APRIL 7 • 2022 | 17

— they brought us what we 
really need,” he explains. 

MOVED TO ACT
Chase Ben-Ezra, of 
Franklin, says the idea for 
the donation project came 
about after he heard about 
his cousin doing something 
similar in Connecticut. It 
inspired him to want to find 
a local company to partner 
with in Michigan. 
 “We thought something 
needed to be done to help 
[people in Ukraine],” says 
Ben-Ezra. 
With the help of his 
mom, Amy Ben-Ezra, 
they found and contacted 
Standard Trucking to find 
out what items to gather. 
Within 48 hours, Chase 
Ben-Ezra and his friends 
had drafted a letter that 
they emailed to family and 
friends with an Amazon 
wish list of supplies. 
They texted and posted 
to let people know. They 
accepted donations though 
Venmo as well and used 
the money they received 
to purchase wish list items. 
They collected tactical 
first aid kits, goggles, long 
underwear, blankets, sleep-
ing bags, boots, socks, 
gloves and more. 
 Luke’s uncle, who owns a 
foam manufacturing compa-
ny, manufactured 90 sleeping 
pads to donate. Their mes-
sage went out on a Saturday, 
and the following Saturday, 
Ben-Ezra’s dad rented the 
U-Haul, and they caravanned 
down to Hamtramck to get 
everything delivered.
“I am really proud that we 
were able to get this done so 
fast, and that our family and 
friends found what we were 
doing so important as well,” 
says Ben-Ezra. “It felt so good 
to be able to bring them as 
much as we did, knowing 
that so many people cared.”

Luke Linovitz, of 
Birmingham, grew up hear-
ing stories about the people 
who helped his grandfather, 
an Armenian who fled 
Turkey for Lebanon at the 
age of 1, and who eventually 
came to the United States at 
the age of 20 to attend school. 
“When I saw those peo-
ple suffering, I remembered 
what my grandpa had gone 
through, and I didn’t want to 
just keep watching; I wanted 
to help,” he says. “Seeing the 
warehouse and the amount of 
goods and people that must 
have gone into this operation 
gave me a feeling of hope for 
the people in Ukraine.” 

Ukrainian-
American Crisis 
Response 
Committee

If you want to send goods 
to Ukraine, this is the right 
time to help, says Oleksandr 
“Sasha” Tkachenko. “The 
world is affected by this war. 
It’s not directly affecting us 
as a country, but there are 
a lot of dramatic things hap-
pening in Ukraine.”
To find out more about 
what the organization is col-
lecting right now, he says to 
contact the call center, which 
will provide direction.

DROP OFF AT: 
Standard Trucking
13400 Giradin St.
Hamtramck, MI 48212

WAREHOUSE HOURS:
Monday-Friday: 8 a.m.-10 
p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

QUESTIONS: 
(313) 920-8959 (Anya)
(313) 920-9641 (Nazar)
(313) 920-8245 (Khrystina)

N

ationally recognized 
storytellers Corinne 
Stavish and Rev. 
Robert Jones Sr., will provide 
an evening of stories for adults 
on the theme of freedom, 
drawing on Jewish and 
Black experiences, on 
Wednesday, April 20, at 7 
p.m. at Temple Kol Ami 
in West Bloomfield. The 
program will also be live-
streamed.
The program is a 
fundraiser for refugees 
displaced in the fight for 
freedom in the Ukraine. 
The artists are waiving 
their fees. All proceeds 
will be donated to HIAS, 
an international refugee 
relief organization. 
As of March 24, the UN 
estimated that 6.5 million 
Ukrainians have been displaced 
internally and another 3.6 mil-
lion have fled the country. This 
makes it the largest such dislo-
cation in Europe since WW II. 
“
As we gather during this 
holy week to remember our 
two communities’ struggles for 
freedom, we need to remember 
that the struggle for freedom 
is ongoing, most notably in 
Ukraine today,
” Stavish said.
Stavish performs nationally 
and specializes in personal, 
historical and biblical narra-
tives. She has appeared at the 
National Storytelling Festival 
and was named the Detroit 
Jewish Woman Artist of the 
Year in 2001. She is a professor 
at Lawrence Tech University. 
Rev. Robert Jones Sr. is a 
singer, songwriter, storytell-
er and self-taught on many 
instruments, which he uses to 

play folk, blues, spirituals and 
other American Roots music. 
He has performed profession-
ally throughout the United 
States, Canada and Europe. He 
has appeared in schools, 
colleges, libraries, union 
halls, prisons, churches 
and civil rights organiza-
tions. At the heart of his 
message is the belief that 
our cultural diversity tells 
a story that we should cel-
ebrate, not just tolerate.
The program is being 
spearheaded by Temple 
Kol Ami and co-spon-
sored by the Interfaith 
Leadership Council of 
Metropolitan Detroit, 
Detroit Interfaith 
Outreach Network (DION), 
Jewish Community Relations 
Council (JCRC)/AJC, The J’s 
Cultural Arts Department, 
Congregation for Humanistic 
Judaism of Metropolitan 
Detroit, Congregation Beth 
Shalom, Congregation 
Shir Tikvah, Congregation 
T’Chiyah, Isaac Agree 
Downtown Synagogue, Temple 
Emanu-El, Cohn-Haddow 
Center for Judaic Studies, 
TABBIES Book Group, Ann 
Arbor Storytelling Guild, 
Detroit Story League, MI Story, 
Jewish Storytelling Coalition 
and the Detroit Association of 
Black Storytellers (DABS).
The suggested donation 
is $18 or a multiple of $18. 
Participants are encouraged to 
donate at the level they are able 
and moved to contribute.
To register for the program 
or make a donation, go to tkol-
ami.org/social-action/ or call 
(248) 661-0040. 

Corinne 
Stavish

TKA fundraiser for Ukrainian Relief to 
feature stories from the Jewish and 
Black experiences.

Freedom Stories

Rev. Robert 
Jones Sr.

