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food pantry, is treasurer of his Southfield
homeowners’ association and the Metro
Detroit Pet A Pet Club, and a member
with his wife, Debbie, of Congregation
B’nai Moshe in West Bloomfield.

“My time at the DJN gave me an excellent
foundation as not only a writer, but also a
steward of the community.”

PHIL JACOBS:
Editor/Managing
Editor
Here are my best
memories of the Detroit
Jewish News. I was with
DJN staff photogra-
pher Glenn Triest in
Jerusalem. We decided
to hail a cab and ask the driver to take us
somewhere off the beaten path to get a
story that wasn’t so visible.
We found ourselves knocking on the
doors of small dwellings for new immi-
grants called caravans. And on about
the third or fourth door we knocked on,
an Ethiopian woman opened the door.
She spoke only a little Hebrew, yet we all
“understood” each other clearly. She had
never met us before, yet she welcomed
us into her humble home and offered
us some food and drink. She showed us
beautiful yellow-and-orange tapestries she
had made.
She made it clear that for her, living
now in Israel was a challenge, but a jour-
ney that she prayed for. Then she took us
to the local child care center. There we
met her sweet little daughter, the pride of
her life.
This experience was part of the
Michigan Miracle Mission, which took
some 1,300 area residents on a memo-
rable experience in Israel. The entire mis-
sion was a highlight for me in my career
as a Jewish journalist. But when the door
opened in a suburb of Jerusalem and we
met the new immigrant, this was for me
among the best of memories. The dream
of a Jewish homeland is as real for some-
one from Europe or the United States as it
is for this single mom from Ethiopia.
I enjoyed working with many wonder-
ful colleagues as managing editor, then as
editor of the Detroit Jewish News. Meeting
Philip Slomovitz, the DJN’s founding edi-
tor, was particularly humbling. He was an
absolute legend in Jewish journalism.
I was with the Detroit Jewish News from
1990-1997, after serving as assistant edi-
tor of the Baltimore Jewish Times from
1982-1990. I would return to the Baltimore
Jewish Times as its editor and then execu-
tive editor before retiring from full-time
Jewish journalism in 2013.
While in Detroit, Publisher Arthur
Horwitz gave me an opportunity to learn
the management side of journalism. He
helped me move forward as a Jewish
journalist when the time came for me to
return to Baltimore.
Back in Baltimore, I wrote many articles
dealing with the difficult issue of child
sexual abuse in the Jewish community. It
became a gamechanger, creating a con-
versation that could no longer be hidden.
As a result, a documentary film, Standing

— Lonny Goldsmith

Silent, by producer Scott Rosenfelt (Home
Alone, Mystic Pizza) covering my experi-
ence writing on this issue, was screened at
film festivals and commercial theaters.
Where he is now: Phil Jacobs and
his wife, Lisa, of Baltimore have three
grandchildren. Their married daughters,
DeDe of Massachusetts and Emily of
Washington, D.C., are former students
at Bais Yaakov in Detroit. Phil teaches
Jewish history and current events at Beth
Tfiloh Dahan Community Day School,
where he works for former Detroiter Dr.
Zipora Schorr. He’s associate editor of the
New Jersey Jewish Link, a media company
based in Teaneck, N.J., and on the advisory
board of Kol HaBirah, a new Jewish publi-
cation serving the Washington, D.C., and
Baltimore communities. Phil is also writ-
ing a book, The Ice Cream Man, about the
experience of investigating and bringing
to light the issue of trauma and abuse in
his community.

KIM LIFTON:
Staff Writer/Political
Columnist/Business
Editor
My Jewish News employ-
ment was from 1988
till 1999. I remember
sitting on an uncom-
fortable chair inside a
locked room at Jackson State Penitentiary
between two convicted felons; one was in
for rape, and the other for armed robbery.
Guards stood outside the door. A rabbi
sat in the back of the room. I was there
to interview Jewish convicts for a cover
story about prisoners’ religious rights.
The plaintiffs wanted kosher food and
the freedom to practice Judaism, and they
had filed a class-action lawsuit against
Jackson. (They won!) The story was pow-
erful; reporting it was somewhat scary —
but also exhilarating.
I wrote many other thought-provoking
pieces for the JN, where they gave me
great autonomy to find and report stories
I found interesting. I wrote about huge
issues affecting the Jewish community:
race relations, politics and our commit-
ment to the care for the mentally ill. And
while there, I discovered I was a natural
advocate. I just had to be fair. I volun-
teered inside the community I covered,
something I could not do when I worked
at a daily paper. I became a much better
reporter when I got to know my com-
munity by participating in it, rather than
just watching, observing and covering the
news from someone else’s perspective.
Where she is now: Kim Lifton is presi-
dent of Wow Writing Workshop, a strate-

gic communication and writing services
company, is the co-author (with Susan
Knoppow) of a just-released paperback
book, How to Write an Effective College
Application Essay — The Inside Scoop for
Parents. It’s available for $9.99 on
createspace and Amazon.

