APRIL 15 • 2021 | 13
more than $30,000, and distributed roughly
25 tons of food, hygiene and cleaning items.
Over the last year, Stein and a team of
volunteers turned what was supposed to be
a temporary endeavor into a permanent,
nonprofit organization. Stein no longer
serves as the executive director because
of the time commitment but is still very
involved.
She also sits on the city’s Human
Relations and Equity Commission, a newly
created committee formed to review city
policies and advise council on ways to make
Madison Heights a more equitable commu-
nity.
“The pandemic brought to light the social
and racial inequities in this country, and
that’s really the reason why we started the
group,
” Grafstein says. “We want to make
sure that everybody feels safe and included.
”
The commission held its first meeting
in September. Based on a commission rec-
ommendation, the city council approved
a proclamation recognizing International
Holocaust Remembrance Day in January.
Commissioners successfully recommend-
ed council pass a resolution eliminating
gender identity questions on city forms.
They also asked the council to request
that the state of Michigan remove gender
designations from state applications to pre-
vent discrimination. With similar success,
the commission’s request for a Juneteenth
event to celebrate the emancipation of those
enslaved in the United States was granted.
When Fleming heard the city was look-
ing for residents to sit on this commission,
he jumped at the opportunity. He was one
of approximately a dozen to apply and one
of seven appointed.
“I have a deep sense of pride in being
Jewish, and I wanted our religion and
culture to be represented in our city,
” says
Fleming, who is a member of Oak Park’s
Congregation Beth Shalom with his wife,
Alison.
SEARCHING FOR JEWS
Since 1982, many Jewish families liv-
ing along both the I-75 and Woodward
corridors have found a spiritual home
at Congregation Shir Tikvah, a Reform/
Renewal synagogue in Troy — the only syn-
agogue in northern Oakland County.
In addition, in September 2019, Rabbi
Menachem Caytak and his wife, Chana,
opened the Chabad Jewish Center of Troy to
find and connect with Jewish families in the
area. While much of their focus is on Troy,
so far, they’ve met “a couple dozen” Jewish
families in Madison Heights. His hope is to
create a framework so that a Chabad center
can also open in Madison Heights.
To identify Jews living in cities that don’t
have a Jewish infrastructure, Caytak says
he and a group of volunteers help make
hundreds of cold calls. When the weather
cooperates, they go knocking on doors.
Noah Schechter, 32, was shocked to see
two guys with yarmulkes standing on his
porch last summer. His visitors told him
that they had been to a couple hundred
homes that day and came across one other
Jewish family.
Schechter and his wife, Elissa, belong to
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township.
But, once COVID restrictions become more
relaxed, they hope to participate in some of
Chabad’s in-person programming.
Noah grew up in Huntington Woods and
works as a new car salesman. Elissa is from
Birmingham. She taught at Temple Beth
El, but during the pandemic, she started a
tutoring business.
Amanda Stein
(center) and some
of the team at the
Madison Heights
Emergency Pantry
(MHEP)
PHOTO COURTESY OF AMANDA STEIN
Sean and Alison
Fleming and
their daughter
Natalie.
Rabbi Menachem and
Chana Caytak with
their daughter Chaya
Mushka in 2019
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