jews d

in
the

75th Anniversary

Where
Are They
Now?

Former JN staffers fondly
recall the paper and Detroit’s
Jewish community.

TOP: Contributing Writer Esther Allweiss Ingber
dances with the indomitable Danny Raskin at a JN
party on the Detroit River in 1999.

I

n the JN’s 75-year history, a dedi-
cated, lively group of people have
infused the paper not only with
personality, but with the personal-
ity of this community. Here are some
memories from former JN staffers you
may recall from reading the paper
each week.

CHARLOTTE
DUBIN:
City Editor
Yikes, there are more
memories than space
for this assignment
I’ve been given.
I was city editor of
the Jewish News from
1964-74. What will forever stand out
in my memory of that decade? Being
part of the Jewish News staff, reporting
on our community, its challenges and
its achievements.
• Like the little lady who insisted we
provide apartments for senior citizens
and helped win the hearts and leader-
ship support that led to their creation.
• Like the downfall of a so-called
priest in Grass Lake, Mich., who hid
his Nazi past but, after unrelenting
coverage, was outed and deported by
the U.S.
• Like that week in June 1967, when
— spurred by the words of our pub-
lisher — we helped rally 6,000 strong
in support of Israel as it fought for its
existence, then did the impossible in
six days. (And, by the way, I celebrated
my own happy news: marriage to
Harold Dubin the day after the war
ended.)
So many stories long and short,
monumental and personal, showed
what a great community this is.

Stories that make the practice and
craft of journalism a joy.
No college classes taught me as
much as what I learned from my boss,
Jewish News editor and publisher Phil
Slomovitz.
Our staff called him Mr. S. — affec-
tionately descriptive of a man small in
physical stature but standing tall in so
many ways.
I suspect — no, I’m sure — that Mr.
S. would have taken great pride in his
newspaper on this 75th anniversary of
the Detroit Jewish News.
Where she is now: Charlotte Dubin
is retired and volunteers with Adat
Shalom Synagogue and the Leonard N.
Simons Jewish Community Archives.
And, oh, yes, she still writes. For fun.

BEN FALIK:
Columnist/Intern
Before I was the
corporate social
responsibility lead
at Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles or the
Detroit city director
of Repair the World
or a litigation associate at Honigman
Miller or a community affairs intern
in Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s office or
the owner-proprietor of Ben’s Ironic
Iron-On T-shirt factory — even before
I was the food editor of the Columbia
Spectator or the hooker for Columbia
Rugby — I was an intern at the Detroit
Jewish News in 2001. I was a columnist
from 2010 to 2016.
After helping the JN triage the
tumultuous transition to iMacs and
unruffling some feathers of subscribers
whose issues didn’t arrive on time, I got
my first writing assignment: JACOB,

continued on page 96

94

July 18 • 2017

jn