MAY 26 • 2022 | 13

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MAY 26 • 2022 | 13

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he pretty, outgoing little girl always 
knew she was adopted and therefore 
felt very special. Her late parents, 
Rachel and Jack Pludwinski of Southfield, 
did not believe in keeping the adoption a 
secret from the child they named Susan 
Beth Pludwinski.
Susie, 62, now known as Susan Simons 
Liebman of Coral Springs, Fla., left 
Michigan in 2010 when her now deceased 
husband, Steven Simons, accepted a job in 
Florida. She married Zach Liebman in 2020.
But neither Susie nor the parents who 
lovingly raised her knew the identity of her 
birth parents. To Susie’s ultimate surprise, 
her history included a heart-wrenching 
drama coupled with acts of kindness.
An only child, Susie was doted upon by 
her parents and her mother Rachel’s rela-
tives. Her father, Jack, employed as a furni-
ture upholsterer, was a Holocaust survivor 
from Poland who had lost everyone. Susie’s 
Hebrew name, Chana Freidel, was given in 
memory of Jack’s parents.

The Pludwinskis lived on Selkirk Street 
in Southfield. Susie graduated from 
Southfield-Lathrup High School, studied 
early childhood education for two years in 
college, married her first husband, Ronnie 
Tarockoff, and gave birth to four children. 
Their three daughters live in Metro 
Detroit. Abbi (Chef Pete) Tarockoff 
Emerson, 39, teaches Sunday school at Adat 
Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills. 
Halli Tarockoff, 37, is a paralegal at Yeshiva 
Beth Yehudah Boys Division in Southfield. 
Their sister is Mallory Tarockoff, 32. Susie’s 
son Benji (Dr. Meri) Tarockoff, 35, of 
Miami is a business executive.
Rachel and Jack were always attentive 
parents and grandparents who picked up 
the grandkids from school and hosted fun 
sleepovers.
“I had a very special childhood,
” Susie 
said. Even so, she often thought about find-
ing her biological family. 
In 1982, when she and Ronnie were 
married, they visited the Oakland County 

courthouse in search of her adoption 
record. They were denied access because 
hers had been a closed, private adoption, 
but did receive a letter containing “uniden-
tified information.
”
Susie learned she was born into a family, 
not named, with three other children. The 
parents were older, Jewish and gave her up 
for adoption because they couldn’t afford 
another child. They stipulated that their 
baby should go to another Jewish family.
Though excited by these details, Susie 
postponed searching further for her identi-
ty while her adoptive parents were alive. “I 
would never want to devastate them,
” she 
said. “I was totally all they had besides my 
own kids.
”

DNA BREAKTHROUGH
When Susie first took 23andMe’s DNA 
testing kit, she was underwhelmed with 
the results, matching with only very dis-
tant third to fifth cousins. “I’m done,” she 

continued on page 14

PHOTO BY YEVGENIYA GAZMAN

PHOTO BY YEVGENIYA GAZMAN

