22 | MARCH 2 • 2023 

T

he relationship between 
a mother-in-law and 
daughter-in-law can 
be complicated and tense. 
Especially for the proverbial 
Jewish mother-in-law who 
believes wholeheartedly that 
no woman out there could ever 
possibly deserve her perfect 
son — who also happens to be 
a doctor or lawyer, of course. 
So, it’s not too common to 
hear about a mother-in-law 
who made her son’s shidduch!
Janice Adler grew up in 
Oak Park and earned her BA 
in economics and MBA in 
finance from the University of 
Michigan. In 1980, the summer 
between her sophomore and 
junior year, she looked for tem-
porary employment.
“I didn’t want to work at 
Burger King anymore,” Janice 
shared. “So JVS helped find 
me a job at Congregation B’nai 
David. It was good pay and 
close to home. There was noth-
ing not to like.”
While working there, Janice 
naturally met the who’s who of 
B’nai David society, including 
the incoming president Larry 
Traison and his wife, Barbara, 
president of the sisterhood.
On the day of the sisterhood 
luncheon, an extremely well-
dressed young man suddenly 
strolled in to the office.
“He was wearing a three-
piece vested suit, a full beard, 
sunglasses,” Janice said of the 
very welcome distraction. “I 
said, “Well, hello, who are 
you?”
Steve explained he was Barb 
and Larry’s son and needed to 

call his office.
“He called his office and they 
said to him, ‘Um, why are you 
calling? You just left 5 minutes 
ago!’” Janice laughed. 
It turned out he’d used 
“needing to call work” as an 
excuse to meet “the new cute 
girl in the office” his mother 
had been raving about.
Steve skipped the luncheon 
and schmoozed with Janice for 
the next two hours, eventually 
asking her on a date for the fol-
lowing Thursday night.
“Thursday night?!” yelped 
his mother when she was 
informed about the date. “She 
could be married by then!”
But Barb needn’t have wor-
ried. Steve and Janice dated 
that whole summer and con-
tinued their courtship when 
Janice returned to school. 
Actually, they had many 
mutual friends and had vague-
ly known each other — no 
surprise considering the two 
had grown up less than a mile 
apart. 
At the time, Steve was work-
ing in his family business, 
Walker Printery, and was not 
in college, but he began taking 
business classes so he could 
be a member of Metro Detroit 
Sammies (Sigma Alpha Mu) … 
just so he could offer Janice his 
fraternity pin. 
“Steve would never do that 
now, but that’s what he did 
back when he was truly smit-
ten,” said Janice, who still has 
that pin in her jewelry box. 
“He used to be very roman-
tic. My roommate also had a 
serious boyfriend, and we had 

a friendly competition to see 
who got more flowers every 
Friday.” 
Janice has been a season 
ticket holder to University of 
Michigan football since her 
freshman year. When they 
started dating, Steve learned to 
become a Michigan fan. He’s 
famous for saying, “It’s written 
in the Ketubah that I go to all 
Michigan games.”
Steve and Janice were mar-
ried in August 1983, have three 
kids — Elizabeth (married to 
Rabbi Ari Witkin), Rebecca 
and Randi, two grandchildren 

and one on the way. They live 
in West Bloomfield and have 
been members of Beth Ahm 
for over 30 years now and are 
still blissfully happy together.
“My mother-in-law passed 
away around Rosh Hashanah, 
and I eulogized her,” Janice 
said. “There’s not too many 
people out there who can say 
they were fixed up by their 
mother-in-law.” 

This column will appear biweekly. If 

you’d like to share your ‘meet-cute’ 

story, please email burstynwithjoy@

hotmail.com.

OUR COMMUNITY

‘My Mother-in-Law 
Handpicked Me’

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Janice and Steve Traison

Janice could always 
count on flowers 
from the young and 
romantic Steve.

HOW WE MET

