4 | JANUARY 19 • 2023 

PURELY COMMENTARY

from the executive director
Coming Home – Again
I

’m what you might call a 
double boomerang. Twice in 
my adult life, I have moved 
away from Metro Detroit, only 
to be drawn back. More than 
just a geographic location, 
Detroit — and 
more specifically, 
its Jewish com-
munity — has 
been home to me. 
I grew up here. 
It’s where I stud-
ied for my bat 
mitzvah, went to 
summer camp and excelled as a 
student and an athlete. It’s where 
I gained the confidence to take 
those first tentative steps out 
into the world and where I have 
always been welcomed back. 
And every step of the way, the 
Jewish News marked each mile-
stone with stories that, to this 
day, live in my memory — and 
my scrapbook. 
I say all this with the clarity 
of hindsight. After graduating 
from University of Michigan in 
1996, I moved to Los Angeles 
to “become a star.
” Six years 

later, I returned to Michigan for 
the first time to follow a new 
career path in public relations. 
When the economy crashed in 
2009, I once again left Detroit, 
this time for the Big Apple. Ten 
years later, as 2019 came to a 
close, my parents and brother 
were living nearby, I had a tight 
group of friends and a great job 
at a thriving public relations 
agency. If you had asked me 
then, I would have told you my 
intent was to stay in New York 
forever. 
Little did any of us know how 
much the world would change 
in just a few short months. Nor 
did I know how those changes 
would affect me personally. 
In April 2020, my parents 
passed within two weeks of each 
other, both victims of COVID’s 
initial wave. Because of the iso-
lation inherent to the pandemic, 
we were unable to mark their 
deaths with a funeral, and while 
more than 350 people attended 
the virtual memorials, we were 
unable to grieve with friends 
and family with an in-person 

shivah. Additionally, while reel-
ing from those traumatic losses, 
like so many others at that time, 
I was laid off. Suddenly, my 
life looked very different. I was 
shattered. 
When the initial shock 
wore off and my new reality 
set in, I knew I had to make 
some changes. In my dark-
est moments, I had no idea 
what those changes would be. 
However, one word kept going 
through my head. Home. 
I started spending more time 
here. I would come for a few 
months, staying with my best 
friends — my “chosen family” 
— and getting reacquainted 
with the area. In April of last 
year, I finally moved back with 
a renewed appreciation for my 
hometown and the people in it. 
Even as I continued to get 
settled into my new (again) city, 
I knew my change wouldn’t be 
complete until I found a role 
that really fed my soul. I began 
to network and meet with 
members of Detroit’s business 
and Jewish communities. It was 

heartening to see how many 
people were open to help me 
when asked. One of the amazing 
professionals I met connected 
me with Mark Davidoff, advi-
sor to the board of the Detroit 
Jewish News Foundation, and 
the rest, as they say…
It’s fitting that this boomer-
ang should find herself in this 
particular position at this par-
ticular time. The Jewish News 
is a physical representation of 
my journey, and the journeys of 
so many others. It is a tie that 
binds this community together. 
And just like me, it is ripe for 
the next phase of its growth. I 
am honored that I have been 
entrusted with its stewardship 
and the opportunity to work 
alongside a remarkable team 
of talented professionals who 
bring the paper to your door-
step every week. I look forward 
to taking this journey with all 
of you, and I know my parents 
would be proud. 

Marni Raitt is executive director of the 

Detroit Jewish News Foundation.

Marni Raitt

T

he Farmington/
Farmington Hills 
Multicultural/
Multiracial Community 
Council (MCMR) is proud to 
represent the rich diversity of 
our welcoming community. 
Home to the Zekelman 
Holocaust Center, ours is a 
community that leads efforts 
to teach the perils of hatred 
and discrimination grounded 
in history. As such, we concur 
with a recent statement released 
by the US Holocaust Museum: 
“Though condemnation for 
recent antisemitic acts has come 

from many quarters, episodic 
outrage is insufficient. Leaders 
and citizens must consistently 
condemn such sentiments and 
work toward addressing their 
root causes. The Holocaust 
teaches that hatred can easily 
infect a society — in Nazi 
Germany, it started with Jews 
but did not end with them. All 
Americans who value a free, 
just, and pluralistic society 
should see these alarming 
trends as a threat to each of us.”
In Farmington and 
Farmington Hills, we take 
seriously the precipitous 

increase of antisemitism both 
nationally and locally. The 
nearby Jewish communities 
of West Bloomfield and 
Bloomfield Township have 
been targets of high profile, 
antisemitic threats leveled 
against Jewish individuals 
and institutions. Our own 
community has not been totally 
spared either, with antisemitic 
threats also reported. 
MCMR stands united 
with our Jewish friends in 
neighboring communities and 
within our own community. 
Our law enforcement officers, 

schools, government bodies, 
nonprofits, business, faith and 
other community leaders are 
of one voice in rejecting this 
age-old bigotry. We urge every 
member of our community 
to stand with us in pushing 
back against antisemitism, 
racism, Islamaphobia, LGBTQ+ 
hatred, sexism, ageism and 
discrimination against the 
disabled. 
Here, in Farmington and 
Farmington Hills, we reject 
hatred in any form. An affront 
to any one group is an affront 
to us all. 

media statement

FARMINGTON/FARMINGTON HILLS MULTICULTURAL/MULTIRACIAL COMMUNITY COUNCIL