continued from page 16

continued on page 18

16 | OCTOBER 8 • 2020 

Jews in the D

skills and find new songs and 
tunes to bring to his youth 
group.
Ian has taken every oppor-
tunity to be a leader with his 
voice and his guitar. Ian heard 
about a music and leadership 
weekend presented by the 
URJ and wanted to be a part 
of this experience to better 
YFTI’
s ruach and rhythm. He 
was one of 10 teens to take 
part of the URJ’
s Nashir: Song 
Leading for Action, where 
he led Shabbat services for 
more than 500 Jewish teens. 
Ian took that energy from the 
leadership cohort and came 
home to lead YFTI’
s Ski Trip 
weekend in music and celebra-
tion. Ian’
s example as YFTI’
s 
teen song leader has created 
more participation in services, 
a new energy to YFTI and a 
resurgence in teens wanting to 
help lead services.
Along with his involvement 
in YFTI, Ian is an active mem-
ber of BBYO and has also been 
on five regional committees 
and is the vice president of the 
Jewish Student Union at North 
Farmington High School.

MIA LEWIS

Mia, 16, who is 
a senior at 
Seaholm High 
School, is a 
member of 
Temple Israel 
and is actively 
involved with 
BBYO and PeerCorps, a part of 
Repair the World that works with 
young Jewish teens using Jewish 
values to try to bridge the gap 
between the city of Detroit and 
the suburbs. The Birmingham 
resident volunteered every week 
at a community garden and 
helped tutor kids in Detroit. She 
is also a member of the Jewish 
Fund Teen Board, where she 

works on philanthropy and mak-
ing a difference to help others. 
At Seaholm, she was on the 
board for the Jewish Culture 
Club, which tried to educate 
their mostly Christian school 
about Jewish values by creating 
opportunities such as bringing in 
Holocaust survivors and holiday 
events. She was also active in the 
American Sign Language Club 
and Crafts 4 Kids (making crafts 
for cancer patients in hospitals). 
In BBYO, she is the vice pres-
ident of Dora Savage BBG and 
ran as a candidate for Student of 
the Year for the Leukemia and 
Lymphoma Society, running 
a campaign to raise $15,000 
for blood cancer patients and 
research. She was also a member 
of NHS and studies hard to keep 
a near-perfect grade point aver-
age, overcoming struggles with 
dyslexia. 

CARA LOPATIN

Cara, 17, has 
had to deal with 
some of the 
most stressful 
events while 
maintaining a 
positive attitude, 
strong academ-
ics, being community ser-
vice-minded and serving as a 
positive role model for both 
adults and kids.
This senior at Farber Hebrew 
Day School had a malignant 
brain tumor when she was in sec-
ond grade and then again when 
she was in fourth grade. She had 
chemotherapy, proton beam 
radiation and a stem cell trans-
plant. She missed a lot of school 
and continues to deal with the 
effects of the tumor and its treat-
ments. Despite that, she became 
involved in the community as a 
youth group leader, a Torah and 
Megillah reader and as a “moti-
vational” speaker as a cancer 

survivor, both in her schools and 
synagogues.
Cara, who lives in Huntington 
Woods, is also a co-chair of 
B’
nei Akiva Detroit where she 
plans activities and supervises 
counselors. She is a group leader, 
greeter, kiddush setter-upper, 
and all-around volunteer at her 
synagogue, Kehillat Etz Chayim. 
She volunteers at Friendship 
Circle, serves on the Jewish Fund 
Teen Board and continues to 
be involved in Chai Lifeline, an 
organization serving kids with 
serious life-threatening illnesses 
and their families.

ISAAC MINTZ

Isaac, 18, of 
West 
Bloomfield, 
graduated from 
West 
Bloomfield 
High School in 
2020 and now 
attends the University of 
Michigan where he looks to 
study philosophy, political sci-
ence and economics. He is a 
member of Temple Shir Shalom.
At school, Isaac was a school 
ambassador and student mem-
ber of the administration. 
He achieved the Outstanding 
Civics Student award in 2019. 
Isaac was an active member of 
DECA, a business competition 
program, where he was recog-
nized as the State Champion in 
the Retail Merchandising Series 
Event, received an Award of 
Excellence in the Mathematics 
Examination in the Retail 
Merchandising Series at the 
state level and an Award of 
Excellence for all standards 
of performance in the Retail 
Merchandising Series at the 
international level. At West 
Bloomfield High School, he 
was a member of the National 
Honor Society, a staff writer 

for the school newsmagazine, 
co-president of the WBHS Yoga 
Club and the Earth Club and 
Executive Chair of Policy and 
Communications. Additionally, 
he won the Dale Carnegie 
Highest Award for Achievement 
in 2018.
He was happy to have worked 
during high school, which has 
included an internship with 
Robin Schwartz PR, a robot-
ics internship at Lawrence 
Technological University (where 
he focused on artificial intelli-
gence, coding and autonomous 
vehicles) and freelance work 
(babysitting, auto detailing, 
lawn work, etc.). He is currently 
growing his photography busi-
ness.
Isaac has given back to the 
community through over 100 
hours of community service, 
including serving youth in 
the After School Program in 
Detroit at an underprivileged 
school, working with the Adat 
Shalom Teen Volunteer Corps 
and with J-Serve, providing tech 
help to the elderly and tutoring 
students at school. He won the 
Youth Volunteer Leadership 
Award of Greater West 
Bloomfield in 2018 and 2020.

HANNAH RASHTY

Hannah, 16, 
of West 
Bloomfield, is a 
junior at West 
Bloomfield 
High School 
and member of 
Keter Torah and 
BBYO, and she spends her sum-
mers at Camp Tamarack. She is 
very passionate and involved in 
many sports at her school from 
field hockey to tennis to basket-
ball.
She has been involved in 
student leadership at her high 
school and is currently on the 

