board of directors. They will be
replacing Kari Alterman, Ben Falik, Matt
Lester and Robin Schwartz, whose terms
concluded on Dec. 31, 2016.
Alterman, Falik, Lester and Schwartz will
be designated as founding board members
and included on the Foundation’s honorary
board chaired by Eugene Applebaum, Avern
Cohn and Michael Steinhardt.
Stephanie Freedman is founder of
Freedman Communications, an integrated
marketing agency. A
native of Chicago and
University of Michigan
graduate, she has exten-
sive experience working
with organizations of all
sizes. Her recent strategic
marketing and branding
clients include the Maple
Stephanie
Theater, Ann Arbor Art
Freedman
Fair, Berloni America and

Pinkberry. She served for many years on the
board of JARC, where she started its young
professional network. She also introduced
the Farmers’ Market to Birmingham.
Norman Pappas is president of Pappas
Financial Group and a veteran community
leader and activist. His
volunteer roles have
included serving as
past president of United
Jewish Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit, past
co-chair of Federation’s
Annual Campaign, past
chair of the Michigan
Norman
Friends of the Israel
Pappas
Defense Forces and in top
positions with Bar-Ilan
University and the Weizmann Institute. He
served as a member of the Detroit Jewish
News Foundation’s honorary board before his
current appointment to its operating board.
He possesses degrees from the University of
Michigan and Michigan State University.
Jeffrey Schlussel is an attorney with Carson
Fisher. He is on the executive committee
and an officer of the Jewish Federation of

Forecasting
The Future

I

26 January 5 • 2017

Larry Lipnik from
Bais Chabad
Torah Center
catches a popup
last season in an
InterCongregational
Men’s Club Summer
Softball League
game.

ice hockey competition.
• Plans will continue to be made for
Detroit to host the Maccabi Games in 2019.
• Nikki Wald, the 2014 Jewish News
Female High School Athlete of the Year, will
return to the NCAA Women’s College World
Series with the University of Michigan soft-
ball team. Wald and the Wolverines played in
the World Series the past two seasons. Wald
exceled in volleyball, basketball and softball
at North Farmington.
• Billy Slobin, who has been the
Farmington Hills Harrison High School

*

Larry Jackier

football team’s volunteer strength and con-
ditioning coach since the late 1980s, will
continue to go above and beyond the call
of duty for his alma mater but plans for
Harrison to close after the 2018-2019 school
year because of declining enrollment in the
district won’t change.

sports »

t’s 2017, time to look into the crystal ball
and make some predictions for this year
in the world of sports.
• The InterCongregational Men’s Club
Summer Softball League will continue to
grow. There were a record 17 league teams in
2016, including four from Temple Israel.
• The Detroit Tigers will continue — at
least for one more season — to have a Jewish
manager (Brad Ausmus) and a Jewish sec-
ond baseman (Ian Kinsler).
• The Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation’s
Hank Greenberg Memorial Golf Invitational
and Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
induction dinner once again will be impor-
tant events on the year’s sports calendar.
• Jeff Ellis and Jim Berk will continue to
win weightlifting and swimming gold med-
als in the Michigan Senior Olympics.
• B’nai B’rith bowler Dave Shanbaum will
continue to roll 300 games. After all, the
43-year-old Windsor resident has “only” 15
perfect games in his career.
• The Detroit team will win a medal this
summer in the second JCC Maccabi Games

Metropolitan Detroit.
Among his many Jewish
communal volunteer
roles, he has chaired
Federation’s Israel &
Overseas Committee
and Partnership 2000/
Partnership Together
Jeffrey
Committee, and has
Schlussel
chaired the board of
trustees of the University
of Michigan Hillel. He is a recipient of the
Federation’s Frank A. Wetsman Young
Leadership Award and possesses undergrad-
uate and law degrees from the University of
Michigan.
Larry Jackier is an attorney and partner
at Jackier Gould and one of the Detroit
Jewish community’s most
accomplished leaders.
Among his volunteer roles
have been president of
the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and
co-chair of Federation’s
Annual Campaign. He
received Federation’s Fred

M. Butzel Award for service to the Jewish
community, an honor previously bestowed
upon his parents, Edythe and Joseph Jackier.
He currently serves as chair of the Technion’s
International Board of Directors. He served
as a member of the Detroit Jewish News
Foundation’s honorary board before his cur-
rent appointment to its operating board. He
possesses degrees from the University of
Michigan and Yale Law School.
“The Foundation is deeply appreciative
of the service provided by Kari, Ben, Matt
and Robin,” President Arthur Horwitz said.
“When the Foundation was little more than
a vision, they willingly and eagerly devoted
their time, talent and energy to help bring it
to life and assure its future viability.
“We are pleased to welcome Stephanie,
Norman, Jeffrey and Larry as new board
members,” Horwitz added. “They bring
creativity, intelligence and unparalleled com-
munity knowledge to the Foundation and
recognize the significance of its work.”
The Detroit Jewish News Foundation is
an independent, nonprofit 501-c-3 entity.
Its initial projects were digitizing the pages
of the Detroit Jewish News and its predeces-
sor publication, the Detroit Jewish Chronicle.
Spanning 100 consecutive years and com-
prising more than 300,000 pages, the free
archive, known as the William Davidson
Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History, can
be accessed via www.djnfoundation.org.

HILLEL HOOPS
Teams are needed to compete March
31-April 2 in the seventh annual National
Hillel Basketball Tournament hosted by the
University of Maryland Hillel.
Each team will play three preliminary
games before a single-elimination bracket
competition will determine men’s and wom-
en’s champions. Some games will be played
in the Xfinity Center, where the Maryland
Terrapins basketball teams play their home
games.
About 500 players on more than 60
teams representing nearly 50 universities are
expected to compete in the Hillel tourna-
ment, which raises funds to support Jewish
life on campuses across the country.
University of Maryland Hillel will provide
meals throughout the tournament including
a Friday night Shabbat dinner. Also outside
of basketball, there will be guest speakers
and social events.
Teams from Hillel organizations at the
University of Michigan, Michigan State
University and Wayne State University have

participated in the tournament.
New York-based philanthropists Jonathan
and Dina Leader are the main tournament
sponsors.
For more information on the tournament,
go to www.marylandhillel.org.

SWEET 16 POINTS
Amanda Moss scored 16 points, shooting
7-for-10 from the field, but the Kalamazoo
College women’s basketball team lost 83-74
to host Thiel College on Dec. 8 in Greenville,
Pa.
Moss is a 5-foot-4 sophomore guard from
Bloomfield Hills High School who also plays
for the Kalamazoo women’s lacrosse team.
She was adopted from China by David and
Janice Ross when she was 9 months old.

MONEY FOR MSU
Quicken Loans Inc. founder and Cleveland
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and his wife
Jennifer made a $15 million donation to
Michigan State University.
Part of the money will be used for a $50
million renovation of the Breslin Arena that
includes a new box office and the addition of
the Tom Izzo Hall of History.
Dan Gilbert graduated from MSU in 1983.
Jennifer Gilbert is a 1990 MSU grad.

*

Send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.