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B I R M I N G H A M
38 | MARCH 9 • 2023
here’s to
Gina Horwitz, associate director of philanthropy and alumni
relations at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS),
has retired after 12 years as a leading fundraiser for Wayne
State University. Raising millions during her time at the college,
Horwitz will be remembered fondly by a long list of colleagues,
faculty and donors. Donations to Wayne State support students
and faculty with scholarships, teaching, programs and research.
Horwitz was instrumental in helping many donors create lasting
endowments that will continue supporting
students’ education in perpetuity. In
addition to fundraising on behalf of
CLAS academic programs, Horwitz was
passionate about raising funds for unique
student experiences, including the
renowned Junior Year in Munich study
abroad program and the Center for Peace
and Conflict Studies (CPCS).
T’ruah, the Rabbinic Call for Human
Rights, has named Andy Levin
the winner of the Raphael
Lemkin Human Rights Award
for 2023. He will be given
the award at a dinner May 10
in New York City. A former
member of Congress, union
organizer, human rights activist,
workforce policy expert and
green energy entrepreneur,
Levin brought his unique expertise
to the halls of Congress as the proud
representative for Michigan’s 9th District from 2018 to 2022. He
has long been active in the spiritual and social justice life of the
Jewish community. Until his election to Congress, he served as
president of Reconstructionist Congregation T’chiyah and as
chair of the steering committee of Detroit Jews for Justice, an
organization he helped create to fight for racial and economic
justice in Detroit.
C
oby Goutkovitch, 63,
is “one of the most
beloved people in
our community,
” shares Rabbi
Shneur Silberberg of Bais
Chabad Torah Center in West
Bloomfield. He reflects on the
contrast between a typical store
and Coby’s Judaica: “The goal of
a store is to make sales. Coby’s
store is foremost a space for
people to gather.
”
Practically any time you
walk into Coby’s Judaica at the
JCC in West Bloomfield, Coby
is engaged in conversation
with a visitor, who’s often just
schmoozing rather than shop-
ping the vast collection of Judaic
inventory, almost all made in
and imported from Israel.
Coby’s paternal grandfather
Chanoch Goutkovitch studied
art alongside Marc Chagall in
Vitepsk, Belarus. Art and Jewish
identity are the lifeforce in
Coby’s ancestral veins. It might
be surprising to learn all the
life stops along his journey to
Coby’s Judaica.
THE LIFE OF COBY
Coby was born in Afula, Israel.
His family can trace their
known ancestry in Israel to
the arrival of Coby’s maternal
great-grandparents in Israel in
the 1860s. At the time, all that
existed in Afula were a Turkish
train station and a few homes.
As a child, Coby spent his
summers on his grandparents’
farm in Zichron Yaakov. The
farm was mainly orchards and
vineyards. Coby dreamed of
growing up and being a farm-
er — working hard tilling and
tending the soil, and reaping the
fruits of his labor. At the age of
13, Coby left to study for four
years at Pardes Hanna, an agri-
cultural high school in Pardes
Hanna.
Like art, the tradition of
farming is engrained in Coby’s
DNA. Coby’s grandfather
Yehuda Kaufman was one of
the founders of the Carmel
Vineyard in Zichron Yaakov,
which operates to this day.
His grandfather was one of
several Jews sent to France
Coby Goutkovitch took a long and winding
road that led him to Coby’s Judaica.
Metro Detroit’s Little
Israeli Marketplace
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
YEVGENIYA GAZMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
continued on page 40
Coby
Goutkovitch