48 | DECEMBER 16 • 2021

OBITUARIES
OF BLESSED MEMORY

A

former Detroit
businessman, Zoltan
“Zoli” Rubin of
Farmington Hills died Dec. 4,
2021, at the age of 103½.
Just a few years ago, on the
occasion of his 101st birth-
day party, Zoli called himself
“a stubborn old man.
” His
stubbornness was born of a
life devoted to survival and
devotion to Judaism. Zoli said
the one thing that contributed
to his long life was this stub-
bornness. “Whatever I went
through, it was always in my
mind that I was going to beat
it,
” he said.
Zoli was born in
Czechoslovakia, the youngest
in a family of 11 children.
(Only he and two brothers
survived the Holocaust). He
had a lovely childhood that
came to an end in 1942, when
his parents were taken away by
the Nazis. Zoli obtained fake
papers that allowed him to
pass as Christian and fight in
the Slovak Army.
In 1944, he was captured
with a group of partisans and
sent to a prisoner-of-war camp
near Jena, where he was part
of a forced labor detail dig-
ging tunnels for the Germans.
Toward the end of the war, he
escaped with three others and
lived off the land for about
six weeks until the American
army arrived in the area. He
was later reunited with an
older brother who was a doc-
tor with the Czechoslovakian
army. He eventually immigrat-
ed to Canada before moving to
Detroit. (His story of survival
is immortalized at holocaust.
umd.umich.edu/rubinz.)

His arrival in North
America was due to a
kindness that was repaid,
an act he was to emulate
in his business dealings
and philanthropy. Zoli
came across a letter to
his grandfather from
a neighbor in Europe.
The man wanted to go
to Canada and Zoli’s
grandfather bought his
land with the under-
standing it would go
back to the owner if things did
not work out. Life in Canada
was not what was hoped; the
man returned to Europe and
Zoli’s grandfather returned
the land. In the letter, the
man expressed gratitude for
Grandfather’s help and fair-
ness and offered to repay the
kindness. Zoli contacted him
and thus was able to arrange to
travel to Canada before com-
ing to the United States.
Around 1968, Zoli and a
partner bought a building in
Downtown Detroit, on Grand
River between Washington
and Griswold. He established
Zemco Textiles, a fabric store.
The clientele in the building
and the customers were of
diverse nationalities, and all
respected the fair business
dealings of Mr. Rubin.
The fabric was of known
quality and was bought for
countless wedding gowns. He
also outfitted a 300-member
local church choir. The locals
had so much respect for this
fair-dealing mentsh that word
was put out that despite trou-
bles (read riots) in that neigh-
borhood, no one was to touch
the fabric store.

Zoli once said that
he didn’t always see his
advanced age as a bless-
ing. “Sometimes I feel
like I’m being punished
to bear all the horrors of
what I’ve been through,
”
he said at 101. “These
things are always on
my back. I have lost too
many.
” He added that
it was a blessing that
he could have a family
again. “I have children
and grandchildren. I think the
reason I survived is to build a
family so that my family’s his-
tory didn’t disappear,
” he said.
When asked the secret to
his long life, Zoli gave a very
touching response. “You have
to believe in a life,
” he said.
“You have to believe that
everything is not bad, just the
opposite. Everything is great.
Everyone has the strength to
get through the bad things
because after the bad things
end, there is a life ahead of
you. If someone starts a life for
you, you have to continue it.
”
Though not Orthodox in his
practice, he was a devout Jew.
He and his wife were staunch
members of Congregation
B’nai Moshe. When the syna-
gogue finally relocated in West
Bloomfield, the Rubins bought
a house not quite a mile away
and Zoli continued praying
there regularly.
His love for Israel went
unquestioned. He was import-
ant during 1973 meetings
about financing during the
Yom Kippur War. He and Agi
began the American Israel
Cancer Association, which was
prominent among the many

charities that benefitted from
their help, like Mogan David
Adom, the ambulance ser-
vice. They also supported the
Meals-on-Wheels program.
Their caring was boundless.
His daughter Vicki
Waxenberg said that his
integrity was, in large part,
due to “his great respect for
others.
” His humor and simple
approach to life were fondly
recalled by daughter Amy
Weber, who remembers that
Dad often said, “It isn’t a meal
without soup … hot soup!”
He was loved and cherished
by many, including his wife
of 62 years, Agi Rubin; his
children, Vicki Waxenberg
(Ben), Amy Weber and Randy
Rubin; his grandchildren,
Rivky Rothenberg (Boruch),
Shmuel Waxenberg, Jacob
Moshe Waxenberg, Devora
Krupnik (Raphael), Miriam
Singer (Brian), Justin Weber
and Jeremy Weber; and his
great-grandchildren, Avigdor,
Yehudah-Simcha, Ezra, Basya-
Chana Rothenberg, Aryeh Zev
Krupnik and Ahuva Raizel
Krupnik.
Contributions may be made
to Yeshivah Beth Yehuda,
P
.O. Box 2044, Southfield, MI
48037; Jewish Hospice and
Chaplaincy Network, 6555 W
.
Maple Road, West Bloomfield,
MI 48322; or Congregation
B’nai Moshe, 6800 Drake
Road, West Bloomfield, MI
48322. A funeral service was
held at Hebrew Memorial
Chapel in Oak Park. Interment
took place at Oakview
Cemetery in Royal Oak.
Arrangements by Hebrew
Memorial Chapel.

Committed To His Fellow Man

Zoltan
Rubin