20 | JANUARY 20 • 2022 

W

ant to do a mitz-
vah and have some 
tasty, fresh challah 
delivered to someone’s doorstep? 
Challah Train, an initiative of 
JFamily, is just the program for 
you.
Challah Train entails challah 
being delivered each Friday to 
two members of the community, 
mostly families with children 
that would be served by JFamily. 
Jamie Kaniarz, Challah Train’s 
parent connector and “train 
conductor,
” says the initiative 
is based on a different version 
of Challah Train in other com-
munities that she learned about 
during her initial boarding with 
JFamily. 
“When looking for ways to 

engage with new families or fam-
ilies who have not traditionally 
been connected with JFamily 
and our programming, we came 
across the idea of Challah Train 
and thought it would be a perfect 
fit for our community,
” Kaniarz 
said.
Changes made from other 
iterations of Challah Train 
include using a nomination 
system in addition to personally 
selecting families; so, in addition 
to asking members of the com-
munity to nominate families, 
JFamily also asks families who 
have received Challah Train to 
nominate another family. 
“We also made the decision 
to not make the challah person-
ally and instead use one of the 

amazing Jewish businesses in 
our community, Bake Station, to 
make sure that the challah is not 
only delicious and kosher, but is 
also safe for many families with 
food allergies,
” Kaniarz said.
For Kaniarz, it means a lot for 
JFamily to be able to offer this 
service. 
“We love being able to offer 
another amazing program to 
families in the Jewish commu-

nity and share the JFamily offer-
ings with them,
” Kaniarz said. 
“From PJ Library to Pop Ups 
and ‘It’s in the bag!’ holiday pro-
gramming, we are always work-
ing on new and fun offerings for 
families.
” 
People can nominate someone 
by emailing jfamily@jccdet.org 
or visiting JFamily’s Community 
Facebook page. 

T

he Jewish Federation of 
Greater Ann Arbor will 
bring noted author Dara 
Horn to headline its 2022 Main 
Event fundraiser on Wednesday, 
Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. The event, 
which is open to 
the public, will take 
place in person at 
the Kensington 
Court Hotel in Ann 
Arbor for guests 
fully vaccinated 
from COVID-19. 
It will be live-streamed for those 
unable to attend in person.

Horn’s most recent work 
is the essay collection People 
Love Dead Jews: Reports from a 
Haunted Present (2021), which 
Kirkus Reviews called “brilliantly 
readable” and which appeared on 
recent best-of-the-year lists from 
the New York Times, Publishers 
Weekly and the Chicago Public 
Library. 
Horn’s six works of fiction, 
also award-winning, include the 
novels All Other Nights (2009), A 
Guide for the Perplexed (2013) 
and Eternal Life (2018). A reg-
ular columnist for Tablet maga-

zine, Horn has published nonfic-
tion in the New York Times, the 
Wall Street Journal and the 
Washington Post, among other 
notable publications. 
Described as a “startling 
exploration of how Jewish his-
tory is exploited to flatter the 
living,
” People Love Dead Jews 
reflects on subjects such as the 
international veneration of Anne 
Frank, the blockbuster traveling 
exhibition called 
“
Auschwitz” 
and the Jewish history of the 
Chinese city of Harbin. 
Drawing on her own family’s 
life, Horn challenges readers 
to confront the reasons why 
Jewish deaths are emblematic of 
the worst of evils the world has 
to offer, while there is so little 
respect for the vitality, complex-
ity and depth of present-day 
Jewish life.
The most significant fund-
raising event of the Jewish 
Federation’s Annual Community 
Campaign, the Main Event 

supports the Federation’s com-
munal partners in Ann Arbor, 
Israel and around the world. 
Participants will be asked to 
support the community with a 
minimum $100 pledge to the 
Jewish Federation’s 2022 Annual 
Campaign; students and young 
adults will be asked to make a 
meaningful gift. 
“Dara Horn addresses the 
issue of antisemitism in a unique 
way,
” says Stephen Aronson, a 
co-chair of the 2022 Main Event, 
along with his wife, Levana 
Aronson, and Monica and Ben 
Rosen. 
“In the face of rising antisemi-
tism, she encourages us to shine 
a light on vibrant, positive Jewish 
life, and this is what we’ll be 
doing when we come together 
for the Main Event this year.
”
For details about the pro-
gram and to register, visit www.
JewishAnnArbor.org, email 
info@jewishannarbor.org or call 
(734) 773-3535. 

OUR COMMUNITY

Dara Horn

Award-winning author Dara Horn to 
headline Feb. 9 Federation fundraiser.

Main Event Set 
in Ann Arbor

RACHEL WALL SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

People can nominate someone to receive a challah from Bake Station.

BAKE STATION

JFamily program sends challah to the 
doors of community members. 
The Challah Train 

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

