DECEMBER 12 • 2019 | 61
here’s to
Rachel Siporin, Walled Lake
Northern junior, received an
invitation to visit the House and
Senate in Lansing by State Sen.
Jim Runstad and State Rep.
Kathy Crawford for being awarded
a Michigan State Fair urban
agriculture initiative scholarship.
Siporin is affiliated with and
volunteers at the MSU Tollgate
Farm and Education Center in
Novi. She was a 2019 sheep
showman at the Oakland County
Fair in Davisburg last July and
then again at the Michigan State
Fair this past Labor Day.
Congregation B’
nai
Moshe has been selected
for the 2019 Best of
West Bloomfield Township
Award in the Religious
Organizations category
by the West Bloomfield
Township Award Program.
Rena Friedberg is retiring
after 36 years of service to
JARC. She served in many
roles, most recently as the
chief philanthropy officer.
She touched many lives:
staff, persons served, their
families and the rest of the
community.
After devoting her professional
talents to the Jewish Federation
for the past 23 years, Linda
Blumberg will be leaving Detroit
to spend more time with family
in New York. She joined JFMD
in 1996 as the director of the
Commission on Jewish Eldercare
Service (COJES). She is credited
with starting Elderlink (now known
as J-Help). Later, as director of
Planning and Agency Relations,
she broadened her portfolio with
numerous projects, including
overseeing JFMD’
s annual
allocation process, facilitating two
population studies and serving as
the professional liaison to the state
of Michigan, directing the state’
s
support for mental health services
from its Community Health
Department’
s “Multi-Cultural
Line.” JFMD will retain Blumberg
on a consultative basis to assist
recipient agencies applying for the
state’
s annual grant and reporting
on their progress.
Berl Falbaum’
s latest book, Not
One Normal Day, Trumpedia: A
Tome of Lies, Scandals, Corruption
and Much More, is now available.
Send an order along with a shipping
address by email to sdbooksllc@
yahoo.com.
Benjamin Gerber, son of Dr. Michael and
Diane Gerber of Waterford, received the
Arthur Pfeifer Memorial Award at the Twin
Cities Cardozo Society dinner. The award is
given to an attorney who is 35 or younger
to recognize work to the Jewish communi-
ties of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.
Dr. Stephen Goutman received the ALS Association Grant to
study environment and genetics. Goutman is associate director
of the University of Michigan ALS Center of Excellence. His
research has shown an association between environmental
pollutants and ALS development and progression. The new
funding will allow Goutman to jointly consider genetic factors
and environmental exposures over the next three years.
AT T O R N E Y S P O T L I G H T