6 | JUNE 30 • 2022 

1942 - 2022

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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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. 

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Detroit Jewish News, 

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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.

VISION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will operate to appeal to the broadest segments of the greater 
Detroit Jewish community, refl
 ecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the 
morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
32255 Northwestern Hwy. 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
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| 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

PURELY COMMENTARY

Israel is Now Fully Open 
to Volunteers for Israel 

International travel is much easier as 
most Israel and USA exit and entry 
requirements have ended. 
You can now return to Israel and get 
back onto those IDF bases that have 
been starved for our help. 
Since 1982, thousands of VFI 
volunteers have worked arm-in-arm 
with IDF soldiers boosting morale, 
saving the armed forces money, freeing 
soldiers up to do important work and 
more.
Volunteer experiences have 
consistently offered untold personal 
satisfaction and sincere appreciation 
for missions well done.
If you have been putting off your 
Volunteers for Israel/Sar-el experience, 
then now is the time to start your 
planning by visiting vfi-usa.org. 
For additional information, contact 
Carol Kent or Ed Kohl at (248) 420-

3729, michigan@vfi-usa.org or visit 
vfi-usa.org.

— Ed Kohl

West Bloomfield

Remembering
Sen. Carl Levin

The beautiful article in memory of 
Sen. Carl Levin (June 16, page 22) 
who served our state of Michigan for 
36 years, a most meaningful number 
in Judaism, meaning double life, albeit 
a bit overdue. Yet as the adage goes: 
better late than never.
My own encounter with Sen. 
Levin was extremely short, no more 
than a few minutes, yet it was quite 
memorable and worth sharing.
It was a few years ago when the 
two of us happened to exit together 
the Henry Ford Hospital in West 
Bloomfield, when suddenly the swivel 
door stopped with the two of us the 
only two people there. We looked 

at one another, I knew who he was 
whereas he didn’t know that I was 
Rachel Kapen whose claim to fame was 
writing Yiddish limericks in the Detroit 
Jewish News. Yet he said to me: “I must 
have done something wrong.” To which 
I replied: “No, you didn’t do anything 
wrong.”
In a couple of minutes, it was all over, 
and we both went our own ways. This 
was one of these instances that I wished 
I had said something else, but it was 
too late.
Often, when I exit this door, I think 
of this short encounter, which was 
indeed short yet significant. In a time 
when many politicians are in a hurry to 
blame others for their own misdeeds, 
this politician took responsibility for 
something that was not his doing in the 
least. Sen. Levin was a great politician 
and even a greater mensch.

— Rachel Kapen

West Bloomfield

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