6 | MARCH 10 • 2022 

1942 - 2022

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
FOUNDATION
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News will inform and educate the Jewish and general community to preserve, protect and sustain the Jewish 
people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel.

VISION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will operate to appeal to the broadest segments of the greater 
Detroit Jewish community, reflecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the 
morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
32255 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 205,
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248-354-6060
thejewishnews.com

 
 
Publisher
The Detroit Jewish 
News Foundation

| Board of Directors:
 Chair: Gary Torgow
 Vice President: David Kramer 
 Secretary: Robin Axelrod
 Treasurer: Max Berlin
 Board members: Larry Jackier, 
 Jeffrey Schlussel, Mark Zausmer
 
 
 Senior Advisor to the Board: 
 Mark Davidoff
 Alene and Graham Landau Archivist Chair: 
 Mike Smith
 Founding President & Publisher Emeritus: 
 Arthur Horwitz
 Founding Publisher 
 Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory

 
 
 

| Editorial 
 DIrector of Editorial: 
 Jackie Headapohl
jheadapohl@thejewishnews.com
 Associate Editor:
 Rachel Sweet
 rsweet@thejewishnews.com
Associate Editor: 
David Sachs
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Social Media and Digital Producer:
Nathan Vicar
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Staff Reporter: Danny Schwartz 
dschwartz@thejewishnews.com
Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello
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Contributing Writers:
Nate Bloom, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne 
Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Keri Guten 
Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman 
Dorfman, Louis Finkelman, Stacy 
Gittleman, Esther Allweiss Ingber, 
Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi 
Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, Robin 

Schwartz, Mike Smith, Steve Stein, 
Julie Smith Yolles, Ashley Zlatopolsky

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Bombing 
of Babi-Yar
The name Babi-Yar (Babyn 
Yar) has deep resonance 
in the Jewish world. It 
was the site of one of the 
worst massacres during the 
Holocaust. More than 33,000 
Jews were shot at close range 
by the Einsatzgruppen, units 
of the Nazi army whose only 
job was to shoot Jews all 
day and all night. This was, 
of course, before the Nazis 
perfected their mass-killing 
apparatus. This was personal, 
intimate, grotesque. 
My Northwestern professor, 
Peter Hayes, did seminal 
research on how the Nazis 
kept their soldiers plastered 
so they could carry out the 
horrifying task without 
protesting too much. Until 
yesterday, a memorial 
complex and Jewish cemetery 
marked the site. On March 
1, Putin bombed it. Yes, the 
same Putin who claimed he 

was “de-Nazifying” Ukraine 
by targeting/removing/killing 
its Jewish president! 
Nothing about this war has 
been justified, civilized or 
rational. But the symbolism 
behind bombing Babi-Yar 
is almost too much to bear. 
I pray the world continues 
and escalates the response to 
Putin’s war before it is truly 
too late. 
And this certainly won’t 
solve it, but the World Union 
for Progressive Judaism 
has set up a crisis fund. I 
hope you will join me in 
contributing generously at 
https://wupj.org/give/ukraine.

— Rabbi Mark Miller

Temple Beth-El

In Praise of 
Zelensky
So much for the stereotype of 
the submissive Jew; German 
soldiers marching/herding 
them into the Warsaw ghetto, 
onto cattle rail cars and into 

the Auschwitz ovens.
I am so proud of the 
Jewish Ukrainian President 
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the 
large number of Ukrainian 
Jews staying to fight to the 
death in a hopeless battle 
against Putin’s invaders.
Zelenskyy knows he is 
Putin’s No. 1 target to be 
captured or killed. He refuses 
offers to escape to safety and 
form a government in exile.
I will be lighting another, 
ninth, Chanukah candle to 
honor this man. Killed or not; 
he is as much a hero in our 
history as the Israelites on 
Masada.
Please join me in planning 
to light another, ninth, 
Chanukah candle for 
Volodymer Zelensky!

— Lawrence Freedman

Bingham Farms

Volunteers 
for Israel
Regarding the Feb. 24 
“Federation Offers Two 
Birthright Trips in May” 
(page 24), we recommend 
young adults and students 
explore Volunteers for Israel, 
added to their Birthright 
experience, to volunteer on 
IDF bases working and eating 
meals alongside soldiers, 
sleeping in the barracks 
and learning what the IDF 
experience means to their 
peers in Israel. 
 For more information on 
this trip, contact our Campus 
Director Mallory Kovit at 
malloryvficampus@gmail.
com. For online information 
and an application, go to 
vfi-usa.org, scroll down to 
“Programs” and click on 
“Young Adults.” To contact 
VFI, call (248) 420-3729 or 
email michigan@vfi-usa.org.

— Carol Kent and Ed Kohl 

VFI Great Lakes Regional Directors 

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