4 | APRIL 8 • 2021
for starters
Not-So-Smooth Sailing
“L
et my container ship go!” What
are the chances that during
Passover another act of freedom
would be celebrated? In a brilliant public
relations move last week, God paid homage
to Passover by letting that
giant ship go forth from
Egypt. The grounded vessel
sat idle for six days in the
Suez Canal like a beached
whale, holding up hundreds
of ships and billions of dol-
lars’ worth of commerce.
Efforts by tugboats and
dredgers removing tons of sand finally
succeeded in releasing the boat from its
resting place. Although a leaked memo
from Egyptian authorities claimed a secret
infusion of MiraLAX is what ultimately did
the trick.
I know all too well how the ship’s captain
felt because I was also involved in a dra-
matic boating incident in the early 1990s
on Lake Charlevoix. While vacationing, I
decided it would be a good idea to rent a
motorboat and take my young family on a
cruise around the waterways.
Up until that point, my only sea faring
experience had been passing the canoe
nomenclature test at Camp Tanuga in 1963,
enough, I thought, to man the helm of a
boat.
I maneuvered through the blue waters
without incident when I decided that
time would allow for one port of call for a
quick lunch. Our destination, a waterfront
restaurant called Hard Dock Landing, a
name that would be a harbinger of things
to come.
I’m not a very good parallel parker on
dry land, so I guess it must have been fool-
ish pride that convinced me I could proper-
ly dock a boat.
As the dock for the restaurant edged
closer, I began an internal nautical conver-
sation. “
Avast. All engines stop!” I muttered
under my breath, preparing to let my vessel
float its way gently to the dock. And float it
did, until the bow of the boat hit the dock
and got wedged and stuck under the restau-
rant’s “Dock Here” sign. Yes, I had, in my
own inimitable way, come in for a “Hard
Dock Landing.
”
The spectacle of an arrival startled my
Alan
Muskovitz
Contributing
Writer
PURELY COMMENTARY
continued on page 12
Alan shows off his souvenir from his hard
landing.
guest column
A Vision for a New Jewish Detroit
P
icture this: it’s a Friday night, and
you’re getting dressed up to go to
a friend’s house for Shabbat din-
ner. While you could drive, you’re in the
Shabbat spirit, and you choose to walk
the short distance over to
your friend’s house.
You make Kiddush, eat a
home-cooked meal, bench,
play some board games and
leave long after darkness
has fallen to walk home.
Sounds like a typi-
cal weekend in West
Bloomfield, Oak Park or Huntington
Woods, right?
Well, in this story, that’s not where you
are; you just had a fantastic Shabbos din-
ner experience in Detroit.
In the months leading up to the pan-
demic, there was hardly a Friday night
where I didn’t have a place to be for
Shabbat dinner. When Hillel of Metro
Detroit at Wayne State (HMD) or Chabad
weren’t doing anything, my girlfriend
(now fiancée) and I would use HMD’s
Shabbatote program to host a dozen of
our friends and classmates at our house
in Woodbridge.
Of those dozen, which changed week-
to-week, the majority would walk over,
participate in the Shabbos aspects of din-
ner — not just the eating — and would
stay after to veg without technology being
an essential component. There were peo-
ple who would end up spending Shabbat
at the house — something my roommates
and I were always happy to accommodate.
At the same time, I was working with a
group of friends to get a regular Shabbat-
morning service going. Per the custom of
most of the group, we were looking for 10
guys to commit to at least one Saturday
morning every month, simply to get a
regular service going. In early March of
2020, we had eight guys and a few women
who wanted to participate as well. We
had anticipated starting right after spring
break; spring break ended and the shel-
ter-in began.
Of that group, there was a solid mix of
young professionals living in the greater
Downtown area, and a mix of graduate
and undergraduate students at Wayne
State.
Why bother telling you all of this? To
say that there is demand for a real, reli-
gious Jewish community within Detroit’s
city limits.
For myself, many of my friends and
many more people who I don’t know, but
am trying to locate through this essay, the
options are a) figure out how to create
Jeremy
Rosenberg
continued on page 10