22 | NOVEMBER 28 • 2019 

Jews in the D

Father and 

son fi
 nd 

hope and 

purpose 

through 

Friendship 

House.

Meet 
Josh 
& Joey 

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS

Father and son, Joey and Josh 
Roberts, were introduced to 
the Daniel B. Sobel Friendship 
House when Joey’s wife began 
a battle with cancer in 2008. 
“Josh was in law school when 
my wife got sick,” Joey said. 
“He started self-medicating to 
help deal with her nine-year 
battle with cancer. Self-medicat-
ing turned into a drug addic-
tion.”
The Roberts family became 
regulars at Friendship House 
over the next few years. Joey 
and his wife attended Al-Anon 
meetings, and Josh attended 
recovery meetings and Jewish 
support groups there. 
“Friendship House was such 
a blessing,” Joey said. “Many 
years Josh was in and out of 
recovery and rehabilitation 
centers. Because of Friendship 
House, he was able to fi
 nish law 
school.”
Three years ago, Josh’s 
mother died, and he sank to 
his lowest point. He moved to 
a nine-month Jewish recovery 
program in California that 
changed his life. Coming 

home to his support system at 
Friendship House, he was able 
to continue to integrate his 
Judaism and his recovery. 
“It wasn’t until my mom 
passed away that I fi
 nally got it 
together,” Josh said. “Through 
everything, I’ve been involved 
with Friendship House. I went 
to Shabbat dinners, Thursday 
recovery meetings and retreats. 
They’ve become a family.”
Josh is celebrating three 
years of recovery in February. 
He now leads the Thursday 
night recovery meeting that 
started his journey. 
Since his wife’s passing, 
Joey is a regular volunteer at 
Friendship House, cooking 
weekly Shabbat meals and 
taking his therapy dog on his 
visits to hospice patients and 
the homebound. 
“I see my wife smiling 
through Josh’s face every day. 
He stands tall and is proud of 
himself,” Joey said. “Through 
the negative of addiction, we 
found Friendship House. And 
through my wife’s death, Josh 
found recovery.” 

Get involved, 
go to 
friendshipcircle.org/
foreverfriendship

Adopt a Family for the Holidays

The holidays are a wonderful 
time of year and most of us 
look forward to them with 
great anticipation. But the 
same can’
t be said for families 
struggling to make ends meet 
or older adults living far from 
loved ones or community 
members facing a mental 
health crisis, according to 
Jewish Family Service.
But you can make a differ-
ence by participating in JFS’
 
Adopt a Family program. You 
can give people in need not 
only a gift to unwrap, but the 
knowledge that someone is 
thinking about them during 
this time of year. 

Shop for an individual or 
family, purchase gift cards or 
make a general donation to 
the program. Forms to sign up 
are available on jfsdetroit.org.
Drop-off week is Dec. 
9-13 at the JFS office in West 
Bloomfield.
JFS is partnering with 
Toyology. Mention JFS when 
shopping at any of Toyology’
s 
four locations until Dec. 8 and 
they’
ll donate 20 percent of 
purchases made to support 
the Adopt a Family program. 
 Questions? Contact Lindsay 
Leder at (248) 592-2309 or 
lleder@jfsdetroit.org. 

Ultimate Indoor Recess

The Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit, in 
partnership with JFamily, 
is planning the “Ultimate 
Indoor Recess,” an afternoon 
of family fun from 12:30-3:30 
p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, at On 
the Dunes, 2055 Haggerty 
Road, in Commerce 
Township. 
 Fowling, golf and putt-
putt simulators, axe throw-
ing (for adults), Star Trax, 
unlimited arcade games and 

a dodge ball tournament are 
just some of the fun things in 
store for this awesome family 
afternoon for kids of all ages. 
Cost is $45 per family. An 
$18 donation to Federation 
per family is required to 
attend this event. No addi-
tional gift is required for cur-
rent donors.
Questions? Contact Karen 
Kaplan at kaplan@jfmd.org 
or (248) 203-1453. 

MI MARKETING SERVICES

Detroit Dog Rescue Gets a Lotta Love

Success: 96.3 WDVD-FM’
s 
Blaine Fowler Morning Show 
conducted its second suc-
cessful annual radiothon for 
Detroit Dog Rescue and raised 

more than $60,000 once again 
for Detroit’
s only no-kill dog 
foster and adoption shelter 
founded by Jewish community 
member Kristina Rinaldi. 

