formance engineer at General 
Motors, responsible for the 
calibration of surround view 
cameras.
Growing up attending 
Temple Shir Shalom, he 
was actively involved in 
SSTY Youth Group as a 
board member responsible 
for social affairs. The 
leadership opportunities it gave 
him have helped influence 
his current involvement with 
NEXTGen Detroit. 
Most recently, he’s been 
active in hosting events and 
developing engagement 
strategies for young 
community members. He has 
also joined the NEXT-Gen 
Liaison Program as a volunteer 
for the Frankel Jewish 
Academy Board of Advisors 
and enjoys learning from 
and working with Frankel’s 
leadership to maximize impact 
at FJA.
He is grateful to be part of a 
community with such a strong 
sense of Jewish leadership and 
support and looks forward to 
continuing his involvement 
and helping create an even 
stronger Metro Detroit Jewish 
community. 
In January, he married his 
wife, Julia Bleznak, and they 
currently live in Birmingham. 
They enjoy having Shabbat 
dinners with friends and new 
members of the community. In 
their free time, they love to try 
new restaurants, travel to new 
places and play pickleball.

NADAV PAIS-
GREENAPPLE
Nadav Pais-
Greenapple 
was born 
and raised in 
Southfield, son 
of Julia Pais and 
Beth Greenapple (z”l), former 
Hillel Day School teacher. 
A graduate of The Roeper 
School, he attended Habonim 

Dror Camp Tavor in Three 
Rivers, Michigan, and grew up 
at Congregation Beth Ahm. 
These institutions fostered 
a passionate Jewish identity 
within Nadav, which he 
expresses through his work as a 
historian and Yiddishist, writer, 
educator and filmmaker.
He believes that 
understanding the vibrancy 
of our shared Jewish heritage, 
history, language and culture 
is essential to the continued 
flourishing of our Metro 
Detroit Jewish community. 
He spent a summer in Israel 
at Hebrew University of 
Jerusalem, and learned to 
read, speak and write Yiddish 
at the National Yiddish Book 
Center’s Steiner Summer 
Yiddish Program in Amherst, 
Massachusetts. He earned his 
B.A. in history with a minor 
in Jewish studies from Wayne 
State University in 2022.
Nadav researches Detroit’s 
historical Yiddish theater, 
bringing new depth to our 
understanding of Yiddish 
arts and culture in early 
20th-century Detroit. He has 
shared his research in lectures 
around our community, 
and has two blog articles 
forthcoming at In geveb, the 
online journal of Yiddish 
Studies. He is currently 
translating a 1929 short story 
about Detroit by Yiddish satirist 
and playwright Moshe Nadir 
called The Ford Factory. 
His favorite Metro Detroit 
activity is visiting the DIA, and 
people might be surprised to 
know that nobody can decide 
what color his hair is.
Since graduating, he teaches 
Tanach at Hillel Day School in 
Farmington Hills, and in his 
spare time he volunteers with 
the Jewish Historical Society of 
Michigan. 
He lives in Oak Park with 
his fiancee — whom he met at 
the Steiner Summer Yiddish 

Program — Hannah Mills, 
education associate at The 
Zekelman Holocaust Center. 
They have three cats and many 
books. 

NARGIZ 
NESIMOVA 
KRAMER
Nargiz’s 
involvement 
in the Metro 
Detroit Jewish 
community 
started with her education. 
From the very beginning, her 
parents made sure that a Jewish 
education was a top priority, so 
she and her siblings attended 
Hillel Day School. 
She always wanted to be an 
attorney from a very young age. 
She went to Oakland University 
for undergrad and University 
of Detroit Mercy School of Law 
for her law degree. 
Nargiz has her own law 
practice based out of Southfield 
(nesimovalaw.com). As an 
attorney, she tries to use the 
Jewish values that were instilled 
in her in her area of work. Her 
primary area of practice is in 
criminal defense and in real 
estate/business litigation. 
Although they are different 
areas of law, there is similarity 
in that they both involve 
being in the courtroom and 
advocating on behalf of her 
clients. She enjoys finding 
solutions to her clients’ 
problems, whether it is a 
criminal matter or a civil issue. 
She thinks helping people 
navigate through their legal 
struggles is humbling and 
rewarding. 
Nargiz is the president of 
the Jewish Bar Association 
of Michigan (JBAM). JBAM 
provides social events and 
educational seminars to the 
Jewish legal community, 
in addition to awarding a 
scholarship every year to a local 
law student. 

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28 | FEBRUARY 16 • 2023