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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

