continued from page 13

decided, and went about her life. 
That includes working as a substi-
tute teacher at Lubavitch Hebrew 
Academy in Margate, Fla.
Susie became frum (Orthodox 
Jewish) 12 years ago and 
brought along second husband, 
Steven Simons, when Rabbi 
Yankie Denburg introduced 
her to the Chabad-Lubavitch 
movement, a form of Chasidic 
Judaism. Susie had met the 
rabbi when she had his daugh-
ter in her class at the Hebrew 
Academy. 
Now Susie and Zach, whom 
she married three years after Steven died, 
attend Chabad of Coral Springs, whose 
spiritual leader, Rabbi Yossie Denburg, is 
Rabbi Yankie’s father.
On the morning of Sunday, March 6, 
2022, Susie opened her computer to find 
a message that changed her life. A biolog-
ical first cousin, Marcy (formerly Katz) 
Schulman, had contacted her through 
23andMe, wondering how they were relat-
ed. 
“That was so exciting,
” Susie recalled. 
Marcy, of West Bloomfield, had recent-
ly taken the DNA test and Susie’s earlier 
results were in the company’s database. 
After finding Marcy’s message, the women 
began messaging back and forth. By 3 p.m. 
that day, Susie was talking with several of 
her first cousins on a video call that Marcy 
had arranged.
The cousins knew of 10 Katz siblings in 
the generation above theirs. Susie clearly 
was the child of one of the seven Katz 
brothers. The cousins narrowed it down to 
three men who possibly could have been 
Susie’s birth father. Going beyond that point 
would prove more challenging, as DNA 
would be difficult or impossible to obtain.
Allowed access to Susie’s 23andMe 
account, Marcy found a close relation on 
Susie’s mother’s side of the family. Tracey 
(formerly Pearl) Morrison of Folsom, Calif., 
matched as a first cousin once removed. 
Marcy encouraged Susie to contact her. 
Perhaps Tracey might know something 
about Susie’s origins.
“I wrote to Tracey through the 23andMe 
website,
” Susie said. Tracey wrote back and 

said that her maternal 
Aunt Ethel (formerly 
Jackson) and Uncle 
Harry Katz probably 
were Susie’s biological 
parents and, if so, then 
Susie had an older sis-
ter and brother.
“I called Tracey 
and she told me the 
story that her moth-
er, Janet (formerly Jackson) Pearl, 
had told her, about a baby girl being adopt-
ed,
” Susie said. “Tracey said that she actually 
had wanted to find ‘the baby’ in an attempt 
to connect the siblings but had no idea of 
how to go about that.
” 
Susie learned that Ethel and Harry Katz 
originally had two sons and a daughter (one 
son, Phil, is now deceased). Harry worked 
sometimes as a taxi driver and Ethel went 
to work, too. Susie decided they sounded 
like the family described in her letter from 
1982.

DOCTOR’S INTERVENTION
It happened that Susie’s birth mother, Ethel, 
and adoptive mother, Rachel, shared the 
same obstetrician, Dr. Harry Weisberg, 
and were scheduled to have him deliver 
their babies around the same time at Sinai 
Hospital in Detroit. Dr. Weisberg had a 
sterling reputation as an OB/GYN. In his 

Detroit Free Press obitu-
ary from July 1994, Dr. 
Weisberg’s daughter said 
he delivered 10,000 babies 
during his 40-year career.
With their baby’s birth 
imminent, Rachel and 
Jack Pludwinski were 
hopeful that after Rachel’s 
three previous miscarriag-
es, she would carry this 
child to term. Meanwhile, 
Ethel and Harry Katz, 
overwhelmed by 
their financial 
struggles, thought it 
would be best to give 
their newborn up 
for adoption at the 
hospital. 
Coincidentally, 
the women went into 
labor and gave birth 
on the same day, 
Oct. 29, 1959. When 
the Pludwinski baby 
arrived stillborn, Dr. 
Weisberg immediately 
saw the remedy. He 
arranged for Rachel 
and Jack to privately 
adopt Ethel and Harry’s 
baby girl. 
Harry and Ethel told their children, and 
the other family members, that the baby 
had died at birth. 
“But I’m the missing link,
” Susie said. “I’m 
the little sister they didn’t know was alive.”
Susie was showered with love. Having no 
children of their own, Rachel Pludwinski’s 
sister, Judy Jassenoff and husband, Sam, 
of Farmington Hills were overjoyed about 
Susie’s adoption. The families saw each 
other frequently and vacationed together. 
Susie has now seen the document 
finalizing her adoption on Dec. 30, 1959, 
under the jurisdiction of Oakland County 
Probate Court Judge Arthur A. Moore. At 
top, fees totaling $391.75 for hospital and 
physician are listed, followed by the signa-
tures of attending physician Dr. Weisberg 
and the county agent of the State Welfare 
Commission. 

continued from page 13

ON THE COVER

hospital. 

the women went into 
labor and gave birth 
on the same day, 
Oct. 29, 1959. When 
the Pludwinski baby 
arrived stillborn, Dr. 
Weisberg immediately 
saw the remedy. He 
arranged for Rachel 
and Jack to privately 
adopt Ethel and Harry’s 

14 | MAY 26 • 2022 

ABOVE: Years apart, Susie 
and her adoptive parents, 
Rachel and Jack Pludwinski.

RIGHT: Birth mother Ethel 
Katz with children Maureen 
and Phil.

continued on page 16

