30 | MAY 11 • 2023
B
ageling” is when one Jew notices
another and says something
(often which may seem out of
the blue) with the sole intent of making
sure the other person knows that they,
too, are Jewish.
In the fall of 2008, Jerry Wayne
moved back to Michigan from Florida
and began selling home security
systems. When he noticed the mezuzah
on the doorpost of one house, he saw
an easy way to score points with a
potential customer and quickly made
sure she knew he was also a member of
the tribe.
“Oh, you’re Jewish?” the home-
owner, Renée Cohen, asked. “Are you
single?”
When Jerry answered yes, Renée
immediately turned on her computer,
logged onto Facebook and pulled up
her single cousin’s profile.
Jerry obligingly looked and said, “Oh,
I recognize her! My buddy is dating her
friend.”
Renée was very pleased to hear that.
“You know Amy? Great, so connect
with her on your own!”
Amy Kranitz knew nothing about
this conversation. From her end, it
started a few months later in March
of 2009 when she attended a bar crawl
her friend had organized in Downtown
Detroit. “We’d take the People Mover,
hop out, go to a bar, then back on the
People Mover to the next stop and visit
a whole bunch of bars that way … It
was a lot of fun,” Amy said.
So, there she was, in a bar, when
some guy she’d never seen before came
over to her and confidently announced,
“I met your cousin recently.”
Amy was taken aback. “I’d never seen
this guy in my life! I didn’t know him
at all! As far as I knew, he’d never seen
me. How could he even know who my
cousins are?”
That’s when the story came out.
“I never asked Renée just how many
times she’d shared my Facebook profile
with random people,” Amy laughed.
As the evening progressed, Jerry tried
to flirt with Amy at the bar crawl, but
feeling cautious, she mostly ignored
him.
That didn’t stop Jerry! The following
week, he sent her a friend request on
Facebook and the two started talking.
They started dating in April.
“Now it’s 10 and a half years later!”
said Amy, who became a stepmother to
Angelina, now 21, and Evan, now 17,
when she and Jerry “tied the knot” in
July 2012.
The Bloomfield Hills couple are
parents to Noah, 9, and Theo, 6, and are
members of Temple Israel. Jerry works
for RSL Medical Marketing and Amy
is an associate director for the Jewish
Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy.
“We’d actually grown up on opposite
sides of town,” Amy said. “I grew up in
Farmington Hills; Jerry grew up in Oak
Park … but we give the credit of our
match to my cousin!”
Never underestimate the potential
of some good old-fashioned bageling
… and what can come from noticing a
mezuzah!
This column will appear biweekly. If you’d like to
share your “meet-cute” story, email burstynwithjoy@
hotmail.com.
‘My Cousin Was Bageled’
ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
LEFT TO RIGHT: Jerry and Amy with
matchmaking cousin Renée Cohen. When
Jerry and Amy first started dating. Jerry and
Amy’s wedding photo.
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