28 | OCTOBER 22 • 2020 

Farber students build a successful 
Sukkot fundraiser.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Senior Assembly

W

ith a few safety-guide-
line modifications, 
seniors at Farber 
Hebrew Day School –Yeshivat 
Akiva in Southfield grabbed 
their tools, umbrellas and masks 
and forged ahead with the class’
s 
annual sukkah-building fund-
raiser. 
 Eighteen classmates ham-
mered, measured, carried and 
lifted supplies to construct 38 
sukkahs, many of them amidst 
a nearly October downpour. 
Organized by 17-year-old Lev 
Ershler of West Bloomfield and 
Joseph Korman, 18, of Southfield, 
the group built sukkahs rang-
ing from canvas to wood and 

free-standing to those anchored to 
the sides of area houses.
“Because of COVID social 
distancing restrictions this year, 
the senior class had to be creative 
with how we built the sukkahs,
” 
Ershler said. “Each person would 
be assigned a different part of 
the sukkah and was responsible 
for that part unless someone 
else needed help with theirs. We 
often used either wooden planks 
or metal poles to keep distance 
between each other.
”
Following the end of the holi-
day, the students returned to the 
sites of their pre-Sukkot construc-
tion under clear skies, for part two 
of the fundraiser: take down. 

FACES&PLACES

TOP LEFT: Sima Stein, 17, of Southfield, colorfully blends right into the space 
where a sukkah is being built. TOP RIGHT: Joseph Korman, 18, and Dani 
Lerman, 17, both of Southfield, look on as Shira Schon, 17, of West Bloomfield/
Huntington Woods and Sima Stein of Southfield, both 17, do some DIY suk-
kah-space measuring.

ELLIE SLOVIS

I

n many Jewish 
communities, there is a 
custom that at the end 
of the shivah period (the 
seven-day period of initial 
mourning following burial), 
mourners take a walk around 
the block to symbolically 
mark the end of an intensely 
inward time and a return to 
the world. 
 Oct. 2 marked this 
symbolic ritual shift in 
mourning for the first Jewish 
woman to serve on the U.S. 
Supreme Court, Ruth Bader 
Ginsburg.
To honor her memory 
and her legacy, National 
Council of Jewish Women, 
Michigan (NCJW|MI) joined 
with others to symbolically 
walk back into a world that 

demands a fair and impartial 
judiciary. 
NCJW|MI walked — in 
silence holding banners — to 
honor a justice who worked 
tirelessly for women’
s rights, 
reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ 
rights, voting rights and for 
justice, freedom and equality 
for all. 
The socially distanced 
walk took place behind the 
Southfield 46th District 
Court and included 
Southfield Mayor Ken Siver; 
Sue Simon of Courts Matter 
Michigan, a nonpartisan 
coalition of organizations 
working for a qualified, fair 
and independent Federal 
judiciary; and Amy Cutler, 
president of NCJW|MI. 

NCJW Honors RBG

LEFT: NCJW State Policy Adviser Irma Glazer said, “I can't fill RBG’s shoes, but I can 
wear her socks.” RIGHT: NCJW Chair Suzanne Simon welcomes Mayor Ken Siver.

LEFT: Sandy Collins and Maxine Sherman at the walk. RIGHT: Randi Levin wears 
a mask decorated with RBG’s famous collar.

Participants walk around the courthouse in honor of RBG.

 ABOVE: Cara Lopatin of Huntington 
Woods, Joe Kornblum of Southfield and 
Cobi Smith of Southfield, all 17, in front of 
their newly constructed sukkah.