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.

WE VALUE 

DEEP THOUGHT

AND DEEPER 

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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

