views
Hershes To
Be Honored
By Holocaust
Memorial Center
for openers
Looking Back …
A
s of this Sukkot, it’s been
we were in school, there was no
20 years since my Beth
Facebook, no WhatsApp and not even
Rivkah high school class of
cell phones. Not everyone had call
Melbourne, Australia, graduated.
waiting, and we often had to deal with
Amazing, because we hadn’t even
busy signals and keep trying until the
lived 20 years yet when we graduated!
person answered.
My old friends marked this
Technology sure is amazing
milestone with a reunion at
these days, but I suspect that
the very school we spent our
maybe in another 20 years or
formative years, and those
so, it will be even more spec-
of us abroad (like me) got to
tacular. By then, someone will
FaceTime in … which was
have figured out how people
especially handy because,
FaceTiming each other in
unlike the rest of our old
other countries can touch each
friends, we didn’t have to
other … or taste each other’s
Rochel Burstyn
worry about what to wear
food.
from the neck down. (Full
I mean, the girls (I can’t
disclosure, it was 8 a.m. EST,
call them grown-ups, to me
most of us expats were still
they’re forever 17) kept show-
in PJs!)
ing me the cake; and I got sick
The funny thing was that some of
of drooling over the little screen, so
us (the ones who were gifted with
I finally headed over to Bake Station
better memories, not that it helped
and bought myself something that
with any exams or tests at the time)
looked similar. (Two pieces, I might
actually remember going to a “science add, something I might not have done
of the future” exhibit when we were
if all my old friends were actually in
in Grade 4 (what Australians call 4th
my presence, politely not eyeing my
grade). There they had this fantasy
thighs.)
device where you could use a phone
Even though there commonly
and see the person you were talking
exists a little panic before reunions
to. We were all so enthralled … and
like these (“Please don’t let me be the
here we are, living that very future!
fattest one there!”), once they’re in
Of course, we had to compare
full swing and everyone’s insecurities
what changed in 20 years: Back when
have been hung up with the coats,
letters
Morally Perplexed?
Regarding “Happy Birthday, World?”
(Sept. 14, page 5), your inflammatory
“cheap tiki torches in their hands and
the morally perplexed leader of the
free world stoking their confidence”
makes you complicit in the hate and
divisiveness that many of the Jewish
community feel toward the president
of the United States.
We “deplorables” remember the
previous president who was and is a
“morally perplexed leader”:
• Who swooned over Jeremiah
Wright for 20 years while he cursed
Jews and America;
• A “morally perplexed leader” who
slighted Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu by making him come to
the back door of the White House;
• A “morally perplexed leader” who
forced through the incredibly danger-
ous Iran Nuclear Agreement;
• A “morally perplexed leader” who
the laughter is hard and constant,
and there’s so much joy in the room.
Everyone goes home smiling like they
hadn’t smiled in a long time.
There’s nothing like a reunion with
old friends, who share many of the
same old memories, who remember
you as the slightly wacky person you
were before you became a responsible
grown up and/or parent. Catching
up can feel like coming home, like
visiting a special place that no longer
exists outside the grainy pictures in
photo albums.
Which is why it’s so special that my
class graduated on Sukkot (maybe
it’s weird — we always were a bit of a
weird class). Sukkot is a holiday that
is a tangible reminder that our homes
and time on this planet are only tem-
porary, that the scenery is constantly
changing.
On Sukkot, we go out of our homes,
step out of the familiar and take up
residence for a week in a hut, brav-
ing the elements and other irritants
(BEES!) but basically enjoying the
change in pace and fresh air.
May all your reunions be happy,
clear of rain and without stings. Same
blessings for Sukkot! •
With thanks to my old friend/classmate and fel-
low expat Naomi (Ruschinek) Clapman for her
help with this article.
Yiddish Limerick
freed up over $150 billion to the new
Nazis in Iran that is now being used to
fund terrorism against Israel, create
nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles;
• A “morally perplexed leader”
who abstained and let the anti-
Israel United Nation’s resolution be
approved where the Western Wall was
ceded to a “Palestinian State”;
• A “morally perplexed leader” who
created an environment that encour-
aged his successors to appoint anti-
Semite Keith Ellison vice chairman of
the Democratic National Committee
and endorse anti-Israel, anti-Amer-
ican and anti-Semitic Black Lives
Matters and George Soros.
We “deplorables,” who are
Americans, Jews and Zionists, regret
the Detroit Jewish News’ depiction of
the president of the United States,
especially after giving a truly “morally
perplexed leader” a pass.
Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield
On Yom Kippur tzu shul ich vel gayn
Ich vel fastn un davn again.
Ich bin mid, dos is shver
but I davn with care,
Neilah, Kum shayn.
Tzu shul ich vel gayn: to synagogue
I will go
Ich vel fastn: I will fast
Un davn: and pray
Ich bin mid: I am tired
Dos is shver: this is hard
Neilah: the concluding prayer
Kum shayn: come soon
The Holocaust Memorial Center
Zekelman Family Campus will host
its 33rd Anniversary Dinner, Sunday,
Nov. 5, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek
(27375 Bell Road) in Southfield. The
annual fundraising event, which begins
with a strolling dinner at 5:30 p.m., will
honor Susan and Nelson Hersh for their
commitment to helping others and the
shared ideal of the power of individuals
to make a difference.
Beginning
at 7 p.m.,
national and
international
award-winning
journalist and
former NBC
News network
anchor Ann
Susan and Nelson Hersch
Curry will
deliver the key-
note address. A dessert afterglow will
follow.
A prominent orthodontist with a
practice in West Bloomfield, Dr. Hersh
serves as vice president of the West
Bloomfield Board of Education and on
Gov. Snyder’s Council on Genocide and
Holocaust Education. In addition, he
annually volunteers in Dobcyce, Poland,
as an English teacher, providing field
trips to Auschwitz and dispelling nega-
tive stereotypes about both Jews and
Americans. Susan Hersh is a dedicated
volunteer who devotes her time to her
temple and children with disabilities.
Curry, a former international
correspondent, has covered wars in
countries and regions including Syria,
Darfur, Lebanon, Israel, Afghanistan and
Iraq and also has reported on nuclear
tensions and humanitarian disasters,
such as the tsunamis in Japan and
Southeast Asia and the 2010 earthquake
in Haiti.
The recipient of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center’s Medal of Valor,
Curry also has won seven national news
Emmys, numerous Edward R. Murrow
Awards, Gracie Allen Awards and
National Headliner Awards. She also
has been honored with an Excellence
in Reporting award by the NAACP and
by Women in Communications with
a Matrix Award, along with several
humanitarian accolades.
At this year’s event, Rozie and Bernie
Friedman are serving as dinner chairs
and Jackie and Larry Kraft as dinner
advisers. The VIP reception is being
sponsored by Schechter Wealth and the
dessert reception by Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer
& Weiss.
Registration is required. For tickets
or more information, call Ruth Stern at
(248) 536-9601, visit holocaustcenter.org
or email ruth.stern@holocaustcenter.
org. •
By Rachel Kapen
jn
September 28 • 2017
5