18 | OCTOBER 17 • 2019 continued from page 17 Jews in the D Shabbat dinners. With eight children (aged 1 to 18), he appreciates how easy it is to get from his house to the Orthodox day schools. Mendel Polter stepped in to become the rabbi of the Woodward Avenue Shul when founding rabbi Chanoch Hadar moved into a more administrative role. His wife, Kaila, works with him to help grow the com- munity. Part of a four-gener- ation Detroit family, Polter, 29, grew up in Oak Park and earned a bachelor’ s degree and rabbinic ordination at the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Brooklyn. The family, which includes a 3-year-old son, moved from New York in 2017. Though their home on Woodward is technically in Royal Oak, it feels like part of Huntington Woods, where they are among many young Jewish families. “It’ s unique in atmosphere, ” he said. “Everyone feels like one big family, very interconnected and supportive of each other. ” Simcha Tolwin, 45, grew up in Israel and Detroit and moved to Huntington Woods in 2007 to start Aish HaTorah, just across the Coolidge Highway border in Oak Park. He and his wife, Estie, who works with him, have six children ranging from young adults (one recently married) to the youngest in first grade. Tolwin was ordained at Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem and also has a master’ s in clinical counseling from Bellevue University in Omaha, Neb. He gets frequent requests from neighbors to help put up mezzuzot, and a neighbor who liked to engage him in debate asked him to do his funeral. He got an usual request when a neighbor asked him to keep their curtains open on Friday evenings so they could watch the family’ s Shabbat dinners. He likes the “shtetl” feeling of the community. “Everyone knows what everyone is doing so it’ s easy to make an impact because people talk!” he said. Ari Witkin and his wife, Liz, are celebrating the birth of their first child, Hadar Yonah, born in August, just a few months after they moved to Huntington Woods from Philadelphia. All he knew of the Detroit area was West Bloomfield, where his in-laws, Steve and Janice Traison live, he said. The Witkins started house-hunting after he accept- ed the position of director of leadership development for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, and they liked Huntington Woods immediately. They especially appreciate the city ordinance that allows them to keep three chickens in their backyard. Witkin, 32, grew up in Minneapolis, grad- uated from Goucher College in Maryland and was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He also has a master’ s from the University of Pennsylvania in nonprofit leadership. The fam- ily is still “shul shopping, ” but he says they’ ve gotten a very warm welcome from all the congregations in the area. 36 Under 36 Nominations Now Open Do you know someone making an impact in the community you can nominate for this special honor? Th e Well, an organization building inclusive Jewish community in Metro Detroit for the under-40 crowd, and the Jewish News are once again partnering on “36 Under 36” to recognize doers, activists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, community organizers and other young Jewish professionals reshaping and broadening Metro Detroit’ s Jewish community. “In short,” Rabbi Dan Horwitz of Th e Well said, “we are looking for the people who give of themselves to the community in robust — and often thankless — ways. In essence, the kinds of people we admire and aspire to be, whose accomplishments we want to celebrate and who we want the world to know make their home in Metro Detroit.” Nominations are due by Oct. 30. A special group of nine volunteer judges (none of whom are affi liated with Th e Well or the JN) will be reviewing submissions and choosing the 36 winners. Honorees will receive free three-year subscriptions to the JN and be featured in a February 2020 issue. To nominate someone, log on to tiny.cc/36under36. thirty six UNDER 36 M. POLTER FACEBOOK S. TOLWIN FACEBOOK