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