26 | SEPTEMBER 8 • 2022 

T

he commandment to 
return lost objects 
is clearly stated in 
the Torah in the Book of 
Deuteronomy. 
This is a story of how this 
centuries-old commandment 
was fulfilled thanks to the 
21st-century digital age, 
social media scrolling and a 
viral Facebook post. 
Irwin and Ruchie 
Weisberg, 76 and 72, love 
spending their retirement 
years antiquing. The former 
Southfield residents who 
now live in Miami would 
peruse antique shops and 
estate sales specifically look-
ing for Judaica to add to 
their dreidel and chanukkiah 
collections. 
At one sale, they came 
across a set of tefillin. The 
leather straps were old and 
worn and they were not 
sure of the condition of the 
parchment scrolls within the 
leather boxes. But still, it was 
a ritual object that represent-
ed a daily practice of prayer 
for many Jews for genera-
tions, so they purchased it. 
When the Weisbergs 
moved to Miami in 2020, 
they left a few boxes for 

safe keeping at the Oak 
Park home of their daughter 
Naomi Lerman. One of those 
boxes contained the tefillin 
they bought at that shop. 
The tefillin remained in 
a box in Lerman’s bedroom 
closet until this summer. 
Now it was Lerman’s time 
to temporarily move in with 
her parents in Miami as she 
prepares to make aliyah to 
Israel. 

SEARCH FOR ITS OWNER
As she was packing up, she 
came upon the set of tefillin 
again. Instead of wanting 
to move it to Miami, she 
thought about who the 
owner of the tefillin could be 
when she noticed there was a 
name written inside the vel-
vet red pouch: Blau. 
“I found the tefillin in 
a box on a top shelf of my 
bedroom closet and I was 
just going to put them into 
storage,” said Lerman, 46. 
“But then I thought, maybe 
if I post a photo of them, it 
can get passed around and 
we can find the owner and I 
can give them back. I know 
things like this sometimes go 
viral.” 

So, harnessing the power 
of social media, Lerman on 
Aug. 12 took some photos 
of the tefillin and described 
them in a Facebook post, 
asking her social media 
friends if anyone knew 
someone with the last name 
Blau. 
Indeed, the post went viral. 
Within hours, it was shared 
more than 45 times. Lerman 
also received lots of mes-
sages and phone calls from 
people explaining how they 
knew people with the last 
name of Blau. It was viewed 
across the country, including 
in places like Las Vegas and 
Scottsdale, Ariz.
“I’m not on Facebook, but 
my cousin Joanne (Bellet), 
who lives in Scottsdale 
is,” said Marshall Blau of 
Bingham Farms. Within 
hours of Lerman’s post, it 
was brought to the attention 
of Bellet, who called her 
cousin saying there was a set 
of tefillin and someone in 

Metro Detroit was seeking its 
original owners. 

BACK WITH THE FAMILY
Within hours, Blau was put 
in touch with Lerman over 
the phone. That same day, 
Lerman was knocking on 
Blau’s door with his family’s 
tefillin. They greeted one 
another with a smile and an 
embrace. 
The tefillin belonged 
to Blau’s father, Edward. 
When Marshall was a boy, 
he remembers going to ser-
vices with his father at Beth 
Abraham on Seven Mile in 
Detroit. 
“My father grew up in 
an Orthodox home where 
men would regularly put on 
tefillin,” Blau said. “As he got 
older, he leaned more toward 
Conservative Judaism and 
put them on less, but I have 
memories of him teaching 
me how to put them on.” 
Blau explained he is not 
sure how the tefillin got out 

Found
and
Lost

OUR COMMUNITY

Local woman harnesses 
social media to reunite son 
with father’s lost tefillin.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Naomi Lerman 
and Marshall Blau 

