Mitzvah
Memories
GEOFF KRETCHMER,
a partner in Star Trax
and Local Kitchen & Bar,
celebrated his bar mitz-
vah at Temple Emanu-El
on April 11, 1980. His
strongest memories are
of the party.
“My parents rented
out the Huntington
Woods Rec Center,
which was smaller in
those days; there was
a fireplace room con-
nected to a game room,”
he said. “We had the
whole place for me
and my friends and
didn’t have to compete
with the neighborhood
kids for the games.
We had about 60 kids
and brought in pizza
and pop. The DJ was
my sister’s friend Andy
Keeter because he had
the most records. We
danced, played games
and had a ball!”
LILA LAZARUS, local TV person-
ality, celebrated her bat mitzvah
at Temple Israel in 1976 when
it was still in the Palmer Park
neighborhood of Detroit. “I think
back on my bat mitzvah, and I
think of the platform shoes I was
wearing under my robe. Funny,
those exact shoes are back in
style today!” she said.
RON ELKUS, co-owner of the Shirt Box
in Farmington Hills, celebrated his bar
mitzvah on Nov. 11, 1972, at Congregation
Beth Shalom. His strongest memory is the
commemorative yarmulkes his family had
made.
“My father, Phil,
worked for Levi-
Strauss at the time;
he ended up working
there for 31 years. My
claim to fame is that
he had the company
produce brown velvet
yarmulkes with the
Levi’s tag and a sil-
ver Levi’s button on
top,” he said. “They
matched my suit,
which was brown
velvet, even though I wore a different
yarmulke. It was a big deal to have Levi’s
yarmulkes! People loved it; it was the talk
of the town!”
C30
celebrate! • 2017
jn
JOHN HARDWICK
continued from page 28
HOWARD TAPPER,
CEO of Tapper’s Diamonds
& Fine Jewelry, became a bar
mitzvah, as all Jewish boys do
with or without a ceremony,
at the age of 13. But he didn’t
celebrate that status until he
was 42 and had an “adult bar
mitzvah” at Congregation Beth
Shalom in 1990.
“I had always wanted to be
able to read from the Torah,
and chant my haftarah,” he said.
“Cantor Samuel Greenbaum
and Rabbi David Nelson guided
me through the process.
“I felt more connected to our
Jewish heritage and the history
of our people. The fact that the
same words and teachings are
thousands of years old really
connected with me. It gave me
a great sense of pride to accom-
plish learning the tropes and
melodies for the blessings and
the haftarah portion,” he said.
“We had a wonderful family
celebration in our home, which
was a beautiful simchah.
“Learning the tropes
and melodies enabled me
to do the haftarah for Rosh
Hashanah a couple of years
later,” Tapper said. “I was very
proud to be part of the High
Holiday service.”
Tapper’s effort encouraged
other family members. His wife,
Susan, father-in-law, Stanley
Berlin, and sister-in-law Ellen
Kroopnick were all inspired to
celebrate their adult b’nai mitz-
vah as a family, again with the
help of Cantor Greenbaum and
Rabbi Nelson.
CARI HERSKOVITZ-
ROSENBLOOM (aka Chef Cari)
doesn’t remember much about
her actual bat mitzvah at
Congregation Beth Achim in
the early 1990s. But her great-
uncle, Henry Sperber, handled
the catering. “Star Trax was just
trying to get started so my par-
ents used them,” she said. “We
had one of the first VHS music-
video-making activities.” *