RUTH LITTMANN
ASHKENAZI:
General Assignment
Reporter/Business
Section Editor/
Health Section Editor/
Young Adult “Gossip
Column” Editor
I worked for the Detroit
Jewish News from 1993-1997, long before
the days of JDate.com and Tinder. There
was no Internet back in those days, but
there was a lively network. I called it
Detroit’s “lox-and-bagel circuit.”
As a 20-something single girl and jour-
nalist, I loved the hunt for stories and, of
course, for men (a husband, a “beshert”).
I remember our newsroom abuzz
with the banter of possible shidduchs
(matches). Everyone knew someone. The
word “lead” might get you a great quote
or a great date. Either way, I had no
complaints. I loved my job. I also loved
our newsroom, so full of talented, quick-
witted writers.
I admired Detroit’s Jewish commu-
nity for its energy and initiative. There
was never a dull news week. I had the
honor of covering the Federation’s very
first Michigan Miracle Mission to Israel
in 1995. Ultimately, while interviewing
young adults at a Hillel hayride held in
Ypsilanti, I met my own beshert. His
name is Zvika, and we just celebrated
our 20th anniversary — thanks, in large
part, to the Detroit Jewish News for send-
ing me on that assignment.
Where she is now: Ruth Littman
Ashkenazi and Zvika live with their two
sons in Silicon Valley, Calif., where she
works as a fitness therapist, volunteers
and writes short stories on the side.

LESLEY PEARL:
Intern/Staff Writer
I joined the newspaper
in 1991 when I was
21 — straight out of
university — wearing
jeans and motorcycle
boots and using lan-
guage best saved for
after hours. Despite my
rough exterior, Publisher Arthur Horwitz
and Managing Editor Phil Jacobs rec-
ognized my writing chops and spiritual

curiosity and gently helped mold me into
a respected reporter with a softer tongue
and ever-so-slightly more traditional
wardrobe — one equally at ease writing
about Orthodox rabbis, the founders of
Detroit’s first gay and lesbian chavurah,
and Jewish inmates at Jackson State
Prison.
Working at the Jewish News until 1994
exposed me to the variety of beliefs and
practices within the community and
allowed me to create a Judaism personal
to me, different from the Judaism I was
raised with. As a writer and reporter, I
found my place in the Jewish community
and truly felt “a part of ” for the very first
time.
Where she is now: Lesley Pearl is a
massage therapist, writer and Weight
Watchers meeting facilitator living in
Chicago. She recently returned to the
United States from Madrid, Spain, where
she taught business and conversational
English. She is at work on a memoir, They
Don’t Eat Alone in Spain — A Post-Divorce
Narrative With the Possibility of a Happy
Ending, No Partner Required, based on
her blog — www.awanderingjewess.com.

JASON RAZNIK:
Chief Logistics Officer
(“glorified runner”)
I worked for the Detroit
Jewish News in 1994,
when I was 16, while
attending Andover High
School. This is before
email was common-
place. I was responsible
for delivering ad mockups to clients like
Tapper’s Jewelry and many of the larger
Jewish News clients. Additionally, since I
always had a thirst for more, from time to
time, I would attract new advertisers to
the publication.
Some of my best memories include the
summer company picnics, the camara-
derie around the office and being on the
receiving end of Danny Raskin’s practical
jokes.
Where he is now: Jason Raznick is the
founder & CEO of Benzinga, a fast-grow-
ing financial media platform based in
Downtown Detroit. Follow him on Twitter
@jasonraznick.

GARY ROSENBLATT:
Editor
My title was Editor, but
from March 1984 until
the summer of 1993, I
was more of the Visiting
(or even Phantom)
Editor of the Detroit
Jewish News.
That’s because the late and deeply missed
Charles “Chuck” Buerger, who was pub-
lisher of the Baltimore Jewish Times, where
I was editor, purchased the Jewish News
from the Slomovitz family in 1984.
Chuck asked me to oversee the editorial
side of the Jewish News, so I commuted fre-
quently for a day or two a week for several

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