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