26 | NOVEMBER 5 • 2020
I
f JARC CEO Shaindle
Braunstein were a
baked good, she’
d be a
French macaron: delicate,
yet complicated. This is
the answer the mother
of four and grandmother
of two gave during a
2018 interview with the
casting producers for the Great
American Baking Show as she
was also going for rounds of
interviews for JARC’
s top
position.
Braunstein made it
through the final rounds of
a rigorous casting process
and was considering leav-
ing town for a month of
filming in England when
she also got the news that
JARC offered her the CEO
position. Though she never
went to compete on television,
Braunstein still put her amateur
baking prowess to good use.
As the months of the pan-
demic wear on, her interactive
Zoom baking classes have
become one of JARC’
s most
popular activities among the
organization’
s clients living in
dozens of adult homes across
Metro Detroit. In her own right
and in her students’
eyes, she
has become a baking star.
“I made the best decision,
”
Braunstein said, in skipping the
trip to England to take the new
job. “It was always my dream to
have my own baking show, and
when I am teaching over Zoom,
the residents make me feel like
I am a YouTube star. Our staff
have been incredible providers
in their roles of creating dynam-
ic programming like this that
provide opportunities of social
engagement even during the
pandemic.
”
Since early childhood,
Braunstein has been an avid
baker. Her living room in Oak
Park is stocked with cake and
cookie boxes ready to be filled
with the latest batches of cakes,
cookies and challah. She sees
baking as a way to nurture
friends, family and colleagues
and turns to baking shows for
relaxation.
‘I COULD DO THAT’
“I would watch baking compe-
titions on the Food Network
and thought, ‘
I could do that.
’
So, I applied in the spring to the
Great American Baking Show,
Shaindle Braunstein skipped out
on the Great American Baking Show
to lead JARC.
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Zoom Baker
IN
THED
JEWS
LEFT: Screenshot from Shaindle’s Zoom Baking class for JARC residents. RIGHT: Jonathon Washington — Grosberg Home.
Chocolate cake, Colorful cookies and Shaindle’s Signature Marble cookies created for the Great American Baking Show.
Shaindle
Braunstein
JOHN HARDWICK