8 | APRIL 21 • 2022 

essay
From Mourning to Meaning: 
Remembering the Holocaust Today
“R

emember me,” 
were the last 
words that 
my grandfather, Wolf Gruca 
(z’l), uttered to my children 
before he died 
in 2021 at the 
age of 101. 
“Remember” 
was the chal-
lenge Grandpa 
gave us each 
Passover when 
he spoke of his 
own slavery at the hands of 
the Nazis. 
Sadly, not just my Zaydie 
but also the entire genera-
tion of survivors is passing. 

As we prepare to mark a 
Yom HaShoah (Holocaust 
Remembrance Day) for which 
few survivors remain, we are 

forced anew to confront the 
question, “What does it mean 
to remember?” And, as part 
of that question, we must 

wrestle with the command-
ment of “Never again.”
Congregation Shaarey 
Zedek of Southfield is setting 
these sacred tasks before the 
community in marking this 
year’s Yom HaShoah. We are 
innovating a new experience 
to explore meaning more 
than mourning, and to move 
from memory to empower-
ment. Titled “To Remember, 
To Remind,” and rooted 
in the Shalom Hartman 
Institute’s Hitkansut cere-
mony, we will not only listen 
to the stories of survivors, 
but we will seek the lessons 
learned by their descendants. 

Rabbi Aaron 
Starr

PURELY COMMENTARY

column
Detroit Tigers: Past and Present
A

l Kaline died nearly 
two years ago on 
April 6, 2020. The 
former Detroit Tigers superstar 
wore a Detroit 
uniform from 
1953 through 
1974 and many 
of us saw him on 
the field in each 
of those years. 
During that span, 
Kaline accumu-
lated many awards and a lot of 
memorabilia.
More than a year after his 
death at 85, the Kaline family, 
honoring Al’s wishes, disposed 
of more than 400 of his per-
sonal items bringing in more 
than $1.64 million via auction. 
Kaline’s collection included 
gloves, batting and fielding, 
and Gold Gloves for being the 

best defensive outfielder. There 
were plenty of bats, balls, jer-
seys, trophies and even his 
golf clubs. Kaline’s 1984 World 
Series ring (he was a broadcast-
er at the time) went for $87,000. 
That means mine, with the 
name Cohen on it and not real 
gold like Kaline’s, would proba-
bly fetch $87. 
Kaline played with — or saw 
from the broadcast booth as 
a color man with George Kell 
— all of the former Tigers who 
died in the past year. I saw them 
play and got to know most of 
them shmoozing while on the 
baseball beat. 
Of course, the one that 
impacted us the most was Bill 
Freehan, Kaline’s teammate on 
the 1968 team that beat the St. 
Louis Cardinals in the 1968 
World Series. Freehan was 79 

when he died last August after 
suffering from Alzheimer’s 
disease for several years. After 
his 15-year career as a player 
(1961-1976), he was a frequent 
visitor to Tiger Stadium and 
even stopped in my office a 
couple of times always wearing 
a great smile.
Tom Matchick, who died at 
79, had a six-year big league 
career and spent three years 
with the Tigers. Mostly a 
reserve infielder, he appeared 
in 80 games for the ’68 Tigers 
and batted .203. Pitcher Paul 
Foytack made it to 90 and made 
the majors with the Tigers in 
1953 and spent the next 10 
years in Detroit. He loved to 
talk about his claim to fame 
in 1963 with the Los Angeles 
Angels when he gave up four 
consecutive home runs. Foytack 

returned to Detroit after being 
released and pitched batting 
practice while holding down 
a regular job. He was fun to 
be around and popular with 
his teammates and writers and 
always could be counted on for 
quips and quotes.
Johnny Groth lived to expe-
rience his 95th birthday and 
broke in with the Tigers in 
1946. When I saw my first big 
league game in 1950 from the 
lower left field grandstand, I sat 
between left fielder Hoot Evers 
(my favorite player) and Groth, 
considered one of the best cen-
ter fielders in the game at the 
time. Groth was traded in 1952 
but reacquired in the late ’50s 
and played alongside Kaline for 
three seasons. One of the nicest 
people in the game and a very 
religious Catholic who had 10 

Irwin Cohen

Rabbi Aaron 
Starr, Wolf Gruca 
(z’l), Caleb Starr. 
This photo was 
taken at the 
bar mitzvah of 
Caleb Starr in 
May 2020.

