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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