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My Story

A Bracelet Lost — And Returned
More Th an 70 Years Later

I

n October 2017, Jerod Gunsberg of
Los Angeles, formerly of Detroit,
received a phone call from Hebrew
Memorial Chapel in Oak Park, where
his grandfather Richard Gunsberg’s
funeral had been held on Jan. 4, 1999.
Hebrew Memorial told Jerod a man
named Ed, who lives in a small town
in western Pennsylvania, was looking
for him.
Jerod called Ed, who told him he
and his 10-year-old grandson were on
vacation at a beach in North Carolina.
They were treasure hunting with a
metal detector. When the detector got
a hit, they started digging. They found
a tarnished gold ID bracelet. The
name on the bracelet was Richard
Gunsberg, Jerod’s grandfather. Along
with his name, the bracelet was
inscribed with Richard’s serial num-
ber, the year 1943 and an Army Air
Corp wings logo.
Richard received the bracelet as a
gift from his parents while he was in
Army Air Corp flight training. Due
to an emergency surgery, Richard
never became a Transport Flight pilot,
which turned out to be a blessing. His
entire flight class was killed in action.

Instead, he was deployed to the South
Pacific, fought in the Philippines,
returned home after the war and
raised six kids and 14 grandchildren.
The bracelet likely ended up on
a beach in North Carolina while
Richard was on leave. Maybe he
went in the water, it fell off and later
washed up on shore. Who knows?
When Ed and his grandson found
the bracelet, the 10-year old insisted
on finding its owner. He trolled the
internet, learning everything he could
about Richard Gunsberg. The inves-
tigation led him to Detroit, where Ed
and his grandson learned about the
Gunsberg meat-packing business and
deli, and then to Hebrew Memorial
funeral records.
The bracelet was sent by Ed to
Jerod, who realized that the family
had a photo with his grandfather in
uniform, which showed him wear-
ing the lost bracelet. The family was
familiar with the photo, but never
paid much attention to the bracelet
he was wearing. Family members
couldn’t believe it — the same brace-
let. What were the chances of this?
According to one of Richard’s sons,

Richard Gunsberg wearing the bracelet

Larry Gunsberg of Northville, “It was
a deeply emotional experience for the
family, like my dad reaching out to us
through the years.”
Jerod, in his Facebook post, said this:
“Social media can be a tool for good.
Through it all, as a country, we are all
connected. We are indeed all in this
together. Thank you to our veterans.” •

Jerod Gunsberg of Los Angeles and his uncle Larry
Gunsberg of Northville submitted this account.

guest column

Meet The 36 Under 36 Class Of 2018

I

t’s hard to not be inspired by the
36 folks appearing in the following
pages (see page 18). Their impact
on our community is unquestionable,
and they help make Metro Detroit an
amazing place to live, work, play and
be part of the com-
munity.
Like last year’s
inaugural feature, we
accepted nomina-
tions for six weeks
in late summer/early
fall, and again, like
last year, a panel of
Rabbi Dan
independent judges
Horwitz
(affiliated with nei-
ther The Well nor the
Jewish News) made
the selections. This

year, we had 150 per-
cent as many nomina-
tions as in year one —
it’s clear that there is
no shortage of talent
in our community!
A special thank you
to the judges (you
know who you are),
given the significant
number of submis-
sions you made the
time to read and score.
The Well and the Jewish News are
both driven by missions that focus on
community building, so this partner-
ship has continued to naturally evolve
as we learn and grow together!
It is amazing how much the narra-
tive about Metro Detroit has changed

in just the past handful of
years. One of the reasons
we launched 36 Under 36
last year was to continue
to help shape the narrative
of just how special a place
Metro Detroit is, highlight-
ing the young folks making
an impact. I hope you’re as
moved and humbled as I
am when reading about the
36 young leaders featured
in this year’s class, are itching to nomi-
nate exceptional people next fall and,
if applicable, are inspired to up your
community involvement so that you,
too, might be featured in a future edi-
tion. •

Bret Borock describes himself
as someone who works hard and
has an entrepreneurial spirit. “I’ve
had several jobs in my life, and each
one taught me something about
myself, and how to be a better busi-
ness leader,” Bret said. “I always
liked people, but I realized I wanted
to be in the ‘people’ business. What
makes me happy is empowering
and making others happy. The
ideal was to find a business that
would do that, and make me want
to jump out of bed to do it.”
As luck would have it, the perfect
opportunity appeared when Bret
and his wife were registering for a
half marathon, picking up their bibs
at the check-in desk, and there
was information on Orangetheory
Fitness. They joined, and, Bret said,
“It was the best hour of my day. I
wanted to be part of it.” He investi-
gated ownership and was excited.
While researching business fund-
ing options, a friend suggested
Hebrew Free Loan’s 
 
 
. Bret put together his
paperwork and applied.
“I put in some of my own capital,
but HFL really allowed me to scale
my finances efficiently and the
interest-free payments helped me
plan my cash flow,” Bret said. “It
worked out so well, we now have
two Orangetheory studios in Ann
Arbor, one in East Lansing, close to
50 employees, and these studios
have a really great community vibe.
I love being there.”
Bret says HFL is a resource that
more Michigan Jews should be
using. “It’s an impactful community
service. HFL believed in me, but
I’m just one story. They help change
the lives of others every day.”

Click. Call. Give Now.
www.hfldetroit.org
248.723.8184

Health. A fresh start.
A good education.
The next great business idea.

Hebrew Free Loan gives interest-
free loans to members of our
community for a variety of
personal and small business
needs. HFL loans are funded
entirely through community
donations which continually
recycle to others, generating
many times the original value
to help maintain the lives of
local Jews.

6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 !Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301

Rabbi Dan Horwitz is founding director of The
Well.

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

jn

@HFLDetroit

February 8 • 2018

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