looking back

From the DJN
Davidson
Digital Archive

In Their DNA

Tamarack family legacy began in 1920s and is going strong.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

O

n June 4, 2018, Ron
Dermer, Israeli
Ambassador to the
United States, made a pre-
sentation at Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington
Hills. In the June 14 issue of
the JN, Contributing Writer
Mike Smith
Stacy Gittleman reported
Detroit Jewish News
on Dermer’s speech, not-
Foundation Archivist
ing that this event was the
first time in 20 years that a
sitting Israeli ambassador
had visited Detroit. So, I wondered when was
the first time this happened in Detroit and
did the JN report on such an event?
I was not disappointed. First, a search in
the Davidson Digital Archives revealed 1,051
pages in the historical files of the JN where
“Israeli ambassador” was cited. More to the
point, there was an excellent story in the
March 4, 1949, issue of the JN about Israel’s
first ambassador to the United States, Eliahu
Elath Epstein, speaking at Shaarey Zedek on
Feb. 28, 1949, one week after he was named
to the post. This was also when he took his
Hebrew name, “Elath.”
Earlier that same day, Elath spoke to the
prestigious Detroit Economic Club at the
Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit. His address
was also rebroadcast on radio station WJLB.
Elath’s visit is also interesting for reasons
other than the content of his speech. In
March 1949, the new State of Israel was still
fighting to establish its sovereignty and, as
important, its borders. What is really inter-
esting is that one week after Israel appointed
an ambassador to the U.S., that ambassador
visited Detroit!
While the situation of Israel in its 70th year
is much different than in 1949, there were
some common themes between Dermer and
Elath — in particular, that the two largest
Jewish populations in the world — those of
America and Israel — have an essential bond.
It has been nearly 70 years between the
two stories published in the JN, but both are
worth reading to understand the history of
the connections between Detroit Jews and
Israel, and between Israel and America. •

Want to learn more?
Go to the DJN Foundation archives,
available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.

50

July 5 • 2018

jn

LEFT: Masha and Joe Simkovitz with the Lash kids.
RIGHT: Tamarack, 1978: Campers Joe Lash, Joel
Topf, Andrew Edelson and David Blau.

S

ince the 1920s, a member of the
Lash family has either been a
camper, counselor or staff mem-
ber at Tamarack Camps. So, if the
great-great-grandchildren of Masha
and Joe Simkovitz want to literally
walk in their ancestors’ footsteps, all
they have to do is take a hike.
In fact, outside of the 1940s, when
family members were drafted for
WWII, there has been a Lash on staff
in every decade. They include Franki
Bagdade of West Bloomfield, who now
is director of support services and
special needs. Three days after Myles
and Linda Lash married in 1968, they
headed out to staff the Western trip.
For the Lash family, Tamarack per-
meates every discussion during family
gatherings and Jewish holidays and
shaped their values. Camp is the topic
around the house from the minute
they arrive home at the end of the
summer until it is time to head back
the following year.
“From the way we were taught to
honor and celebrate Shabbat and
even the way we were taught how to
be good family members and parents
by taking care of little kids as coun-
selors, my family’s strongest Jewish
connections come from our camping

experiences at Tamarack,” said Joseph
Lash of Huntington Woods, now
Tamarack board president. He credits
the strength of staff, headed by CEO
Steve Engel. “Over the decades, other
Jewish camps look to us, knowing that
we have the secret sauce in making the
best possible Jewish camping experi-
ence.”
In the 1920s, Joseph’s grandfa-
ther Irving and grandmother Rose
(Simkovitz) were campers and junior
counselors. Mom and Dad, Carol
(Stutz) and Steven Lash, were also
campers and on staff. Before he
became an orthodontist, Steven was
head of the kitchen staff.
“When he was done working, Dad
would come by and bring my Mom
fresh-baked cookies,” Joseph said. “My
dad went to Mumford High School
and my mom went to Berkley. If it
were not for Tamarack, they would
have never met and that courtship,
and then our family, would never had
happened.”
Just as his parents and grandpar-
ents met as staffers, Joseph also met
his wife, Stacey (Cohn), when they
were counselors in the 1990s at Camp
Kennedy in the Upper Peninsula.
When their daughter Cara, now 16,

moved into her cabin there decades
later, she could spot her parents’
names signed high up on the beams.
Carol also made a paddle, just as Mom
and Dad had done during their sum-
mers at camp. She is working at Camp
Maas in Ortonville this summer.
When it was time to head out on
the Western trip, Cara reported back
that she hiked the same challenging
Chilkoot Trail that Dad did in 1989 as
a staffer. Sharing these experiences a
generation apart with his daughter is
a very “cool” connection, Joseph said.
Now that Joseph is the camp’s presi-
dent, he strolls around with different
eyes. There are improvements to be
made in a building or in a village and
fundraisers to plan.
But still, they are the same paths his
family has walked in the summer for
generations.
“The amazing thing is that when I
stroll by Specialty Village, which used
to be the girls’ Pioneer Village, I am
tracing the footsteps in the very same
spot where my wife, my grandmother,
my mother and my daughter all stayed
when they were campers,” he said.
“They went to camp in all different
decades, but they all essentially had
the same camping experience.” •