22 | OCTOBER 14 • 2021

OUR COMMUNITY

D

uring his fourth month
in pretrial detainment
in a Myanmar prison,
Frontier Myanmar managing
editor and Huntington Woods
native Danny Fenster, 37, had
his ninth hearing, where he
faced an additional charge
by the military junta gov-
ernment under the Unlawful
Associations Act, though it
closely related to the previous
incitement charges, according
to reports by the Associated
Press.
It was the journalist’s first
in-person hearing in over two

months in a country that has
witnessed a crackdown and
imprisonment of hundreds of
journalists since the govern-
ment there was overthrown by
a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
According to his lawyer,
authorities refused to disclose
the reason behind his arrest.
Danny’s brother Bryan
Fenster on the Bring Danny
Home Facebook page told sup-
porters on Oct. 4 that he and
his parents, Buddy and Rose
Fenster, were able to speak
to Danny on the phone on
Thursday, Sept. 30.

“To our relief, he sounded
much better,” wrote Bryan. “He
expressed his love and yearning
for home … It wouldn’t be a
good phone call with Danny
without some laughs, which
we had plenty of. It’s quite the
life lesson to hear my brother
maintain a sense of humor in
the face of all the adversity.”
Regarding the latest hearing,
Bryan wrote that the family

continues to remain cautiously
optimistic that the in-person
hearings will proceed, and that
this process will play out so
that they can finally bring him
home.
Fenster was detained by the
military in Myanmar on May
24, 2021, moments before
he was to fly from Yangon to
Detroit to see his family for the
first time in more than three
years.
Since then, he has been held
at Insein Prison under investi-
gation under a law criminaliz-
ing dissent that carries a maxi-
mum three-year jail sentence.
Danny is being represented
by an attorney from Frontier
Myanmar, and the family is
in touch with the counselor
through a translator, though
communication and infor-
mation has been very limited,
according to Bryan Fenster.

Myanmar accuses detained journalist of
violating “Unlawful Associations Act.”

Danny Fenster
Faces New Charge

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

BRYAN FENSTER

Danny
Fenster

D

r. Elizabeth Zide spent
Sunday, Sept. 26, walk-
ing the Grand Canyon,
rim to rim, with her friends
Stacy Marko and Kriket Tomasi.
The date was the one-year anni-
versary of the first surgery she
received after being diagnosed
with a neuroendocrine tumor
(NET) or carcinoid. The goal
was to raise funds to fight this
rare form of cancer.
Zide, who lives in West
Bloomfield and works at
Michigan Integrative Medicine

in Bloomfield Hills, was diag-
nosed with the disease last year.
Most people have never heard
of it. “I had to dig deep into my
medical school memory banks
for the information I learned
about this disease,
” she said.
NET is rare, about 10 people in
1 million will ever be diagnosed
with it.
“Even being a doctor, I had
no clue I had this growing and
spreading inside my body,
” she
wrote on her blog. “My life and
career have always been focused

on improving and maintaining
health. By the time I was diag-
nosed, it had already metasta-
sized to my liver and, yet, I was
a picture of great health — eat-
ing organic, running marathons,
swinging kettlebells. I was
enjoying life with my husband
and raising three incredible
children!”
Zide, who attends Adat
Shalom Synagogue and credits
Hebrew Free Loan with helping
her get through medical school,
said she may have had the dis-
ease for 10 years before being
diagnosed, which is typical for
those with NET, whose symp-
toms tend to be vague.
In late 2020, she said most
of her disease was removed in
two major surgeries she under-
went at the Mayo Clinic. “It is a
disease that is never truly gone,
even with the best treatments
we currently have,
” she said.

Because this cancer is so rare,
it does not receive much atten-
tion or funding. That’s why she
set a goal of raising $15,000 to
help combat it. To honor her
recovery from the two surgeries,
she decided to participate in
two challenges to raise funds.
The first behind her, Zide now
turns her attention to challenge
No. 2: running the Detroit Half
Marathon on Oct. 17.
You can help her reach her
fundraising goal by pledging
to her cause at https://netrf.
org/get-involved/fundrais-
ing-events/elizabeth-zides-ma-
ny-strides-to-find-a-cure-for-
nets.
“I hope to inspire anyone
struggling with cancer, and I
want to increase awareness of
this rare disease,
” she said. “Your
donation will help to fund
research to beat this disease for
me and all NET patients!”

Local doctor and cancer survivor
raising funds to battle rare disease.
Local doctor and cancer survivor

Strides
to Find
a Cure

JN STAFF

Dr. Elizabeth Zide, who walked the Grand
Canyon rim to rim to raise money to battle NET.

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OPEN HOUSE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 at 6:30pm
Contact Arielle Endelman aendelman@frankelja.org | 248-671-3248

"Frankel Jewish Academy's emphasis on
Jewish community as well as its
commitment to social responsibility have
taught me that my individual path is not
distinct, nor can it be separated, from the
collective Jewish experience. As I move
forward from high school and ready myself
for the next stage of life, I do so with a
keen awareness of my place within the
wider Jewish community as well as my
responsibility for the welfare of all Jews."

- Jessica Caminker, '21