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