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

continued on page 14