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The winning team at the Greenberg Invitational included Jeremy Schaap, Peter Joelson, Jeff
Shapiro, David Ruby and Brian Eisenberg.
Greenberg Invitational
One To Remember
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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36
June 21 • 2018
jn
S
ari Cicurel, the new executive
director of the Michigan Jewish
Sports Foundation, knew quite
a bit about the inner workings of
the foundation’s Hank Greenberg
Memorial Golf Invitational before she
started her new job earlier this year.
She had been the foundation’s com-
munity relations director for six years,
which prepared her for the first invita-
tional held under her watch. But not
entirely.
“I had an entirely different per-
spective this year,” Cicurel said last
week, after the June 11 invitational at
Franklin Hills Country Club.
Thankfully for Cicurel and the
Karmanos Cancer Institute at the
Lawrence and Idell Weisberg Cancer
Treatment Center, the perspective
included a great day of fundraising for
the center and some of the most
poignant moments in the 28-year
history of the invitational.
“We had 164 golfers, many more
than usual, and 85 people came just to
the dinner,” Cicurel said. “The turnout
is a big reason why this was one of the
most significant Greenberg events.”
Cicurel thinks the popularity of the
Greenberg Invitational honorees —
former Detroit Tigers star Ivan “Pudge”
Rodriguez, Jeremy Schaap and Ian
Burnstein from the Gary Burnstein
Community Health Clinic in Pontiac —
had a lot to do with the crowd size.
Rodriguez, a 2017 inductee into the
Baseball Hall of Fame, received the
Hank Greenberg Memorial Lifetime
Achievement Award.
Schaap, an eight-time Emmy Award-
winning ESPN reporter and author and
frequent Greenberg Invitational partic-
ipant, was presented the Dick Schaap
Memorial Award for Media Excellence,
named for his father.
Burnstein is president of the board of
directors of the not-for-profit Burnstein
Clinic, established by his late father,
which offers free health and dental
services to uninsured low-income
patients. Burnstein received the Barry
Bremen Memorial Inspiration Award.
A raffle drawing for a trip to the fol-
lowing year’s Masters golf tournament
has become a part of the Greenberg
Invitational festivities.
This year’s winner was Noah
Bremen. The Bremen Memorial
Inspiration Award is named for his
father.
Instead of accepting the Masters
prize, Noah asked that it be auctioned
to the highest bidder. Adam Bremen,
Noah’s brother and the first recipient of
the Bremen Award, was the auctioneer.
William Gahagan, Hank Greenberg’s
grandson on his first trip to Detroit,
and Ian Burnstein engaged in a friendly
bidding war for the prize. Burnstein’s
$3,500 bid won, adding more to the
Greenberg Invitational coffers.
Then there was the invitational’s
50/50 drawing. Cicurel said the win-
ner of $980 gave the money to the
Burnstein Clinic after hearing Ian
Burnstein’s award acceptance speech.
With Father’s Day less than a week
away, Schaap and Burnstein spoke
emotionally about their late fathers
— Dick Schapp and Gary Burnstein —
during their award acceptance talks.
Circurel said Greenberg Invitational
co-chairs J.J. Modell and Brian
Eisenberg did a great job organizing
the event, and foundation board mem-
bers played a major role in gathering a
large number of silent and live auction
items.
One thing the foundation can’t con-
trol each year is the weather the day
of the invitational. This year, it was
perfect.
“Gorgeous,” Circurel said. “We were
very lucky.”
Next on the foundation’s plate is the
annual Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame induction dinner. That will take
place Oct. 22 at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield. •
Send news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.