OUR COMMUNITY

S

am Gotlib is about 
to receive the most 
memorable and lasting 
gift of his life in honor of his 
100th birthday. His family has 
commissioned a Torah to be 
written in Israel and they will 
host a Hachnasat Sefer Torah 
(inauguration of a new Torah 
scroll) on Aug. 21 and the 
entire Detroit Jewish commu-
nity is invited. 
“
About a year or so ago, we 
started thinking about what we 
could do to mark this incredible 
milestone,
” said Sam’s daugh-
ter-in-law, Joanne Gotlib of 
Southfield. “Not everyone turns 
100 and we had to do some-
thing special. We came up with 
this idea to honor him and my 
mother-in-law, Muriel, who 
passed away in March 2019.
”
Sam Gotlib lived most of his 
life in Michigan. His parents 
immigrated from Poland to 
Toronto, where Sam was born 
in 1922. Later that same year, 
they moved to Flint. There 
they raised Sam, his older 
brother Ben and sister Sara. 
“Flint was a good place to 
grow up as a Jew back then; 
it had a significant Jewish 
population,” said Dr. Daniel 
Gotlib, Sam’s son and Joanne’s 
husband.
Muriel was born and raised 
in Brooklyn, N.Y. While she 
was attending Hunter College, 
she won a scholarship to 
attend a summer semester at 
the University of Michigan in 
Ann Arbor. One of Muriel’s 
first friends in Ann Arbor 
noticed that she kept kosher 

and told her, “Guess what? 
There’s another person in town 
who eats funny like you! You 
have to meet her!” This friend 
introduced Muriel to Sara 
Gotlib, who took her home 
soon afterward for Shabbat 
and introduced Muriel to her 
brother Sam. 
“The rest was history,
” Daniel 
said. Sam and Muriel wed in 
December 1946 and were hap-
pily married for 72 years. 
In Flint, they raised their 
three kids: Michael, Debbie 
and Daniel. 
“The wonderful 
Conservative synagogue, 
Congregation Beth Israel, was 
central to the core of our fam-
ily,” Daniel recalled. “We were 
always involved in the shul. 
My dad was the president. My 
mom was president of the sis-
terhood. She wrote programs, 
poetry, speeches and served on 
many committees. She was also 
a lifelong member of Hadassah 
and a huge supporter of Israel. 
In fact, to celebrate their 60th 
anniversary, they took us and 
our spouses to Israel. 
“My family’s lives were 
always centered around Torah 
and Israel and what it means to 
be Jewish, so what better way 
to honor my parents than with 
a Torah?”
Sam lived and worked as a 
dentist in Flint until he retired 
30 years ago and moved to 
Florida. His children married 
and moved away, Debbie to 
Skokie, Ill., with her husband 
Jules Marks and Michael to 
Phoenix with his wife Sylvia. 

TOP: Sam Gotlib, at 100, is being honored with a 
Torah by his family. ABOVE: Max practices for his 
bar mitzvah with great-grandfather Sam. 

Centenarian Sam Gotlib’s values 
and traditions to be celebrated. 
Gift of a Torah

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

18 | AUGUST 11 • 2022 

COURTESY GOTLIB FAMILY

