6 | JUNE 2 • 2022 1942 - 2022 Covering and Connecting Jewish Detroit Every Week To make a donation to the DETROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.djnfoundation.org The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Thursday at 32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334 MISSION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will be of service to the Jewish community. The Detroit Jewish 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. 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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 dsachs@thejewishnews.com Social Media and Digital Producer: Nathan Vicar nvicar@thejewishnews.com Staff Reporter: Danny Schwartz dschwartz@thejewishnews.com Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@thejewishnews.com 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 | Advertising Sales Director of Advertising: Keith Farber kfarber@thejewishnews.com Senior Account Executive: Kathy Harvey-Mitton kmitton@thejewishnews.com | Business Office Director of Operations: Amy Gill agill@thejewishnews.com Operations Manager: Andrea Gusho agusho@thejewishnews.com Operations Assistant: Ashlee Szabo Circulation: Danielle Smith Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner | Production By Farago & Associates Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Kelly Kosek, Kaitlyn Schoen, Deborah Schultz, Michelle Sheridan student’s corner A ‘Hidden’ Holiday S o here we are: The end of the Hebrew month of Iyar is around the corner, with it possibly already having passed by the time this article has been published in the Jewish News. The 2021-2022 school year will be coming to a close, with the summer being in sight. The seniors at FJA have already graduated, with April 29 being their last day. They embarked on a trip to Israel on May 15. My own class, the freshmen of FJA, went to Montana to visit the Northern Cheyenne, who are a group of Native Americans residing slightly northeast of Yellowstone National Park. With all of the distractions and events out of the way, it’s about time to reveal the main focus point of this article: the upcoming and recent Jewish holidays. To start, there have been three modern Jewish holidays and memorial days that have been commemorated recently: Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut. This year, all three of them fell on dates when we had school, so we got the chance to commemorate them during school. The schedule was adjusted to set aside time for special ceremonies and activities. However, unlike the three holidays/memorial days mentioned above, the next holiday is one where there is no school (if one attends a Jewish school that is). Shavuot has always been one of those obscure holidays to me. My family doesn’t typically do anything special during this time except to go to a friend’s house for a meal. For most other yom tov holidays (like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, certain days of Passover, etc.), my family will either go to services or do something at home for them. This is not the case for Shavuot, which is spent like a normal weekend or snow day when there’s no school. Furthermore, because the holiday is in close proximity to the end of the school year, school trips, other important events/days and more, the holiday often feels like it is glossed over, with not much attention being put on it. It’s not like this is a small holiday either. It is one of the three harvest festivals, or Shalosh Regalim, with the other two being Sukkot and Pesach. In addition, we count down to Shavuot with the Omer, which is a 49-day period from the second day of Passover to Shavuot. There is an additional PURELY COMMENTARY continued on page 7 Brody Fleishman